Posts Tagged ‘DeMar DeRozan’

Grizzlies at Raptors Points Per Game: Gay, Davis non-factors against former teams; Memphis doesn’t mess around on defence; Telfair deal close

- February 21st, 2013

Memphis wasn’t about to let Rudy Gay show them up. The team double-teamed its former scoring leader and hounded him into a tough performance. Those gritty Grizz basically hounded everyone, including familiar target DeMar DeRozan, in one of the more hideous games you’ll see (thankfully) this season.

Tony Allen admitted he was fired up for the game after Gay said DeRozan, not Allen or O.J. Mayo, was the best shooting guard he’d ever played with. Allen’s a great competitor who looks for slights to fire him up. It worked, his defence was some of the best I’ve seen this season. After the game he praised the Raptors, saying it felt like a playoff game. It looked like one too at times, with scoring only a rumour and hand-to-hand combat more prevalent than made buckets.

Some thoughts:

- Not a good night for the Gay-DeRozan combo after a string of good games. Memphis bottled them up and forced them into bad shots all evening. The Raptors badly need a consistent outside threat to take pressure off of them. Andrea Bargnani isn’t that guy and now he’s being booed by the ACC faithful at every turn. That’s not a good development, as it’s highly unlikely the Raptors pull off a trade by today’s deadline involving Bargnani.

- Still impressed by the compete level of Jonas Valanciunas.

- Good to see Ed Davis, who looked quite a bit happier than the last time I saw him in Atlanta. Davis was crushed that night, with news of his trade to Memphis still settling in and after an emotional goodbye with his teammates. You can tell he’s still adjusting to his new digs and life on the bench after vaulting into the spotlight as a starter in Toronto. Life apart from best friend DeRozan has been a challenge, but he’s starting to get more comfortable in Memphis and is finally going to move out of his hotel and into a place. He’s looking forward to being in the playoffs.

“It’s going to be my first time in the playoffs. Just being a part of it is going to be great,” Davis said.

I asked Davis about the difference between Toronto, where Dwane Casey wants his team to have a defensive identity, and Memphis, where Lionel Hollins helms the second-best defensive group in the NBA.

“We’ve got a lot of defensive-minded, tough guys on this team and that helps when you have guys that just want to preach defence,” he said.

- Tony Allen on preparing for Rudy Gay:

“Ain’t going to be like nothing. Just like preparing for a regular game, you see I’m watching? Some of the things he’s doing. That’s all. Just a regular routine of a scout,” Allen told me, while watching video on his iPad of Gay’s favourite moves. Allen’s lockdown defence isn’t just something that magically happens. Sure he’s a great athlete with tremendous intensity, but the man studies his opponents like few others.

- Though Gay and Davis kind of downplayed the return beforehand, and neither ended up playing well, their coaches knew this game meant extra to them.

“It’s going to be emotional. Anybody that says it’s not is not being totally honest,” Casey said beforehand.

“You always want to do well when you go back and face your old team. It doesn’t change anything, but it makes you feel good to go and put it on them,” Hollins said.

“We have guys here, Jerryd Bayless and Ed Davis and Toronto has Rudy Gay, and somewhat Kyle Lowry, although he’s one team removed, he still likes to play well against us.”

- One more thought as Sebastian Telfair is close to becoming a Raptor for a second-round pick. If it’s a pick that actually is going to be conveyed it’s an odd move. Telfair will help, but John Lucas III is playing well. Seconds aren’t massive assets, but they are assets nonetheless and teams strike gold with them once in a while. But not if they don’t have them. In a cap world with penalties for exceeding the cap and getting into the luxury tax getting more punishing each year, cheap assets help. Dealing a pick for a two-month rental in a season that is basically done anyway (in terms of making the playoffs) seems unnecessary.

 

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Rockets at Raptors points per game: Move the ball, play some D, success will follow; Calderon NBA’s most professional player; Sabonis, the all-time great, in the house

- December 17th, 2012

Funny what having everybody on the same page and everybody trying hard does for a team. The Raptors have been locked in, have had a focus to playing defence and a commitment to playing team basketball at both ends over the past three games, and have been rewarded with two victories (and a big lead against Brooklyn that they couldn’t hold).

