Raptors beat Hornets to clinch play-in tournament spot

CHARLOTTE,N.C. (AP) — Pascal Siakam scored 36 points, Fred VanVleet added 20points and a career-high 20 assists and the Toronto Raptors beatthe undermanned Charlotte Hornets 128-108 on Sunday to secure aspot in the NBA play-in tournament.

O.G.Anunoby added 23 points for the Raptors, who clinched after theBrooklyn Nets beat the Utah Jazz later in the day.

The Raptors(39-39) are now focused on seeding with four games remaining.

Theyentered the day tied with the Atlanta Hawks for eighth place in theEastern Conference and looking to move up in the standings tosecure a better chance of advancing out of the play-in tournament.The team finishing eighth needs just one victory; the teamfinishing ninth would need two to reach the postseason as the No. 8seed.

“It’sreally important for us” to get to the 8 seed, VanVleet said. “Forthe last couple of weeks it has been really simple for us — we’rein a win-every-game mode. There’s not much to think about. You haveto go out and perform and play your best and try to take care ofbusiness. We are just trying to play our best basketball at thistime of the year.”

VanVleet,who now owns the franchise single-game records for points andassists, made sure the Raptors were on top of their game.

The Raptorsoutscored the Hornets 90-44 in the paint in the opener of atwo-game series, which helped offset 8-of-28 shooting from 3-pointrange. The teams meet again Tuesday night in Charlotte.

“He wasreally good,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said of VanVleet. “He gotthe ball a lot of places where it needed to go.”

Hornetscoach Steve Clifford said VanVleet was “high intensity” from thebeginning and his team couldn’t stop him on the pick-and-roll.

“He justcrushed us,” Clifford said. “Every pick-and-roll, it didn’t matter,angle, high side, he either scored, got fouled or they got awide-open shot. So we’ve mixed up the schemes but none of thatworked.”

SviMykhailiuk scored a career-high 26 points and Mark Williams added15 points and 12 rebounds for the injury-riddled Hornets, whoplayed without all five of the team’s anticipated starters thisseason. James Bouknight added 21 points and Theo Maledon had 14assists.

The Raptorsdominated from the start.

VanVleetmade his impact felt early, scoring 11 points and assisting on sixother baskets in the first quarter as Toronto built a 35-25lead.

The Hornets(26-53) had nine turnovers in the first half leading to 18 Raptorspoints, the highlight coming when Scottie Barnes came up with asteal and provided an alley-oop lob to a cutting Precious Achiuwafor a fast-break dunk.

Charlottecut Toronto’s 18-point lead to 10 midway through the fourth afterJT Thor knocked down a corner 3 but Siakam helped the Raptors pushthe lead safely back to 16 with eight points down the stretch.

“I thoughtwe played really disciplined offensively,” Nurse said. “We didn’tmake a lot of really good shots. We had some really nice two passesto corner 3s and we didn’t make one of them. We’re still doing theright things and getting it where it was supposed to go, and that’sall you can do.”

TIP-INS

Raptors:Anunoby suffered what Nurse described as a “mild, mild sprain” ofhis ankle. ... Turned 18 Charlotte turnovers into 28 points. ...Bench was outscored 40-21.

Hornets:Were missing a number of key players including all three pointguards in LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Dennis Smith Jr., alongwith Gordon Hayward, P.J. Washington and Cody Martin. ... Bouknightnow has 11 3-pointers in the last two games.