Raptors fall in love with long-bomb offence as they sleepwalk over Pelicans

At this point it’s clear the Raptors are talented enough that they don’t always need to play their best game to win.

When they’re playing a team like the Pelicans, especially with Anthony Davis on the sidelines, they certainly don’t need to cross their t’s and dot their i’s. Normally even a relatively sleepy performance will suffice.

On Friday night that certainly appeared to be the case. Not only were they not sharp at times, letting the undermanned and outgunned Pelicans stay around for way too long, things also just got weird with the Raptors offence.

Toronto always counts on transition plays to be a big driver of the offence, but against New Orleans they were chucking up deep bombs like they had a quota to fill.

Exhibit A, B, C, and D:

In isolation none of these highlights are particularly surprising, but the sheer quantity of notable deep balls stands out. Whether it was something the team was actively trying to do or simply a function of the Pelicans’ leaky transition D, the Raptors looked like they were were an old school ‘Run N’ Gun’ football offence for much of the night.

The football parallels were so obvious that the Toronto Argonauts chimed in on the action.

Ultimately, the Raptors cruised to a 127-104 win, thanks to Kawhi Leonard’s 31 points on 14-20 shooting, another a triple-double from Kyle Lowry, and Jeremy Lin’s best game as a Raptor.