Kyle Lowry had been keen to come out of the NBA all-star break at top speed.
On Sunday, Lowry set a breakneck pace in the Toronto Raptors’ most lopsided victory in franchise history.
Lowry, who’d made his sixth appearance at the all-star game last week in Chicago, had 16 points and 11 assists Sunday, and the Raptors throttled the Indiana Pacers 127-81.
“I’ve never coached or seen anybody play as hard as this guy does in basketball,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said afterward. “It’s the ultimate compliment and it rubs off on the other guys, and not only does he do it that way, he plays smart, he knows the coverages, he knows the opponents, he studies film, he gives his body up, right?
WATCH | Raptors dominate Pacers in historic win:
Toronto beats Indiana 127-81 for their 9th straight win at home, sets franchise record for largest margin of victory. 2:02
“All those things kind of transfer to the other guys . . . leadership, right?”
Lowry stretched his career-best streak of consecutive double-doubles to six games in the Raptors’ ninth straight victory at Scotiabank Arena. It was also the Raptors’ ninth win in their last 10 outings.
Pascal Siakam added 21 points while Serge Ibaka chipped in with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Matt Thomas finished with 17 points, Terence Davis had 13, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 12, and Chris Boucher hauled down 11 rebounds to go with nine points for Toronto (42-15).
Largest margin of victory in franchise history. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheNorth?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WeTheNorth</a> <a href=”https://t.co/O3MzDYlWU5″>pic.twitter.com/O3MzDYlWU5</a>
Domantas Sabonis and Aaron Holiday had 14 points apiece to top the lacklustre Pacers (33-24), who were missing all-star guard Victor Oladipo (sore lower back).
In a game Nurse called the best start-to-finish performance in recent memory, the Raptors ran roughshod over the Pacers from the opening tip off, holding the Pacers to just four baskets on a woeful 17.4 per cent shooting in the first quarter. By the time Fred VanVleet launched a running three-pointer with four seconds left in the first half, the Raptors were up by 31 points.
“Flying and executing the coverages, ball was poppin’, and every single guy that went in there was on, ready to go,” Nurse said.
The Pacers’ 32 points at halftime were a season-low for a half by an opponent.
Toronto took an 85-55 lead into the fourth, and kept their foot on the Pacers’ figurative throat, and when Hollis-Jefferson connected on a bucket with 8:19 to play, the Raptors were up by 40.
“We set a tone earlier,” Ibaka said. “Normally when we start good like this we kind of relax, but tonight as a team we did a great job staying focused on us and kept working together.”
Nurse emptied his bench for the final five minutes and the game well in hand. Back-to-back three-pointers by seldom-used sharpshooter Thomas put the Raptors up by 46 points with 2:17 to play, and had the Raptors players on the bench up and dancing in celebration.
‘Wakeup call’ for Indiana
Thomas shot 5-for-7 from long distance in just 15 minutes of action.
Pacers coach Nate McMillan said the game was a “wakeup call.”
“That team is playing for something big and they showed us what February, March, April, if you can get into May and June, what it’s going to look like, and what you’ve got to play against,” he said. “They jumped on us, they came with the intensity, they play with a sense of urgency, that team is connected out there.”
The Raptors shot 51.1 per cent on the night, while holding Indiana to 32.6 per cent and 24.2 per cent from three-point range. Toronto outrebounded Indiana 57-39.
The win was Toronto’s 13th in a row at home versus Indiana.
Raptors still missing Gasol & Powell
“Feels good man, to be playing like that and just having fun,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “That’s what it’s about at the end of the day, competing and having fun.”
The Raptors’ easy victory came despite still missing Marc Gasol (hamstring strain) and Norman Powell (broken finger).
The Raptors raced out to a 12-point lead before Sunday’s game was barely two minutes old, and held Indiana without a field goal until Malcolm Brogdon’s layup five minutes into the game. Siakam’s three-pointer had Toronto up by 26 points with 1:15 left in the first, and Toronto took a 34-12 lead into the second quarter.
Indiana fared slightly better in the second, pulling to within 17 points a couple of times, but VanVleet’s running three with four seconds left in the half send the Raptors into the break with a 63-32 advantage.
The Raptors host the conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
