Quick Reaction: Raptors 94, Pelicans 87

Jonas 'Closer' Valanciunas with an immense performance

Toronto94Final
Box Score
87New Orleans

B+
P. Tucker38 MIN, 8 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 4-7 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 8 +/-

Picked his spots on the floor and scored efficiently. It makes me tired just looking at how insanely hard he works on defensive possessions. His motor never stops. I’m not sure there is anyone on any court on any given night that works as hard.

A-
S. Ibaka30 MIN, 12 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 5-13 FG, 2-4 3FG, 0-0 FT, 4 BLK, 1 TO, 10 +/-

Four blocks while providing really good rim protection, help defense, and efficient three-point shooting — all good signs. The Raptors could have played through him a bit more, especially on pick-and-pops where he can be so deadly.

A+
J. Valanciunas34 MIN, 25 PTS, 13 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 9-13 FG, 0-0 3FG, 7-11 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 7 +/-

Well, this version of Valanciunas is certainly welcome — he even closed this one out!

For the entirety of his 33 minutes, the Raptors went to him early and often. He had plenty of touches on so many offensive sequences, and although he bottled his first two possession going at Cousins, he recovered nicely to score 25 points on just 13 shots. Pretty impressive how he got deep post position on Cousins.

Cousins ‘got his’, but Valanciunas — although never being able to play Cousins as tight as Ibaka or Patterson would — still did a respectable job to close Boogie on the perimeter.

Also good: 8 rebounds.

Only regret: His tech after getting in Boogie’s way when going into the timeout was soft. I was hoping to see JV bark at Cousins in the replay, but nope — nothing. Soft.

B+
C. Joseph32 MIN, 11 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 4-11 FG, 1-6 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, 13 +/-

Really bad start on both ends of the floor, but recovered and played good defense in the 2nd half — ending the game with a team-high +/- + 13. He tends to have nice offensive bursts in the third quarter where he becomes a dynamic dribbler and breaker of defensive schemes.

C+
D. DeRozan38 MIN, 14 PTS, 2 REB, 6 AST, 2 STL, 5-15 FG, 0-1 3FG, 4-6 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 9 +/-

This was a very anti DeKobe performance. 15 shots, 14 points, and 4 assists. The Pelicans really suffocated him, usually sending doubles his way; and when they didn’t, DeRozan wasn’t in rhythm to score.

He wasn’t a liability which was nice. DeRozan moved the ball well even when he wasn’t forced to, and played solid individual defense on Jrue Holiday.

C+
P. Patterson24 MIN, 9 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 3-4 FG, 2-3 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 3 +/-

3/4 from the floor, but the Raptors could still use more from him other than spot-up shooting. He should be a spark-plug off the bench. Subdued offense coupled with a few missed box-outs won’t cut it, and on some nights, won’t be masked by his good individual defense.

B-
N. Powell21 MIN, 8 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST, 0 STL, 3-5 FG, 2-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -3 +/-

Lock-down defense from Norm tonight, coupled with a nice drive to the bucket and 2/3 from deep. At some point, teams are going to have to start paying better attention to his floor spacing which has improved over the course of his young career.

C+
D. Wright12 MIN, 3 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 1-5 FG, 1-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -2 +/-

Had a hard time getting things going offensively (1/5 from the floor) with the Pelicans playing really good perimeter defense and breathing down his neck. Though, he did have a really nice dime and grabbed five rebounds on the night.

B
J. Poeltl8 MIN, 2 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -6 +/-

Jakob Poeltl is going to be a really good NBA player. In his 8 minutes of filling in, he set a lot of nice screens, boxed-out New Orlean’s bigs, and did good things defensively.

Inc
F. VanVleet4 MIN, 2 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-2 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -4 +/-

Four minutes of pure fire in the fourth quarter where he hit a layup, brought a ton of energy, and caused a turnover. There was no ‘fire’ option when I went to select grade, so I settled on an incomplete (verging on A+ had he played another 20 minutes and sustained it).

L. Nogueira0 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/-

At one point on the Pelican’s broadcast, one of the commentators said “Surprised we haven’t see Luke Nogueira tonight”. Made it.

B+
Dwane Casey

On a night where DeRozan wasn’t DeRozan; Casey recognized getting the ball into the post to let JV dictate the offense, whic was a nice change of pace. The recognition that Jonas earned a role in the closing lineup was refreshing too.

Things We Saw

  1. A really slow start, for the umpteenth time, gave the Pelicans a nice cushion to start the first quarter. But, as the Raptors do what they do, they climbed back into this game then outscored the Pelicans in the proceeding three quarters.

    They had some scares along the way (Jordan Crawford taking his first name too literally and going on a scoring burst in the third), but ultimately the Pelicans just didn’t have enough in the tank without Anthony Davis who left the game at half-time and didn’t return.

  2. As noted already, the Pelicans played some really good perimeter defense tonight which subdued the Raptors’ wings; but ball movement and a great performance from Valanciunas inside was enough to trump any weapons that New Orlean’s had. Of note, the Raptors had 21 assists (three above their season average).