Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are on the verge of making their glorious return to playoff basketball, but that doesn't mean that they are necessarily going to be as ...

Arriving on a Denver team that was struggling to find quality depth behind Nikola Jokic thanks to injuries, Forbes immediately provided a stabilizing effect off the bench. These 4 free agents could all fit right in with what Toronto wants to do on both sides of the ball. The holes on this Raptors roster remain notable despite the fact they’ve had as much success as they have this year.

A whole lot has happened in the world over the past two years, but one unfortunate streak is about to end: Philadelphia 76ers forward Danny Green is set to ...

The most recent chance that Green could’ve got the ring was just a few months ago, with Green playing his first game in Toronto since the title. But due to rising COVID-19 cases in Toronto, the Raptors played the game in front of 50% capacity. A whole lot has happened in the world over the past two years, but one unfortunate streak is about to end: Philadelphia 76ers forward Danny Green is set to finally receive his 2019 NBA championship ring from the Toronto Raptors.

The collective intelligence of the group has improved, which has to provide a measure of confidence heading into the playoffs.

But if you’ve got questions for Ye Olde Mailbag, please send ‘em along to [email protected] so I can get started. Oh, and do the NBA awards voting which will mean a whole lot of ciphering. “That was frustrating especially when you have to chase Trae (Young) around. - They didn’t play great, for sure. But now and again like tonight we flipped out of man, we flipped to a bunch of different screen and roll coverage, we flipped to the box-and-one and they've grown so much in that area.

TORONTO — Nick Nurse said he had an idea at the beginning of the season how he wanted the Toronto Raptors to play. But whether they could pull it off ...

Achiuwa drove to the hoop for a huge dunk that brought the Raptors players off the bench and put them up by six points. Young followed up his three-pointer with a layup to cap a 10-0 Hawks run that tied the game at 102-102 with 4:29 to play. Barnes laid it in with 22 seconds to play, running back down the court with a hand raised in victory. The Hawks led 31-27 to start the second. Boucher connected on back-to-back threes to start the fourth quarter for a 10-point lead — the first time either team had been up by double digits. After briefly leading by seven points in the first half, Boucher’s three-pointer with 2:28 left in the third gave the Raptors a nine-point cushion, their biggest lead to that point. “You kind of get a little jaded, a little spoiled with expecting to win,” VanVleet said. Toronto was briefly up by five in the first quarter, but Young’s jumper capped a Hawks’ 11-0 run to put Atlanta up by six. Pascal Siakam had 31 points and 13 rebounds to lead the way. “My goal, or our goal, always for me, was to make sure we got into a series,” he said. They took an 89-83 advantage into the fourth. But whether they could pull it off remained to be seen.

In the second hour of the show Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo are joined by TSN Hockey analyst Dave Poulin to chat about the Maple Leafs exciting game vs ...

These next few games without Fred VanVleet will be pivotal when it comes to Toronto Raptors guard Malachi Flynn establishing himself as a rotation player.

If VanVleet is going to sit out a few games, this could be the perfect chance for Flynn to show everyone what he’s made of. The Raptors need to let Flynn dominate the ball, as it will help them get a clear picture of Flynn’s viability as a backup point guard. As a byproduct of that, bench standouts like Malachi Flynn could stand to get some extra minutes.

Fred VanVleet's knee has sidelined him for seven games since the All-Star break, including a stretch in which he missed five straight.

VanVleet's knee has sidelined him for seven games since the All-Star break, including a stretch in which he missed five straight. That was one of the things that factored into my decision-making process, was just go lay it on the line and see if we can get in and avoid that Play-In because there is six extra days or whatever it is there. "You weigh everything up and see what's the best route.

Here are 10 points from the Toronto Raptors' defeat of the Atlanta Hawks 118-108: One-The Raptors won their eighth playoff spot in nine seasons.

