Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Durant’

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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Raptors at Thunder Points Per Game:

- April 8th, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY —

So, the Raptors lose a game and Andrea Bargnani. Again. It’s not clear how long Bargnani will be out this time – he said his calf was hurting before the game and it got worse as it went on. He told the training staff and they told him to come off. It was too bad, since he was the best Raptor on the floor, aggressively taking the ball to the hoop as well as playing strong defence.

Some thoughts:

- I like what I see from Alan Anderson, he’s giving them a lot more than Rasual Butler did and they could do worse than making him a minimum guy at the end of the bench next season. He did a nice job on Kevin Durant, particularly early and blocked one of his shots. That said Casey was mad at everybody – including Anderson, who was on the court during that brutal 24-0 run, which was one off the franchise low, set twice.

“The end score isn’t important, I’m looking for the defensive toughness.

For the most part we’ve done that, we just don’t want to lose that down the stretch,” Casey said..

“DeMar can’t play 48 minutes and Jose can’t play 48 minutes. No matter who is on the court, you still need to have an attention to detail. Those breakdowns, they can’t happen.”

OLD KENTUCKY HOME

Former Kentucky Wildcats Casey and Jamaal Magloire were understandably pleased when shown a picture of the Superdome scoreboard taken just after the Wildcats won the NCAA title last Monday. Sunday’s backup centres, Magloire and the Thunder’s Nazr Mohammed teamed up to help Kentucky win its previous championship, back in 1998.

- Casey said he thinks there are “two teams playing at a different level, Miami and this team. Really explosive team, athletic, talented, not only on the offensive end but the defensive end as well. Present many challenges.”

- James Johnson isn’t going to get himself out of the doghouse by making poor shooting decisions.

- Toronto played very well early and forced a ton of turnovers, which kept the team in the game, but that all disappeared later on.

- You can tell from my game story, I think James Harden is a heck of a player. At one point he had only five points, but had arguably been the best player on the floor. Then he scored eight straight as Oklahoma City went on its run. Anywhere else, he’d be the top dog, or, at worst, second banana. I wonder if at some point he’ll go somewhere else either because he wants to be the man or, more likely, because the Thunder won’t be able to afford to keep so much talent?

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