Raps Scrap, Cruise Past Atlanta

RAPTORS 104, HAWKS 83

In a classic 'tale of two halves' kind of game, the Atlanta Hawks brought the worst out of the Toronto Raptors for 24 minutes, before collapsing miserably in the second half. The victory shakes up the Eastern Conference playoff picture, with the Raptors moving to 28-24, with a 1.5 game lead over the new number 4 seeded Chicago Bulls. The Hawks fall to 25-26, and the 5-seed. 

- Demar DeRozan is a legitimate star in this league now. The word 'classy' springs to mind in relation to this game against the Hawks; after a scrappy first half, the game was begging to be taken over, and Demar stepped right up. He literally bashed Kyle Korver in the second half, scoring at will with Korver no chance of stopping him. Demar also got to the free-throw line 7 times, which reminded us that, in terms of guards, Demar is second in the league at getting to the stripe. The guy in front of him? James Harden. Elite company. Remember, Korver was picked for the USA Basketball player pool, and DeRozan was not. Did Demar send a message tonight? Definitely. 

-While this was a key Eastern-Conference matchup in terms of the race for the 3rd seed, the Raptors showed, again, that they are a cut above the chasing pack. The first half was an ugly scrap, with the Raptor defense unable to keep the Hawks out of the paint, whilst struggling for any flow offensively. The second half, however, was a vast improvement; as highlighted above, DeRozan took the game over, the Raps only turned the ball over once, and dropped 7 three-balls. Way to handle business with only one half of quality play. 

- Go with me on this one; our big-men are so mediocre, yet so good at the same time. Jonas; 1/9 shooting but 14 boards. Tyler; no offensive game, but scraps for 7 hustling rebounds and gets to the line 7 times. Patterson; he's potentially over-utilising the three, but is money from mid-range. Novak; can only shoot the open three, but he's quite good at that. Amir missed the game tonight, for the record.  The point I'd like to try and make is this; if our big men click, and have their best possible games, they're going to be very effective and can compete with most teams, but at their worst, will lose us games. It's the biggest variable about the Toronto Raptors right now; you know what you're going to get from Lowry and DeRozan, but the bigs are much more unpredictable.

-Looking forward to All-Star weekend. We don't get a lot of recognition around the league, so it will be cool to see Jonas Valanciunas, Terrence Ross and Demar DeRozan represent Toronto this weekend. I bet Terrence will get robbed and Demar won't get the ball, but still, good luck to the boys and I hope they makes us proud. 


PLAYER VOTES

3 votes- DEMAR DEROZAN (31pts, 11/19FGs, 5rebs, 3asts, 2stls). Great way to head to the All-Star game, in reminding everyone that he truly deserves to be there. 

2 votes- PATRICK PATTERSON (14pts, 6/15FGs, 6rebs). Quickly becoming one of my favourite Raptors. Plays with top energy on both ends of the floor. Stretches opposing defenses out with his mid-range game, then gets on the glass and competes. If he's coming off the bench behind an energised and healthy Amir Johnson, the Raptors become an even tougher prospect to handle. 

1 vote- KYLE LOWRY (16pts, 5/14FGs, 13asts, 6rebs, 2stls). I was really excited to see that the Raptors appear likely to hold Kyle Lowry post trade deadline. It's the right call; make your playoff run with him, let him get a taste of what this team will be capable in 2-3 seasons, pay him $10mil-ish come the off-season and make him a key piece in a championship run. Played well tonight, too.


NEXT- FEBRUARY 18 @ WASHINGTON.

@mitchymitchy4