There’s a clear difference between the sorry outfit we saw in November (and parts of December). A key has been getting off to better starts. Regular readers know I vouched for an Ed Davis, Jonas Valanciunas starting frontcourt and they are doing what I expected. Even though the numbers didn’t exactly jump out after the first quarter either on Friday or Sunday, it was clear, the duo were major reasons why the Raptors played well from the jump. Once Valanciunas gets stronger and puts on some more meat they’ll be even more effective, but even right now, they out-rebound opponents, get easy buckets above the rim and alter and block shots, making life more difficult for opponents.

Some thoughts on Sunday’s game:

Alan Anderson has emerged as an X-factor for the team. He might be the best perimeter defender on the squad (though Terrence Ross gets better in that regard every day), he has confidence and swagger and is extremely shifty while also having a good enough three-point shot to keep opponents honest. He’s a really nice glue player to have on the roster and played extremely well.

Jose Calderon said he doesn’t worry about who is starting or how much he is playing and just wants to be the most professional player in the league. Great quote. He’s the consummate pro. He would prefer to start elsewhere, but is going to do whatever he can to help the team play well.

That said, not about to start a point guard controversy. Kyle Lowry is a better all-around player and a better fit for a Dwane Casey-led team. Lowry just needs to settle in, stop forcing things and gamble a bit less on defence upon his return. He’ll be fine. If Calderon can be moved for value, great, if not, a lot of teams would kill to have a Lowry-Calderon combo, it’s certainly not the worst thing in the world.

I thought the Raptors stuck around to set good screens a little better on Sunday and it helped give players like Calderon, DeRozan and Anderson more room.

John Lucas’ shot seems to be back and he’s getting teammates involved too. This is by far the best he has played since starring in the pre-season.

As Casey said after the game, Toronto’s pressure and aggressiveness eventually threw Houston off from three-point range. We saw it in the third quarter and it also was very apparent down the stretch, when the Raptors forced Houston into three air balls late.

Casey sat Davis for the fourth even though he turned the game around in the third with 13 points and … it was the right call. If he wasn’t going to go big (normal?) with two 6-10 or bigger players, going with Amir Johnson over Davis as the lone big makes more sense. Davis has become one of Toronto’s best help/team defenders, but Johnson remains the best on the team in that regard. He is a bit quicker and more instinctual in terms of reading and reacting for switches and did a nice job helping on James Harden.

“Amir did a heck of a job and he was in the flow of the game. Down the stretch. I thought that Amir would be better for switching onto Harden,” Casey confirmed. Playing Davis and Johnson might have worked, we’ll never know, but if you were going to play only one, Johnson made sense this time.

Johnson was amusing afterwards when asked about how talking more on defence has helped the team. He basically said not only do they tell each other where to be or what is happening, they also just yell out random stuff at times to try to throw off and confuse opponents.

Aside from the first time I was around MJ, I haven’t been star-struck in this job before, but shaking hands and scrumming Arvydas Sabonis was pretty damn cool. There aren’t many living basketball legends, but he is one of them. Probably one of the 20 most talented players ever and I didn’t even see him before his injuries. Just from 1992 (on NBC and since then, on tape) and from when he finally came over to the NBA with Portland. Even then, when he was a shadow of his former self, you could see just how absurdly talented the man was. He’s also the biggest man I’ve ever met, bigger even than Shaq. Spoke pretty well of Jonas, but made it clear he expects a lot more from him in the future and believes Jonas will meet the challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Raptors at Nuggets Points Per Game: Too little too late; The pieces don’t fit; All about effort; Time to move Bargnani to the bench

- December 4th, 2012

When you are 4-14, moral victories mean very little. It’s great that the Raptors dug deep and made a game out of what could have been a blowout. But does it really matter? The end result was still another loss. Instead of furiously battling back in games, how about showing up in every quarter for a change?

Toronto actually did well early, playing a decent first quarter, but the killer even in that quarter – and we won’t even talk about the nightmare of a second quarter that decided the game – the killer in the first was effort. You simply cannot get massacred on the offensive boards the way the Raptors were. The final stats showed 23 O-boards for Denver, 9 for the Raptors. The ratio was even worse after a quarter. That can’t happen. It’s unacceptable. The pieces don’t fit properly.

Some thoughts:

Toronto isn’t as talented as most of its opponents, and certainly not as talented as Denver … but, you can make up for some of that by playing hard and playing smart. Boxing out, making smart decisions, etc. Too often, this team doesn’t do that. Boneheaded errors lead to turnovers and fast break points the other way. Lack of effort leads to easy points created by offensive rebounding.

