TORONTO – It was lower than two months in the past that the Toronto Raptors made a triumphant return to Scotiabank Area, 600 days precisely since they’d final performed at residence.
Whereas the Washington Wizards went on to win, the Oct. 20 regular-season opener felt like a victory all the identical. The Raptors had been thrilled to be residence after spending a season enjoying out of Tampa, Fla., and a full crowd of 19,800 celebrated their return.
However the current surge in COVID-19 instances in Ontario felt like Groundhog Day on Thursday. The Ontario provincial authorities is slicing crowds at occasions to half the capability, beginning with the Raptors’ sport Saturday towards Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
“I’m attempting to be optimistic about it,” guard Fred VanVleet stated in a digital media availability Thursday. “It’s a little bit bittersweet, we had been fortunate to have followers again, we had been fortunate to form of return to the way in which issues had been, however clearly we’ve bought to place the well being and security first.”
Coach Nick Nurse stated the sense of sliding backwards is irritating, however the workforce acknowledges security comes first.
“Everyone can see the logic and I’m like anyone, all people’s bought a second of balancing out being dissatisfied since you need issues to remain the way in which they’re or enhance they usually’re simply not proper now,” he stated.
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“Widespread sense prevails all the time … and also you’ve bought to simply alter your mindset a little bit bit. Takes you a little bit bit to let that transfer via you. Hopefully we realized some classes of retaining our focus and our head down and dealing and being vigilant and on the brink of play the sport.
“The sport continues to be there to be performed and we want do our greatest, {most professional} job with that.”
Not solely had been the Raptors the one NBA workforce to play outdoors their market final season, they had been additionally slammed by a COVID-19 outbreak in late February that sidelined a number of key gamers, together with VanVleet, and a lot of the teaching workers and noticed them nosedive down the Jap Convention standings and miss the playoffs.
They haven’t managed to dodge the virus this season both. Treasured Achiuwa missed 4 video games in accordance with a Toronto Public Well being directive due to a detailed contact, and workforce president Masai Ujiri introduced he had COVID-19 after his Giants of Africa occasion on Dec. 5 noticed a number of instances.
The Raptors had been scheduled to host Chicago on Thursday, however that sport was postponed after 10 Bulls gamers entered league protocols.
The Brooklyn Nets had solely the league-minimum eight gamers once they hosted Toronto on Tuesday, beating the Raptors 131-129 in additional time.
Requested if it felt odd to play a workforce that short-handed, VanVleet stated it wasn’t something the Raptors hadn’t skilled earlier than.
“Nah, we did that final 12 months so nothing is new,” he stated. “Till I see a complete workforce out with all of the coaches out as properly, like we had it in a distinct metropolis, then I’ll suppose one thing of it, however we’ve seen all of it final 12 months so it was no totally different.”
Some 33 gamers throughout the league had been in well being and security protocols on Thursday, together with Canada’s RJ Barrett of the New York Knicks. Sacramento Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry and two gamers have examined optimistic amongst an outbreak there. Each the Knicks and Kings performed in Toronto inside the final week.
The NBA and the Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation are reportedly within the strategy of enhancing their well being and security protocols in response to rising instances.
Nurse stated the Raptors had already bought the ball rolling.
“We’ve needed to form of return, revamp our protocols to the place they’re at heightened ranges, I believe we’ve carried out an extremely good job with that with out even possibly being instructed to take action,” Nurse stated. “We’ve been possibly a number of days forward of that and we’ve been doing all of the in depth double testing and testing earlier than we’re allowed to enter the constructing, all these sorts of issues from when it was at its most stringent.
“Your first response is ‘ah, extra testing’ and also you recover from that after about someday or 5 minutes or no matter and notice that you simply’re doing the precise factor.”
The Raptors did have some excellent news on Thursday. Achiuwa, OG Anunoby (hip damage) and Khem Birch (knee swelling) had been all again practising. Anunoby, who’s a prime defender, was additionally the workforce’s main scorer when he was injured. He’s missed 13 consecutive video games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Dec. 16, 2021.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
