Raps lose a tough one to Chicago. There’s now an increasing gap between the Raptors and the play-in game, but a decreasing gap between them and the first overall pick.
 | CHI Bulls | 122 | Final Box Score | 113 | TOR Raptors |  |
 A | C. Boucher36 MIN, 38 PTS, 19 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 14-24 FG, 3-7 3FG, 7-8 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 16 +/- Chris had the difficult assignment of being matched with Vucevic. Despite that, Boucher had some crazy offensive possessions, splashing some threes and regularly cutting backdoor on Vuc to get some lobs. He was also active on the glass which was nice to see from him against some bigger bodies. Chris and Pascal easily carried the team tonight. The Montreal product had a career high in points (38!!!) and rebounds and nearly sparked a comeback late all by himself. | ||||||||
 D+ | M. Flynn35 MIN, 9 PTS, 3 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 3-11 FG, 3-7 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 6 +/- Flynn in his first start was about as fine as you could expect for a player of his caliber. He has some defensive chops compared to other rookie guards, but he did get cooked on several occasions. Flynn had some nice playmaking reads, about what you’d expect for a backup guard thrown into a starter role. He was invisible on offence much like many of the Raptors tonight, but that’s about par for Flynn outside of a couple games this season. Took a confusing shot with under two minutes to go just as the Raptors were mounting a comeback, then bricked a layup shortly after that. Sorry, RAPTOR NATION. | ||||||||
 D | G. Trent38 MIN, 6 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 2-14 FG, 1-7 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, -22 +/- Trent was unimpressive to say the least. He missed 8 shots before he made a basket on his 9th attempt. Opened the third quarter with a bad pass and it overall just wasn’t his night. He was effective on Lavine for a few possessions at least, but Lavine still ended up cooking on the game as a whole. | ||||||||
 C+ | O. Anunoby40 MIN, 13 PTS, 4 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL, 5-17 FG, 2-8 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, -12 +/- After his ejection against the Lakers on Tuesday, OG was probably glad just to get a full game in. On one of the first plays of the game he had a nice blow-by on Vucevic to get right to the rim. Thad Young bullied him early but he was probably the most consistent Raptor on defence tonight as usual. Very inefficient which is unusual for him. A few wide open shots rimmed out. Filled the stat sheet up with 6 assists and 3 steals though, so it’s always nice to see that from the Prince. | ||||||||
 B+ | P. Siakam38 MIN, 27 PTS, 8 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 10-17 FG, 1-2 3FG, 6-7 FT, 3 BLK, 2 TO, 8 +/- Pascal was awesome and pretty much did his best to carry this skeleton crew on his back before Boucher took over in the later minutes. He had a sweet pull up three and drive on Theis at the end of the first quarter. He was the only one who really showed up offensively, but he did get lazy on the perimeter a few times which led to buckets from the likes of Coby White. He was largely successful getting to the rim which is to be expected against a subpar defensive big like Vucevic. | ||||||||
 D- | A. Baynes17 MIN, 6 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 3-6 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -22 +/- It’s a new trend of Baynes coming off the bench, and something tells me that trend is going to continue once Khem Birch arrives. Just don’t expect Khem Birch to be the saviour of the season, as he’s putting up similar numbers to Baynes. Still, it’ll be nice to have a big who can catch the ball and move around. Baynes actually got an offensive rebound tonight which nearly got me out of my seat. He didn’t do much else. | ||||||||
 C | Y. Watanabe16 MIN, 7 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 3-3 FG, 1-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -5 +/- Had a nice steal into a breakaway bucket in the 2nd quarter, played within the motion of the offence like he usually does, and was just a steady presence off the bench. Had a nice 3 in the third quarter while keeping his energy on defence. | ||||||||
 D+ | S. Johnson15 MIN, 7 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 2-5 FG, 0-0 3FG, 3-4 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -14 +/- Had a nice steal on Theis in the first quarter where he subsequently drove in for an and-one. A few plays later Stan further enunciated his dislike for Theis with a sweet block from behind. Other than that he didn’t really make much of an impact on the outcome. | ||||||||
 B | Nick Nurse Nurse was forced to play the neutered Raps lineup for what feels like the umpteenth time this season. Not much he can really do with regards to rotations since only 8 players were available. In spite of that, giving Flynn and Boucher some extended run is a good thing. | ||||||||
Things We Saw
- When Pascal is on, he’s awesome. He’s showing glimpses of the Pascal of old, can he keep it going? Or are we going to have to keep guessing which Pascal we’re going to get night in and night out?
- Boucher, when given ample minutes, is still a beast. There’s obvious matchup problems so long as he has the physique of the Apple Jacks Cinnamon Man, but he can still give an impact on the offensive end of the floor while being able to provide some decent rim protection, even if the rest of his defensive game still needs to improve. 38 points and 19 rebounds man, sheesh. What else can you do?
- Zach Lavine is a BAD man, but overall it was a nice team effort from the Bulls tonight. And that was largely due to Lavine’s playmaking effort. 13 assists is crazy for the shooting guard who has built a reputation off his scoring repertoire. Maybe they’ll actually start to show us what they’re capable of as a team, because they’ve been rather inconsistent since the Vucevic trade.
- Speaking of inconsistent, Flynn had a nice string of games leading up to this one, but tonight he looked about how he’s always looked this season, save for a few nice playmaking reads. For a player who was supposedly touted as NBA ready by scouts, you have to wonder what’s preventing him from playing at that level… because we know it isn’t minutes anymore, look at how barren our bench is.