Andrea Bargnani had one of his better outings and still wasn’t a big plus for the team. Again, it’s time for a divorce. An important moment came at the half when he allowed Ty Lawson, a foot shorter, to grab an offensive rebound and turn that into a putback. Bargnani barely moved, barely tried to corral the rebound. The blame can be spread around though. Jonas Valanciunas had a fine start and was poor after that. Kyle Lowry had a terrible first half and a great second half. DeMar DeRozan might have been the best Raptor, but needed to be more aggressive. He got to the line just once. Jose Calderon struggled, Mickael Pietrus was a non-factor.

What would I do? Keeping in mind that nobody is just going to gift a talent upgrade to this team and assuming, as the whispers indicate, that the market for Bargnani is underwhelming at the moment … Put Ed Davis with the starters and let Bargnani provide scoring on the second unit with Calderon and Amir Johnson working off of him, as they have done well in the past.

The first group might be limited offensively, but it won’t get outworked and outrebounded as often since Davis is the team’s best rebounder and has become one of its best defenders. Let Lowry and DeRozan be the scorers. Let Pietrus bomb away from the corners, let Davis pick up the trash and let Valanciunas show a little more of his already impressive offensive game.

We’ve been over this, but let’s reiterate: Bargnani sets a bad example with his floundering effort level, with his lack of rebounding and with his wavering defensive abilities (to be fair, he was locked in for parts of the night defensively and was nowhere close to the worst offender in that category).

If you can’t deal him now, let him become a force off of the bench and give your starters a better chance of staying in games.

It’s not like the current setup is working.

A few positives:

The fight again was good to see, even if it was too little, too late.

Terrence Ross played well. Davis had an impact once he got some minutes. Lowry rebounded from his tough first half, to give the excellent Lawson fits at both ends. DeRozan did strong work on the boards.

That’s about it. Too many bad shots – Bargnani should not have taken that three late, but there were a lot of bad decisions by everybody. Too little attention to staying with energy players like Corey Brewer. Laughably bad effort on the glass.

The good news? Sacramento is a winnable game. The pieces fit even worse there and no team has more head cases per capita.

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Raptors vs. Thunder Points Per Game: Knocked around, Lowry goes down and Jonas gets crowned

- November 7th, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY — One of the darker nights in recent Raptors history, no?

Blowout loss. Lose Kyle Lowry to a scary-looking ankle injury. Jonas Valanciunas gets dunked on rather rudely by Kevin Durant.

The blowout wasn’t a huge surprise, this is an extremely talented OKC team that could well make it back to the Finals, especially if the old Lakers and Spurs break down. Plus, the Thunder was out for blood after stumbling through the early post-James Harden days.

The ankle was a product of Lowry being Lowry, he’s in on every play, wants to grab every rebound, even though he’s a foot shorter than many of the guys he is going up against and he doesn’t quit. He was under the net many times in the game and just got tangled up with Serge Ibaka in an unfortunate wrong place, wrong time type of thing.

Some more thoughts:

-       The Thunder misses Harden, but this is still a fantastic team. Thabo Sefolosha is underrated, he’s a very poor man’s Scottie Pippen. Eric Maynor is a top-notch backup point guard, and the bench has some depth and intrigue, with youngsters like Perry Jones III, Lamb, Maynor and even Hasheem Thabeet, who looked serviceable.

-       Andrea Bargnani finally got going offensively, but was brutal defensively, like most of his teammates. He did look more engaged and grabbed four rebounds in the first quarter.

-       The Raptors ran on the Thunder early, then gave that up for some reason. OKC is good, but the Raptors only offered token resistance most of the night and the give up mentality was a bad sign.

-       Valanciunas was great. He wasn’t scared of Perkins and rebounded to getting dunked on the way you want a competitor to. He wants to get Durant back, as his “maybe next time it will be the opposite” comment to me illustrated.

- Was a tough night for DeMar DeRozan, but offensively his line looks a lot worse than how he actually performed. DeRozan attacked the rim early, but didn’t get any calls, a recurring theme. The officiating annoyed both sides in the first half and multiple technicals were called and there could have been a lot more. Westbrook and Perkins outright glared at the refs several times.

-       Dwane Casey didn’t like the way the Raptors competed, but he loved the way Valanciunas did. Valanciunas didn’t think he did anything special, said he goes hard all the time no matter how the game is going and wants to establish himself as that type of player.

