TORONTO – The Raptors opened this season in uncharted waters – the first team in NBA history to try and defend a championship with the reigning Finals MVP on another club’s roster – and nobody really knew what to expect.
Kawhi Leonard was gone and so was Danny Green. Without the means to go out and replace those guys, their considerable workloads would be divvied up amongst the returnees. After another chaotic summer of player movement around the league, Toronto was a forgotten team, once again.
Pre-season projections varied and likely depended on your view of how they’d move forward and which direction they’d choose. Would they sell off their vets to get younger and re-tool, or would they run it back with what they had left?
Assuming they kept the band together and if everything broke the right way, they were going to be competitive, but how good could they be?
Fast-forward three months. With Friday’s 140-111 win over the Washington Wizards, Toronto reached the halfway point of the campaign with a record of 27-14 – just a couple games behind last year’s pace.
Las Vegas had set their pre-season over-under for wins at 46.5, and that was before they were hit with a barrage of injuries that would sink most teams. Instead, they’re on pace for 54 wins. In other words, the results have been better than most would have anticipated, even in their best-case scenario. And this certainly hasn’t looked like their best-case scenario.
Toronto will go into the second half of the campaign having already lost 145 man games to injury – fourth-most in the NBA. Six of the team’s top-seven players have missed 10 or more games, yet they’re 21-9 without at least one of those guys, 14-8 without at least two, 7-5 without at least three and 1-1 without four of them. They’ve had all seven in 11 of 41 games and they’ve only had their full roster available twice all season, and not since Oct. 30.
That should change on Saturday, when Fred VanVleet – who has missed 10 games this season, including the last five with a hamstring strain – is expected to make his return in Minnesota. He’ll re-join a lineup that has recently gotten Pascal Siakam (groin strain), Norman Powell (partially dislocated shoulder) and Marc Gasol (hamstring strain) back from injury.
Fresh off injuries, Powell and Gasol lead Raps to rout of Wizards
In just his second game since returning from injury, Marc Gasol drilled six threes to pour in 20 points and help the Raptors blowout the Wizards. NBA analyst Jack Armstrong joins Matt Devlin to discuss Gasol’s spectacular performance and the impressive play of Norman Powell, who has three straight games of at least 20 points since returning to Toronto’s lineup.
Of course, Friday’s win wasn’t without another injury scare. Attempting to take a charge late in the first quarter, Lowry bumped knees with Wizards guard Jordan McRae and immediately limped to the locker room, biting his jersey in pain. It’s just been one of those years for Toronto. One step forward, two steps back. Fortunately, Lowry walked it off, got his knee wrapped and was able to return. Crisis averted, for once.
Knock on wood – the Raptors are finally getting healthy, and if their success through adversity in the first half of the season is any indication (and they’re actually able to stay healthy), their best is still to come.
“It’s kinda what we’ve been dealt,” said head coach Nick Nurse. “We deal with what we have and I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it. It hasn’t been easy, but there have been some positives. We’ve seen lots of minutes by lots of guys, different ways. We’ve been forced into a lot of difference defences and lineups, and all kinds of things. We’ve gotta trim some of that off as well and just get down to who we’re going to be. Do we know who we are? Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve got a good team out there, man. We’ve got some guys who play to win and have some experience. If we can continue to be versatile we’ll continue to improve and keep heading in this direction a little bit.”
After winning the NBA’s Most Improved Player award last season and then signing a max contract extension before opening night, Siakam has taken another big leap in his fourth year, just as the team hoped he would when Leonard left. Lowry and Serge Ibaka – who both got hurt on the same night in November and missed 11 and 10 games, respectively – have played some of their best basketball ever, despite being on the wrong side of 30. Just about everybody on the roster has contributed at some point, including pleasant surprises like undrafted rookie Terence Davis, Canadian big man Chris Boucher and free agent addition Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who didn’t even break camp in the rotation.
However, the constant has been Nurse – an early Coach of the Year candidate. The injuries have kept him on his toes but they’ve also brought out the best in the Raptors’ mad scientist.
