D-League: Toronto Raptors 905 wins the title
The run to the title is officially completed for the Toronto Raptors 905. They finished their season with a 122-96 victory over the Rio Grande Vipers in the championship game.
Toronto finished the season with the best record in the D-League and they showed their dominance against Rio Grande. This game got out of hand in the third quarter. Going into the half, Toronto led 57-49 and the game was in reach for Rio Grande. However, the Toronto Raptors 905 went on a massive 13-2 run to kill the hopes for the Vipers. They continued their onslaught and the game essentially ended with a whole other quarter still to play.
Toronto Raptors 905 head coach and former NBA All-star, Jerry Stackhouse, found a way to guide this team to the title in his first season with the team. Stackhouse brought a ton of experience and pedigree to this team’s bench. He also helped the combination of point guard Fred VanVleet and forward Bruno Caboclo to really blossom all season. Their combo led the team in the title game. VanVleet scored 28 points on an efficient 10-of-17 shooting. He scored at will as well as dishing out 14 assists. Many of his assists led to Bruno Caboclo scoring from all over the floor as he finished with 31 points. Caboclo went 5-of-7 from three and came down with 11 rebounds.
The strong play from these two players could lead to appearances in the NBA as soon as next season.
Rio Grande should be proud of how they finished the season even though they couldn’t pull off the upset in the finals. They finished with a 32-18 record and found a way to survive the playoffs until the very end. There is nothing wrong with silver!
Troy Williams, Vipers guard, led the team in scoring with 23 points on 9-0f-20 shooting. However, his running mate Kyle Wiltjer’s jump shot was ice cold. The rookie big man scored 20.5 ppg this season but only managed to score seven points while shooting 1-of-7 from three. With Wiltjer shooting poorly, there was no chance for the Vipers to take down this D-league juggernaut.