Quick Reaction: Jazz 93 Raptors 101

Raptors come up with a huge fourth quarter before putting the Jazz away

Utah93Final
Box Score
101Toronto

B-
D. Carroll39 MIN, 8 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 3-6 FG, 2-4 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 18 +/-

Low-key performance from Carroll, who the Raptors need more from offensively – particularly when DeRozan and Ross aren’t scoring. But his rotations were mostly on point tonight, and he did a respectable job defending Joe Johnson a couple times despite Johnson (of course) canning it in his face.

He was a team-high (and it wasn’t even close) +18 tonight.

B
L. Nogueira26 MIN, 4 PTS, 6 REB, 3 AST, 2-5 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-2 FT, 2 BLK, 1 TO, 4 +/-

He put together a really nice game after, in a rare occurrence, was slotted into the starting lineup as the team’s four alongside Valanciunas.

Favours scored on him early on, but that’s not a huge knock on Bebe, who stood his ground, defended vertically, and defended well when switched onto Gobert too.

Was active in passing lanes, and grabbed an important offensive put-back in the third quarter which fueled a bit of a surge.

Still, he missed a wide-open dunk opportunity after diving to the rim and catching a lob from Lowry. He needs to finish that. It nearly cost the Raptors in the fourth when trying to make a push, and it cost Bebe and entire letter grade.

B+
J. Valanciunas31 MIN, 18 PTS, 13 REB, 0 AST, 7-11 FG, 0-0 3FG, 4-4 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 7 +/-

Generous? Maybe. Grading him above Bebe is down to his scoring output, which the Raptors needed desperately with Utah playing so well defensively and the Raptors labouring.

But he did cool off, stalled the offense on a couple possessions, and did some strange things defensively. Plays like this where he makes it a point to guard Gobert outside the three-point arc need to be eliminated from his game completely:

A
D. DeRozan37 MIN, 23 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 8-26 FG, 0-1 3FG, 7-10 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 8 +/-

I didn’t envision giving DeMar a high grade tonight by the time the third quarter ended, but he rose in the clutch after a really poor shooting night. Fun battle between him and Hayward tonight.

A+
K. Lowry41 MIN, 33 PTS, 6 REB, 5 AST, 10-17 FG, 4-8 3FG, 9-11 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 9 +/-

Best player on the court. Carried the team for the umpteenth time, scored from everywhere on the floor, and did his damned greatest to fight through every Rudy Gobert screen.

C+
T. Ross30 MIN, 12 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 5-12 FG, 2-8 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 0 TO, 8 +/-

Raptors needed more scoring from him in the first three frames, but he started knocking down shots eventually, and actually did a nice job defensively guarding Johnson in the fourth.

C
C. Joseph18 MIN, 3 PTS, 3 REB, 3 AST, 1-8 FG, 0-0 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -1 +/-

Awful night from the floor. Utah defended him well, and he’s always going to struggle getting to the rim in a game like this where space just doesn’t exist.

C-
N. Powell8 MIN, 0 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0-4 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -3 +/-

Really did my best to pick something out from Norm tonight but there wasn’t anything noteworthy. He played limited minutes and didn’t move the needle much.

Inc
J. Poeltl6 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -5 +/-

Is ‘Incomplete’ harsh? Possibly. He only played six minutes and actually looked fine! He was just a band-aid tonight, giving rest to JV and Bebe.

Inc
P. Siakam4 MIN, 0 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST, 0-2 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -5 +/-

Ditto above.

A-
Dwane Casey

I think he was right in starting the JV-Bebe frontcourt, as terribly laborious it is to watch two dinosaurs share the floor together like that. The Raptors needed to react to their slow starts with Siakam, and Utah plays big enough that Casey’s hands were somewhat tied here.

Things We Saw

  1. Scoring was so laborious all night, until Lowry and DeRozan imposed their will in the fourth. Playing Bebe and Valanciunas together really destroys your spacing. It allowed Utah to flood the paint, deny penetration from Lowry / DeRozan / Joseph, and get coverage on outside shooters Ross and Carroll.

    It’s impressive to me just how good the Raptors are to eventually come out on top in a game like this.

  2. Nothing new or ground-breaking, but I really worry about the frontcourt in general. The talent level and diversity there just isn’t enough to tread water against elite teams, and the team consistently gets bailed but by a prolific and clinical backcourt.
  3. I’m going to throw and assist to William Lou tonight. Your Gerald Henderson award goes to Shelvin Mack. 7/9 from the floor.
  4. You’d be forgiven if you weren’t 100% dialed into this game. People seemed to either be watching the hockey game, or refreshing Twitter at a steady pace to follow the Korver trade. This is not necessarily the place for it, but, my take:

    Cleveland got Korver for free, if you break it down and look at the pieces going back to Atlanta. This makes them so much more deadly – providing LeBron another passing outlet and assassin from behind the arc without suffering any drop off.

    Understandably, Raptor fans should be feeling some anxiety here. The gap that needs to be closed on Cleveland already seemed so insurmountable. It will be fascinating to follow the Millsap saga in the next few days.