Raptors 120 – Nets 87 – Blowing out a bad team

The Raptors showed up early and took control in the third quarter to pounce on an inferior opponent.

The Nets are not a good team. They may embody feisty and competitive. They might be just the kind of team that can hangs in enough games to avoid sending Cleveland a top-3 pick in the coming draft lottery. But they’re not going to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. They’re exactly the type of team that a good team should stomp on. And tonight, the Raptors played the part of alpha dog. They beat the Nets into submission early and then slowly sucked the life out of them until, about halfway through the third quarter, it was clear that the game was all but over.

The highlight story before the game was DeMarre Carroll sitting due to rest in his return to Toronto. Many Raptors fan might have scoffed at that, figuring “rest” was really a euphemism for “trying to dodge the boos.” After all, Carroll did suck his way through two years of a huge free agent contract. He did cost the Raps a first-round pick on his way out the door. And then he did slag an organization for a brand of basketball that had resulted in consecutive 50 win seasons, without much help from Carroll himself. But who is DeMarre Carroll, really? He’s a scrub on a cellar dweller with bum knees. It’s one thing to boo stars who force their way out of town. It’s another to boo role players who just never lived up to the hype.

Starters showing up

The best thing about the game itself – other than the Raptors finally putting the boot to an inferior opponent – was the continued strong showing from the starters. Four of the five starters finished in double figures, led by DeRozan’s easy 31 and Lowry’s (slightly forced) triple-double. Serge Ibaka racked up 18 points while Jonas Valanciunas chipped in 14. (Valancuinas missed his only three-ball, though!). As a whole, the starters all finished with a plus/minus of 33 or more. They continued to remind the doubters why, early-season struggles aside, they are the core of this iteration of the Raptors.

As has been the case for a few games, the bench was a different story. In his return from a shoulder injury, Delon Wright didn’t hurt the team too much. But no one on the bench really did much to excite. Alfonso McKinnie was the only bench player with a positive plus/minus. It came in seven minutes deep into garbage time. Norman Powell and Jakob Poeltl both scored in double figures, but many of those points came late in a decided game. But both were solid – at the very least, Powell earned himself back some breathing room. He had been brutal on the just-concluded road trip. CJ Miles was a late scratch today, and without him, the bench is a young unit without a lot of scoring finesse.

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The bench let the Nets back into it early in the second quarter. Nik Stauskas, a son of Mississauga who must have gone broke buying tickets for family and friends, buried a trio of long balls to turn Brooklyn’s fortunes around. They were ahead by a point before Toronto’s starters came in to save the day. And while that’s not how the team had done it early in the season, that’s how it’s supposed to work in the NBA. Lead with your starting unit and try not to let your backups kill you.

On the whole, this was a smooth homecoming for the Raptors. Next up is a rematch against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday afternoon.