The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t need Norman Powell to have a revenge game against his old team. And they didn’t have to worry about the newest Toronto Raptors causing them any problems.
Nope. Portland had too many weapons and the Raptors were outmanned and outgunned in the first meeting between the two teams that connected on one of the highest-profile moves on Thursday’s trade deadline day. Portland left Tampa Bay with a 122-117 win that was both hard-fought and seemingly never in doubt once the Trail Blazers took control midway through the third quarter.
Playing his first game against the team with whom he had played his entire six-year career, Powell finished with just 13 points and took six shots in 27 minutes, while Rodney Hood and Gary Trent Jr., who came the other way in the deal, chipped in with 19 points – 13 and six, respectively. Trent Jr. started and ended up guarding Powell, and vice versa, but the pre-game subplot never really materialized in any meaningful way, save for one moment in the third quarter when the emotions bubbled up a bit.
Powell broke up a dribble hand-off at the top of the circle midway through the third quarter and took it the other way for a dunk, making sure to stare down the Raptor bench as he circled back. The play gave Portland the lead and it never trailed again.
“I thought he was looking at me, but he said he wasn’t,” said Fred VanVleet, his good friend. “I told him, ‘I didn’t trade you. I don’t know what you are mad at me for.’ But Norm is such an emotional guy in a good way. He wears his heart on his sleeve and it was good to see him. It was really weird playing against him, but, obviously, wish him nothing but the best going forward.”
The game did tighten up down the stretch. The Raptors were down 11 with 7:40 to play and stormed back to within a point with 2:28 to go before Blazers guard CJ McCollum scored seven quick points. But the Raptors had it down to five with 26 seconds left and remained alive when Powell missed two free throws that could’ve iced it. Powell ripped his jersey in frustration. But after VanVleet drove past Powell for a layup to make it a three-point game, the latter made his next two free throws and Toronto couldn’t pull off a minor miracle in the waning seconds.
Otherwise, Powell made some slow-footed fouls in the first half – a familiar theme – and never got rolling the way Toronto knows he can.
The Raptors did well against Portland’s Damian Lillard and McCollum, holding one of the league’s best backcourts to 43 points, or about 22 under their combined season average. But Portland had five other players in double figures, including their entire starting lineup. It seemed like Toronto was trying to patch holes everywhere and when one was covered up another would spring open.
“It’s tough, man but you got to take away something,” said VanVleet, who scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, but was just 3-of-13 from the floor in the other three periods. “I thought, for the most part, we guarded Dame pretty well, 7-for-21, I think he shoots a pretty good percentage, so we made it tough on him. He got a lot of that in the second half. CJ got at least six or eight late in the fourth. We guarded those guys pretty well. It’s just Derrick Jones 7-for-9, (Enes) Kanter 5-for-8, some of those guys made some big shots, but you got to give up something. We’re selling out trying to take away two of the better scorers in the league and we just got to do a better job of rotating and cleaning up the offensive glass and things like that. All in all, we’re fighting hard enough. It’s just at some point we gotta turn the switch here to see how we can clean it up.”
The Raptors got 26 points and eight rebounds from Pascal Siakam and 19 points from OG Anunoby, although his seven turnovers hurt. They were clearly missing some offensive punch at times, not only with Powell playing for the other team but with Kyle Lowry out with a sore foot. Pat McCaw (knee) and DeAndre Bembry and Paul Watson (health and safety protocols) were also out.
The Raptors dropped to 18-28 with the defeat, which is their 13th loss in their past 15 games and leaves them mired in 11th place. Portland improved to 28-18.
The game unravelled in the third quarter when the Raptors’ offence fell off a cliff. After going up by seven midway through the period, the Raptors managed just one field goal in the next five minutes and found themselves down by 10 as Portland put together a 19-2 run that was more indicative of the Toronto’s offensive woes than what the Trail Blazers were doing offensively. Toronto held Portland to just 37 per cent shooting in the third, but still fell behind as it shot just 4-of-22 and scored 10 points.
Powell didn’t exactly put on a show against his former team, but it takes little imagination to see how his ability to score at a high rate with the kind of efficiency that meshes well with other high-usage scorers will make the Trail Blazers a tough out in the playoffs.
The Trail Blazers, having seen Powell put up 22 points in 13 shots in his debut Friday, see big things ahead and a chance to double down on one of the most guard-heavy attacks in the NBA
“I think the quality of shots, the quality of our three-point shots will improve,” said Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts. “Because of him, I think the one thing that he really adds in addition to shooting is he really moves well without the ball and when Dame and CJ are able to penetrate, he’ll find open spots. So I think from an offensive standpoint, it makes us even harder to guard.”
The half couldn’t have worked out better for the Raptors, and, in particular, those with a vested interest in the trade working out in their favour as they led 41-32 after the first quarter and 74-68 at the half.
With Powell likely to decline his player option and head into free agency, Toronto had to calculate what the market might be for someone who has averaged 21 points a game and shot 45 per cent from three over 58 starts going back to last season. The concern was that Powell would be shopping for a deal in the $18-million to $20-million range annually and Toronto didn’t want to have to go that high for a player it had deemed increasingly one-dimensional as his attention to detail on defence faded as his offensive game grew.
As if on cue, there was Powell picking up two quick fouls, one getting beaten to the spot by Trent Jr., who he started out guarding, and then an unwise reach in against his old pal Siakam that saw Powell head to the bench before the game was five minutes old. Any possibility that Powell would show up his old team with one of his trademark first-quarter explosions was out the window.
Better to replace his production with the younger Trent Jr. and maybe even a rehabilitated Hood, who averaged 13 points a game and provided solid, switchable defence in the previous six seasons in Utah, Cleveland and Portland before he tore his Achilles early in the 2019-20 season.
If there was an encouraging development for the Raptors on the night, it might have been Hood, who looks like a good two-way addition and more like the player who averaged 13 points a game over the previous eight seasons than the one who had struggled to find his confidence in his return from the devastating injury. His best moment came just before halftime when he hounded Lillard into a miss, sprinted the floor to set up for a corner three and knocked it down – complete with a fist pump – just before the horn.
“I think that could be a significant part of the trade,” said Nurse. “Some points it already kind of looks like it might be and I think it’s given some flexibility to some subbing and being a little bit bigger around the edges.”
At this stage of the Raptors’ season, they’ll take their bright spots where they can find them.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