- Kevin Martin compared Westbrook and Lowry to each other. “They’re both fiery little guys.”

Before the game OKC coach Scott Brooks and guard Russell Westbrook both said the Raptors are a much-improved outfit. “They have good players,” Westbrook said.

Lowry is extremely doubtful for Wednesday’s game in Dallas and was hobbling out of the arena. He’ll try to demand re-entry to the lineup, and it will be up to the training staff to hold the competitor back until he is 100%.

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The return of Points Per Game: Pacers at Raptors PPG

- November 1st, 2012

New season means it’s time for a new season of my post-game thoughts, which will appear by Noon the morning after games.

Here we go with Pacers vs. Raptors Points Per Game:

- First off, that was the best atmosphere I’ve seen at the ACC in years. The fans were great, they were into the game and it was a heck of a contest. This Raptors team plays the way fans in this city like their teams, with an edge, at a fast pace.

- Kyle Lowry was superb. I tweeted he’s the best all-around Raptor since Vince Carter, sorry Chris Bosh, and I believe it. Made a difference at both ends of the floor.

- That said, Lowry’s main weakness is shot selection. He fires at will and at times that’s great, but down the stretch of a tight game, he needs to make better decisions. Ditto Jose Calderon, who got a bit trigger happy at the end, which is rare.

- People are blaming Andrea Bargnani for West going off, but Bargnani actually did a decent job defensively on him. Sure, he hedged too much late, but where was his help? It’s the lost offence, particularly from deep, that should cause concern where Bargnani is concerned. He’s never going to rebound, but his defence was pretty good last night. He needs to rediscover his form from outside. His overall shooting line could have been better, but the refs blew two wild shot attempts that should have led to free throw attempts.

- DeMar DeRozan had terrible timing. Really hurt the team, was completely locked down by Paul George and looked off all night. The pressure is going to be on DeRozan now that the Raptors overpaid to lock him up.

- Landry Fields had an even worse night and quickly bolted the room afterwards.

- Hard not to be impressed by Jonas Valanciunas. Played like a man against a tough opponent in Roy Hibbert. Also, Ed Davis and Amir Johnson are two solid reserve big men. Will give Raptors a lift all year.

- Referees clearly gave the proven Pacers the benefit of the doubt with the calls. Raptors better get used to that. This is how the NBA works until you establish an identity.

Some more thoughts from the paper:
The Raptors did some things quite well in the 2012-13 opener, but enough negatives crept in to deny the team a win against Indiana.
Head coach Dwane Casey foreshadowed the outing pretty well earlier in the day, when discussing how he thought the season would go overall.
“We’re taking steps in the right direction,” Casey said.
“To say that we’ve got to make the playoffs, it’s a bust if we don’t … I don’t buy into that.”
This could be the story of the season. Great effort, some distinct positives and a lot of tough losses.
Casey knows many people don’t think much of his team, but also believes that the pressure of making the playoffs shouldn’t be pushed onto the group.
“I’m excited about this team, I want to prove (the critics) wrong, and our players should want to prove them wrong. But we can’t have it where they’re predicting or saying (the Raptors) will win 30 games the next person says the season is a bust if they don’t make the playoffs. So, it’s confusing,” Casey said.
What the coach wants, is for the Raptors to show “Great growth … and maybe (if that happens) we’ll be knocking on the door at the end of the year. And that’s our goal, our internal goal.”
PLAY ‘EM ALL
Casey went deep into his bench, playing all but forward Linas Kleiza. Getting so many Raptors in early kept them fresh and ready for work later on.
He subbed wisely, using behomth Aaron Gray at times to try to slow down Roy Hibbert, who was giving Jonas Valanciunas trouble due to his sheer size.
Ed Davis gave the club a huge lift late in the third quarter when the game appeared to be in danger of slipping away, hitting a couple of shots, blocking one and getting on the glass.
The two point guard lineup of Kyle Lowry, who was spectacular and Jose Calderon also was used to great effect. Going with veteran Alan Anderson and nailing a complexly out-of-sorts Landry Fields to the bench also paid dividends for Casey.
GREAT, BUT
As good as Lowry and Calderon were (36 points, 11 assists, 6 steals, 3 turnovers), the duo made some uncharacteristic mistakes down the stretch, taking bad shot after bad shot and failing to run the offence properly, allowing Indiana to erase a big Toronto lead and score all of the game’s points in the final four minutes.
Lowry put the team on his shoulders and Calderon excelled as well, but they have to be smarter late in games.
BENCH BOAST
When asked what the main difference was between his first Raptors team and this one, Casey was succinct: “Our bench basically were our starters,” Casey said.
DeMar DeRozan said the feeling around the team is different as well.
“You see the hunger more in guys that’s been here and been through the tough times and you see the hunger in guys like Landry, (Lowry), that’s been in tough positions and been winning,” DeRozan said before the game.
“The hunger is there in everybody and we’re just going to bring it out tonight.”
The Raptors definitely did, but could not overcome 36.3% shooting from the field.
ROOKIE NERVES?
Rookies Valanciunas and Terrence Ross said they were nervous beforehand since they had watched many openers on television and now would be a part of NBA basketball.
Valanciunas said he had trouble sleeping.
But they didn’t show it. Valanciunas had one of the better first quarter debuts in team history, compiling six points, four rebounds and a pair of blocks.
But Hibbert frustrated Valanciunas for a while after that until the Lithuanian showed the vet some things at both ends in the third quarter.
Before the contest, Valanciunas said he had goals for this season:
“Win games. And win rookie of the year.”
DeRozan was the last rookie to start for the Raptors on opening night (Damon Stoudamire, Vince Carter and Joey Graham were the others) and had some advice.
“You’re going to be nervous, without a doubt. Just go out there, stay focused and do your job and don’t think too much.”
Afterwards, Valanciunas said he had fun, but was upset about the loss.
When reminded that there were still 81 games to go, he seemed surprised.
“That many?” Then reminded observers that he played 86 games for Lietuvos Rytas last season and about 100 overall, counting his matches with the Lithuanian national team.
He didn’t have to wait long to find out the answer to one of his pre-game musings:
“I like fans, maybe fans are going to like me? I hope so,” he said.
Valanciunas got one of the loudest pre-game roars and was cheered throughout the evening like a conquering hero, particularly when he tried to rip down the basket in a Shaq-like display on a dunk.
His counterpart, Ross was more tentative, missing a pair of three point attempts early and failing to see action in the second half.

