(Apologies but the quick reaction tool is on the fritz again)
STARTERS
Kyle Lowry – F
Couldn’t shoot. Didn’t pass. Rebounded well, but did exactly nothing on Irving who was a bloody offensive menace again. I appreciate you taking blame for not stepping up and performing, but what we need you to do is figure some shit out and perform. Wtf happened to having a good-to-great game when your shot wasn’t falling? Need to see that really soon, or this is will all over with on Monday (it still might, but not because you couldn’t get your shit together).
DeMar DeRozan – A-
Hated very few of his shots, which is surprising since he took and hit so many of them. They seemed to come in rhythm, with focus, and purpose; I can get behind that. Frustrating he shoots so much (even though he’s been hitting) because he seems to be able to get to the rim and make something happen every-time he gets into the paint (drive and kick, layup, foul…sometimes foul). Two minutes into the fourth, DeMar had 20 points, and the rest of the starting lineup had 19; that tells you everything you need to know about this game.
Demarre Carroll – C-
LeBron hung a triple-double on him, and that’s ok. It is. James is playing chess, while the rest of the East is playing checkers. Fine. He’s awesome. Ok… The aggressiveness off the dribble is always a pleasure to watch, the rebounding helpful, but you can’t be missing threes where you get a good luck at the rim, fam. The misses hurt even more since Lowry has only hit one three this entire series.
Luis Scola – D+
Played four minutes too many, and was a -15 for his troubles (surprisingly not the worst on the team). I advocated in the Heat series for Scola to move back into the starting lineup, with JV out, so 2Pat could move back to the bench, and it started off as not horrible tonight. Ended poorly because he couldn’t hit the threes he normally did in the regular season, or that 5 footer…like I said, about four minutes too many.
Bismack Biyombo – D
I love how he doesn’t business about getting into peoples faces and making sure folks know he can’t be walked over. Elbow shoving Kyrie. Making sure LeBron knows he’s not safe in the paint. These things matter, since all the Raptors have now is their ability to flex some grit and throw some elbows.
BENCH
Terrence Ross – B-
When he’s engaged and focused, he really can be a game changer off the bench with that range; like he was in the 1st half: those pull up jumpers off the bounce from all over the floor were bloody sweet. Was less decisive in the 2nd half, but so was the rest of the team.
James Johnson – B
By his standards, has quietly contributed two pretty damn good games this series. His ability to man-up LeBron (in small stretches of course) is great, but the fact that he only took good shots tonight, and hit them, was a huge win for him. Huge.
Patrick Patterson – C
Moved the ball around quite nice; good thing. Rotated nicely on defense, and provided pretty decent weak side help; also good, but I don’t know, man…totally forgettable performance from my perspective.
Cory Joseph – B
So while he also struggled with Irving, he gave more back to him then he got. Standard Cojo game we have come to expect from the regular season.
Jason Thompson – N/A
Didn’t even noticed he played.
Delon Wright – C+
Hard to get inspired and come out determined when the team is getting thumped, but Delon did just that. Small sample size, but he seemed like he was trying to take advantage of the minutes. All garbage time though.
Norman Powell – C+
Got three shots up in three minutes; hit one. Garbage time.
Lucas Nogueira – Sure
Someone had to close out the game.
