Analysis | The restored Raptors resonate in 2021 with a win over the Clippers at the eerily quiet Scotiabank Arena

Life and the NBA have been throwing bullshit at the Raptors for nearly two calendar years. A strange Friday night at home would not disturb them in the least.

With maybe a couple hundred fans scattered across three sections of the 19,800-seat Scotiabank Arena – the first of probably a few home games without basically a crowd to provide power or noise – the Raptors manufactured their own excitement, gathering in the last two. . minutes to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 116-108 to finish 2021.

Normally it would have been an explosive night, an audience prepared for the New Years celebrations, a game that went to the end, an event.

Instead, it was fake noise and few people and the power was supplied solely by the players.

It was Pascal Siakam, with 25 points and 18 rebounds, and Fred VanVleet, with 31 points and nine assists, who contributed the big plays down the stretch.

VanVleet’s 3-pointer with about 25 seconds left in the game gave the Raptors a six-point lead, which they took home to snap a two-game losing streak to the smallest crowd to ever witness a game in Toronto.

“(You) get disappointed when you hear the news (and) everyone probably wishes it weren’t, but it is and you have to move on,” coach Nick Nurse said before the game.

With finally something approaching a full roster – Toronto brought back Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Khem Birch, Precious Achiuwa, Dalano Banton and Justin Champagnie after they had all missed Tuesday’s loss to Philadelphia – the Raptors used a newfound depth. to wear down the Clippers in the fourth quarter.

Chris Boucher came to life in the final 12 minutes, Champagnie made a couple of delightfully low-key plays to win additional possessions from the Raptors, and Banton played only three minutes, but was able to change the pace of the game.

Meanwhile, it was the first of what could be three weeks of odd nights at the local stadium since the provincial government reduced capacity to 1,000 for indoor sporting events.

That number had to include players, coaches, officials, support staff, and the media, and it meant there were maybe 250 fans spread across three sections of the bottom bowl of the arena.

The incessant noise of the fans, like the hum of a few hundred pesky insects, did little to add to the strange atmosphere.

But for the Raptors, who are aware of odd arena setups from two seasons that included a bubble in Orlando and a temporary home in Tampa, the odd is somewhat commonplace.

“We had to prepare to play in a lot of different places, and I think the bottom line … is that we are going to go out there and play,” Nurse said. “It is an opportunity to compete, an opportunity to improve and a chance to win a ball game.

“The old thing you used to say, ‘Oh, we don’t care if it’s a Tuesday night at 7 or a Sunday at noon,’ it really (is) that way.”

It was a predictably uneven performance from the Raptors, who for the first time in weeks had most of their best players available, but were still missing a key part.

Scottie Barnes, who had been out of league health and safety protocols, sat down with knee tendonitis that inexplicably flared up when he wasn’t playing.

“It seems a bit strange that we played a lot, and he just went out on protocol and had a lot of free time,” Nurse said before the game. “We will have to work with him again I guess.”

But the return of VanVleet, Anunoby, Birch and Achiuwa certainly made Toronto more “complete” than it has been in some time and gave Nurse a few different options.

He said Thursday he had seven players he considered starters. Not having Barnes on Friday led to him starting VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr., Anunoby, Siakam and Birch, and even without Barnes he was able to go 10 deep. That included facing Malachi Flynn over Banton, who had missed Tuesday’s game with a knee injury.

The mixing and matching will most likely continue for a few games as players regain the form of the game and Nurse finds the combinations she likes.

“There are a lot of guys that could be starting out,” Trent said this week. “So if everyone is playing hard, sharing basketball, playing at a high level and doing what they do best, then we should be fine. We haven’t had everyone here, so as we continue to play, as the weeks and months go by, we’ll get better. “