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Kyle Lowry might want a change of scenery – expect the Raptors to kick the tires

- May 26th, 2012

Rockets point guard Kyle Lowry doesn’t sound like someone who would prefer to return to Houston next season.

On Friday, Lowry told Rockets beat writer Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle he can’t see both he and unrestricted free agent Goran Dragic coming back.

Just a few weeks after surgery to fix torn abductor muscles and a sports hernia, Lowry told Feigen:

“I don’t think so. I honestly think it would be tough. Things have to be addressed. The situation would have to be addressed.

“If things aren’t addressed coaching-wise, I guess I have to be moved.”

Lowry made it clear that he has undisclosed problems with head coach Kevin McHale. Though McHale and general manager Daryl Morey downplayed any issues, Lowry clearly is unhappy.

Morey told Feigen:

“I think Kyle and coach McHale are both winners and both competitive guys. “I don’t anticipate any issues going forward.”

At one point during the season, Lowry had to be restrained from going after the coach.

A tremendous defender and rebounder, Lowry averaged career highs of 14.3 points, 6.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game in 47 contests (In 38 starts, Lowry’s numbers were 15.9 points, 7.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game).  However, his injuries opened the door for Dragic, who averaged 18 points, 8.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game in 28 starts of his own.

Dragic is a far better shooter and finisher than Lowry, except for from three-point range and from the free throw line, where they shoot about the same. Lowry is an elite defender at the point guard spot and a better rebounder.

For his career, Lowry has averaged 10.4 points and 4.8 assists. Lowry has two very reasonable years remaining on his contract and will earn $5.75 million in 2012-1 and $6.2 million in 2013-14.

The Raptors are extremely high on Lowry, so there is little doubt – despite Morey’s desire to keep Lowry in the fold – that he and Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo will discuss a Lowry deal. If that falls through the Raptors could instead pursue Dragic, though I do not know if he is a favourite of theirs like Lowry or not.

After Lowry burned the Raptors for a game-high 26 points (including 4-for-4 from three) in a three-point win in Houston, I asked Raptors head coach Dwane Casey what he thought of Lowry and Casey lauded the guard for his toughness and ability.

“He’s a hell of a competitor. He’s their heart and soul and spirit of their team and I love the way he plays,” Casey said.

