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There wasn’t much to take away from the Toronto Raptors’ 45-point thrashing to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night.
Indeed, there hasn’t been much to take away from a number of games this season—when they’ve even been played at all. A brutal combination of injuries and mounting COVID-19 infections has made pertinent macro analysis on most teams, including the Raptors, nearly impossible.
But there are still bright spots if you dare to look for them. Moments of interest that can bring us collectively back to a place where we can recall, even if the feelings must be found within the depths of a murky haze, why we invest ourselves in the world of sports. Sunday’s game provided a few of those moments, with Yuta Watanabe’s night as the team’s go-to player high on the list.
“I always say he’s such a big part of our rotation because he’s such a utility guy,” head coach Nick Nurse told reporters postgame.
This, of course, wasn’t the first time Watanabe had shifted into such a role. Starring for host country Japan at the 2021 Olympics, he averaged 17.7 points and 14 field goal attempts over three games.
At the time, Watanabe noted that acting as the team’s focal point was new to him, and required some adjustments on his part. Evidently, that experience behooved him against the Cavaliers, providing him with the self-assurance necessary to take an unexpected on-court leadership position and run with it.
“I think he’s getting better, and I think the international experience in the more elevated role certainly builds his confidence and he played well over there, builds confidence,” Nurse said. “He came back this year just a more confident-looking guy, familiar surroundings. He’s really played well this year.
“When he was injured for a while, took him a game or two to get back to himself, and he’s played really well since then. It’s not easy to go out there and play against that team, and I thought he hung in there, made some tough plays, he made some shots, continued to play hard and rebound, so it was good to see.”
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Logging 37 minutes against the Cavs, Watanabe had a massive 57.1 usage rating for the game (increased due to the fact that Toronto only had eight active players) and somehow managed to remain efficient regardless, finishing with a 61 true shooting percentage.
He was his typical self on defense, skirting around off-ball to provide stalwart help, and locking guys down when they came at him one-on-one (while committing zero fouls, by the way). Offensively, he hit an impressive array of shots, from the usual spot-ups to midrange pull-ups to some nifty drives that he finished with kisses off high glass.
That all led to a career-high 26 points and 13 rebounds.
“More than anything, I want to win,” Watanabe said. “I was out there to win the basketball game. But I mean, we lost by 45, so. I felt like everybody did our job, I felt like we did a great job trying to figure out what we can do and I thought we did the best we could do. But it is what it is. That kinda situation, it’s kinda crazy. But at least we fought and we competed for 48.”
Ideally, there won’t be too many nights where Watanabe has to take on duties like this. In the context of this Raptors team, his spot as a high-level role player functions in perfect harmony with the starring games of Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.
“I don’t know how many guys are gonna come back for the next game,” Watanabe said, “but we just gotta keep fighting.”
