Calderon: Who would’ve thought he’d be great coming off the bench? Hunting down his shot like Sandy does trees, this guy was the eron part of Forderon reborn. Is it me or did he seem to create 20-feet of separation on every shot? Thing with him is his legs, if they’re fresh enough, he’s consistent enough.
Bargnani: Going up against Westside he went inside – on D and O. On D he moved his feet, and on O he got his fair share against West. The latter did have the better offensive game, but with Granger missing all you had to do was make sure he didn’t have a career night. He didn’t. I’ll look past the shooting and rebounding if all he does is compete.
Lowry: Sets NBA record with 47 steals in a quarter. Or it seemed like it in the first half, Raps had 10 steals then and Lowry had 3, a good reason they were tied despite letting Indy shoot 51% in the half. The 12-0 third quarter surge was his doing too. It’s nice to have a guy you can dump the ball to and expect something positive to happen. I thought that drive that he got fouled on right before the TV timeout in the might’ve saved the game as it earned momentum. It turned out some ill-advised pull-ups later on killed it.
DeRozan: Starter 0-5 and then started to dance. Defense was…better…offensive was…predictable, and more worryingly missing when it counted. Despite the Republic thinking the extension wasn’t deserved, he got it and responded with a night off. Good move at the end there with the game tied, too bad he blew the layup.
Davis: Played like a guy out of prison desperate for some action. Got in there like a big man, got some rebounds, made people feel him whether they wanted to or not. Nice showing for Dolorous Ed.
Valanciunas: Started off slow only to throw down a massive jam off a put-back. Solid double-double. Got burned by Roy Hibbert pretty consistently but didn’t back down and continued to fight on D. Even hit a couple nice jumpers which will be a pleasant surprise all season.
Fields: The only purpose he served was having 15% of a single Pacer’s attention throughout the game. When he was in, it was basically 4 on 5.
Johnson: I’m worried when he plays center and you saw why, he’s just not strong enough. Still got 7 rebounds but somehow all I remember is that ill-advised jumper in the fourth.
Ross: Forgot his sweet stroke in his condo.
Lucas: Came in to oversee the worst offensive stretch of the game for the Raptors. Let’s hope this is the anomaly, not the preseason.
Andersen: Hey man, do you look at DeRozan and go, “If he can get one, so can I”?
Gray: Was brought into handle Hibbert….after Hibbert had done all his damage.
The Good: Lowry
The Bad: Fields
The Ugly: Gray
