Reaction: Hawks 83, Raptors 104

It sure didn’t feel like he had a poor shooting game. He seems to be omnipresent on the court, and the “stretch four” nature of his game does a lot to unbalance the defense, notably making shot-blocking and help defense difficult to play. The high number of threes he shot were all good shots because they were borne of Atlanta being unable to cope rather than forcing him to shoot. Got to love how he doesn’t let a missed shot affect his confidence and gets right back to popping out and hitting that mid-range jumper.

When the threes are going in, he’s quite useful. Hit a couple shots off the dribble, but with Lowry penetrating and dishing, he realized his best bet for points is sticking on the perimeter and trying to get open.

Frustrating nice offensively but it has something to do with his defense. See, Patterson likes to come out and defend guards quite aggressively, and if the rotation down isn’t quick, Valanciunas ends up in a 2-on-1 situation pretty quickly and ends up looking bad. The Hawks sent pressure whenever he dribbled it more than once (the scouting report has gotten out) which meant he had to rush some shots and it hurt his percentage. Made up by having a strong rebounding game against a smaller Atlanta lineup.

They said he couldn’t be a “true” point guard. They were wrong. He’s showing that he does not need to be scoring or shooting at a high rate to be effective. The assist distribution is awesome and he loves to have Patterson as an option to his left and Ross to his right. He’s always been a good rebounder but of late he’s making that a huge part of his game. When he grabs that boards and starts the play, it gives the offense a different head of steam.

With no DeMarre Carroll around the Hawks put Korver’s size on DeRozan and didn’t really work out. The balance in his game was better and his quick decision in post-up situations help set up an overall strong offensive game. Defensively, lot to be improved upon especially in the first half, but a big scoring game and being the pivot which flipped the game nets him a high grade.

Two games in a row where he’s looked like a rotation player by not playing 80 km/h in a 30 km/h school zone.

Not needed since the Hawks don’t have any big men that need stopping.

We have woken a sleeping giant! That roadtrip has triggered a decent stretch of form for him, and tonight he played the traditional role of vulture preying on dead Hawk flesh as he scavenged for some threes. As Will said in the podcast this week, the Raptors don’t run a single play for him and he’s out there fending for himself and finding a way to contribute. Let’s hope it continues.

Resolved the age-old question of “When does Austin Daye get to play?” The answer: With the Raptors up 24 with 2:32 left to play at home.

Rather anonymous, not too much defending needed at the three spot versus Atlanta. I would’ve tried to put him on Teague a little more full-time but meh.

Prep school haircut keyed a nice bump in the second quarter. It was a nice change to see him have an instant impact early in the game, instead of waiting for the two-PG lineup for him to have some influence.

He's back and dropping zeroes like never before.

Yo man was up?

Good switch of going at Korver in the third quarter, well done again to start Patterson. Way to keep Jonas in the game despite him struggling offensively, might not have happened in the past. Supplied good pressure on Teague and Williams, forcing the ball out of their hands on some key possession in the second half. Could’ve backfired if Atlanta hit their threes, but it worked out in the end. Effort levels of team is excellent.