Life without Kyle Lowry continues, as the Raptors moved to 5-2 since the All Star break (and also since his injury).
Coming off a 3-day break, the Raptors came out of the gate looking slightly out of rhythm. Toronto missed their first six shots to incur a double digit deficit early. As expected, renowned Raptor killer Alexis Ajinca had 7 points in the first quarter to help kickstart the Pelican offence. It wasn’t until Jonas Valanciunas got going that the Raptors started finding their footing. With Serge Ibaka picking up two early fouls on an aggressive DeMarcus Cousins, solid bench play from Patrick Patterson and the kids helped reduce the deficit to 26-22 after one quarter.