Mickael Pietrus played a surprising 31 minutes in his debut with the Raptors, playing some excellent perimeter defence while hitting a couple of threes. (REUTERS)
The Raptors got some sort of production from all 10 players who took the floor on Friday night, even if the stat-lines didn’t really show it.
Amir Johnson wasn’t even guaranteed to play after a brutal ankle sprain suffered the other night, yet willed his team to the win with a fantastic game.
Guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry out-rebounded every Raptor besides Ed Davis, Jose Calderon nearly turned in a double-double from the bench and Mickael Pietrus played a surprising 31 minutes in his debut, playing some excellent perimeter defence while hitting a couple of threes.
And Andrea Bargnani, invisible all night with just two points heading into the final quarter, sealed the game with free throws after making three consecutive strong defensive plays down the stretch. No, that is not a typo.
“That’s what we need. Sometime you’re not going to get 20 shots, so you’ve got to do whatever it takes to help the team,” Pietrus said.
