OKC Thunder: TI editor power ranking week 9: The shuffle is on

Toronto is nursing (no pun intended) copious injuries making their wins all the more impressive. In hindsight, it’s likely Kyle Lowry was playing through injuries given his recent consecutive game absence.  It’s important to put into perspective how valuable Lowry is to the Raptors with the best example being his leadership and dominance in back to back (B2B) series.

Toronto exercised caution with Kawhi Leonard never playing him on both nights of B2B series (3 first games, 1 second game, and 2 where he sat out both nights due to injury).

Lowry was brilliant picking up the slack, playing in all 12 games (2 losses on first game,1 in overtime) including in the final set where Toronto blew out both the Clippers and Warriors.

• Celtics | @Wizards
• @Bucks (loss) | 76ers
• @Lakers | @Jazz
• @Celtics (loss in OT) | @Bulls
• @Magic | @Hawks
• @Clippers | @Warriors

Lowry B2B – second game average 19.5 points, 12 assists, 6.1 rebounds, 1.6 steals  38.6 percent from deep. Including the Wizards game which the Raptors won by four points the Raptors average margin of victory in the second game is 18.1 points.

Toronto Raptors:

Offensive Rating: 3rd
Defensive Rating: 7th
Net Differential: 3rd

Points per game: 114.8 (5th)
Offensive field goal efficiency: 48.4 percent (2nd)
Opponent points per game: 107.3 (8th)
Opponent field goal efficiency: 44.4 (tied 4th)

3-point efficiency: 34.8 percent (20th)
Opponent 3-point efficiency: 33.5 percent (6th)

Record: 1st in EC and NBA
Home: 11-4
Road: 12-5
Back to back sets: 6

• Second game record: 6-0

Versus the East: 13-5
West: 10-4 (best in EC)
Week nine 2-2:  Won @Clippers, @Warriors, lost vs. @Blazers, @Nuggets
On tap for week 10: Pacers, (B2B: Cavaliers, @76ers)