Takeaways from Toronto Raptors much-needed win vs Brooklyn Nets

The Toronto Raptors picked up a much-needed win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night. What did we take away from the game?

In fairness, every win in the NBA is a much-needed victory, unless you’re instinctively heading in the wrong direction, but the Toronto Raptors still have aspirations of a deep playoff run, so this win was definitely a welcome sight.

The Brooklyn Nets arrived in Toronto hovering above .500, dropping their prior game to the Charlotte Hornets after winning three games on the bounce. As expected, they would still be without Kyrie Irving, while the Raptors would still be without both Fred VanVleet and Matt Thomas. Before the season started, the Nets were pegged as one of the teams to be sniffing around a high playoff seed, as were the Raptors.

For the Raptors, this win could likely prove as a turning point and the end to a rather bumpy last six games where they dropped four games. For the next three games, the schedule figure to be a little more forgiving, with games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards on the horizon.

This game started off almost as well as any game could start, the Raptors put up 38 points in the opening quarter while shooting 50-percent from the field and 75-percent from three. If that proved to be sustainable, then maybe this game could have finished in the high 130’s, but the Raptors had to settle for a 110-102 victory on top of another great Norman Powell offensive performance and a dominating first half for Pascal Siakam.

If anything, this Raptors win proved to be one that got the offense back into a groove, and on a more macro level, one that just got a home win back on the board. What did we take away from the game, though?