Congratulations to the Bulls for gutting out a tough road win. The Raptors came out hard early this game, hitting 3’s and everyone generally contributing exactly as expected to a big 1st half lead. Pascal led the way in a dominant half by an incredible players. The Bulls could have folded after a long season losing a big young star to injury and struggling to even make the play in game. They didn’t and kept clawing away defensively while the Raptors came at them in waves. That all changed as the Bulls leaned on their defensive play to stifle the Raptors and finally choke them out late in the 4th to win this Do or Die game. It was Zach Lavine who absolutely lit up the Raptors carrying the Bulls on his back like Superman. Let’s break this one down one last time this year…
The Good
Zach LaVine
Explosive doesn’t begin to describe this barely human athlete. He didn’t get rolling the 1st half but still put up a bunch of point. He sure did get rolling in the 2nd half! At one point anything he shot was simply going in and tight defensive coverage with Demar sitting didn’t matter. However his damage was mostly done at the rim where the Raptors simply couldn’t find a way to stop him getting to all night. 39 points with a big 13-15 from the free throw line was exactly what the scoring-limited Bulls needed.
Pascal
Raptors superstar had an incredible 1st half leading his team to a big lead. Sadly they didn’t follow his lead. An efficient 32 points seemed like it was going to be enough to get the W tonight until it wasn’t. Stepped up to the free throw line with 3 shots and his team down by 3…missed 2 of them. It was the last chance the Raptors would have to tie this game up sadly. Can’t hang this loss on Pascal thou as he did his job against the best defense in the NBA currently.
Freddy
The other big star in Toronto played great the first half and simply couldn’t hit a few more shots in the second half to get the W. His half court buzzer beater at the half seemed like an early nail in the Bulls coffin but in the NBA no lead is safe. 26, 12, 8, 1, 1 going 7 for 13 from deep is exactly what you want from Freddy in a big game. It would feel better to hang the loss on him for missing a 3 late to tie the game but that wouldn’t be fair.
Demar
Demar’s efficient 23 points was just enough to keep his team in the game early when the Raptors were applying extreme pressure. His daughter’s screaming on every free throw turned into a secret weapon as it clearly threw off some Raptors and Freddy’s complaints about it went unanswered. The Raptor’s shot only 50% from the charity stripe and the game came down to 1 or 2 points so it turned into a key advantage.
Scottie
A quietly efficient game I kept hoping for more and desperately hoped for 4th quarter Scottie to appear. He didn’t but this Scottie dropped 19 on 7 for 13 shooting. His passing game wasn’t utilized much by the plays being called thou. Defended Zach a bit and couldn’t contain him but that’s no knock cause that dude was a monster in his prime tonight.
The Bad
Gary
0-5 from deep actually got Nick to put Will Barton in the game a bit desperately looking for some shooting. With one red shoe and one black shoe Gary likely ended his time in Toronto with a brutal performance in a big game. His looks were clean and open as well so no excuses for not hitting them. Extremely disappointing. He did try to defend but 2 points in 17 minutes if utter failure.
Pat Beverley
The defensive mouthpiece may be a good locker room presence but he failed on the floor big time tonight. Every Raptor hunted him and shot over him with ease. Hit one big 3 pointer but was unplayable early in the game as the Raptors looked to blow this game out of the water completely.
Jak
Couldn’t get open for the pass on Pick n Rolls. 5 turnovers trying to hit pretty passes or getting it slapped away inside. 7 points and 8 boards in 37 minutes isn’t enough inside work to force an opponent to worry about you. Didn’t play at the end of the tight game because he can’t shoot free throws and would have been instantly hunted and hacked.
Chris
Only got 7 mins off the bench as Precious outplayed the older vet. Missed a shot and didn’t seem involved in the play much. Strange lack of energy and impact for a guy who’s known for doing exactly that.
That was a shocking second-half collapse by an inconsistent Raptors team that simply couldn’t put away a top-defensive Bulls team. Team fans will be crushed and I expect the mood to quickly turn to finding scapegoats for this sudden and early end to a season that started with very high expectations. Credit the Bulls tho for a gutsy performance on the road under a ton of pressure early in this game. They grinded it out and found just enough scoring to steal a game. Sometimes you don’t try and lose but that didn’t happen tonight. The Raptors tried their best. The Bulls simply got some critical defensive play and a great game from Zach to win this one. While it obviously sucks to lose…especially in the very first play in game…it was good to see the Raptors give it their all. Now Fans can and will shift to trying to figure out what this team needs to improve for next year. There is a lot of work to be done by Masai and Bobby this summer due to the Salary Cap and player contracts that are ending. This summer certainly isn’t going to be very happy for Raptor Fans.
It was a game the Raptors could of and should have won. They dominated the game in almost all phases, but were just outplayed when the game was at a critical stage. Bulls were trying to win and Toronto seemed like they were just trying to hold on. Too many missed FT's by the Raps. 5 of 11 FT's for Siakam was terrible. As you said, Lavine led his team with a dominant 2nd half performance. He played like a superstar, which is what the Raptors currently lack. Scottie Barnes could develop into that, but he's not ready at this point in time. Being a DeRozan fan, I am happy for him in that he beat the team that dumped him like he meant nothing to the franchise.