Plus-minus studs: DeMarre Carroll and Kyle Lowry (TOR) were each a plus-62 in three games last week.
Hero team of the week: Toronto (3-0) -- After coming back to beat the Celtics on Tuesday, the Raptors thumped the Nets and Knicks to improve to 8-0 in the Atlantic Division and 16-2 against East teams that didn't win the championship last year.
Down the stretch against Boston on Tuesday, with Patrick Patterson hurting, the Raptors went to a lineup - Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, DeMar DeRozan, DeMarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas - that had somehow played just one minute together prior. And it ran off a 21-4 run to keep the second best record in the East north of the border. Jonas Valanciunas had two big blocks and a bunch of key rebounds in that game and averaged 14.7 points and 16.3 boards in just 26.7 minutes in the Raptors' three wins last week. Only seven of his 19 offensive rebounds in the three games were off his own misses.
http://www.nba.com/2016-17-power-rankings-week-13
ESPN (5)
It was another good week for fans of Toronto's "Huskies" look. The Raptors were indeed sporting their retro duds when they beat Boston in the latest battle for Atlantic Division supremacy. No one, by the way, loves the Raps more than ESPN's Basketball Power Index, which listed Golden State versus Toronto (31 percent) as its most likely NBA Finals matchup -- ahead of Warriors-Cavaliers (26 percent) and Spurs-Raptors (12 percent) -- when we dialed it up Sunday morning. As for the All-Star debate we sparked north of the border: I realize many Raps fans regard Kyle Lowry as this team's most important player, but the contention here is that DeMar DeRozan has had the better season so far. And I'm not budging.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18482550/nba-power-rankings-marc-stein-week-13-rankings
SI (4)
Last Week: 6
Net Rating: +8.0
It’s telling that Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are both among the league’s 15 highest fourth-quarter scorers this season. For perspective, the only other set of teammates in that mix: LeBron and Kyrie.
http://www.si.com/nba/2017/01/16/nba-power-rankings-warriors-cavaliers-stephen-curry-lebron-james
CBS (6)
The Raptors will climb higher than this in the next two weeks. They're right there with Boston and Houston on a tier of really good teams. Their defense is starting to pick itself up off the dirt and they're in a great position for the second half of the season.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-midseason-power-rankings-warriors-cavs-where-we-thought-theyd-be/
USA Today (5)
The Raptors defended their second-place Eastern Conference standing with a 114-106 win over the Celtics on Tuesday behind a 41-point, 13-rebound outing from star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan. They own the NBA's top offensive rating (113.5 points per 100 possessions).
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/rankings/2017/01/16/nba-power-rankings-warriors-spurs-cavaliers-rockets-clippers/96615236/
