Kyrie Irving

Toronto Raptors 104 Final
Recap | Box Score		 97 New Orleans Hornets
Ed Davis, PF 29 MIN | 6-12 FG | 1-1 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 13 PTS | -3A little disappointing even with 13+5 as he missed four shots in the paint. Did OK on A-Davis but should have/could have been a bigger help on the glass.
Aaron Gray, C 15 MIN | 2-3 FG | 1-3 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 5 PTS | -11Ugh. Get off my screen. Might be the slowest player in the NBA. Did have a nifty up-and-under on Davis to get to the stripe, though.
Jose Calderon, PG 30 MIN | 1-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 6 AST | 2 PTS | -8Couldn’t get much going offensively, including missing some wide-open threes. Also got torched defensively (even more so than usual) by Greivis Vasquez, and couldn’t make an adjustment to his P-n-R defense to slow him down.
Mickael Pietrus, SG 11 MIN | 2-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 5 PTS | -13His time has a regular rotation player may be up. Was pretty much invisible when he got run.
DeMar DeRozan, SG 49 MIN | 9-22 FG | 11-13 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 30 PTS | +6The 13FTs are nice but could have been even higher – he had 8 in the 1st and then settled for mid-range Js for most of the game. 30pts on 28 possessions is a nice PRIMO score, but had a chance to do even more damage.
Amir Johnson, PF 38 MIN | 6-9 FG | 0-2 FT | 8 REB | 2 AST | 12 PTS | +18Did a good job defensively, chipping in 3 blocks with solid help and man defense. His ability to check Davis adequately allowed Raptors to stay small down the stretch, which was working.
Linas Kleiza, SF 5 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | +5Didn’t notice he checked in, really. At some point, Casey needs to decide which of Linas, Pietrus and Fields is going to play instead of this tiny minute crap.
Kyle Lowry, PG 28 MIN | 5-7 FG | 6-6 FT | 3 REB | 8 AST | 17 PTS | +15Very strong return for Lowry, who looked much better as a distributor and was back to playing pretty solid defense. He slowed down Vasquez and made the extra pass often. More on him in the full post-game tomorrow.
Alan Anderson, SG 36 MIN | 5-14 FG | 4-5 FT | 2 REB | 3 AST | 16 PTS | +14Would have been a higher grade if not for the chucking. Mr. 4th Quarter played some excellent defense on the night, especially on Ryan Anderson (at least until the double-technical woke Ryan up).
Terrence Ross, SG 24 MIN | 1-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 4 PTS | +12I really have no idea why his shot hasn’t been falling, as his form and release look just fine. His defense was decent, and he’s very exciting (he hurt his FOREARM off the rim on a missed dunk), but at some point all these three attempts have to drop.

Five Things We Saw

  1. Four Factors: Raptors had a big edge at the stripe and in the turnover department, offsetting a rebounding deficit.
  2. I doubt Lowry “won” the starting job back with just one game, but he was the better man on both ends tonight, by a significant margin.
  3. It was confusing to have a Davis-Davis and Anderson-Anderson match-up. My notes are a mess.
  4. “I think I could be like Shaq at the center position.” – Lowry, post-game, on his post-defense on Anthony Davis in overtime.
  5. ESPN’s +/- was messing up, so Kyle Lowry’s was as high as +102 and as low as -121. Wild game for him, I guess.