cavsraps

Toronto Raptors 99 Final

Recap | Box Score

 131 Utah Jazz
Andrea Bargnani, C 33 MIN | 8-15 FG | 3-4 FT | 8 REB | 0 AST | 20 PTS | -20Efficient offensively, grabbed 8 hours but got hung out to dry a few times (no one rotates on this team, ever) on the high pick and roll with Millsap; who burned him time and again. Now, one could argue he was overplaying, but how many times is Bargnani going to OVERPLAY on defense in a game?
Jonas Valanciunas, C 20 MIN | 1-2 FG | 4-4 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -24Battled in the paint and on the glass; didn’t translate into a fancy boxscore, but the effort was there. Kid needs a few more post-plays called for him a game…meh…who cares…
Kyle Lowry, PG 29 MIN | 3-10 FG | 4-6 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 10 PTS | -11Wasn’t taking good shots, or making them, but got to the line a few times and helped across the board until he went down and I lost interest in the game.
Mickael Pietrus, SG 30 MIN | 4-7 FG | 1-2 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 13 PTS | -21How have we been deprived at the three all these years; already the best small forward the Raptors have had since Garbajosa. Not sure if that’s a compliment to Mickael or a slight to Colangelo…probably both, but more slight than compliment.
DeMar DeRozan, SG 34 MIN | 5-15 FG | 7-7 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 17 PTS | -21Getting to the rack, to the line and making a difference. He’s so hard to stop when he’s slashing to the rack. Why jah, why doesn’t he attack the rim 8-12 times a game? I guess this is the difference between a guy making DeRozan money and a guy making Harden money.
Ed Davis, PF 10 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -12It took him almost breaking his fingers for me to notice he put in 10 minutes of work on the court. Dude was invisible.
Amir Johnson, PF 19 MIN | 4-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 10 PTS | +6Millsap and Kanter are running a train on your team and you can only manage to land 19 minutes with Ed Davis getting x-rays? Yes, he did some nice things in the 1st half when he got some time, but what happened in the 3rd quarter? Let me answer that for you: squat. Didn’t get the minutes, didn’t earn the minutes…what’s the difference?
Linas Kleiza, SF 6 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 3 PTS | -2The sad part is that Jose’s expiring, or Bargnani coming off the bench aren’t valuable enough chips to take Kleiza back in a trade; for anything. I bet you the Wizards don’t take him if we offered him and Bargnani for Okafor and Ariza.
Aaron Gray, C 4 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | -3Casey gave him a 4 minute birthday present; 5 minutes too long.
Jose Calderon, PG 24 MIN | 1-4 FG | 5-6 FT | 4 REB | 3 AST | 7 PTS | -22Randy Foye outplayed him (and John Lucas, combined) tonight; that’s all you need to know.
John Lucas, PG 12 MIN | 4-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 9 PTS | -9Produced as much as Jose in half the minutes; no one runs the 3rd squad like Lucas does, noooooooobody.
Terrence Ross, SG 19 MIN | 2-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 4 PTS | -21After a solid first half where you couldn’t help but be impressed with his smarts, hustle and demeanour, Casey somehow couldn’t manage to find him more than 19 minutes in a game that was out of reach before Jose handed out Gatorade in the locker-room. I just don’t get NBA management/coaching: players who should be hog tied and beaten get the keys to the kingdom, yet players who work their ass off but need more time sit on the bench.

Three Things We Saw

  1. Jamaal Tinsley is still alive and playing in the NBA.
  2. Randy Foye and Marvin Friggin’ Williams combined for 27 points (6-11 3FG). I had to turn the game off in the 3rd quarter because I couldn’t deal with Utah nailing open threes after passing the ball around 5 times in a row on one possession….Randy Foye…
  3. This was the worst game I’ve watched in a long time….50 points in the paint, 31 assists, 13-23 from behind the arc…the only thing they did wrong was turn the ball over 11 times, which is damn good, but somehow managed to only allow 8 points off those turnovers; just outclassed, the Jazz embarrassed the Raptors; I’m done here….