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Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes star together against the Bucks – Raptors Republic

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If there’s a lesson to take from the Toronto Raptors’ 97-93 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, other than that Giannis Antetokounmpo remains petrified of Scotiabank Arena, it is that Fred VanVleet may one day claim the throne of GROAT if he keeps playing like this (for six, seven more seasons straight). The man dueled champions Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday in the fourth quarter, coming up with the win on his own. He scored 26 points in the second half. But we’ve known that Fred VanVleet is a boss. Just as significant for Toronto’s long-term viability as a winning NBA program is a relatively new lesson: making long-term judgments without a whole lot of information can make you look foolish. As in, the idea that Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes aren’t complementary players: made to look foolish. Both the critics and the Bucks, for one night at least.

Theoretically, two players who can hit catch-and-shoot jumpers, drive, post up, pass, and play scrambling defense ought to work wonders together. And yet coming into the game against the Bucks, the Raptors boasted a net rating of -3.4 with Siakam and Barnes sharing the court, worse even than their teamwide mark of -1.1 on the year.

“It’s December 2nd,” said VanVleet, preemptively explaining why they’re only now starting to thrive together. “It takes time, man. I know it’s hard sometimes when we’re so used to winning, and we’re so spoiled, won a championship not that long ago. But these things take time. This group hasn’t played together much at all.”

Still, they’ve been improving together for several games now, they really made it work against Milwaukee, winning their minutes together. It helps, of course, when the two combine to shoot four of 10 from deep. Both hunted shots, as Barnes hit great possession-finishing triples after great team ball movement, and Siakam hit a faceup from the corner. But it wasn’t just shooting. They are starting to organically improve one another’s advantages both before and after the catch. Because of their abilities to get where they want to go and force rotations, more of their shots come against already compromised defenses; Barnes and Siakam are one and two on the team in the differential of two-pointers that are assisted when they’re playing versus on the bench.

“I thought Pascal, especially, I thought he made some good passes out of the paint, and then he made some good early ones, he got off it early when he started to drive and saw the help coming and he just got off it earlier,” said Nick Nurse. “I don’t know how many assists Pascal had but if guys would have made some shots he probably would have had… how many does [the box score] say he had? Four. He probably would have had at least double that, right?”

On one play, Barnes handled the ball on the wing with Siakam on the other side of the lane. VanVleet jetted over to set a brush screen for Barnes, and meanwhile back at the farm, Siakam switched to posting up on the strong side. With the defense distracted by VanVleet jetting away from the screen — VanVleet shot five of 10 on his own from deep on the night, constantly a menace without the ball in his hands — Barnes threw a picturesque floating entry pass over the fronting defender to Siakam for the layup.

Or Siakam was in the post, making quick decisions, drawing multiple defenders. Barnes, ostensibly the player off of whom Siakam’s helper should arrive, was left open and promptly hit the triple. Simple basketball, but an effective leverage of their strengths. Or Barnes, tipping away the ball from Jrue Holiday, and throwing a jumping touch pass to Siakam in transition for the layup. Or the first basket of the game, with Barnes and VanVleet playing the two-man game, hitting the paint, and Siakam catching the pass in the corner, attacking himself, and then swinging behind him to Svi Mykhailiuk for the open triple. Like iron, the shared abilities to catch, attack, and create sharpen one another.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the Bucks were without Antetokounmpo or Brook Lopez, meaning their back line of defense was far smaller than the Raptors are accustomed to seeing. And with Barnes a rookie and Siakam still working his way back from major surgery in the offseason, there will continue to be rough nights together. They won’t always hit their triples. But the outline of shared success is there.

It also helps that VanVleet went berserk in the fourth quarter against the Bucks. After getting blitzed for much of the game and having to give the ball up (and still creating an advantage by doing so!) VanVleet said yabba dabba fuck the Bucks in the fourth. After entering the game with nine minutes remaining, he hit a catch-and-shoot triple, back cut his defender for an inside-hand layup, stole the ball and no-look dimed Siakam for a layup (timeout called), and then drove for a layup of his own. Later he made a scoop layup, forcing yet another Bucks’ timeout, and circled to the middle of the court, raising his arms Gladiator style, willing the crowd to yell. It fucking yelled. After a ref-led run for the Bucks later in the fourth, VanVleet closed the game out with free throws. Frankly, this game turned into significantly more of a VanVleet story than a Siakam-and-Barnes one, but VanVleet has been an All-NBA caliber player for most of the season now. His success is old news. Siakam and Barnes working so well together is relatively new. Importantly, there’s still a whole lot of room for growth.

“I think one thing that will help both of those guys is getting Precious in the right spots,” said VanVleet after the game of Barnes and Siakam’s comfort with one another. “I know we’re sliding him in to play the five, and naturally it’s not really the way he plays. He’s one of those forward that kind of slashes, and you know, he can shoot it a little bit. I think if we get his spacing right, and get him down there where the five goes, in the dunker space, on the baseline, I think that will open the floor up for both Pascal and Scottie.”

And it’s not like Siakam and Barnes played so well because of VanVleet’s brilliance, though having successful guards is part of what allows similar forwards to share the court together. In fact, it’s another worthwhile lesson that if Siakam and Barnes are going to play well together going forward, they probably need to be alongside elite guard play. Well VanVleet gave them that and then some.

VanVleet was correct, as he usually is, when he said that these things take time. For all Siakam and Barnes’ theoretical ability to help one another, there are also theoretical drawbacks. They both like to handle the ball inside the arc. Neither is an elite shooter. (Unless Barnes, just, is already.) But they’re both brilliant offensive minds, and that most of all will mean it will work. What we saw against Milwaukee was just a glimpse, a beautiful snowflake buried by the avalanche of VanVleet’s dominance. Sometimes VanVleet won’t be able to do it all with such vicious effectiveness. On those nights, increasingly, the Raptors can trust that Siakam and Barnes can dominate. Together.

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

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September 13, 2024

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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.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

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September 13, 2024

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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.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

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September 13, 2024

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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.

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