TORONTO — Free-agent signing Dennis Schroder helped propel Toronto to a 97-94 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in their season opener at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
The point guard finished with team-highs of 22 points and seven assists, with a game-high plus-10 rating. Five of those points and three assists came in the fourth quarter, as the Raptors clinched a win that also marked head coach Darko Rajakovic’s first as an NBA head coach.
“Coach came in screaming,” said Schroder post-game on their celebration. “We got all the ice ready for him and put it over him. I think it’s a special moment for him and a great experience for all of us in the locker room. … He’s always emotional.”
“I just tried to play as great as I can for [Rajakovic], for the organization, for my teammates, just to prove everybody wrong,” said Schroder, who signed a two-year, $26 million deal this past offseason with Toronto.
His 20 points is the most in a Raptors debut since Kawhi Leonard’s 24 in 2018. For Schroder, he just wants to “get that winning culture back on our side,” while he credits Rajakovic for “doing a great job since training camp.”
The Raptors started the season off on the right foot on Wednesday night. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Following the win on Wednesday night, Rajakovic called out Schroder’s ability to help the Raptors navigate a “new team, new terminology, new coaching staff,” as they showed common signs of early-season basketball.
“There were a couple of situations where we’d call a certain play, and players didn’t quickly pick it up,” said Rajakovic.
“There’s so much new with our team and having somebody (Schroder) who’s been through it with different teams in the role of point guard, it brings calmness to the team. A couple of times he was able to talk to guys, put them in the right spots to help our offence.”
The Raptors finished the game shooting 40% from the field, compared to the Timberwolves’ 34%, while both racked up 14 turnovers. At times, the season opener emulated a preseason game, with careless decisions.
Rajakovic thought the Raptors “needed to play faster,” saying there were moments when they were “watching each other” instead of cutting, driving and collapsing the defence to find open looks, which also stagnated their offence.
“I thought that tonight, we could do a better job, with a couple situations of not turning the ball over,” said Rajakovic.
“I talked to Scotty [Barnes] at halftime that we need him to push but also to be under control. We got to continue trusting the pass. … It’s the one (thing) when things are not going our way; how are we going to stick together and stay together. We did it enough tonight. And definitely we have a lot of room for improvement.”
For the Raptors, it was their defence and, as a result of it, transition offence that pushed them past the Timberwolves. Toronto scored 34 points in transition compared to the Timberwolves’ 12. It helped produce open looks, especially from three-point range, where the Raptors shot 40% on 35 attempts on their way to also tallying 27 assists on the night.
“I hope that every night we’re going have an elite defence,” said Rajakovic. “I think that we have elite defenders and then whenwe bring that kind of energy and juice, we’re really good defensively. And for us, that creates opportunities in transition.”
Defensively, the team was able to contain Anthony Edwards. The All-Star guard started the matchup hot, outscoring the Raptors himself 10-8 in the first five minutes of the game. That included a three-ball which made him the youngest player in NBA history to notch 600 triples.
However, after starting the first quarter with 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting, the Raptors were able to limit the explosive shooting guard, who finished the game with 26 points on 8-of-27 shooting (29%).
“I was a little too loose with him,” said O.G. Anunoby, who finished with 20 points, while taking on the bulk of the responsibility of guarding Edwards.
“He’s a great player, I was giving too much space. (Later, I was) just trying to make him more uncomfortable … just trying to make it difficult for him, to just be physical with him and force him into difficult shots.”
The team’s efforts on defence helped weather the size of the Timberwolves’ twin towers in Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, both perennial All-Stars.
Of the Raptors starters, only Jakob Poeltl didn’t play over 25 minutes. Instead, the Raptors’ speed, length and athleticism from their core wings and forwards was able to get the job done, such as Barnes who guarded Towns to go along with providing help-side defence on his way to notching a game-high five blocks. Towns on the other hand finished with 19 points on 8-of-25 shooting.
Rajakovic and Schroder also called out Precious Achiuwa, who was able to give the team “life” in both his stretches in the first and second half. That included a couple nasty slams on his way to eight points and nine boards while coming off the bench.
“I have so much belief, trust in this roster and guys coming off the bench, that we’ll need them every single night,” said Rajakovic. “I always tell guys every possession matters and when you’re on the court, you need to value that, make the most of that. Our guys did a good job tonight, and this is just the first step for us to continue to grow.”
Up next, the Raptors will hit the road on Friday, Oct. 27 to take on the Chicago Bulls, the same team who ended Toronto’s season in the 2023 play-in.
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.
