Quick Reaction: Raptors 115 , Pacers 101

CMB continued to show that he is an extremely impressive defender. He was particularly impressive as a perimeter defender in this one, switching out of actions seamlessly and moving his feet to stay connected with ball handlers like Nembhard. He was aggressive on offense in the first half and had some nice soft touch shots fall, he was also active on the glass as well but it was his defense that was his biggest contribution tonight.

Barnes had a field day with the Pacers defense, whenever he made up his mind to go downhill, he got to the cup and finished with a dunk or a layup multiple times. If he didn’t score he was being sent to the free throw line, his size proved to be too much for Indiana and he did not let them off the hook once. He mixed in some special passes tonight as well, including a gorgeous touch pass under the rim. Barnes was just powerful in transition, often spearheading fast breaks and dishing out hit-aheads for easy layups.

It was a fairly quiet game for Shead tonight, a lot of his drives just went nowhere, some questionable takes on these drives for sure. He did hit a huge clutch triple in the 4th when Indiana was threatening to overtake Toronto.

Ingram’s shooting touch was exquisite tonight, he was hitting middies over both shoulders in the post, he was dominating in isolation, running off pin downs, and he was even cutting toward the basket as well. When Indiana was climbing back into the game, he knocked down two consecutive threes to widen Toronto’s lead, very clutch.

Lawson was sort of out of place on defense, not really navigating screens well or impacting much on that end. His usual blazing speed on drives didn’t show tonight either.

Agbaji was pretty strong defending the point of attack tonight, and he was really aggressive on defense. Pressing his body up against ball handlers, really being a pest, showing more effort than usual on that end. He was a big help on offense in the first half, scoring 8 out of his 10 points in the first 24 minutes, which consisted of some spot up threes and a transition layup which helped Toronto’s lead balloon.

Gradey had one of, if not his best game of the season tonight. Instead of only waiting for the ball to come to him spotted up behind the arc, he slashed toward the rim in transition, he set screens and then slipped to the basket, and he ran to get mid range looks off as well. Gradey was pretty active around the rim, he hit an and one three as well but most of his work tonight was done below the arc.

Battle exited the game early with a left ankle sprain, but during his minutes he was pretty sound defensively. His rotations were good, he was sliding in gaps at the right time, just really active and aware on that end. Offensively he was just spotting up mostly, he knocked down a long 1 out of 2 of his attempts from downtown, just an overall solid game.

Darko made the right call starting Battle, he is an easy player to integrate into most lineups. With all the injuries Toronto has been facing lately, Darko has been finding lineups that work together, and his Barnes plus bench lineup was pretty strong.