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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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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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