He then knocked in VanVleet to Corner 3 with a wild pass and returned the Raptors to 10 after the Hawks nailed the triple to gain momentum. He continued to pursue the Rookie of the Year award, finishing with 19 points and 14 rebounds. The Raptors sit comfortably with 46 wins and the core is completely under the control of the team until at least next year, which looks like a career year for many franchises. The trick is to move at least one of them, otherwise it puts a strain on the starter to carry the attack, but overall the Raptors Bench is a calm and unselfish being. In the putback corner to raise two Torontos, he rolled Clint Capela with his finger to beat the full-court press and finally cashed two free throws. He started with a post-up and sealed the guard on his back before finishing the contact. The Raptors don’t have a traditional bench scorer, but Achiuwa, Achiuwa, and Young have three energetic bigs, all of which can provide a scoring punch to the second unit. He’s always a shooting threat, he’s a slippery player, and he can use his agility and elite handle to reach all spots and bend defenses, but the Raptors are mostly up to the task. He was so rhythmic that at some point Siakam skied to intercept a pass for his teammates and settled on the attack in the middle of the floor. The main focus of the 6-Raptors game plan was to include Young. The Raptors needed to pay great attention to him. VanVleet said he was injured during a key stretch on the schedule as the Raptors made a playoff push after the match. Finished a tricky layup that posted and switched hands in the air to avoid blocking.

The Toronto Raptors have gone from one of the league's worst defensive teams to a group of feisty defenders that nobody is going to want to see in the ...

Instead, the goal for this team, as Nurse said, was to make the playoffs, get experience, and come back better for it. The Raptors aren’t going to win a championship this year. If Nurse wanted to throw a zone defense at an opposing team or draw up a box-and-one against Steph Curry in the middle of a game, they could do it without a hiccup. Nurse wasn’t going to compromise his principles because his players couldn’t get on the same page defensively. Every time we switched to blitzing, we weren't making the rotations. It wasn’t that the offense was so bad, though 30.9% shooting from the floor that night left a lot to be desired.

Mardi soir, grâce à un gain de 118 à 108 contre les Hawks d'Atlanta, l'unique formation canadienne de la NBA a assuré sa place au tournoi d'après-saison.

Ça n’a toutefois pas été une partie de plaisir pour les Raptors en 2021-2022. Nous avions oublié ce qu’il faut être bons tous les soirs dans cette ligue.» «Nous avons un groupe que personne ne croyait bon, ce qui fait en sorte que d’être dans notre position actuelle est encore meilleur, a dit VanVleet. Nous avons réalisé l’objectif que nous nous sommes donné. Nous sommes dans une position où nous méritons d’être et il est maintenant le temps de voir jusqu’où nous pouvons nous rendre.»

The idea — completely understandable! — was that the Raptors can only afford to play so many high-chaos, low-awareness players together at the same time. Though ...

The criticisms of the two players early in the year have proved true in one way: they do have the same mindset. Both Achiuwa and Boucher are most developed on the defensive end, and they function together by the grace of the length god. On the season now, they have a net rating together of +4.1. That’s exquisite for two bench players on what has been a shallow team. And it’s rarest of all for those two players to be tied at the hip playing together. With some exceptions — Nick Nurse is quick to pull the plug on normal rotational choices if he doesn’t like the way things are going — Achiuwa and Boucher have played between 15-20 minutes together every game since the start of the new year. Since the start of 2022, Boucher and Achiuwa have practically been tethered together on the court. Boucher was in the midst of a down stretch to start the year, making poor choices and increasingly trying to shoot himself out of the slump. Instead of dooming the Raptors with their similar approach to the game, they now lift the team when they enter together midway through the first quarter. Boucher has become one of Toronto’s most consistent performers, a constant on the defensive end and limited almost entirely to floor-spacing and rebound-snatching on the offensive end. Achiuwa was not ready to run the offense at the required speed and often made poor choices out of a lack of awareness or ability to read the events happening around him. “Chris Boucher is length, weaponized,” per the words of Samson’s Folk. Achiuwa is a sparkplug, defensive stopper across the positional spectrum and doer-of-all-things on the offensive end (shooting, offensive rebounding, driving, passing, self-creation, screening: seriously, everything). They didn’t get a whole lot of time together early on, playing three-and-a-half minutes together in Toronto’s second game and staying at that rate, more or less, for the next few weeks.

They are now sitting in the nine-spot in the Eastern Conference after the Brooklyn Nets took out the Houston Rockets to re-take eighth. Now, the Hawks will need ...

The Raptors 60 rebounds set a new season-high for a Hawks opponent and helped lead to a 62-42 advantage in the paint. It was a stat-stuffing demonstration that reminded many of why the Hawks need John Collins who has been out for the last 13 games dealing with finger and foot injuries. The Atlanta Hawks (41-38) suffered a tough loss at the hands of the Toronto Raptors but it wasn’t because Pascal Siakam went off.