 | Toronto | 114 | Final Box Score | 113 | Brooklyn |  |
 A- | S. Ibaka39 MIN, 11 PTS, 12 REB, 0 AST, 2 STL, 4-11 FG, 1-3 3FG, 2-2 FT, 6 BLK, 2 TO, 9 +/- Ibaka was all over the place here, the full Ibaka experience. He didn’t shoot particularly well. He grabbed 12 rebounds but the Raptors struggled on the boards when he was the lone center. He also blocked six freaking shots, had a big offensive rebound and three late, made a nice contest on Hollis-Jefferson in OT, then was a big part of the end-of-game stop. I think the defense (94.6 D-Rtg, 9.2 Net) wins out over the shooting here. | |
 D+ | O. Anunoby16 MIN, 3 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-3 FG, 0-2 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 4 +/- Quiet rookie night for him, picking up three fouls in the first half and largely being a non-factor. Did have a nice aggressive take for an and-one. Appeared to hurt his right elbow attempting to draw a charge on Zeller. | |
 B+ | J. Valanciunas26 MIN, 21 PTS, 13 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 9-15 FG, 1-2 3FG, 2-4 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -2 +/- A second consecutive 20-and-10 saw Valanciunas get a look late and then a hook as the Nets were five-out. That’s always a tough tradeoff, especially since the Nets didn’t have a ton of answer inside. Missed a couple in close but was otherwise himself on offense. Found a cutting Lowry with a terrific pass, too, and shot a pull-up three after making a catch-and-shoot one earlier. The team had a brutal D-Rating (112.2) when he was out there, though. | |
 A- | K. Lowry38 MIN, 18 PTS, 5 REB, 11 AST, 1 STL, 7-14 FG, 3-6 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 4 TO, -4 +/- Far more important than the game, Lowry was hit hard on a late rebound and left the game with an apparent back injury. It’s awful. Lowry was in takeover mode most of the fourth and OT, too, grabbing some all-will rebounds and running the offense well for the middle chunk of the fourth. | |
 B+ | D. DeRozan42 MIN, 35 PTS, 3 REB, 6 AST, 1 STL, 14-30 FG, 1-4 3FG, 6-9 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 1 +/- DeRozan started the game with 4 assists in about 3 minutes and then was mostly a scorer from there. It was…not great. Yes, he got to 35, but he took 30 shots and 36 possessions to get there, and he took a couple of questionable shots (whether by design or otherwise). He did have an important take-over stretch late in the fourth and then basically willed an and-one after Lowry went down. | |
 B- | D. Wright29 MIN, 7 PTS, 5 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 2-5 FG, 1-2 3FG, 2-2 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, -1 +/- It pales compared to his recent outings but wasn’t without big moments. Had a huge tip-in in overtime after a DeRozan miss and then a big block on Joe Harris. Was quieter otherwise. Thought he should have been the second guard closing still. | |
 D | F. VanVleet19 MIN, 5 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 2-5 FG, 1-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, -3 +/- I don’t really understand why he got so much run late. I’m a VanVleet fan, but he was pretty shaky here, with a couple of poor defensive plays and turnovers late. it’s not his faulty he’s out there, but this wasn’t his best showing. | |
 C+ | P. Siakam17 MIN, 5 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 2-7 FG, 1-6 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -6 +/- The 3-point shot just has to start falling, because teams are completely abandoning him now. He does so many other things well – transition defense, switching everywhere, finding cutters, putting back offensive rebounds – but it’s going to be tougher for the seocnd unit as the floor keeps shrinking. | |
 D+ | C. Miles17 MIN, 7 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 1-7 FG, 1-6 3FG, 4-4 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 4 +/- It’s nice that he hit that big three at the end of the third and that he showed some zip attacking the closeout when it wasn’t falling. The Raptors need him to hit, though, and he was pretty shaky defensively here, too. Was visibly (and audibly) frustrated at one point. | |
 C- | J. Poeltl10 MIN, 2 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-3 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -2 +/- One of his shakier showings of the season, and he was jumped in the rotation as a result. Outside of a nice verticality on a Milton Doyle drive and taking a loose ball coast-to-coast, there wasn’t a lot to love here. Some of that is the whistle he gets. Raptors had a 59.7 O-Rating in his minutes and a -20.7 net rating. | |
 A- | L. Nogueira10 MIN, 0 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 6 +/- Gave good minutes for a second game in a row and might be in the mix for more steady time from here. Cut down on the mental lapses we saw early Friday and made a number of good contests at the rim, good for the team’s best D-Rating on the night (70.2). More of this. Could improve the finishing and the rebounding, too, though the latter is sometimes his teammates needing to help him once he helps on a drive. | |
 Inc | N. Powell2 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -1 +/- You can’t judge the guy on 128 seconds of “here, don’t do anything wrong” time. He feels like when your 2K guy is getting run in situations that don’t make a ton of game sense because the game needs to get you a few minutes. It kind of just is what it is until there’s an opening for him to make a case for more time again. | |
 C | Dwane Casey I guess some of the offensive execution has to fall on him. I thought he at least did well trying to tweak things when the team was gummed up, going to Nogueira in the second half, trying Siakam in OT, and so on. There was just some odd button-pushing, too, like heavy VanVleet late (over Wright, then together), and the play-call to end regulation was triggered late or miscommunicated or something. | |
Things We Saw
- Look, this thing had no business coming down to the wire. The Raptors lacked oomph for stretches, had a poor shot-making night, and didn’t play their game offensively (the defense was actually fine when controlling for pace; 98.4 D-Rating). The defense was shaky with Valanciunas in late because of the Nets’ spacing, and then they immediately conceded offensive rebounds when they went small. Joe Harris and Allen Crabbe looked like Gerald Henderson twins. They had Nets fans chanting MVP for Spencer Dinwiddie, FFS. (I LOVE Dinwiddie, but man.) The play-call at the end of regulation was poorly executed at best and unimaginative at worst. Anyway, they escaped in OT but may have lost Lowry in the process. It’s an L if that’s the case.
- The Raptors return home to face a banged-up Miami squad tomorrow, then it’s Cleveland on Thursday, Golden State on Saturday, and a visit to Philadelphia on Monday afternoon. It’s a big week that should say a lot about where this team is at, more than a somewhat disjointed game against a mediocre opponent. Naturally, they’ve made things more difficult for themselves by going to OT on the first of five games in eight days against the worst team they’ll face. Get out of your own way.
- If there was any concern the Raptors were looking ahead to later in the week, it didn’t show early. A 13-1 start saw the starters play to a 20-10 edge by the time any subs came in. It sure showed afterward, though, as Brooklyn had an 10-0 run with the Raptors shooting ice cold and Allen Crabbe remembering his one NBA skill, and then the starters looked shaky to start the third. Some of it was just missing shots, but the decision-making and energy weren’t particularly strong. They finished the game +8 in 15 minutes as a group, bumping their net rating to +16.7 on the year.
- The all-bench unit continued to struggle offensively. The reserves gave some of the first-quarter edge back, then got mired in a 2-2 battle with the Nets over three minutes to start the second. Of course, they only need to hold serve. In the fourth (with Bebe in place of Poeltl), they went on a (monster!) 7-0 run over four minutes to push the lead back to double-digits. They need to figure some things out offensively. Some of them hitting threes would go a long way.
- DeMar DeRozan invited three children who lost their mother this summer to the game as his guests, and a second-quarter feature from Sportsnet showed some of the highlights. We know this already, but the impact DeRozan – and the entire organization – have off the floor is immense. Life is bigger than the game, and it’s really nice that the Raptors make the most of their opportunity to try to enrich the lives of others.
