Check some Vines from this game.
 | Amir Johnson, PF 23 MIN | 3-6 FG | 1-2 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 8 PTS | -24 +/-Amir opened the scoring for Toronto with the slowest three pointer in league history, but that was one of the lone bright spots for Amir. Horford and Millsap feasted on the Raptors, going for a combined 38 points on 14/17 shooting. Amir did an admirable job battling in the post, and was once again the best post defender that Toronto had. Unfortunately for him, that had as much to do with his atrocious teammates as it did with his post efforts. |  |
 | Terrence Ross, SF 26 MIN | 1-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | -17 +/-I hate Terrence Ross. He played 25 minutes tonight and I still wanted to give him an incomplete grade. ‘F’ doesn’t seem low enough after a stinker like this. Ross is quickly becoming the whipping boy for all Raptor fans, and is doing little to discourage the insults that are coming his way. His shot has gone the way of the dinosaur lately, and his defense is more an empty display than anything else. |  |
 | Jonas Valanciunas, C 23 MIN | 1-4 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | -17 +/-Valanciunas was absent during the first half. Despite playing 13 minutes in the first half, Valanciunas attempted just two shots and missed them both. Horford pulled the chair out from under Jonas early in the first quarter, and Jonas appeared to keep his distance from that point on. He did lead the team in rebounding, because someone had to. |  |
 | Kyle Lowry, PG 32 MIN | 5-13 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 11 PTS | -21 +/-Lowry has not been himself recently. His reputation as a defensive stopper is all that’s left of him on that side of the ball at the moment. In a game that Toronto needed him to be one of the top players, Lowry managed to be just the third best point guard in the game, having been outplayed by both Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder. |  |
 | DeMar DeRozan, SG 32 MIN | 11-18 FG | 2-4 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 25 PTS | -27 +/-DeRozan was the best Raptor tonight, which in itself is not something to celebrate. That being said, he was the best for a reason. DeMar was the only player on Toronto who was able to consistently create his own shot. Without him, this game would have gotten ugly even uglier. DeRozan did his best to put his team on his back, but wasn’t nearly enough on a night where almost everything went wrong against the league’s hottest team. |  |
 | Tyler Hansbrough, PF 16 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | +6 +/-He is what he is. Hansbrough looks terrible when he is asked to do things like back his way into the post, but he does manage to pull down some very significant rebounds. Early in the second quarter Hansbrough manhandled his way into a rebound which lead to a James Johnson and-1. |  |
 | James Johnson, PF 27 MIN | 7-11 FG | 3-3 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 3 TO | 17 PTS | 0 +/-This man is quickly securing a place in the deepest part of my heart. To date on the season, James Johnson has been everything that I had hoped him to be when Ujiri signed him this summer. How is this man making just $2.5 million. The only glaring weakness in his game is an almost complete inability to shoot…which when you think about it is a pretty significant weakness. Despite that, James was the second best Raptor tonight after DeMar. | |
 | Patrick Patterson, PF 20 MIN | 0-3 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -1 +/-Did anyone see Pat-Pat tonight? I kept waiting for Casey to play him, and then realized that he was already over 20 minutes. He was completely absent and a non-presence. It feels like it has been weeks since he was a 10+ points per game scorer, while also shooting +40% from beyond the arc. Like many of the Raptors, his game has taken a step off a cliff recently. | |
 | Greivis Vasquez, PG 21 MIN | 3-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 6 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 8 PTS | +2 +/-Happy Birthday, Greivis! Hope you have a great party tonight, because you played like you had already pre-gamed beforehand. |  |
 | Louis Williams, SG 21 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -6 +/-5 points is not what you expect from Sweet Lou when he’s matched up against his former team. He looked a step slow, and seemed mostly disinterested in the outcome of the game. | |
 | Dwane Casey With 1:40 remaining in the first quarter, Toronto was inbounding from under Atlanta’s basket. Atlanta forced Toronto to kill a timeout, out of which Dwane Casey ran a play for a Tyler Hansbrough post-up. Tyler promptly traveled. This, coupled with Casey’s inability to run any type of play to end a quarter, is what dooms him in my eyes. Overall, I like his rotation tonight, but his play calling and defensive system were a terrible fit against a deadly Hawks team. | |
Five Things We Saw
- Kyle Lowry started the game by accepting his Player of the Month award for December. It was the most successful moment for him on the night.
- Two games into his tenure as a Raptors commentator, I already want Morris Peterson gone. It pains me to say it. I love Mo Pete and have fond memories of his time in a Raptors uniform, but the mic just doesn’t suit him. He has somehow managed to come across as bland and annoying. His time on Raptors’ broadcasts should have ended the moment he called Kyle Lowry the “Broad Street Bully/Broad Street Bulldog”. I suppose he must be forgiven though considering that Devlin says things like “Muggsy-Sanity”.
- Atlanta entered the game 24-2 since their loss against Toronto on November 26, and are now 32-8 on the season. Toronto got blown out by a brilliant basketball team, and one of the most enjoyable teams to watch in the NBA. If you’re looking for a positive on a night like tonight, the only one that I can think of is that 25% of Atlanta’s losses on the season have come at the hands of the Raptors.
- Toronto jumped at almost every pump fake that Atlanta showed them. They were desperate to try and block everything that Atlanta showed. At several points they even cheated off of Kyle Korver to try and block someone like Thabo Sefolosha. You should never leave Korver to guard Sefolosha!!! Toronto runs a very active defense, but they could slow down and simply be smarter with their rotations. Due to their switch-happy defense, more than one occasion Jonas was forced to cover Kyle Korver at the three point line, while Lowry was at times being posted up by Pero Antic.
- Turnovers. Toronto gifted Atlanta with three straight odd man fastbreaks…all due to careless passes or sloppy dribbling. Toronto and Atlanta each committed 17 turnovers on the night, the difference was that the majority of Toronto’s turnovers were quickly taken the other way due to where and how they were committed. Toronto needs to get back to their early season play in regards to taking care of the basketball.
