 | Toronto | 123 | Final Box Score | 114 | Philadelphia |  |
 B- | D. Carroll20 MIN, 10 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST, 3-9 FG, 2-6 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 12 +/-He hit a few 3s and missed a few great looks. Overall, a decent game on defense, though he did get “processed” by Joel Embiid early in the first quarter. | ||||||||
 D+ | P. Siakam15 MIN, 4 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 2-8 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, -12 +/-In the early going, he did a decent enough job of closing off entry passes inside to Embiid, but his impact on offense was negative, and he really struggled in the first quarter in all regards, which was a big factor to the slow start. He played alright in his minutes in the 4th, but the minutes were less pressured. I don’t mean to be harsh because you really cannot expect much more. He has done a nice job this year overall, but tonight was not his night. | ||||||||
 B+ | J. Valanciunas34 MIN, 17 PTS, 10 REB, 1 AST, 6-11 FG, 0-0 3FG, 5-5 FT, 1 BLK, 3 TO, 2 +/-I thought this was one of Valanciunas’ better games in a while. He struggled early on Okafor, but without Bebe, his minutes were needed. He played really good defense after a slow start, and he also contributed with a lot of second chance opportunities on offense. Joel Embiid had 5 rebounds this game. Val’s box outs were on point and he was a big reason the Raptors won this game. | ||||||||
 A- | K. Lowry37 MIN, 20 PTS, 4 REB, 7 AST, 6-12 FG, 5-10 3FG, 3-3 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 5 +/-Lowry had a loud 20 point night, and hit 5 threes, including a few ridiculous ones. His fourth quarter dagger was big after Philly seemed to be turning the corner. Lowry has been simply outstanding in the past month. The 37 minutes in Philly is unfortunate, but Philly grinded and forced Dwane Casey’s hands to keep his all star in the game. | ||||||||
 A | D. DeRozan30 MIN, 31 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST, 11-18 FG, 0-1 3FG, 9-11 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 17 +/-Another great game from Derozan. Efficient, smooth, and his jumpshots are no longer bothersome this year. Derozan scored over a point per minute and he is really earning every cent of that max deal so far this year. | ||||||||
 A+ | C. Joseph29 MIN, 13 PTS, 5 REB, 7 AST, 5-9 FG, 0-1 3FG, 3-4 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -4 +/-In my opinion, this was Joseph’s best game of the season. He was doing everything out there, and he finished a bunch of tough shots at the rim. He added 5 boards and 7 assists. Joseph earned his 29 minutes and he gets the game ball from me tonight. Well played game from Joseph on both ends, and I’d love to see more of this from him. | ||||||||
 B | P. Patterson28 MIN, 9 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 3-6 FG, 2-4 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 16 +/-Patterson played great, smart defense as per usual. He seemed like a risky solution to Joel Embiid and Okafor, but when he matched with either of them he did a great job making it difficult for them to get open, and find room to create anything. He also hit a couple of big 3s, which is always nice. | ||||||||
 C+ | N. Powell21 MIN, 6 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 2-5 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-3 FT, 2 BLK, 0 TO, 11 +/-Quiet night offensively for Norm, but I’m glad he got some well deserved minutes. It is nice to see Casey finding ways to get guys like this into the rotation this year in games like this where you can spell Derozan a little bit extra. He did have 2 steals and 2 blocks which did have an impact in the game defensively | ||||||||
 B | T. Ross19 MIN, 13 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 3-8 FG, 1-5 3FG, 6-6 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 5 +/-Ross had another great game and we’ve come to expect this from him nightly. He finished a windmill dunk as well! I loved the confidence to go up with it again and he made the dunk this time, so I won’t complain. Ross struggled with his shot tonight from deep, but continued to shoot with confidence which is what you like to see. | ||||||||
 D+ | J. Poeltl7 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -7 +/-Poeltl played 7 minutes and they were tough ones. 7 minutes guarding Embiid when he was on the court exclusively, and the fouls added up. He had a few good sequences against him and forced an ugly shot, but Poeltl contributed nothing, and I don’t know how sustainable his defense was against Embiid, who was not himself tonight. | ||||||||
 Inc | L. Nogueira0 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/-DNP-INJ | ||||||||
 Inc | B. Caboclo0 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/-DNP-CD | ||||||||
 Inc | F. VanVleet0 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/-DNP-CD | ||||||||
 B | Dwane CaseyNo complaints over here. He limited minutes, and the team came out blazing in the second half after a sluggish start. I liked that he trusted Val and gave Poeltl a shot, but didn’t repeat that opportunity after clearly being outmuscled inside. Good win and though it is expected, it was a good win. | ||||||||
Things We Saw
- Cory Joseph played an awesome game tonight, and thought it was mentioned, we saw Joseph run the offense a lot, and he had a much heavier usage rate than normal. Perhaps that was a matchup game, but Joseph was really great tonight, and it’s worth noting twice.
- Robert Covington went off again. For those who are not familiar with him, Covington is constantly booed at his home games, and has really struggled offensively. It’s hard to explain why he always goes off against the Raptors, but luckily basically Paul George’s efforts tonight went to waste as the Raptors squeaked out a win.
- Joel Embiid really struggled in this game. The Raptors did an amazing job of scheming him out of the offense, as he took a season low, 6 shots. Embiid had been electric basically every night coming in, and the Raptors basically forced the ball in everyone else’s hands besides Embiid. We did see a few special moments, highlighted by his vicious block on Demarre Carroll, which you can see on Sportscenter tomorrow morning a few times.
- Jonas Valanciunas played 34 minutes. This is the most we’ve seen from Valanciunas in a while. This is no fluke, as Nogueira was out, but it was nice to see him playing strong, effective minutes in a big amount. Val was great out there at both ends, and it was one of his best games in a while.
