Quick Reaction: Mavericks 107 Raptors 116

Siakam in the open court is a revelation. His statline is rarely, if ever gong to jump off the page at you, and that’s fair. You need to watch his game to appreciate it. He missed two (very) open threes but was active on D and played 37 minutes!

This was perhaps his most effortless performance of the season. He had time to square up every shot, guarded the opposition easily, and was starting to find his teammates more. If I’m going to nitpick – he’s still making some mistakes when passing out of the double team, but that will fix itself easily as the season wears on. You could watch the Mavs cower in fear whenever they carried the ball near him.

PLEASE DUNK IT MORE. PLEASE. Ok, now that’s out of the way – JV still had a really solid game. He grabbed the boards he should have (though some of them were his own misses) and knocked down his shots. He still needs to take the ball harder to the rim once he gets it in the paint, and a no-look pass from Siakam kind of caught him off guard, but hey +12 is alright.

Transition feed to Siakam, cutting pass to C.J. Miles, the dimes were dropping tonight and he finished with 12 again. He had eight assists in the first half alone – and the space he is afforded now to shoot with Kawhi on the floor is unbelievable. Lowry might be the best player on this team so far this season…I mean that.

Danny Green is a good three-point shooter. That is as obvious as it is true. He also grabbed eight boards and he looks like he has SPRINGSSSSSS on him right now. His compete level is always off the charts regardless of the situation and it is infectious for the rest of the team.

Ibaka had two major swats in the first half, did a decent job of containing Jordan inside when he had to and continues to look youthful in the paint. Here’s the problem – when his confidence gets up, so do his shots. His fadeway long jumper is not what I want my TV to show in a strangely close game against the Mavericks.

I know a lot of people, including Nick Nurse, are high on Norman Powell and want to give him the opportunities to succeed. I also know that he’s been given those opportunities and has yet to do much with them. Tonight was another example. He made the only shot he took, but contributed very little else.

G-LEAGUE MVP. I tweeted earlier that Lorenzo is not FVV or Wright…and while I stand by that, he did play above what I expected. He was weirdly the defensive engine in the fourth quarter when the game got close. He had active hands in passing lanes, made some smart passes and finished twice at the rim…INCLUDING A DUNK.

Miles deserved way more playing time in this game. He had some SPEED on him tonight and was electric in the open court. He had a beautiful steal and finish early on and knocked down both of his looks from deep.

Nurse threw out Richardson in the hopes of some sort of spark with the bench struggling, but it didn’t work. He’s just not confident enough with the ball in his hands.

Wanted to see more minutes from Miles after his hot start but Nurse handled the lack of handlers on the bench as best he could. Some combo of Lowry, Leonard and Siakam was almost always out there to make sure the sets worked. He also looked fire in that burgundy suit.