Serge Ibaka is the Toronto Raptors player of the week

Every Thursday we bring you the Toronto Raptors Player of the Week. This week’s award goes to Serge Ibaka, who has been excellent through four games.

After fumbling yet another lead to an Eastern Conference rival the Toronto Raptors have finally stopped the bleeding. In an attempt to shake things up the Raptors gave Fred VanVleet his chance to shine against the feeble Chicago Bulls and it worked, getting their first victory since last Saturday. Even though VanVleet was impressive the real star of the week was yet again Serge Ibaka as he looked as good as ever.

Serge Ibaka’s Week

In a meeting of the titans, the Raptors watched their lead slip away as Kyrie Irving did Kyrie Irving things and dropped 43 points, scoring 11 straight Boston points during the 4th quarter. Ibaka gave his best effort scoring 21 points but eventually falling short throughout an overtime slaughter by Irving.

The team quickly bounced back as they faced a Zach LaVine-less Chicago Bulls squad where the game turned into a runaway by the end of the 2nd quarter as the Raptors saw nothing but green lights. Ibaka only saw a short 23 minutes in the blowout victory but he was fairly effective scoring 16 points and acting as a defensive anchor with a game-high 4 blocks.

Much of the same could not be said for the surprisingly tense game against the Orlando Magic that was forced to come down to a last-second hero bucket from Danny Green. Once again the Raptors had let a lead slip away but this time the veteran-ism on the roster helped drag the team out of the mud.

The weekend was capped by a quick victory over the Atlanta Hawks but the real story of that night was the milestone achieved by former Toronto Raptor Vince Carter as he scored his 25,000 point in the most fitting way possible; a dunk against his very first team.

What was most impressive for Ibaka this week was his consistency as he delivered regularly and was far from an issue for the team. Although the numbers weren’t eye-popping at first glance it was his 29 of 54 shooting on the week that shows just how good Ibaka can be. Having only averaged 27 minutes per night made this feat just that much more impressive.

Missed the cut

There were a couple good candidate for this week’s player of the week. Both Green and VanVleet would have been viable candidates had they performed with a little more consistency throughout the week; each respectively had a good and a bad game during the week. They each found their stride against the Bulls but respectively suffered a bad game against the Magic (VanVleet) and the Hawks (Green).

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Kyle Lowry’s eye-popping 17 assist game versus the Hawks. Aside from a few low scoring performances Lowry had himself a good week.

The Toronto Raptors have quite a few things to be thankful about this year but at the top might just be the performance that Ibaka has put forth. Game in and game out, he’s been the image of consistency for the team and has played incrediblely when leaned upon. Let’s hope that this quiet, yet effective, performance can keep up for the big man.

Make sure to check out the Raptors Player of the Week every Thursday on RaptorsRapture.com