Nothin’ But Positives – Raptors vs. Pacers – October 20th

We already have your pre-game, your post-game, and your quick reactions for every game, but by popular demand (a few people on Twitter) I am bringing my quarterly positives right here in long-form. Rather than try to sum them up in 240 characters or less, I can now expand on what I liked each quarter of the game. If you’re familiar with this format, you’ll know what to expect. If you aren’t, just know that if there is a baby wearing noise-canceling headphones, it counts as a positive and it’s going on the list.

First Quarter Positives:

Caris LeVert is starting! Seeing him healthy is the ultimate positive.
Raptors win the tip!
Gary hustling and getting the steal after blowing the layup.
Ball movement. A Precious swing becomes a Scottie hand-off at the top to OG Anunoby who spins to the rim for the first Toronto basket.
Precious chasing down the jump ball, and not giving up despite being tripled by the Sabonis, LeVert, and Duarte.
Scottie rebounding OG’s missed 3 after snatching it out of the grasp of LeVert.
Fred step-back, making shots in the first quarter but not forcing it.
Precious taking a second to pass to Scottie on the inside rather than drive to the basket, allowing Scottie to make the floater.
A corner GTJ 3 makes it 5 straight points for the Raptors out of the timeout.
Fred grabbing the long rebound and running the floor, making the basket and getting the foul, giving the Raptors their first lead of the game.
Boucher deflecting the Sabonis 3.
Khem and Boucher both in the paint anticipating the rebound. We still need a nickname for them though, and my vote is for Mount Royal.
TINY BOY IN THE CROWD IN AN OG ANUNOBY JERSEY!
Khem steal! Unfortunately it resulted in a Banton turnover, but he can’t be perfect all the time.
I said it last game but I’ll say it again. That Birch/Banton connection has the potential to be deadly. A Dalano bounce pass to Khem under the net gives Birch his first basket of the night, and the Raptors are down 3 heading into the second quarter.

Second Quarter Positives:

Khem Birch starting the quarter in position to take a charge.
OG kicking the ball out from the swarm in the paint to a wide open Boucher for 3.
Svi’s first basket came in the paint, even though he usually shoots from the jump.
The Raptors cutting an Indiana 7 point lead to just 1 after a mini run.
Svi cleaning up the OG missed 3.
Another Svi basket! That’s 3 in a row to give Toronto the lead. Each made shot has come from a different spot on the floor. That’s what we call versastilitsvi. No? Still workshopping that one.
A Precious pull-up from 30 ft out? WELL OKAY THEN.
SVI CAN SCORE FROM ANYWHERE! Switching directions and banging it down.
Fred deep in the paint with the hand-off to Precious for the dunk.
Malachi Flynn getting some minutes! He used them well to keep TJ McConnell from the net.

Third Quarter Positives:

Precious from the dunker spot to Gary Trent Jr., who swings it out to the very wide open OG for 3.
Scottie steal!
Scottie rebound!
A nice bounce pass from OG to Precious under the basket.
A much-needed Fred 3.
Gary Trent Jr.’s on-ball defence of McConnell gives him nowhere to go, and causes Sabonis to commit his first foul of the game.
Scottie with another coast to coast basket, this time off of the rebound and banked in off of the glass. He is trying his hardest to bring some much needed energy to this game.
Fred’s footwork to get free of Sabonis on the mismatch and drain the 3.
OG making the 3 off of the long rebound from a Fred miss.
Dalano and Khem’s switch defence keeps both Torrey Craig and TJ McConnell from making a basket.
Chris Boucher chasing former teammate Oshae Brissett off of the 3 point line.

Fourth Quarter Positives: