Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from early clash with Celtics

2. Bench Mob

The Bench Mob was at full swing again with Fred VanVleet leading the way with a nicely stacked line of 11 points, six rebounds, seven assists and a buzzer-beating highlight steal play.

It wasn’t just FVV getting it done, every single player that came off the bench contributed to the success, even though some of them struggled offensively. It was visually apparent Valanciunas had a frustrating game coming off the bench for just the seventh time in his career.

The no-calls, physicality down-low, calls against and inability to get into a rhythm really hurt the Lithuanian Hammer. As the team’s best defensive rebounder, they could’ve used his skill set against the Celtics.

On the other hand, JV is poorly matched up against Al Horford defensively; the Raptors didn’t have much of a choice but to limit his minutes (15). Look for JV to bounce back in their next matchup against Dwight Howard and the Washington Wizards.

As for the rest of the bench unit, as previously mentioned, Anunoby played crucial minutes alongside FVV in the fourth, helping to extend the lead they built in the third. This play in particular truly shows Anunoby has fully healed from his ACL tear only 18 months ago.

The Bench Mob is fun to watch, and will continue to be for many more games to come.