Long-time Raptor Alvin Williams, now a scout with the team, is extremely close with Lowry and is one of his mentors. Both are from Philadelphia and both played for Villanova. “Alvin is my main man,” Lowry once said.

Complicating a potential deal would be the fact that Houston would have to be sure Dragic will re-sign long-term with the club to be its starter before opting to trade Lowry. That won’t happen until July 1st, after the draft. It would likely be Toronto’s pick – 8th before Wednesday’s lottery – that Houston would be after. The Rockets own the 14th pick (again, pre-lottery) and the 16th. It’s hard to see the Rockets wanting anything besides Toronto’s pick in a potential Lowry deal since Jonas Valanciunas and Andrea Bargnani won’t be on the table. DeMar DeRozan’s advanced stats likely don’t impress Morey, who is a huge believer in advanced statistical analysis.

Plus there’s the fact other teams could make better offers. Lowry and Luis Scola nearly became Lakers last season in exchange for Pau Gasol and Gasol is very much on the block again and the Rockets have always coveted him.

As well, Lowry has had injury issues including a torn ACL early in his career and has an edge. He was charged with battery after being accused of throwing a ball at a female referee during the lockout. Lowry apologized, received 100 hours of community service and impulse-control counseling.

However, for years the Raptors have lacked extremely competitive, hard-nosed players and that’s a major reason why they haven’t had much success.

Unless Dragic says he’s not coming back, Lowry’s likely moving somewhere. Would he be OK with supplanting Jose Calderon as starter in Toronto if Calderon is still seeing considerable time, some of it in the same backcourt as Lowry? Who knows.

What we do know  is he is not interested in splitting time with Dragic.

“We’re both capable starters. We both want it. It’s going to have to be a situation where they make a decision on one of us.

“It has nothing to do with Goran. I’m not happy with the way coaches handled things. If management wants to do something to keep Goran, I think I’ll have to be moved,” Lowry told Feigen.

“I think I’m still a foundation guy. You can build around me. If I’m not here, that’s welcomed. If I’m here, I guess that’s welcome, too.”

Interesting stuff indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One crazy night in Memphis

- March 17th, 2012

Until tonight, the craziest game I’ve ever covered was the NCAA title game where Gordon Hayward rimmed out what would have sealed the biggest upset win in the history of sports. That one didn’t go in, so this one tops it.

My brain almost exploded, the gamer didn’t make the paper for first edition, the referees left having somehow pissed off both the home fans and the Raptors.

And oh ya, Rudy Gay hit another crazy shot against the Raptors, but this time, Toronto pulled out a win.

- Huge work from Jerryd Bayless. He’s defending better than ever this year and is playing some fine offensive basketball as well. Sure he had a boneheaded play, one of many by his at times clueless teammates, but this was a heck of an effort. They fought tooth and nail with one of the scrappiest teams in the league.

- Sure they had no business winning – Memphis missed 20 free throw attempts and is a much better team – but the bottom line is they did.

- The Raptors were all stunned in the locker room afterwards. None of them have been in a game like this, nobody would go on record, but they were perplexed by the horrific refereeing.

- Gary Forbes showed he is an NBA player. He is laying claim to Leandro Barbosa’s minutes.

Some quotes:

“Jerryd did a great job in timeouts and wouldn’t let anybody quit. As a coach, I didn’t have to say anything. I was really happy to see him take the bull by the horn and show leadership.”

“It was such a hard-fought game. The guys were passionate in timeouts and it was one of those games that if you were a fan you enjoyed watching.”

- Dwane Casey

“For them to come to our house and beat us like they did, Rudy hitting a big shot at our house, we just came here with fight in our heart. We had some confidence and weren’t scared. We went out there and played. We didn’t let anybody get in our way and we executed down the stretch.”

- James Johnson

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Raptors at Houston Rockets Points Per Game

- February 28th, 2012

All the attention is probably going to be on DeMar DeRozan’s tweet afterwards (he didn’t play in the fourth quarter, despite leading the team in scoring), but there are other things to discuss.

- What’s up with Jose Calderon? He’s fantastic at home, below average on the road. His home-road splits show quite a disparity. Calderon averages 13.7 points, 10.4 assists and 51% shooting at home, but away he averages 8.5 and 7.5 on 41% shooting.

- Raptors and Rockets have gone in opposite directions since the start of the season. Houston opened 3-7, but has gone 18-7 since (and 15-4 at home overall), while the Raptors went a surprising 4-5 early on, but slumped to 6-19 since.

