Raptor film room: Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and Gradey dominate the Pacers
Gradey Dick just had his best game of the season. A short-handed Raptors team, led by Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram went into Indiana and dominated the Pacers (for about 3 quarters) and pulled out a win even though they missed three starters.
I break down how it happened here:
Here’s the recap from tonight:
In Wednesday night’s 115-101 win over the Indiana Pacers, Gradey Dick recorded his first career double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Dick, who has struggled in the first half of the season, turned a new leaf in game 42 and had his best game of the year against the Pacers. His performance tied a season high in points and set a career high in rebounds.
With only 10 active players for Toronto tonight, the breakthrough came at the perfect time. There was a shift in Dick’s demeanor in this one, he seemed to play with added confidence knowing that the minutes were there for him. Dick played a season-high 30 minutes.
While his three-point shot hasn’t been falling — he’s shooting 30.1% from beyond the arc — he found other ways to be effective. He played far more as a screener for Scottie Barnes and was rewarded with 14 points off Barnes’ assists. His rebounding gained Toronto numerous offensive possessions and with a lack of size in the frontcourt, he stepped up to close out defensive possessions as well.
Ingram was asked about Dick’s performance post game by Kayla Grey and had this to say:
“I seen him being himself, there’s a lot of stuff that I saw last year while watching his film, but you gotta credit the work. He never put his head down, he was the first one in the gym this morning and it showed.”
The next step for Dick is getting the three-point shot to start falling, but if he can find other ways to stay effective, he’ll keep getting minutes. Tying his season high in points and grabbing a career high in rebounds is a good start in staying effective.
The post Raptor film room: Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and Gradey dominate the Pacers first appeared on Raptors Republic.