By: Papa Minnow

Dear Raptors,

It’s your favourite fan Mr. Minnow again with another post game letter. I don’t know if your boy Jamaal told y’all but I saw him on the TTC on Monday when he was coming back from practice.

Anyways, let’s get to the good stuff. Can we agree that last night’s game was ugly and not how any of us expected the night to go when the best in the East goes against the worst in the East?

Fortunately, you guys came out with the 106-90 victory on the first night of a back-to-back, but I hope you got enough rest for Detroit tonight.

Last night’s game wasn’t so much what Atlanta was doing, but more so on what you guys did to yourselves. The first quarter started off  hot for the Hawks, as they jumped out to an 11-4 lead. It seemed like you guys were a couple steps slow.

The defence was non-existent in the opening quarter and turnovers were a problem, mostly because passes were nonchalant and careless. Atlanta shot 52 percent from the floor and 40 percent from deep.

However, you guys managed to stay in the game with good ball movement and a plethora of three-point attempts to go along with DeMar DeRozan’s aggressiveness which kept you in it.

The second quarter was marginally better as the bench mob came in and brought some energy:

But the three point shooting, which was a problem all night, was atrocious. And it wasn’t that Atlanta was making it hard on you guys, it was a lot of wide open missed shots.

I understand that some games you’re going to miss a lot, but I would like to see you guys switch up the offence and get into the paint when shots aren’t falling.

Atlanta went on an 8-0 run with 4:36 to go, but you guys responded with a 9-3 run of your own, which would have been 9-0 had DeRozan and Lowry kept their tempers in check (something to work on guys), but overall a better quarter than the first.

It appeared that the third was where you were going to pull away, as you got off to a 7-0 run, but frustration with the lack of calls and the continuation of missed open opportunities from deep kept it the same. You guys should know to play through calls and wait for dead ball opportunities to plead your case.

The game was a struggling affair and it got the point where Casey threw out random lineups to try and find some spark. Atlanta looked like the hungrier team.

Thankfully, CJ Miles heated up from deep as the Bench Mob took over in the fourth.

And on the defensive end Poletl just has zero chill huh?

That was the best of his three blocks and from that point on the game was in hand. As a whole you guys missed 26 three-point attempts and only made 10 for 27.8%, but you managed to get Atlanta to turn the ball over 21 times, and you guys finished with 25 assists to go along with DeRozan’s game-high 25 points.

Good teams find ways to win and y’all did.

Notes

To: The Bench Mob

Thank you once again for showing up and taking command of this game late to get the starters some rest for tomorrow night’s game. You guys are the best. Seriously.

To: DeMar & Kyle

I know the officiating has been wack this year, you aren’t the only ones to complain, but you guys are vets now and should play through bad calls. Plead your case out of logic not emotion. Those technical fouls can be costly in tight games especially come playoffs.

To: Delon Wright

It was shame to see you go down with a big toe injury. Get well soon.

To: DeMar

It was cool that you recently spoke about your depression. A lot of kids look up to you and can now feel stronger about their struggles. It’s even more dope that it inspired Kevin Love to do the same.