 | Luis Scola, PF 31 MIN | 9-13 FG | 0-0 FT | 12 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 19 PTS | +15 +/- Impressive game from Luis. He posted-up Dirk twice. Scored inside with his craftiness, and hit long range jumpers to keep the defense honest. He did better defensively on Dirk than Patterson. Efficient night. LaMarcus who? |  |
 | DeMarre Carroll, SF 34 MIN | 1-8 FG | 1-2 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | +1 +/- Probably DeMarre’s worst game this season. He was unable to hit his open shots, and was equally inefficient with his cuts and floaters. |  |
 | Jonas Valanciunas, C 34 MIN | 6-10 FG | 4-5 FT | 8 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 4 TO | 16 PTS | +16 +/- I love his confidence this season. Gone are the days where Valanciunas only gets touches in the first quarter. Now he’s demanding the ball in the fourth, and his teammates are getting the ball to him. His decisiveness has improved and so have his post moves. |  |
 | Kyle Lowry, PG 37 MIN | 9-15 FG | 5-5 FT | 5 REB | 10 AST | 3 STL | 2 BLK | 4 TO | 27 PTS | +25 +/- This is the all-star version of Kyle Lowry – the one we saw in the first half of last season. Big shot after big shot. Balls the size of Sim Bhullar’s mortal frame. |  |
 | DeMar DeRozan, SG 28 MIN | 6-13 FG | 8-8 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 20 PTS | +12 +/- DeMar is way too talented to be so one-dimensional. More specifically, he can’t go into the mid-range posting up JJ Barea and fading away on every-single-possession. He needs to be diverse with his offensive arsenal. He could have literally scored every single possession had he attacked because no one on Dallas was stopping him. Good game from DeMar overall, though. |  |
 | Patrick Patterson, PF 17 MIN | 0-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -4 +/- This is the Patterson you hope you don’t see again this season. Couldn’t shoot, and couldn’t put a body on Dirk Nowitzki. Late on all kinds of defensive rotations. |  |
 | Bismack Biyombo, PF 14 MIN | 2-4 FG | 1-2 FT | 6 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 5 PTS | -3 +/- Has still yet to score a layup since his birth, but was solid defensively in his limited minutes. |  |
 | Terrence Ross, SF 23 MIN | 2-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | +1 +/- Although he didn’t shoot the ball very well, I had no particular objections with his shot selection or decision-making tonight – not that I can think of anyway. Mind you, I may have missed a couple of his minutes watching and sharing this goat vine of Budenholzer: https://twitter.com/TasMelas/status/661740717459554304. Terrence Ross is maturing, and his shot will fall eventually if he continues taking good shots. | |
 | Cory Joseph, PG 20 MIN | 1-3 FG | 4-4 FT | 0 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 6 PTS | -3 +/- Active defensively, quiet offensively. The double-point guard lineup seemed to be conducive to the Raptors’ flow, especially in the fourth. | |
 | Dwane Casey What’s there to quarrel with here? He kept a tight rotation. I found the 3 minute appearance of Norman Powell early in the game a bit bizarre – not that I don’t like Powell, but in hindsight, it was strange that he came in that early and only played 3 minutes. I would have liked to see an adjustment defensively which didn’t happen, when Patterson was continually doubling up on Barea while leaving Dirk open. But again, no quarrels. The Raptors got a huge win tonight. | |
One Thing We Saw
- I liked the ball movement tonight, but would like to see even more of it. 18 assists isn’t shabby, although there were too many times where the Raptors would go away from the ball movement and resort to launching long bombs early in the shot clock. It was in those moments where Dwane Casey’s squad got themselves into a scoring drought, and Dallas made their runs.
