The lack of calls could reach OG Anunoby of the Raptors

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OG Anunoby had a night off in New York on Sunday before his Raptors take on the Knicks tonight.

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Hopefully you’ve been out shopping for scarves or done something you really like. A former teammate, Serge Ibaka, always seemed to make him happy.

But maybe it’s better, hopefully you’ve found a training gym and took out your frustrations on a couple of unsuspecting aspiring wrestlers from New York.

Anunoby needs a break or needs to vent. The number of times we’ve seen him knocked down or left staring helplessly at an official, arms outstretched and wondering what the hell he has to do to get a call going his way is dangerously high.

Despite everything, Anunoby has not said much. Well, Anunoby never says much anyway, but that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that Anunoby is playing with his butt, but he is not getting revenge.

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Rookie Scottie Barnes is getting most of the attention, and we’re pretty sure Anunoby doesn’t care about a thing, but on the court, Anunoby is being attacked, beaten and beaten by defenders who seem to be making the most of a very whistling whistle. loose to start. year.

Fred VanVleet has been the recipient of this perhaps as long as Anunoby, but he knows it won’t last.

“Yeah, just getting up off the ground, picking each other off the ground and running again, and one thing we’ve been trying to do is learn to use it on the defensive side,” VanVleet said when asked about the frustration that a game is called radically different from what it has been in the past. “Sometimes it feels uneven, but most of the time we get our way too, but I think that’s the way it is. But we talked about it, I don’t want to keep focusing on that, I think it can become something more than it is and you have to adapt. We see what it is, whenever there are rule changes or points of emphasis, they are usually forced super dramatically as they make their point early in the season and then things will balance out. There’s no way they’re going to stay like this all year, it’s bad for basketball right now. “

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And, of course, VanVleet is right. The whistle, out of those blatant non-basketball foul-seeking moves, will go back to being what it was.

But in the meantime, Anunoby is taking more shots than anyone on his team, averaging 17 a night and coming to the line only 2.3 times a game – fewer than Barnes, Gary Trent Jr, Khem Birch or VanVleet.

Anunoby is still producing, that is not in doubt. His 18 points per night are just one percentage point behind Barnes for team leadership. He’s also defending at his normal high level. He’s just not getting much help from the officers right now.

Maybe a night off in Manhattan will ease the load.

INJURY UPDATE

The Raptors didn’t include Barnes on the league-wide injury report heading into tonight’s game, which should be a good sign. Barnes hit his thumb at the end of Saturday’s win over Indiana and although the X-rays were negative, there was still a real possibility that Barnes was wasting time due to the thumb. That seems less likely now.

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MAKING YOUR MOMENT

VanVleet is a guy who likes a fixed routine. He likes to know when he enters a game, when he leaves. It allows you to find a rhythm.

But right now, with a lot of new faces and things still very early in the season, Nick Nurse and his staff are playing with the lineups and that means playing with the routines.

VanVleet isn’t a huge fan, but he’s a team player and he knows it’s for everyone’s good, so when Nurse pulls him out of the game with four minutes to go in the first quarter, he does so, but not necessarily happy.

“It sucks,” VanVleet said of this pattern change. “It’s different, you find a flow, you find a rhythm, and again you just try to be open-minded and sacrifice a little bit. We’re all in this together and we’re trying to find different ways to keep track of the minutes and sometimes it works, some nights it’s 39, some nights it’s 34-35. It’s just a different flow of the game, but I’m definitely struggling sometimes trying to find my flow and my pace based on when I enter and exit the game, but for me and the coaching staff, we are all on the same page. “

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TYPEFF RAPTORS

Tonight, Toronto Raptors (4-3) at New York Knicks (5-1), 7:30 pm, Madison Square Garden, TV: TSN; RADIO: AM-1050

SCOUTING REPORT : These are not your father’s Knicks. Maybe not even your grandfather’s Knicks. This Tom Thibodeau-led Knicks team is a well-oiled machine led by Julius Randle and Mississauga’s own RJ Barrett and now has a genuine point guard in Kemba Walker. The Knicks’ only loss was against Orlando this season at MSG. The Knicks are No. 2 in the league in offensive rating, scoring 114.5 points per 100 possessions, but on defense they give up 108 per 100 possessions, ranking 21st.

MARQUEE MATCH Julius Randle against OG Anunoby. Randle is averaging the Knicks’ best 23 points per night, but he’s not a one-trick pony. He also leads the team in assists per night with 7.0 and rebounds per night with 12.2. The last time these two teams met, Randle had 31 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Toronto.

DID YOU KNOW : This is the 75th anniversary game of the first league game played between the Knicks and the Toronto Huskies at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1946. The Knicks won the game 68-66 … The Raps have won three in a row and more span is a plus-22 in the turnover differential department and has 37 steals … Nerlens Noel remains questionable with a sore left knee, otherwise the Knicks are completely healthy.

UNTIL NEXT TIME : The Raptors’ road trip continues in Washington on Wednesday at 7pm.

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Reference-torontosun.com

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