Wednesday night’s Game 2 between the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets isn’t necessarily a must-win game for the latter, but it’s a crucial contest for them if they hope to make this first-round series of the 2020 NBA Playoffs competitive.
Although No. 7 Brooklyn cut the lead to single digits late in Monday’s Game 1, the second-seeded Raptors wound up cruising past the Nets by a rather large margin, 134-110.
“We didn’t like our shot selection in the first quarter. We felt like we were just taking the first shot where we could see the rim and not making them play defense at all; and we saw how that worked out for us,” Caris LeVert told reporters on a Zoom call Monday, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “The rest of the games when we come in we know the mentality we have to play with on offense.”
What’s more, even though the Raptors wound up winning big over the Nets in Game 1, Kyle Lowry expressed they Toronto isn’t taking Brooklyn lightly whatsoever. So, sneaking one past the reigning NBA champs isn’t going to be simple.
QUICK STATS: The Raptors outshot the Nets 47% to 46.1% from the floor in Game 1. The gap from deep (50% to 31%, advantage Raptors) was far more significant. … Toronto made 33 trips to the free-throw line (32 free throws made) on Monday to Brooklyn’s 16 (11 makes).
RAPTORS ROSTER:
- OG Anunoby
- Chris Boucher
- Oshae Brissett
- Terence Davis
- Marc Gasol
- Dewan Hernandez
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
- Serge Ibaka
- Stanley Johnson
- Kyle Lowry
- Malcolm Miller
- Pascal Siakam
- Matt Thomas
- Fred VanVleet
- Paul Watson
INJURIES: Jamal Crawford (left hamstring strain) remains sidelined for the Nets, as does Patrick McCaw (benign mass in knee) for the Raptors.
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