Quick Reaction: Raptors 104, Jazz 98

A quality win!

Toronto104Final
Box Score
98Utah

Starters

Pascal Siakam – F
He forced a shot so bad in the 1st quarter I woke up my boys I cursed so loudly. Had zero impact on the game, so it’s no surprise he played 6 ineffectual minutes total for the game.

DeMarre Carrol – D
I got nothing, much like his performance.

Jonas Valanciunas – B-
Loved that he was taking it to Gobert on offense and defense (mostly offense), and making Gobert work on both ends, but foul trouble really limited his ability to impact the game since, you know, he was on the bench more than he played. He did, however, give excellent effort while on the floor.

DeMar DeRozan – B
Really needed him to step up in the 3rd when Lowry went down, but it took till the last 6 minutes in the 4th for him to wake back up. That flagrant on Lyles shifted momentum back to the Raptors, though, so he gets credit for that. Loved that he got into passing lanes and disrupted the Jazz offense (though to be fair, they played choppy all night).

Kyle Lowry – A+
Put up a standard, big boy, darkhorse MVP-type game until a Hayward head-butt knocked him out of the 3rd. He picked up where he left off in the 4th…that 4th quarter though…wow. They don’t win without him tonight; not even close. He’s so clutch.

Bench

Norman Powell – C+
I literally have nothing in my notes about him, and neither did the boxscore…sooooo I don’t know what to say (my bad). He gets a blind C+ for closing out the game (had to be doing something well…or at least better than Carroll).

Cory Joseph – C-
Could have left his mark in the 3rd when Lowry got knocked out, and things were going off the rocker, but not a whole lot. That was disappointing, especially since he seemed more interested in pleading his case with the refs than letting his game speak for itself.

Terrence Ross – C
Had a really unbalanced game: a couple timely baskets, but fell asleep twice on defense (in the 1st quarter and got burned by Hayward, then the same in the 3rd with Lyles who heated up dangerously).

Lucas Noguiera – A-
Did a great job of getting out into driving lanes, disrupting attempts at the rim, and setting awesome picks on offense…awesome picks. Filled in admirably for JV who was out most of the game with foul trouble. Even stuck a corner three in the third for good measure. Love this guy.

Patrick Patterson – C-
He was good, not great on defense, and his offense wasn’t needed. Got away with a foul on Ingles in the 4th that could have been huge, but sometimes you have to be lucky to be good.

Jared Sullinger
Disappointed he wasn’t wearing any ugly xmas gear.

Dwane Casey – A
Did a great job of mitigating JV’s foul problems with interesting lineups and minutes allocations. Went small. Closed out the game with Powell. Weathered a Lowry-less 3rd.

A few things I saw

  1. Gerald Henderson award winner of the night goes to Joe Ingles. Who you may ask? Exactly….dude put up 9pts on 2 shots (2 shots!!!) a board and 2 assists in 7 minutes in the first. Didn’t do much for the rest of the game, but who scores 9 points on 2 shots?
  2. Zero offensive rebounds in the 1st half, which normally would be an issue except that they shot 58% from the field, so there weren’t a lot of available rebounds after Gobert/Lyles/Favors/Diaw protected their own glass.
  3. The Jazz commentators had nothing but great things to say about the Raptors; especially Lowry and DeRozan (mostly Lowry). While there may be no interest in giving us a Christmas game, teams are taking notice and planning accordingly.
  4. Great way to start off a tough road trip.
  5. Merry Christmas, folks!