Nurse prides himself on his ability and willingness to experiment with different lineups, schemes and coverages, and to adapt to the conditions around him – qualities he’s needed to survive a coaching career that’s taken him around the world and back. From coaching Great Britain to piecing together lineups in the D-League, he’s always had to be flexible.
He hasn’t been perfect. At least some of the team’s recent difficulty holding big leads and closing games has to fall on the coaches. He’s also used some questionable, offensively challenged units of late. Then there’s his affinity for Patrick McCaw, who is a fine player but often looks out of place logging regular rotation minutes. Still, the man has earned the benefit of the doubt. There’s almost always a method to the madness. Every funky lineup or “janky” defensive coverage has its purpose.
Gasol says offensive success was a by-product of strong defence
The Raptors had it going in the offensive end of the court against the Wizards, but Marc Gasol says all their success offensively is a by-product of their work in the defensive end.
It’s hard to imagine a coach better suited to navigate through a minefield of injuries like the Raptors have faced.
“In an NBA season you never know what’s going to happen, there’s a lot of variables,” Powell said. “But I think this team’s done a great job of taking it on the chin, adjusting to it with the injuries, taking advantage of opportunity, playing together, playing hard, and trusting the coaches. I think that’s what you need as a team. Going through an 82-game season, a lot of things are going to happen, but as long as you trust in one another and we figure it out along the way we’ll be good. And I think we’ve been able to do that really well.”
As Nurse stressed before Friday’s game, conditioning is their biggest hurdle at the moment, which isn’t unexpected with so many guys coming back from long layoffs and might also explain why they’ve been running out of gas late in games. While Powell has mostly picked up where he left off and Gasol – a ground-bound player – has looked like himself, you could see the heavy legs wearing Siakam down at points in each of his three games back.
It will take some time before he – and VanVleet, as well as others – get back up to speed, but the last couple games have offered glimpses of what they’re capable of at or close to full strength.
The Raptors shot a season-best 61 per cent in Wednesday’s road win over Oklahoma City, one of the league’s hottest teams. They led by as many as 30 points before the Thunder fought back in the fourth quarter. Their defence, ranked second in the NBA, wasn’t as sharp as usual but their offence was in pre-injury form.
They turned in a two-way gem Friday, albeit against the Wizards, who are 13-28 for a reason. The Raptors totalled 140 points on the night – the most they’ve ever scored in a regulation game. Gasol had 20 points – the most he’s scored as a Raptor – and tied a career-high with six three-pointers (on seven attempts). Powell scored 28 – reaching 20 points for the third time in three games since returning. Davis had 17 of his career-high tying 23 points in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Washington committed 28 turnovers.
Toronto, Miami, Indiana and Philadelphia all won on Friday to keep pace in a tight Eastern Conference race. The Bucks have pulled away at the top but only three games separate the five teams behind them. The Raptors currently sit in the middle of them, but only two games behind the second-place Heat.
With the Raptors nearing full health, Nurse indicated he’d like to be more careful with the minutes of his starters, particularly Lowry, who leads the league in that category. Nobody played over 30 minutes in Friday’s decisive win – the first night of a back-to-back – and Lowry logged just 22. Nurse said managing minutes will really become a priority over the last couple months of the season, ahead of the playoffs.
Unlike last year, when Leonard and company spent most of the year looking ahead to the playoffs, the regular season matters to this Raptors team. You want home-court advantage, obviously, and given the significant drop-off after the top-six teams in the East, finishing second and avoiding those top-six in the first round could be huge.
Toronto is just 2-7 against the other top-six teams in the East, although the injury caveat applies. Not only are they getting healthier, but their remaining schedule is among the friendliest in the league. 26 of their final 41 games come against teams with sub-.500 records.
The table is set for them to go on a second-half run.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Lamar Jackson threw for 281 yards and five touchdowns, helping the Baltimore Ravens overcome an early double-digit deficit and extend their National Football League winning streak to five games with a 41-31 victory Monday night over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost their top two receivers to injuries.
