LOS ANGELES -- Before they knocked out the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors in this year's NBA Finals, the Toronto Raptors were on the ropes. They were down 0-2 in the Eastern Conference finals to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the eventual MVP, and the Milwaukee Bucks. And Fred VanVleet, Toronto's plucky sixth man, was stuck in a shooting rut.

The day after a 22-point Game 2 loss at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, the Raptors gathered for what turned out to be a somber film session. In an attempt to lift his teammates’ spirits, Serge Ibaka stood up to share a story about how, in 2012, he and the Oklahoma City Thunder won four straight games to beat the San Antonio Spurs—with whom fellow Raptors Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green were both playing—in the Western Conference finals.

“[Serge] is, like, 'Yeah, we beat they ass! We beat Danny and Kawhi! They couldn't do nothing!’” Fred recalls to CloseUp360 on an August afternoon at the W hotel in West Beverly Hills.

“It kind of lightened the mood for everybody,” he adds. “We refocused and recharged, and really took what he was saying to heart. Then, we went out there and turned it around. We just got hot and we started playing the best basketball that we played.”

Serge's speech may have sparked something in the Raptors—they went on to hand the Bucks their first and only four-game losing streak of the 2018-19 NBA season en route to the Finals—but it didn't do much to end Fred's slump, at least not right away. He shot 1-of-11 from the field (including 1-of-8 from three) during Toronto's double-overtime win in Game 3 against Milwaukee.

But Fred found the mark after that. Over the Raptors' final nine games of the playoffs, he shot 51.1 percent from the field (52.6 percent from three) and emerged as a vital contributor to the first championship in the franchise's 24-year history.

Fred doesn't quite credit Serge for making his shots go in. Nor does he, as some in the media did, tie his turnaround to the birth of his second child (and first son), Fred Jr., on May 20, the night before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Instead, for Fred, the solution to his struggles was already within him. He had bet on himself.

“Of course I expected it,” he says. “I always tell people, I feel like it's been there the whole time. It's always been there. I just took it in stride. The real ones know.

“To finally be in that position, on the biggest stage, against the best team in the league for the last five years now, that role just kind of presented itself to [me] to go guard Steph [Curry], and to be out there to make big plays and make shots. I just seized [the opportunity] and tried to be super aggressive, and it grew into its own thing where I was one of the focal points for our team.”