Nothin’ But Positives – Raptors vs. Cavaliers – November 5th

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:

Forcing a Cleveland turnover in the first 15 seconds.
A Gary 3! And we’re off!
Precious in the paint off the rebound! He found his footing quickly on the mismatch and shot over the defender.
Precious locking down Jarrett Allen early, unfortunately giving Evan Mobley a clear path to the basket, but he “understood the assignment” as the kids say.
A Gary Trent Jr. deflection, obviously.
Leading to an OG dunk.
AND ANOTHER OG DUNK!
Fred kicking out to OG, who swings it right back to Fred for a catch and shoot corner 3, causing Cleveland to call an early time out after a 7-0 Toronto run.
Scottie’s screen allowing Fred to reposition himself to ensure the basket before the time out.
Scottie’s defence on Evan Mobley was air tight. There isn’t much you can do when your man has arms as long as the CN Tower.
Precious’ vertical defence on Mobley creating the miss, though it was eventually made on the rebound by Sexton.
Gary Trent Jr. with another 3, this time off of a skip pass from Scottie.
OG on the drive blowing by Jarrett Allen off of the bounce pass from Fred.
Khem Birch swatting Collin Sexton’s shot away at the rim.
Khem screening tightly to give Fred space to shoot. He is the screen and roll doctor.
DALANO! A nice make on the inside but where did you even come from?
There are a lot of yellow shoes on the court at the same time.
Scottie jumper!
Khem and Dalano double-teaming Mobley, allowing Scottie to grab the rebound.
The length of Dalano, even when it looks like he’s losing his man, he still has an arm out or a single step and he’s right back with him.
Fred stuck in traffic but finding Khem at the side to tip it in.
Cedi Osman I’m sure you’re a darling but Dalano just put you on skates, plus the finish.

Second Quarter Positives:

Sky hook Scottie grabbing the rebound and putting it in off of the Dalano miss.
Pull up Scottie off of the defensive rebound. Whoever fixed his thumb must have put magnets in his hands.
Toronto’s switch defence, Svi in particular, resulting in a last second airball by Cleveland to avoid a shot clock violation.
Svi for 3!
BLOCKED BY SCOTTIE!
Followed by a 5 second violation. When is the last time we saw one of those?
Khem flying in to grab the rebound on Svi’s miss, pulling it out and kicking it to Fred for another 3, forcing Cleveland to call a time out.
Fred’s defence out of the time out on Darius Garland.
Scottie’s pass ahead to Fred was so smart and so quick, but Fred was just half a step behind, and the Raptors call a time out.
OG bounce pass to Fred in the corner after the time out for a 3.
The Raptor just walked by and put someone’s hood on their head. He’s so silly.
Precious grabbing the rebound on a Jarrett Allen miss and bringing it ahead to OG. He’s doing the right things.
Malachi on the steal, kicks it ahead to OG FOR THE DOUBLE CLUTCH REVERSE DUNK.
Precious rebounding the OG miss and immediately kicking it to the corner for Boucher instead of driving.
Scottie checks back in. When is the last time we felt this calming aura surround us when a rookie checks back in?
And he just shot (and made) the basket over Mobley and Allen.
Malachi with the driving floater for a 5 point lead.
Malachi with the strip ahead to Scottie for the make.
Another Cleveland turnover, saved from going out of bound by OG who pushes ahead and misses, but Precious is right there to clean it up.
The Malachi game? Why not!

Third Quarter Positives:

A Fred basket to start the quarter right out of the gate.
Steal by Scottie, ahead to Fred for an alley-oop to OG and it’s a 5-0 run to start the half.
Fred rebounding and sending it ahead to OG, who gives it to Precious in the paint where he makes one of the free throws to extend the lead to 15.
Another rebound by Fred ahead to Precious. A 15 point lead is as good a time as any to try and work on that two man game.
Aggressive Gary driving down the middle for the make, avoiding the length of the defenders.
Fred drawing the foul on Sexton from beyond the arch, making 2 out of 3 free throws with what appears to be a tweaked back (this is not a positive though).
Scottie passing it to OG for the spinning fadeaway. The shot doesn’t go, but everything OG adds to his game is a positive.
Scottie finding the waiting Gary Trent Jr. under the basket for the make. His court vision is so beyond his years.
Gary Trent Jr. hitting the 3 over the head of Jarrett Allen, while his dad is being interviewed about how proud he is of him.
Gary Trent Jr. has a career high 6 steals tonight already. He entered the game with the second most steals per game in the entire NBA.
Gary Trent Jr. elbow side step off of the Dalano pass.

Fourth Quarter Positives:

Khem Birch soaring in for the rebound and kicking it out for an OG 3.
Scottie just missed a shot, grabbed his own rebounds, missed again, stripped Jarrett Allen, and slammed it down with both hands. He’s here and he’s perfect.
Ball movement! Sitting on the arch was Fred, who swung it to Khem who moved it down the side to OG for another 3.
Scottie finding about a millimetre of space between the double team to pass out to Khem, who gives it to Fred for the stepback 3 (later turned into a 2, but we know the truth).
OG with the running block that sends himself into the crowd.
Gary driving through traffic on the make like he’s in whatever the latest Fast and Furious movie is.
Evan Mobley scored on the wrong basket. It’s okay, you’re learning!
Scottie just threw Jarrett Allen to the floor like a rag doll. That man is 250 lbs.
And a 7th steal for Gary Trent Jr. with 17 seconds left!

Final Score: CLE 102 – TOR 101

Positive Player of the Game: Everyone