Grades: Toronto Raptors pick up eighth-straight in milestone-filled matchup

Toronto Raptors. NICK NURSE. A. Nick Nurse continued to make his very, very strong case for Coach of the Year on Tuesday night. The Raptors came out focused, racing out to a 10-point lead after the first quarter. Nurse was faced with more diversity as Gasol went down in the third quarter and Anunoby went down late in the matchup with left shoulder soreness. Nurse used Chris Boucher and Terence Davis well off of the bench to help fill the void but he mostly rode Ibaka (27 minutes off the bench) which was smart, as opposed to over-playing Boucher while trying to buy Ibaka rest. Nurse continues to know exactly what buttons to press to keep this team rolling.. Head Coach

Eastern Conference. ATLANTA HAWKS. D+. The Atlanta Hawks are a very young, rebuilding team, so a 16-point loss to the reigning NBA champs isn’t a <em>huge </em>deal. But the young Hawks want to see progress at some point, so it was surely frustrating to see Trae Young continue to struggle against the Raptors’ elite defense. Young finished with 18 points and 13 assists but he has to fight hard for every single point he scored. John Collins struggled on defense and was a -31 on the night. Head coach Lloyd Pierce is doing the best he can to make all of these losses “teachable moments.” It was nice for Hawks <em>and</em> Raptors fans to get to share the experience of Vince Carter becoming third all-time in games played, while chipping in 10 points. The Hawks still scored 114 points but they shot a dreadful 25.5% from 3-point range on 47 attempts from deep, so hat tip to the Toronto defense. The Hawks were simply outplayed from end-to-end in this one.. (12-36)

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