Raptors forward/center Chris Boucher continues to show signs of huge talent, while mostly coming off the bench this season. On Thursday, he started, and put up a monster game. Via the Toronto Star:
Chris Boucher played a game that was better statistically than any ever before by a Raptors big man.
Better by numbers than anything Chris Bosh ever did, or Pascal Siakam, or Antonio Davis, or Jonas Valanciunas, or any of the many other frontcourt players — good and bad — in the first 2,044 games of the franchise’s existence.
It was a wonderful night: 38 points and 19 rebounds in a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Thursday, one rebound shy of the first 30-20 game ever by a Raptor and the first time anyone has reached those numbers in the same game.
There have been better scoring nights — the list of 40-plus games runs the gamut from Acie Earl to Andrea Bargnani to Bosh, who did it nine times.
And there have been better rebounding nights up front — Bismack Biyombo once had 25; Bosh went over 20 twice, as did Valanciunas; Donyell Marshall had 24; Joey Dorsey once grabbed 20.
But never before had anyone put up 38 and 19, and for that Boucher should praised and held in high regard.
The Raptors are just 20-32 this season, which is the 11th best record in the Eastern conference.
Boucher is averaging 13.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 23.6 minutes per game.
