The Raptors weren’t among the teams that made major changes in the final hours of the trade deadline, contenting themselves with releasing Goran Dragic to pick up Thaddeus Young and Drew Eubanks.
For Masai Ujiri, another emergency agitates the Raptors just as much vis-à-vis this end of the season: the return of fans to the Scotiabank Arena, for the moment limited to 500 per game.
One more month before the return to full capacity?
On the field, Toronto has proven its ability to run at full speed in the current state with its eight wins in a row, current series. All that is missing is the return of this public to the unique fervor and a little atmosphere for the Raptors to approach the final sprint in the best conditions.
“We try to bring the fans back into the room. We had discussions. The MLSE Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, a holding company that manages several Canadian professional sports teams as well. I had a lot of conversations at the highest level”, he related. “In the current context, there are a lot of studies, a lot of unknowns. They tried to take their time to do the right things. The way it’s going, hopefully we can get back to normal sooner than the proposed dates.”
The initial schedule called for the Scotiabank Arena to open at 50% capacity from February 21, and return to full capacity for March 14, still more than a month to wait.
“As with everything, you have to fight for energy. We struggle to adapt to it, globally. For me, I think this sport is for playing, winning and interacting with people. It’s even the most important thing sometimes, and we lost that.”he regretted, adding that the Raptors would not play anywhere but in Toronto despite these restrictions. “I say it firmly and sternly, this is where we are going to play. Our fans will be back and we will be back in our room. I think we’re one of the most recognizable teams in terms of fans, support, game attendance, atmosphere, and we love that.”
On the ground, all the lights are green
The situation is all the more frustrating in view of the performance and progress of its players on the pitch, four months after a start to the exercise that started a little in the dark. Today, there are many reasons for satisfaction, and Masai Ujiri can only congratulate himself on this.
“I think we can all agree that there has been good progress. That’s what we wanted. We had a difficult year last season. Today we can all agree that Pascal Siakam has progressed as a player, Fred VanVleet has progressed as a player, OG Anunoby has progressed as a player, Chris Boucher, Precious Achiuwa, Scottie Barnes, we could name them all. You can see this progression. We are enthusiastic about our players. I hope they will continue to progress and play as they do now”.
If possible in front of the greatest number of fans during their home games, and as quickly as possible…
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Pascal Siakam | 41 | 37.8 | 49.3 | 35.2 | 73.3 | 2.1 | 6.6 | 8.7 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 3.5 | 21.8 |
| Fred Vanvleet | 48 | 38.6 | 41.8 | 39.7 | 87.3 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 7.1 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 21.6 |
| Gary Trent, Jr. | 45 | 34.9 | 43.7 | 40.3 | 82.1 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 18.8 |
| Ogugua Anunoby | 39 | 37.1 | 44.4 | 35.9 | 74.3 | 1.6 | 4.1 | 5.7 | 2.6 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 18.3 |
| Scottie Barnes | 46 | 35.9 | 47.4 | 32.0 | 74.1 | 2.5 | 5.1 | 7.7 | 3.5 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 2.8 | 14.7 |
| chris butcher | 52 | 20.2 | 46.2 | 28.2 | 77.3 | 2.1 | 3.8 | 5.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 9.2 |
| Goran Dragic | 5 | 17.9 | 38.2 | 28.6 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 8.0 |
| Dj Wilson | 3 | 15.9 | 72.7 | 0.0 | 80.0 | 0.3 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 8.0 |
| Precious Achiuwa | 45 | 23.6 | 42.4 | 29.6 | 56.9 | 2.3 | 4.8 | 7.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 7.6 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | 42 | 15.5 | 40.5 | 31.0 | 84.4 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 5.4 |
| Juwan Morgan | 1 | 27.4 | 66.7 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 |
| Yuta Watanabe | 24 | 14.9 | 40.0 | 35.6 | 53.8 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 5.0 |
| Khem Birsh | 28 | 18.7 | 48.1 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 4.9 |
| Tremont Waters | 2 | 20.9 | 25.0 | 22.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 |
| Dalano Banton | 44 | 11.9 | 41.4 | 26.8 | 64.3 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.6 |
| Malachi Flynn | 32 | 9.1 | 37.3 | 30.8 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 3.1 |
| Daniel Oturu | 3 | 9.1 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 60.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 3.0 |
| Justin Champagnie | 30 | 8.4 | 48.3 | 40.9 | 100.0 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 2.5 |
| isaac bonga | 13 | 5.1 | 23.1 | 25.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Sam Dekker | 1 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| david johnson | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
