Raptors' Shooting Woes Continue in Heartbreaking Loss to Kings

The Toronto Raptors just can't seem to get anything going from behind the arc and it once again proved costly in a heartbreaking loss to the Sacramento Kings

The Toronto Raptors had exactly the shot they wanted.

It had been an exceptional night for Fred VanVleet who, despite his ongoing three-point funk, had a chance to tie things up with a three-pointer against the Sacramento Kings. Toronto drew it up perfectly, even if a push-off against De'Aaron Fox did open things up a little bit. Scottie Barnes in-bounded it to VanVleet who spun around and let it fly: A wide-open three-pointer a tad rushed and a tad off balanced. 

No good.

The ensuing two-pointer wasn't enough and Toronto's nightmare continued Wednesday night with a 124-123 loss this time at home to a Kings team playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

It's been the story of the season for the Raptors so far. In a league that's become all about the longball, Toronto has been unable to generate anything from behind the arc. No matter how hard they try on the offensive glass and on defense, the math just doesn't add up for them: 17 three-pointers against compared to just six for isn't going to win you many games these days.

"It shrinks the margin for sure," said VanVleet. "We got to shoot better and we got to keep creating them. It’s hard to win in this league if you’re not making threes. "

Most concerning is Toronto's lack of confidence in shooting the three. VanVleet, who was phenominal in a season's best 39-point performance, admitted Wednesday that part of his more aggressive paint-oriented attack lately is due to his shooting struggles. At one point in the fourth quarter he passed out of what appeared to be a good three-point opporunity, finding Scottie Barnes in the corner who ended up nailing the catch-and-shoot three. Still, though, VanVleet doesn't pass out of good looks very often. 

Later, it was much of the same from Toronto who kept attacking the paint despite a three-point deficit with less than 10 seconds to go in regulation. Pascal Siakam opted to drive rather than take the three and when the Kings closed out hard on VanVleet's would-be three-point attempt, he too chose to drive, nailing an off-balanced layup.

"Obviously the three is not falling the way that I would like it to so just trying to find other ways to be effective and get to the paint, get to the foul line, and get my body back feeling good," VanVleet said.

Coming into Wednesday, VanVleet ranked as the league's second-worst shooter inside the restricted area. And yet, he was completely unfazed getting into the restricted against the Kings' lackluster defense. Toronto ran pick-and-rolls at Domantas Sabonis over and over again, isolating Sacramento's big and letting VanVleet beat him to the bucket.

The 6-foot point guard nailed a trio of buckets in the restricted area in the first quarter, another pair in the second quarter, and added five straight free throws in the third quarter after a trio of technical fouls that saw Kings coach Mike Brown get tossed after contacting an official. He did break through with a 32-foot jumper early in the fourth but finished the night with just two buckets from behind the arc.

"He's been pretty shifty on changing directions or starting one way and going the other at the start of his drives which is getting him past his defender," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of VanVleet's aggressive paint scoring. "He's just been pretty determined. ... That's good to see because when he's usually getting there and scoring layups, he's usually in in really good form."

Barnes too had one of his more complete games of the season. He was aggressive early, even when his shot wasn't falling, finding open cutters and making savvy dump-off and no-look passes when appropriate. He did nail a three-pointer in the fourth off a kick-out from Pascal Siakam and finished the night with 27 points, ten assists, and seven rebounds.

"It’s just being aggressive, going downhill, it was just drawing defense in and kicking out, dunkers, it was just easy," Barnes said. "It was just taking what the defence was giving me. But I had some costly turnovers towards the end of the fourth quarter, that was big for them to go on their run."

A 16-point first-half lead wasn't nearly enough against a team that can rain in threes like Sacramento. Malik Monk nailed a pair from deep in the fourth quarter as the Kings put up 36 points in the final frame.

Quotable

"Around game 20 you start to see a little separation because the teams that are used to winning... they start to separate themselves from the rest of the pack," said Mike Brown. "The small things and the monotony and all that other stuff doesn't affect them as much as maybe some of the younger teams or the teams that aren't ready to take that jump."

Up Next: Brooklyn Nets

The Raptors will look to avoid a season sweep by the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving come to town for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff.