(Toronto) Fred VanVleet had 31 points and nine assists in his first game since being sidelined with COVID-19 to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 116-108 victory over the Los Clippers Angeles, Friday night.
OG Anunoby amassed 26 points at the Scotiabank Arena which only included a handful of supporters due to more restrictive measures related to COVID-19. Pascal Siakam scored 25 points for the Raptors (15-17) in a New Year’s Eve that would have been conducive to the party.
Marcus Morris totaled 20 points, the largest sum for the Clippers (18-18). Their head coach Tyronn Lue became the seventh coach to be placed on the COVID-19 protocol list earlier on Friday.
Chris Boucher and Svi Mykhailiuk are the only Raptors players not to have been placed on said roster. The Toronto team were optimistic now that they have recovered almost all of their players.
The Raptors led by 15 points, but several sawtooth quarterbacks on the defensive side and a low success rate for three-point throws led Nick Nurse’s squad to fall behind 87-82 early in the game. fourth quarter.
They regained the lead quickly with a streak of 12 points against just four for the Clippers. Anunoby scored a dunk and a three-point run on that streak.
With no supporters in the stands except a dozen family members of the players, the game looked like those of the NBA bubble in 2020, in Florida. The Ontario government has announced that the supporter limit imposed at 50% two sides ago would now be 1,000 given the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases in the province.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. went even further when she announced that she would not be selling any tickets to the Raptors or the Toronto Maple Leafs for the next three weeks. This measure came into effect on Friday.