The two-time NFL MVP improved to 23-1 against NFC teams, the best mark by a quarterback against an opposing conference in NFL history. He’s 3-0 against the Bucs (4-3), who faded after taking a 10-0 lead with help from the 100th TD reception of Mike Evans’ career.
Evans departed with a hamstring injury after Baker Mayfield tried to connect with him in the end zone again, and late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach, leading Bucs receiver Chris Godwin was carted off the field with a left ankle injury. ESPN declined to show replays of Godwin’s injury, which appeared to be severe.
Jackson completed 17 of 22 passes without an interception, including TD throws of nine and four yards to Mark Andrews. He also tossed scoring passes of 49 yards to Rashod Bateman, 18 yards to Justice Hill and 11 yards to Derrick Henry, who rushed for 169 yards on 15 carries. Bateman had four catches for 121 yards.
The Ravens (5-2) rebounded from a slow start on defence, with cornerback Marlon Humphrey turning the game around with a pair of second-quarter interceptions — one of them in the Baltimore end zone. Jackson led a four-play, 80-yard TD drive after the first pick, and the second interception set up Justin Tucker’s 28-yard field goal for a 17-10 halftime lead.
Elsewhere in the NFL:
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CARDINALS 17 CHARGERS 15
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyler Murray ran for a 44-yard touchdown and led the Cardinals on a drive that set up Chad Ryland’s 32-yard field goal as time expired, and Arizona rallied for a win over Los Angeles.
Cameron Dicker kicked his fifth field goal of the night — this one from 40 yards — to give the Chargers a 15-14 lead with 1:54 left. But the Cardinals (3-4) quickly moved into field goal range, aided by an unnecessary roughness call on Cam Hart that cost Los Angeles (3-3) 15 yards.
Arizona followed that with a bruising 33-yard run by James Conner, who finished with 101 yards on the ground. That eventually set up Ryland’s short field goal and a Cardinals celebration.
It was a frustrating night for the Chargers’ offence, which gained 395 yards but couldn’t find the end zone. Justin Herbert completed 27 of 39 passes for 349 yards.
Dicker booted field goals of 59, 50, 28, 47 and 40 yards, the first of which tied a franchise record for distance.
Murray ran for a spectacular touchdown early in the fourth quarter, rolling to his left before turning on the jets, beating safety Junior Colston to the sideline and then coasting into the end zone for a 14-9 lead.
It was Murray’s second long touchdown run in three weeks after he scored on a 50-yard sprint against San Francisco. It was also Murray’s 20th career game with a touchdown pass and run.
Murray completed 14 of 26 passes for 145 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps have been here before — literally and figuratively.
With the season hanging in the balance, the ‘Caps were dealt a blow last week when the club learned it wouldn’t be able to play a post-season wild-card game in its home stadium, B.C. Place, due to a scheduling conflict.
The Whitecaps ceded home field advantage to their regional rival, the Portland Timbers. The two clubs will battle for the final playoff spot in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference in Oregon on Wednesday.
The winner will face No. 1-seed Los Angeles FC in a best-of-three first-round series, starting Sunday.
An unforeseen hurdle like a change of venues is nothing new for the ‘Caps, said defender Ranko Veselinovic, who was part of the team that was forced to relocate first to Portland, then Utah during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It feels that always something happens for us, but it is what it is. So far, we’ve managed to always find solutions for those situations,” said the Serbian centre back. “But I hope this team can find it one more time, because we need it this time. And it will be a really nice feeling in those circumstances to go in, win and go face L.A. in the next round.”
Vancouver (13-13-8) heads into the post-season winless in its last seven MLS games and with losses in four straight after dropping a 2-1 road decision to Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
The skid followed a run that saw the club go 4-1-3 across all competitions between late August and late September.
There’s just one way to return to that level, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini.
“The work is the only way to do it. Try to put the work in and try to put the team in a way that they’re going to regain the form and the way that they were in the past,” he said.
