Quick Reaction: Hawks 117, Raptors 134

Sloppy opening quarter as he started with a missed wide-open mid-range shot that he should be burying, plus a bad miss at the rim, but Scottie was still contributing as a scorer and on the glass later in the opener. The start of the second quarter was much cleaner, as after getting ripped by Okongwu for a steal, he rebounded with a nice dish to an RJ Barrett finish down low and then followed it up with a beautiful and one play in the following possession in transition. He even finished the first half with a quick six points in less than a minute. Started off the second half with Toronto’s first points off a nice pull-up mid-range jumper. Scottie could’ve had a much bigger statline as he missed a few easy ones tonight and fumbled a couple of rebounds, but it was still an all-star performance from the former all-star that looks like he could be snubbed after the first round of voting.

Started with a rebound on the defensive end in the second possession, followed by a nice post fader that was reminiscent of Dirk Nowitzki’s signature one-legged shot. His offence was flawless in the opening quarter as he went a perfect five for five from the field with a spotless two for two trip to the foul line aswell. BI3’s second quarter wasn’t as good, but Ingram was still very efficient and gave the Raptors multiple mid-range buckets again. Although Ingram’s offence was great, he also provided some big defensive plays with a nice block in the first half and two nice steals in the second half. He had a beautiful finish in the paint with Jalen Johnson draped all over him midway through the third. Ingram was also phenomenal on the glass tonight and gave a complete two-way outing, a bit reminiscent of a prime Kobe Bryant performance, as a ton of his buckets came from the mid-range and from fading post jumpers.

Made a nice play to score his first two points of the night with a pump fake and bump onto Zaccharie Risacher’s body that earned him a successful and one play. The second quarter was off to a good start, making his first two of three shots of the quarter, followed by multiple misses where IQ had great looks. His second half started off with a funny pump fake where it looked like Quickley was playing NBA 2K and spamming the pump fake button that led to a trip to the foul line. Quickley had a nice defence-to-offence sequence from a nice steal on an Okongwu, and Wallace dribble hand off when he took the ball all the way and finished with a nice reverse double clutch layup in the second half. He also won an offensive foul after eating a stiff arm from Risacher to the face. A pretty mid-performance from IQ tonight, but he did make some plays that helped secure a Raptors W tonight.

Quiet and short first shift in the second quarter as Ochai was the last Raptor off the bench in the early 10-man rotation tonight. He came away with a steal in those three minutes, but Darko elected to eliminate Agbaji from the rotation for the second game in a row and ran with a nine-man rotation the rest of the way until garbage time, after Agbaji checked out from his lone shift in the second quarter.

Nice block on Jalen Johnson early on with physical defence, but he was struggling to make his shots early. The sloppy start on offence ended on his fifth shot attempt when he bullied his way into the paint off a nice post-up. That got his offence going with three more finishes at the rim without a miss to end the half on good momentum. Finally connected on a three-pointer midway through the third quarter on his fourth attempt beyond the arc as he had a ton of open looks from downtown. That got the three-ball going, as after a timeout, he shortly made another three-ball from a Mamu dish. A game that was very similar to his last outing as RJ started cold in the first quarter and just kept getting better as the game progressed. This also marks his first 20-point performance since coming back from injury, as Barrett has been on a minutes restriction and continues to be on restriction for now.

Made a corner three as the first bench player on the court tonight from a nice Quickley dribble penetrate and a beautiful bounce pass. He got his second bucket right after a steal on the defensive end and followed up his own miss. He dribble penetrated himself a few minutes later and found CMB under the rim for a free two points. After his worst performance of the season, Mamu came to play tonight out of the gate as he was doing everything for Toronto from scoring to rebounding, protecting the paint, and even giving selfless passes to set up better shots. Checked back into the game midway through the second quarter after a long first shift in the first quarter, grabbed three rebounds and added four points in just over a minute’s work. A great performance all night long that culminated in a 10th career double-double, and he just missed out on his first career triple-double by two assists.

Made his first shot of the night with a corner three, thanks to a nice play that was drawn up by Darko Rajakovic at the end of the first quarter. Played some great defence on Keaton Wallace at the beginning of the second quarter. Dick has been knocked down in the rotation lately as he’s seeing fewer minutes than Ja’Kobe Walter these days, who is his biggest competitor for minutes off the bench. He was able to run the floor in the second half after scooping up a Barnes steal and earned a successful trip to the free-throw line, hitting the paint with a good head of steam. A great defensive performance tonight from Gradey, as he even started a big fastbreak with a nice steal as a help defender that culminated with a Scottie Barnes dunk early in the fourth quarter.

Made a nice floater on a good shot contest, which was assisted by a Ja’Kobe Walter bounce pass in his first shift. Connected on a corner three off another 2014 San Antonio Spurs-like ball movement possession where the ball touched four Raptors’ hands. He hit one more three just two possessions later off a nice Mamu pass. Shead had a phenomenal, explosive drive to the rim late in the third quarter that earned him a successful trip to the foul line, followed by a beautiful bounce pass dime on a cutting Mamu from the baseline. A solid performance in a blowout W.

Very quiet first half tonight that contained a successful two for two trip to the foul line, but he buried a corner triple that hit nothing but net in the third quarter. Walter has risen in the order of the rotation due to good play lately, but tonight, he wasn’t a huge factor, and a good Gradey Dick performance could lead to another shuffle in the bench order.

CMB had a good start very early on, playing physical defence on Atlanta Hawks big man Onyeka Okongwu and even coming up with an early block plus good energy on the glass. The hot immediate start slowed down as the quarter progressed, as Boyles had a few bad misses at the rim that seems to be becoming a trend over the last couple of games, and had a poor push screen, which led to an offensive foul. He got into foul trouble early as CMB picked up his third personal foul with just over four minutes to go in the second quarter. In his defence, even though Boyles wasn’t able to comeup with the rebounds to reflect a good box score, his energy on the glass was relentless as he had multiple deflections that unfortunately weren’t fully secured, plus he was able to finish the game after getting into foul trouble relatively early. Not the prettiest box score, but his energy was enough to warrant a passing grade.

Garbage time.

Garbage time.

Darko elected to start with CMB tonight after going small against Denver in their last game, but it looked like he learned his lesson, and even though Boyles didn’t have a great game, he provided enough energy for the starting unit to open up the first quarter ahead, as the first half had been haunting Toronto in the homestand. No challenges tonight as Rajakovic and his staff are pretty conservative with using their challenges, but that didn’t end up hurting the Raptors.