Hockey dominated the social media chatter in Canada this past Saturday night, as the country waited for a first intermission without Don Cherry and later lamented — or celebrated — a five-goal drubbing of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but for a moment there was one outlier.

That exception was Raptors rookie shooting guard Matt Thomas, who at one point was the lone non-hockey topic among Canada’s top eight trending on Twitter.

The interest was for good reason: The 25-year-old went 4-for-5 from the field — 2-for-2 from three — against the Dallas Mavericks for a career-high 10 points (his first double-digit tally in nine NBA games) to go with three defensive rebounds, matching his best. He followed it up with a six-point night (2-for-4 from beyond the arc) in Monday’s 132-96 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

After a pre-season blast from coach Nick Nurse about the need to work harder on defence, which was directed partly at him, Thomas knows better defensive play will help his chances of cracking the Raptors rotation. But it’s his shooting — so good that the club signed him to a guaranteed contract last summer — that will help him stay there.

“My teammates gave me a couple of open shots and I was able to knock them down,” Thomas told reporters in Dallas after Saturday night’s performance. “You know, I’m just going to continue to work on both ends of the floor to try and stay out there for consistent minutes.”

Thomas made his NBA debut against the Bulls in Chicago on Oct. 26, the second night of the Raptors’ first back-to-back of the season. It was his only appearance in the first four games, logging almost 20 minutes, but he has played in each of the last nine, including about 15 minutes against Charlotte.

Among the Raptors’ depth pieces, he’s played fewer games than Terence Davis Jr. and Chris Boucher, but almost as many minutes. Thomas is 13-for-23 from three (56.5 per cent) and shooting 57.5 per cent from the field. He has made more than half of his three-point attempts in eight of those 10 games.

He spent the last two seasons playing in Spain, averaging 13.4 points, two assists and two rebounds per game with Obradoiro CAB and Valencia Basket of Liga ACB, while hitting 48.5 per cent from three-point range.

Playing in the NBA is another beast altogether, but he seems to be taking it in stride.

“This is great, man: less practice, more games. I think any basketball player can sign up for that,” he joked last month. “But no, you’ll have to come back to me and ask me that in mid-January. I’m sure I’ll hit a wall at some point, but so far it’s been great.”

In close games, Thomas knows he needs to focus on his defensive duties: communicating more, knowing the other team’s personnel, where his help is. He said Nurse’s early emphasis on getting stops encouraged him to focus on what the top seven players in the rotation do to accomplish it. The need is even greater with Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka and Patrick McCaw sidelined by injuries — giving newcomers to the roster a chance to step up and show what they can do.

“A lot of it just comes down to effort, especially on defence,” Thomas said. “How hard you’re going to play? We need that, you know. These guys come off the bench, we need to have energy when we come into the game, and that’s what’s going to keep us on the floor.”

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Thomas seems confident that more playing time will come if he continues to make that effort.

“That’s going to continue to be a process, but those are controllable things that I need to make sure that I do every night.”

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