- Toronto got Linas Kleiza back following a three-game injury absence. Casey said he’d be cautious with Kleiza’s minutes. “I’ll try to be smart. I haven’t been accused of that too often,” Casey cracked. Andrea Bargnani is doing on-court running, but the team is being cautious. “He’s got to listen to his body and go with that. Kind of on his terms, as far as his calf is concerned,” Casey said.

- I talked to Leandro Barbosa and he said all the trade rumours aren’t bothering him at all. He knows it is part of the business and out of his control. But it might not all be. Sources tell me quietly, potential landing spots willing to extend-and-trade Barbosa are being sniffed out. Barbosa said he loves Toronto and would happily sign long-term. As always though, we’ll see if the price is right and if the Raptors get an offer they can’t refuse.

- I don’t blame DeRozan for being frustrated. Unlike Calderon and Jerryd Bayless, who didn’t play in the fourth (aside from 11 seconds for Calderon), DeRozan was playing decent-well. Casey said he was thinking ahead to Wednesday’s game in New Orleans, but it seemed like an odd call, especially with Kleiza just back from injury. DeRozan played the entire third quarter, scoring 10 points before sitting.

- Like Casey, I’m a big fan of Kyle Lowry. Was convinced he’d be better than Villanova teammate Randy Foye and that certainly has proven correct. He does so many things well and as Casey said: “He’s a hell of a competitor. He’s their heart and soul and spirit of their team and I love the way he plays.”

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Charlotte Bobcats at Raptors Points Per Game, Naughty By Nature edition:

- February 18th, 2012

Disappointed I didn’t get to see Naughty by Nature at halftime, also wondering why the heck Treach and Co. are doing halftime shows now? Sorry Matt and Jack, but I’m not as crushed about missing your halftime show.

- The Raptors let winless Washington beat them earlier this year, so perhaps it isn’t a surprise that Charlotte’s 16-game losing streak also ended against Toronto. The Raptors need to stop playing down, or up, to the competition.

- Raptors were smart to run on Charlotte early. You don’t really think of the Bobcats as a team to run on, but that definitely can be done against them. They should have ran a lot more.

- If Jose Calderon has played at a higher level either in the NBA or internationally, it is news to us.

- Charlotte has been knocked for not playing hard this season, but you could tell they were quite anxious to end a brutal 16-game losing streak. Getting D.J. Augustin back is going to help the Bobcats win a few games. He has become the squad’s best player. The Raptors were desperate not to let-down against such a brutal team, but the squad did not come out with the same energy as in the past few games. It took until late in the first half before the effort level seemed to pick up for the home side. The shooting also cooled noticeably from recent 50% or so shooting outings.

- Ed Davis seems to have a lot more comfortable taking jump shots. Tom Sterner helped James Johnson in that regard, and it appears Davis has improved based on those sessions as well. Not only does his form look better, but Davis also looks more comfortable when he is hoisting his shots, which any shooter knows is a big part of the battle. (Note, I am definitely not a shooter, but I know that is true). The Raptors have been giving Davis more minutes and a bigger role of late in an effort to see what they have in him.

- Don’t really like Kemba Walker off the ball as Charlotte played him a bit on Friday. Don’t think he’s a true point guard either, but he needs to have the ball and to be making the decisions. If his jumper develops, perhaps he can grow into a Ben Gordon-esque role, but that’s not his game yet. Walker’s a great slasher and can set up his teammates, but he’s not going to be an effective NBAer until he greatly improves his jumper and shot selection.

- Raptors director of sport science Alex McKechnie has headed to Lithuania to work with Jonas Valanciunas.

- With Jerryd Bayless back, didn’t expect to see the Calderon-Anthony Carter backcourt again, but it gave Toronto some decent minutes late in the first half.

- DeMar DeRozan could learn some bad things from Corey Maggette, but he also could learn some good. Few players can get to the free throw line as easily and often as Maggette. He’s a bit of a ball-stopper, but he really knows how to put defences on their heels, how to draw contact and create a ton of free throw opportunities. Maggette is best neutralized by turning him into a jump shooter. Meanwhile, DeRozan has really rebounded of late after a concerning stretch of the season. He had 18 points in the first half alone.

- Leandro Barbosa, Amir Johnson and Davis keyed the fourth quarter Raptors comeback, but it wasn’t enough and the team was booed off the court on fan night.

