Quick Reaction: Raptors 118, Bulls 137

Battle’s been in and out of the starting lineup lately but his minutes have been pretty consistent even if he doesn’t start. He started the night making his first shot on Toronto’s first possesion and wasn’t able to convert on anything after that until garbage time. He also started the game well on the defensive end but Josh Giddey was cooking him quite often so that side of the floor fell off too.

Scottie Barnes was nominated as a Defensive Player of the Month candidate earlier today and he tried his hand at contesting the Player of the Month Colby White quite often but found no sucsess. It wasn’t just against him as the effort tonight is not what we have gotten used to seeing. On the offensive side, outside of a brief two makes in a row early in the first quarter there was not much going.

Jakob Poeltl has been enjoying his second amazing stretch of ball this season as he came into this one on a nice four game stretch. He started well and stayed pretty involved on the offence, but missed some push shots that we’ve gotten used to him making. After a rough second quarter, he finished up nicely the rest of the way, although he wasn’t able to challenge much at the rim tonight with Zach Collins and Nikola Vucevic being out on the perimeter for most of the game.

Walter had some mixed results tonight on offence as almost all of his makes came off of catch and shoot threes. His three point shooting has gotten much better since he changed hairstyles and started wearing the headband during the last three games. When he tried creating for himself though, he got into trouble as he wasn’t able to get enough seperation, leading to missed contested shots.

Quickley has been playing great ball lately as finally he has been able to play pretty consistently outside of being rested every other game. Playmaking was consitent all night long and his shot making went through a few cold spurts but he was the only reliable shot maker for Toronto tonight.

He started off with two really bad misses with his push shots but finally got on the board with a nice contact dunk on Vucevic. He had a decent run in the third quarter after that but his defence was no where near his usual standard.

Robinson has been showing some nice progression with his three ball as he was five for five in his last attempts before finally missing later on in the game. His shooting stretch reminded me of “death, taxes and JV 3” as they both weren’t shooting too often (outside of tonight for Robinson) but when they were it was hitting the mark.

Bad start with a few turnovers and bricks after being nominated for Rookie of the Month. Second shift was better with no turnovers, an open made three and getting to the free throw line when the shot clock was running out late in a possession. That shift was his only positive though as everything went downhill yet again after that.

Impressive contact finish as soon as he entered the game in the first quarter and he followed it up with a catch and shoot three that was also contested pretty well. Lawson has been averaging 7.1 minutes in the last 2 games and he was able to surpass that even before garbage time but it was only by two minutes.

Nice rotation and contest on a Zach Collins shot at the rim late in the first, but unfortunately he made the shot. Nice pump fake and side step to lose Coby White to drain a three. After that impressive shot it started going downhill for Swider as it feels like he’s trying really hard to make an impression on the coaching staff by shooting some really tough shots at times.

Garbage time minutes.

Coach Darko was able to win his third challenge in a row tonight with a sucsesfull call in the third quarter. Honestly, I would’ve liked to see Jared Rhoden out there in meaningful minutes as he was finally back from the 905 but that wouldn’t have made a difference. You really can’t blame him for the lack of effort tonight as there was no defensive effort tonight and almost everyone was struggling on the offensive end.