Daye, Hansbrough Help Raptors Exact Preseason Revenge over Wolves

The Toronto Raptors notched their third preseason win last night and avenged their lone loss to date this season by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 104 to 97.

Unfortunately that's about all I can tell you.

The game of course wasn't televised and unable to find a stream, the best I can do here is sit back and enjoy the game's lovely box score.

"Hey, looks like Austin Daye had a big night!"

"That Tyler Hansbrough sure looks like a good addition."

And so on and so on.

However I won't be too flippant about last night's result as yes, even based on the box score, a few things still do stand out:

1)  Easy on the turnovers: Again last night, the club looks to have struggled holding onto the rock.  The Dinos turned it over 26 times and the Wolves scored 22 points off of said turnovers.  This makes three of the team's first four games where Toronto has struggled with turnovers and while yes, its preseason, again, it's pretty tough to win many games when you give your opponent this many opportunities.

That being said, some of these cough-ups are likely the result of...

2)  Everyone is playing: Last night the starters all played about 15 minutes on average (Jonas hit the 20 minute mark) and Casey let open the bench floodgates.  Steve Novak was the only player not to see the court so that's why the box score has guys like Carlos Morais (3 points) and Chris Wright (7 points) seeing time.  With so many players being funneled in and out, and so many lineup combinations being used, it's probably not a huge surprise that the turnover numbers were as high as they were.

From the bench, Austin Daye had a nice line with 12 points in 16 minutes.  Even better, Daye was 2 of 3 from long-range and hit all four of his free-throw attempts.  That's the kind of spot production I'm sure Casey would love to get when the season begins.

Also, Dwight Buycks and Quincy Acy saw significant time last night, likely based on their play Friday night in Toronto's comeback win.

3)  Minnesota Couldn't Score: Well, not completely.  They did as a team put up nearly 100 points.  However they shot only 36 per cent from the field (the Raptors' shot 50 per cent), a very interesting stat considering the Wolves actually took the reciprocal approach to playing time last night to that of the Raptors; Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, Ricky Rubio - these three played around 28 minutes and the Wolves as a whole seemed to have made lineup decisions which emulated the regular season.

They just couldn't put the ball in the net.

Does this mean the Raptors' bench is superior to the Wolves' starters?

I'd say this was more of a case of Minny having a rough night, however Corey Brewer's 4 of 10 shooting night and Ricky Rubio's 0 of 7 outing aren't exactly supreme outliers.  The Wolves on many a night will likely struggle from the field.

The Raptors now get a few days off in preseason play before another re-match awaits them this Wednesday back at home against the Boston Celtics.