 

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Spurs at Raptors Points Per Game:

- February 16th, 2012

Another good game, another tough loss. The Raptors are making an art of entertaining their fans, while still losing enough to stay in the Anthony Davis hunt. As usual, a few thoughts on the game and then some quotes I couldn’t get in to my story.

- DeMar DeRozan really needed that game after being a no-show too often of late. I keep harping on this, but he needs to be that aggressive player in order to succeed. He also took better control of the ball, which is needed since he can’t be turning it over off of strips 1-3 times every night.

- You have to appreciate the Spurs. Nobody ever pays any attention to them, yet all they do is win. Tony Parker: “We are nine in a row so if nobody talks about us, that’s good, we’ll keep playing good basketball.”

- Definitely some strange units out there. Dwane Casey said he was searching for offence with Bargnani, Bayless and Kleiza out. That left more defensive-minded players like James Johnson benched. He said he gave the red hot DeRozan a long break because of the back-to-back. Thought DeRozan would be able to give more down the stretch if he did that.

- Anthony Carter looked finished earlier this year, but now has found his game and is contributing.

- This team sure finds novel ways to lose eh? Five second call one night, two hands on the ball another. A foul out of bounds …

- The Raptors need to have better court awareness and stop taking a ton of offensive fouls. Too many Raptors are charging into opponents and it hurt them on Wednesday.

- Amir Johnson had been struggling mightily to hit mid-range jump shots this season, but he was nailing them on Wednesday

ONE OF A KIND

Metta World Peace one game, Popovich, the next? As a reporter, you can’t beat that.

The irascible Popovich is always a riot. With a dry, quick wit, Pop mixes bemusement with frustration as well as anybody.

He had some gems before the game:

To a larger crowd of media than he is used to: “It’s Toronto and San Antonio, take a break.”

On whether Cory Joseph should have stayed longer at Texas: “What am I, the answer man?”

On Joseph’s biggest challenge: “(Said dryly and in a short manner) “He’s a rookie.”

Some quotes on Joseph:

Cory Joseph:

“I don’t try to put pressure on myself, I just try to focus on the gameplan, play hard and let everything decide itself.

(Talks to Tristan about once a week). Only had like a week of training camp. Wanted me to get some game experience. Everybody looks at the D-League like it’s a bad thing, but Austin’s a good thing for me. Good coaching staff. (Soak up) A whole lot. Decision-making, what decisions I should do within the system. Just try to soak up as much as possible. Anybody can play in this league just given the opportunity.

(Watch Texas?) Obviously I miss it, but I’m happy where I am now. I watch them a couple of times when I’m able to. Hopefully they can win this next couple of games to solidify themselves in the tournament. That would make me happier.

Talk to Myck. Tell him to run your team, make sure you get the wins.”

Tony Parker:

“They played them all the way to the end. Just tough games for Toronto.

If we play like that, move the ball great and everybody’s healthy, we have a good chance to go all the way.

We played basketball all season long then TD got hurt and Manu went down the last game (last year).

On Cory: It’s tough as a point guard he’s not playing that much and we don’t practise so it’s tough for him to get some minutes because he doesn’t know the system, he doesn’t know the plays and Pop, sometimes he calls plays he didn’t call for 10 games. I’ve been here 11 years so I know the plays, so it’s tough for Cory. When you’re a point guard and you have a coach like Pop, you need practice time and you need to know all the plays and right now we never practice, we just rest, play, rest, play. He’s talented, we just have to be patient with him.”

Dwane Casey:

“Health is an important thing in this league and when you don’t have it you search. Tonight I was searching for any group that could help us.

This is a difficult team to play. We’ve played three emontional games, and I think our team competed in each of them. My hat is off to our guys because I think they competed and any basketball person, in seeing who we have in the floor, talked about how we competed.

That’s important to me, to the organization going forward. It’s going to help us once we get our program on the right spot. We want to continue this culture of playing hard, competing and putting yourself in position to win. What we have to do is execute … executing down the stretch. The game within the game (double dribble, holding call even though he was out of bounds). All the young guys need to learn how to play in those situations.”

“DeRozan. His major challenge this summer is going to be getting in the weight room, getting bigger, getting stronger. (Looking at Kobe and LeBron) looking at how big and strong those guys are and keeping the athleticism.”

“Good for psyche? No question. We don’t want to be satisfied with close, but with the growth that we’re making against the top teams (without top scorers), my hat is off to the guys who competed. The guys took up the slack.”

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