Grades from Toronto Raptors close win vs Oklahoma City Thunder
By Lee Tanner
The Toronto Raptors held off a late Oklahoma City Thunder comeback to pick up a big win on the road. How did everyone grade in the win?
After a grueling period, that pushed the Toronto Raptors to reach deep into their bench for production, the Raptors are nearly back to full strength but it seems they were a bit rusty out there at times with some of the additions.
The game started with an interesting lineup of Serge Ibaka at the power forward which forced OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam to shift to the two and three respectively.
Nick Nurse kept the lineup to a nine-man rotation but heavily favored Norman Powell, Patrick McCaw, and Terence Davis. The combination of Davis and Powell offered a strong alleviation of the offensive burden but it was the starting lineup equal distribution of point totals that allowed a rounded offensive game from the Raptors.
In total, seven out of the nine Raptors that played reached 12 or more points with the most coming from Powell. What stood out was the Raptors’ ability to shoot 55.6-percent from the three-point line and coming away with a total of 15 three balls.
The Oklahoma City Thunder had three main contributors in Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Dennis Schroder who ended with 21 plus points and pushed the Thunder to a late-game push to nearly steal the game.
It was some tough defense that pushed the Raptors to commit turnovers and put up poor shots. This is a team that shot very well but will need to practice late-game ball security and movement to burn out the shot clock without compromising putting up a decent look.
The team bent quite a bit but did not break. How did the team perform individually?