Quick Reaction: Wizards 104, Raptors 119

RJ got into an altercation early on with a Wizard and we don’t see that quite often but since it was the one year anniversary of the passing of his brother, that could’ve played a role into his rowdiness tonight as he got into it with Bub Carrington too right at the end of the first half. His first half was decent and the second half wasn’t much better, so despite a solid box score game, I thought he left a few points on the board.

Kind of a similar start to this one as last time out against the Wizards as he came out aggressive yet again, but tonight it didn’t end up leading to a good start. The rest of his game was similar to Saturday’s as he stayed aggressive and wasn’t efficient at all. The big difference tonight was that he was unable to get to the free throw line.

Started in place of the “injured” Jakob Poeltl. Great start, to the game as he was finding tons of openings in the paint with his off ball movement. He did a good job of replicating Poeltl’s role with his screens, rim protection and top of the key passing as he should’ve had a few more assists.

Rhoden got his first career start in the NBA as he’s been playing much better than AJ Lawson before this contest. He made a play right out the gate as he forced a turnover on defence. Early 2 fouls caused him to take a seat not even four minutes into the game but he played excellent defence, which looks like Rhoden’s best quality right now and good three point shooting too. Not as good offensively in the second half but he did enough on the defensive end and at the beginning of the game to earn a good grade.

Back after a one game absence. His shot selection early on wasn’t the greatest but he was finding open teammates with relative ease. Although he wasn’t making much at the beggining of the game, he came alive in the second quarter as a shot maker and never looked back.

Good start after struggling in the last two starts. Great energy on the defensive end and his three point shooting was unreal as he completly took over in the third quarter. This was his best showing in his young NBA career. His showings against Orlando and tonight should be enough to earn him a spot on next years roster.

Good putback on the offensive end to get his night started. He was having a solid outing and then he got caught up with Bilal Coulibaly who threw down a nice dunk and landed horribly. They both ended up getting checked out in the locker room, and luckily, Battle was back out there in the second quarter, when he won yet another second chance for Toronto. The Raptors opted to rule Battle out for the remainder of the game after halftime out of caution, stating that they will check him out tomorrow just in case something went wrong.

Castleton started off with great activity on the offensive glass at the start of the game and his defence really picked up in the second half. He did a good job of being in the right place at the right time on offence as most of his points came off second chances.

Solid defensive work in the first half as thats all he showed in the first 24 minutes. It took him almost the whole third quarter to finally get on the scoring board but once he did he followed it up with another bucket in the ensuing possession. His late game effort really saved his night and he finished the second half on a different level offensivley.

Surprising second half run but he was the next man up tonight after Battle got ruled out for the rest of the game. He did a good job facilitating as he was making great passes to open shooters as he could’ve had a few more assists tonight. Also surprisingly brought the ball up a couple of times as the ball handler.

It seems like the bench really excels when Toronto’s short on numbers for some reason. Maybe it’s due to the fact that they know they’ll be getting guranteed minutes. Toronto’s not fooling anyone with these big injury reports lately and AJ Lawson ruined the front offices attempt at tanking tonight’s game.