Shoot the Three: Fred VanVleet leads Raptors past Cavaliers in 133-99 rout
TORONTO — As Fred VanVleet spoke to the scrum of media surrounding him, Jonas Valanciunas slipped behind the crowd and held up a paper sign he’d made. Valanciunas had crossed out the “52” he’d written for DeMar DeRozan’s franchise-best performance from earlier in the season and replaced it with “22” for VanVleet’s night.
“Oh man, oh man, thanks JV,” said VanVleet with a laugh, taking the sign from Valanciunas. “I’m going to throw this away.”
VanVleet came off the bench for a career-high 22 points, including 6 of 8 from three-point range, as the Raptors dropped the Cleveland Cavaliers 133-99 on Thursday night. Missing starters Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, Toronto head coach Dwane Casey told his reserves that they’d have to step up and focus on three-point shooting and keeping a fast tempo.
“I think that was one of our advantages tonight, especially the second unit, was playing it fast when we were able to get stops,” said VanVleet, who had forward Jakob Poeltl calling him the “GOAT,” in the locker-room while guard Lorenzo Brown put the scrum on his Instagram story. “Some of those threes go down and the lead gets bigger and bigger.