Quick Reaction: Thunder 129, Raptors 92
| Thunder | 129 | Final Box Score |
92 | Raptors |
C- | R. Barrett31 MIN, 17 PTS, 11 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 5-16 FG, 1-7 3FG, 6-6 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -15 +/- 0/2 start for Barrett tonight. He was able to get to the free-throw line exactly midway through the first quarter to finally get on the board. RJ was aggressive all night with attacking the rim, but he was always met by one blue shirt if not more every single time. Barrett was able to more than double his points total alone in the fourth off of a good efficient quarter, but sadly he came alive way too late. | |
D+ | O. Agbaji22 MIN, 5 PTS, 0 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 2-6 FG, 1-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -19 +/- Slow 0/3 start. He was able to get on the board with his fourth shot. On a night when the Raptors defence was completely silent, Agbaji’s defence was passable. It’s nice to have role players know their job and Agbaji could have easily started chucking shots tonight, with how things were going for Scottie and RJ, but he’s been superb at taking clean looks all season long. That being said we’ve seen much better outings from Ochai. | |
C+ | B. Fernando19 MIN, 4 PTS, 7 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 2-2 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 3 TO, -2 +/- Big Bruno was thrown into the starting lineup from zero minutes last game into big minutes due to Jakob Poeltl’s illness. Fernando wasn’t too effective out there in the first half and Darko decided to go with Mogbo to start the second half. Bruno looked reenergized after his benching as he recorded an instant block in his first shift back in the second half. He was able to get his first bucket in the second half also on his first shot and made a great pass to Mitchell who missed a corner three. Tough start, but a much better finish. | |
B | G. Dick23 MIN, 15 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 2 STL, 5-9 FG, 4-8 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -8 +/- Back from injury. Dick was able to make his first shot in the corner and end an early 10/0 Thunder run. He was the bright spot of the first half as the rest of the team was struggling to get going. Gradey’s shot and shot selection looked good tonight and he was one of the few bright spots of this whole game. | |
C+ | S. Barnes31 MIN, 12 PTS, 12 REB, 8 AST, 0 STL, 5-13 FG, 2-7 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 4 TO, -21 +/- Goggles B started his game off just like last time with a three-ball. That was it for his correlation from the last game as his shot selection was not great tonight as he took some tough contested shots and was looking for some backdoor cuts that were open for a flash second, but they would close up in an instant due to the Thunder’s amazing rotation. Another game with some bad turnovers, but he did help out in other departments. As shown in this contest, if the Raptors want a chance at winning games they need him and Barrett to be on point. | |
B- | J. Mogbo23 MIN, 17 PTS, 1 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 6-10 FG, 1-1 3FG, 4-6 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, -28 +/- Aggressive start from Mogbo who attacked a smaller defender early on in the game. He was aggressive throughout the whole first quarter getting great positioning right under the rim and got hacked two times for no foul calls. He kept up the tempo and was in attack mode more than we have seen from him so far this season. | |
D | J. Walter23 MIN, 6 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 2-8 FG, 0-4 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, -27 +/- Demoted from the starting lineup after a poor outing against Indiana. He had a lot of squeaky clean looks that he’s gotta make. Just like Boucher, his agressivness tonight was a double edged sword. One positive from Walter this game was his glass work as he won Toronto a couple of second chance opportunities. | |
D- | D. Mitchell24 MIN, 0 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 0-5 FG, 0-5 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -14 +/- Mitchell’s playmaking was decent but he was given the Ben Simmons treatment all night long and was unable to make the Thunder defence pay for letting him shoot wide-open threes. His pesky on-ball defence was missing tonight and that’s a huge part of “off night’s” game. | |
C- | C. Boucher16 MIN, 10 PTS, 6 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 3-13 FG, 0-3 3FG, 4-4 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, -24 +/- Instant impact off the bench as Boucher was able to run the floor and finish off a Davion Mitchell dime. Aggressive first half from Montreal’s finest and he ticked it up even more in the second half, which proved to be a double-edged sword. Boucher was seen grabbing his wrist after a dunk attempt as well as holding his hand again at the end of the third quarter so hopefully, he doesn’t end up on the injury list tomorrow. | |
D- | J. Shead12 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 0-4 FG, 0-4 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -14 +/- Jamal threw a dime of a skip pass to Ja’Kobe Walter in the corner who missed badly off the side of the backboard. Just like Davion, Shead’s on-ball pressure wasn’t there tonight and he’s a very similar player to Mitchell, which means his biggest factor was a no-show. | |
C+ | J. Battle13 MIN, 6 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 2-4 FG, 2-3 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -9 +/- Late check-in during the second quarter. Battle made a nice three-pointer off an off-ball pick but was subbed out after a few short minutes. His shot looked good tonight and it would have been nice to see him play more minutes due to the Thunder’s willingness to pack the paint and leave the perimeter open. | |
Inc | G. Temple03 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -4 +/- Garbage time minutes. | |
D- | Darko Rajakovic 12/3 start forced a timeout which the team responded for a few minutes before it all fell apart again. Two games in a row now with an unsuccessful challenge. The last two challenge attempts have come on unreversable calls so he will need to clean that up. It would’ve been nice to see more Battle minutes on a night where the three-ball was open too. | |
Things We Saw
- A 13-0 run saw the Raptors fall behind by 10 points after starting the game ahead 3-0. The quarter ended 34-17 in favour of the Thunder. The early run set the tempo for the rest of the game.
- Stuffed paint. Oklahoma City were smothering the paint all night and came away with 11 team blocks.
- A brutally rough game tonight that looked like an NBA game straight out of the 90’s. So many non-calls both ways, mostly in the first half that players were getting hammered on.
- Outclassed. Oklahoma was locked in all night and kept their foot on the pedal for the full 48 minutes.
The post Quick Reaction: Thunder 129, Raptors 92 first appeared on Raptors Republic.