Passionate come-back effort falls short as Lowry-less Raptors fail to contain Cleveland’s shooting.
Amir Johnson, PF 31 MIN | 1-6 FG | 2-2 FT | 8 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -15 +/- Kevin Love had 16 points on 5/6 shooting 30 seconds into the second half. I know it’s a down year for him, but leaving him open on the perimeter is just not a great idea. Amir was non-existent in the second half until a hook shot a few minutes into the fourth. We could have used his defence today. | |||||||||
James Johnson, PF 19 MIN | 5-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 11 PTS | -7 +/- His closeouts were too strong and allowed LeBron to penetrate. Sure, James had nine at half but he had seven assists and you can chalk that up to the collapsing defence after JJ overplayed him. Got benched for a while because of the lack of containment but he did have some nice drives. | |||||||||
Jonas Valanciunas, C 31 MIN | 12-17 FG | 2-2 FT | 11 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 26 PTS | -2 +/- Young Val came up big tonight. That flagrant on LeBron at the third was acceptable because it changed the attitude of the Raptors. He finished with authority and held his own against a really good opponent in Mozgov. Most importantly, JV’s emotion really fired up Toronto after they were down by 19. | |||||||||
Greivis Vasquez, PG 40 MIN | 2-7 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 13 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | +3 +/- Kyrie Irving got by him at will, which is exactly what we should have expected. Still, he wasn’t physical with anyone on cuts, making things really easy for passers. I will give him this: Vasquez is always looking for his teammates and trying to inject some ball movement. His irrational confidence always cheers me up too. | |||||||||
DeMar DeRozan, SG 39 MIN | 10-19 FG | 3-3 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 25 PTS | -18 +/- DeMar got after it right away, going at defenders and looking decisive on the catch. That being said at times feels like we’ve regressed to pre-2013-14 DeMar. No contributions on the glass and lots of ball-stopping but he did guard LeBron in the fourth. He shot really well tonight though and in a vacuum, you’ll take this kind of performance. | |||||||||
Patrick Patterson, PF 19 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | +6 +/- His jumper was off and defence was middling. Didn’t get a ton of run because he didn’t really deserve it. | |||||||||
Tyler Hansbrough, PF 6 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | 0 +/- Sets good screens, gets rebounds and scores some putbacks. Those factors, plus his recovery when hedging on ball screens, are why he continues to get playing time. He’s doing his job. | |||||||||
Terrence Ross, SF 26 MIN | 5-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 12 PTS | -12 +/- Jack Armstrong lightly criticized him on air tonight, a nice change from the tip-toeing of previous weeks. He’s been bad on both ends and first-half James Jones hurt us because Ross is plain bad at defensive decision-making. Toronto needs a lot more from their second guard off the bench because for what he gave them offensively, he gave back to Jones defensively. He made some massive threes in the third, showing that he is, in fact, alive. | |||||||||
Louis Williams, SG 29 MIN | 7-8 FG | 8-8 FT | 2 REB | 6 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 26 PTS | +5 +/- Drake wasn’t in attendance but somewhere, he was yelling out 6 Man. Lou continues to feast on the Cavaliers. His subtle body movements scare defenders and they seem to overreact to any Lou move. If you don’t love Lou Will at this point, you’re in the minority. This ranks among his top-three performances of the year. | |||||||||
Dwane Casey Not sure what you expect from Casey here. No Lowry against a really good Cleveland team? A loss is realistic, but this team fought. I give him credit for that Vasquez-Lou-Ross-DD-JV line up in the fourth, but Toronto gave up 15 threes. Can’t win games with that. | |||||||||
Three Things We Saw
- Tonight, Kevin Love was shooting free throws and the Raptor was standing with a trenchcoat, flashing one of those t-shirts with a bikini body. A+ grade for the Raptor (as always).
- Considering we were missing our All-Star, this is a good result. Would have been nice to grab a win, but this is a decent result.
- Raptors have not beaten LeBron at home since 2009.