Sports

STINSON: Raptors and NBA stuck with Florida for now – Toronto Sun

Published

4 years ago

June 30, 2020

Masai Ujiri said all the things you would expect him to say as the Toronto Raptors and the National Basketball Association sputter back to life and try to finish their seasons amid a pandemic.

“Everyone is geared up to play and excited,” the Raptors president said on Monday.

He said the NBA was “a seriously well-oiled machine” and that the COVID-19 protocols and guidance the league has put in place allows for a safe environment for its employees.

Ujiri said he didn’t have to convince any of the Raptors that taking part in a restarted season was a good idea.

But, on Ujiri’s media conference call, there were also a couple of reading-between-the-lines moments. The Raptors are presently based in Fort Myers, Fla., where they are in the middle of a miniature training camp before joining 21 other teams at the Walt Disney World campus in Orlando.

This feels a little like trying to avoid a sunburn by taking a nap outdoors on a foil blanket. Florida is dealing with giant increases in confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 5,000 added to the count Monday, the fifth time in the past six days that new cases cracked that mark. Canada surpassed 2,000 daily new cases just once over the whole of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, more than 13% of reported results in Florida on Monday came back positive, which suggests the new-case numbers are not about to decline. (Canada’s positive rate now is less than 1%.) Florida has now forbid the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants in an attempt to quell the rising COVID-19 caseload.

Asked about spending all that time in Florida, Ujiri said “you have to make plans” and “you have to set things in motion.” He didn’t come out and say that he wished things had unfolded differently, but it was an acknowledgment that as the NBA, and the Raptors in particular, dealt with the complicated process of returning in a coronavirus world, they had to make decisions weeks ago, which gave the virus plenty of time to do its own thing. And it has.

Lee County, which includes Fort Myers, hasn’t been hit as hard as Miami, or even as hard as Orlando, but there was still an alarming 24% positive rate on test results reported on Monday. Ujiri said the Raptors players and staff are staying at a hotel that was specifically reopened for them, and that everyone is going back to their rooms after practice. Good call, that.

But as confident as the NBA and the Raptors might be in their protocols, there is no point in pretending like they were ever planning to head straight into a coronavirus hot spot. In mid-April, seven lifetimes ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked what kind of information the league would consider as it decided how to resume its business. The first thing he said: “I think we’re looking for the number of new infections to come down.” That isn’t true of the United States as a whole, and it certainly isn’t of Florida, even allowing for significantly increased levels of testing.

Silver acknowledged as much Friday, saying COVID-19 “is on the rise in the majority of states in the United States right now, and my ultimate conclusion is that we can’t outrun the virus and that this is what we’re going to be living with for the foreseeable future.”

Essentially, the league is falling back on its bubble strategy, hoping that even if the spread of the virus accelerates in Florida, they can keep it from significantly affecting their operations at Disney. “We are in essence protected from cases around us,” Silver said. “At least, that’s the model.” Best-laid plans, et cetera.

It is worth noting at this point that the NBA, like the NHL and its two-city plan, are too far into the race to change horses. Do they want to resume their seasons because there is a lot of money at stake? Of course they do.

But these have been big-money businesses for many decades. We are long past the point when organized sports meant getting a few local fellows with glorious facial hair together to battle for the honour of their hometown.

And with the salary pool in basketball and hockey tied specifically to the amount of money those leagues bring in, the players have a big stake in ensuring that those revenues don’t completely crater this season. They want this to work, too.
But will it? Ujiri, at least, is hopeful. He said the Raptors are all following the rules, wearing masks outside their rooms, being careful.

So much, though, remains uncertain. If a player tests positive, he will be quarantined and all his contacts would be immediately re-tested. While a team could deal with a single result like any other injury, a team-wide outbreak would be something else — as would be multiple outbreaks.

No one really wants to deal with what that would mean, yet.

“I think we just want to get down on the ground and start to see how our testing is working and how the protocols are working and then we’ll make decisions as we go,” Silver said.

The commissioner said they have not identified a tipping point at which the season would have to be shuttered, and it’s a safe bet one will not be publicly revealed. The NBA doesn’t want to put down a line that it might have to step past a month from now.

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Sports

DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

Published

18 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

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Whitecaps take confidence, humility into decisive playoff matchup vs. LAFC

Published

18 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.

Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.

“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.

“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”

The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.

The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.

First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.

Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.

No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.

“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.

Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.

“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.

This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.

The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.

“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”

Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.

Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.

“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”

The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.

Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.

“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”

LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.

“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Sports

PWHL unveils game jerseys with new team names, logos

Published

18 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Professional Women’s Hockey League has revealed the jersey designs for its six newly named teams.

Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.

The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.

Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.

“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.

“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”

Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.

Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.

Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.

Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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