Despite the final score, Sartini has seen positives in the way his team played in its two most recent losses.
“I think already we turned the corner,” he said. “And we start from there to build and build and build.”
Facing challenges together can help a team build, whether it’s a winless skid or an unexpected hurdle, said Vancouver’s captain Ryan Gauld.
“When you’re going through adversity, that’s when people start to raise their voice a little bit. You get good when the problems arise, you get a lot of people coming together to make sure we get out of it,” said the Scottish attacking midfielder.
“And we’ve had a tough time the last few games, but everyone’s aware of the fact that we’re a much better team than we’ve shown, and we need to find a way to get back to doing what we’re good at.”
The ‘Caps face a familiar foe in the Timbers (12-11-11).
The two sides have already met three times this season, with each coming out of the series with a win, a loss and a draw.
Portland has also struggled in recent weeks and are winless in their last five MLS outings (0-1-4).
The Timbers boast one of the league’s top offensive units, though, with threats such as Evander. The Brazilian midfielder notched 15 goals and 19 assists during the regular season.
To earn a win on Wednesday, the Whitecaps must be solid defensively, Gauld said.
“They must be one of the best attacks in the league. They have a lot of good players, and they can hurt you if you switch off,” he said. “So just being concentrated from the first whistle, and just being hard to beat, being stuffy. Just being on it for the full 90 minutes.”
A victory in the wild-card match would guarantee Vancouver at least one home playoff game, a factor that Sartini said would be a big reward for his group.
The entire team relished the experience of playing post-season soccer in front of more than 30,000 fans last year, the coach said, and the desire to repeat the feat is high as the club heads to Portland.
“Everyone is happy to be in the playoffs. So we don’t have to be moody to be in the playoff. And we go in there, we’re play one of our rivals. So it’s gonna be a nice game to show up and to play our best game possible.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (13-13-8) AT PORTLAND TIMBERS (12-11-11)
Wednesday, Providence Park
HISTORY BOOKS: This will mark the seventh all-time post-season meeting between the Timbers and ‘Caps, dating back to 1975. The last time the two clubs squared off in a playoff game was during the Western Conference semifinal in 2015. Portland won the two-game aggregate series and went on to hoist the MLS Cup.
ROAD WARRIORS: The ‘Caps boasted a 7-6-4 record on the road during regular-season play — better than the 6-7-4 showing they posted at B.C. Place.
POST-SEASON PARTY: Wednesday will mark the first time the Timbers have hosted a post-season game since 2021.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Scotland conceived rugby sevens in the 1880s yet it will not feature in the scaled-back 2026 Commonwealth Games hosted by Glasgow.
Other sports that have also been dropped include field hockey, triathlon, badminton, Twenty20 cricket, squash, and diving.
The Games will have a 10-sport program in four venues. Athletics and swimming are compulsory while there will also be track cycling, gymnastics, netball, weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and 3×3 basketball.
There will also be integrated para events in six of those sports: Athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, bowls and basketball.
The Games will take place from July 23-Aug. 2 after Glasgow stepped in when the Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year because of rising costs.
It was not easy to decide which sports to include, Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Ian Reid told the BBC on Tuesday.
“I think everybody recognises that these events need to be more affordable, lighter and we would have loved to have all of our sports and all of our athletes competing but unfortunately it’s just not deliverable or affordable for this time frame,” Reid said.
Athletes and support staff will be housed in hotels. Around 3,000 athletes are expected to compete from up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories representing a combined total of 2.5 billion people, a third of the world’s entire population.
More than 500,000 tickets made available for spectators.
The Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Katie Sadleir said: “The 2026 Games will be a bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow, an exciting first step in our journey to reset and redefine the Games as a truly collaborative, flexible and sustainable model for the future that minimises costs, reduces the environmental footprint, and enhances social impact. In doing so, increasing the scope of countries capable of hosting.”
Glasgow hosted the event in 2014 at a cost of more than 540 million pounds.
