Toronto Raptors: Top five performances from a comfortable week five

5. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

Opponent: Charlotte Hornets

Stat line: 15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 60% field goal

Ever since Rondae Hollis-Jefferson started playing meaningful minutes for the Raptors, he has shown the ability to hustle for loose balls and rebounds while playing stellar defense off the bench. Second chance opportunities become much easier to come by when Hollis-Jefferson is patrolling the paint hunting for boards.

This game was no different as Hollis-Jefferson made an immediate impact, grabbing two quick rebounds (one offensive) to go along with two points. He kept it going in the second quarter as he gave the Raptors an unexpected scoring punch. He scored an impressive 13 points in the quarter and finished with 15 points with three offensive rebounds at the half.

The second half was a lot quieter for Hollis-Jefferson as he only grabbed four boards and did not score again for the rest of the game. He didn’t need to as he had already given the Raptors a huge momentum boost off the bench that the team took advantage of it as they continued to grow the lead throughout the game.

There was a lot of doubt as to whether Hollis-Jefferson would ever get meaningful minutes for the Raptors this season with Nick Nurse tightening his rotation and with players like OG Anunoby and Norman Powell showing their offseason improvements. But with injuries paving the way for his opportunity, Hollis-Jefferson has made the most of it.

Over the past two weeks, he is averaging 10.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and has been a big part of why the Raptors have been able to win games without Lowry and Ibaka.