Fred VanVleet had extra gear ready to face Kyle Lowry

There were several moments that Raptors fans and Kyle Lowry will remember from his much anticipated return to Toronto. One of the most intriguing ones was his battle with Fred VanVleet, who Lowry took under his wing when they played together in Toronto. Listen to the full episode on the Raptors Over Everything podcast feed.

Video Transcript

MANNY RAO: I think that being in Toronto and-- definitely added to it. I felt like there was some sort of [? flair, ?] obviously. Because he's still going one-on-one with the guy he took under his wing, Fred VanVleet. So I mean, that definitely, I think, played a part in it. That gave him a little bit of extra juice, you know what I mean? AMIT MANN: And Freddy had that, too. He talked about it after the game-- MANNY RAO: Oh, Freddy had that, too. Yeah. AMIT MANN: Yeah, he's like, I came out and-- he wanted to show his best because he felt like Kyle deserved that, is essentially what he said. And he was a few 3's away from breaking that 3-point record. And we're like, oh, is he going to do it against Kyle? That'd be kind of cool. Did it in the first quarter-- he had [? seven ?] [? 3-pointers. ?] MANNY RAO: He did it in the first, yeah, yeah. AMIT MANN: And he also hit a pull up transition 3. As we know, Kyle Lowry, he loves those ones. MANNY RAO: Absolutely. AMIT MANN: That's his jam. And he was pretty much doing what Kyle Lowry would do. [? He'd ?] come out strong, lead the team. Before the game, they're in the huddle. And if you could read lips, I was able to kind of make it out. He was like, let's go get this F-ing win. MANNY RAO: Yeah. AMIT MANN: Unfortunately, they didn't. But he came out very focused, right? And you can kind of see how the influence of Kyle really does show in every part of his game. Even pre-game, Kyle Lowry was talking about how Fred learned so much about his footwork around the 3-point line and how to navigate angles, and how to get your feet placed properly so that way, you can get your shot up quickly. Because when Fred entered the NBA and the first few years, too, his shot was-- he has a pretty slow release. But he's sped it up so well through his footwork. But when it comes to actually getting the ball from point A to point B and shooting, it is kind of slow. But his feet-- his footwork is ridiculous. It's like, next level. And a lot of that probably is attributed to what he's learned from Kyle Lowry. But it was-- another cool moment was in the second quarter. Kyle was contesting a Fred shot. And he came-- went straight up, arms up like this. And Fred finished over him. And there was a big smile on his face. Little things like that, man-- it was cool seeing how those two kind of fed off each other. It's been alluded to that they never really practiced against each other because if they did, it would just get a little bit too heated, a little bit too much. So Nick always kept them on the same team-- MANNY RAO: Yeah. AMIT MANN: --Fred as shooting guard, of course. So yeah, just seeing those two kind of go back and forth, it was again, very weird. Like, first second of the game, ball is [? dropped. ?] I'm looking at it, you got Fred on this side, Kyle on this side. I'm like, this does not look right. This is very strange. MANNY RAO: It is. And there was one point in the first quarter, too, where Fred picked Kyle up about 3/4 of the court, and started-- and it was very-- it was, I think, right after Fred hit a 3. And coming back, he picked Kyle up and almost picked the ball off of him. But it went out of bounds. But it was just-- it was really interesting to see that. And I agree with you. For a second, I had to kind of blink twice to kind of get that-- that sight, get used to it, you know what I mean? Because it's still weird seeing Lowry in a Miami Heat jersey, and then Fred VanVleet going one-on-one with him. It's just-- but you know what, though? It is really cool to see that. Because it is the passing of the torch, in a lot of ways, right?