Canada Sports News

The Toronto Raptors finished their tour throughout the Western Conference with four wins in a row. After losing the opening contest against the Denver Nuggets, Nick Nurse’s team swept Phoenix, Golden State, Sacramento, and last night the Utah Jazz. The final result of the match in Salt Lake was 101-92 for the guests.

It was a tense match, played in a playoff atmosphere, with teams giving everything they have in order to come out as winners. The Raptors once again showed a massive psychological strength managing to hold out all the pushes Jazzers had, and also to keep their composure following Norman Powell’s injury in the first period.

Raptors’ shooting guard injured his ankle and had to leave the game. Toronto was already without Fred VanVleet, meaning that the backcourt of the champs suffered a great setback in those moments. Yet, like so many times this season, they rose above the occasion and defeated all the adversities.

Serge Ibaka ended up being an X-factor with 27 points and 13 boards, hitting five threes and three assists. He was excellent in all aspects of the game, not only in scoring but in controlling the glass also, which is a tough task against Utah.

Pascal Siakam was two assists shy of a triple-double, 27 points, 11 boards, and 8 dimes. The MOP of the 2019 season was once again unguardable, and he exploited all the flaws Jazz’s defense had to.

Kyle Lowry did his share of the job very well, and with 21 points kept the pressure on the hosts, and also contributed with 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and three steals. Patrick McCaw played for 43 minutes and was setting the tone in defense. Although he didn’t’ score too many points, just two, with 6 boards and three steals and intensity brought when guarding his opponents, McCaw had an important role in last night’s win.

“Whatever we’re trying to do, we can send him on somebody, and he’s going to key in on that person and do his job on defense,” Siakam said of McCaw.

On the other side, the Jazzers didn’t do very well offensively. Royce O’Neale had 15 points, Mike Conley 13, while Donovan Mitchell added 11, shooting 4-for-16 from the field. The only one who resisted the Raptors was Joe Ingles with 20 points off the bench, and 8 hits in 12 tries. Apart from that, Ingles added 6 dimes and 5 boards.

“Obviously, Joe had a really good night, we played through him a little bit on the offensive end. I thought they did a good job in every aspect of the game,” said Utah’s head coach Quin Snyder.

The Jazz (41-23) now travel to OKC, and after that have three straight games at home. The first one will be against the Pelicans; after that, they meet the Grizzlies and the Lakers.

On the other side, Toronto (46-18) has five of their upcoming six matches at home. The next rivals are the Detroit Pistons this Friday, and following that, they meet the Warriors on Monday. The Raptors are 3.5 games ahead of the Celtics who are sitting third in the standings.