The Raptors, from top to bottom, are having a crisis of confidence. Following a 95-93 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, a team playing without its all-world forward and its starting point guard, the Raptors look like a shell of their former league-destroying selves. They have lost seven of their last nine games, and are showing almost zero signs of reclaiming their former contender status. The only time when the Raptors looked good on Sunday was when they went away from their identity at the start of the third quarter — cheating in passing lanes, pressing before half court, trying to create fast-break opportunities the other way. When the game slowed down, they looked completely broken. It was a game where almost everybody deserved some blame. With the game tied, Raptors coach Dwane Casey decided to put the slow-footed Greivis Vasquez on Pelicans guard Tyreke Evans, leaving designated stopper James Johnson on the bench. Casey said he had liked Vasquez’s defensive effort during the game, but defensive possessions like that are why Johnson is on the roster. Evans beat Vasquez for a layup with 1.6 seconds left, winning the game.
If this isn’t rock bottom, it is getting pretty close for the Raptors. Toronto stumbled through another listless first half, made a furious rally, than bumbled away a highly winnable game on Sunday, losing 95-93 to New Orleans on a Tyreke Evans layup in the dying seconds. Toronto has now dropped seven of its past nine contests and fell to the Pelicans, despite the absence of superstar big man Anthony Davis and star point guard Jrue Holiday due to injury.
Coming off a 15-point loss to lowly 76ers, New Orleans was playing without the injured Davis and Jrue Holiday in what seemed like an advantageous opportunity for Toronto to get back on track, or at least boost their fleeting confidence. Instead, they came out flat once again. They scored 14 points in the opening 12 minutes, a first quarter season-low, and had just 36 at the break, fewest they’ve registered in any half this year. As they marched off the court following a lifeless 24 minutes of play, Vasquez noticed and took issue with the spattering of boos he heard from yet another sellout crowd at the Air Canada Centre. “Fans have to be patient,” the 28-year-old guard said. “Discouraged how they boo us and stuff like that. I don’t think that’s very nice because we are really playing hard for them and representing the city. We want the best and we want to win.”
This game was as close as it’s going to get to a gimme for the next five weeks. Instead, the Raptors end a deflating 2-4 homestand bleeding confidence and, for the first time this year, cohesion. The goat was Ross. That’s becoming so regular a spot for him, he might as well buy himself sturdy, travelling horns. “It wasn’t all T-Ross’s fault …” coach Dwane Casey said afterward, apropos of nothing. Which means it is his fault. Short of shooting on his net, Ross did just about everything wrong on Sunday afternoon. Offence, defence, transition, positioning. All wrong. At least this time, he was given limited opportunities to dig a hole for everyone else. He played eight minutes in the first quarter, two in the second, and then no more.
Slipping Raptors fall to Pelicans: Griffin | Toronto Star
To start the third quarter, with Vasquez and Lowry on the floor together, DeRozan began to heat up, feeding off the energy of the two guards. Humping up with solid D and 35 points, the Raps took their first lead of the game, 60-58, with 4:25 left. DeRozan had 13 points in that third 12 minutes, while Vasquez provided a spark in place of Ross with eight points and four rebounds. So, does that decision to bench Ross for the final 28 minutes mean there’s a change in the starting lineup at Milwaukee? “We’ll see. We’re not giving up on him,” Casey said. “He’s a young man and all those players, they’re going to be up and down. We just have to help him whatever way we can. Whether it’s extra work, or if coming out of the lineup is going to help his confidence, whatever it is, we’ve got to get his mojo going because we’re playing for something and it’s an important time for us to come out of it.”
What the Toronto Raptors said after their 95-93 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans | NOLA.com
”I’m not sure. We’re playing in mud right now. Confidence wise, we have to come out believing that you’re going to make a play offensively or defensively. I know that last rebound coming down and it’s falling through everyone’s hands, but we have to play with that type of confidence, that type of belief that you can get it done. We feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. Somehow someway, we have to get back to playing basketball and not feeling that weight on our shoulders.”
Five-Star Review: Thunder get back to even with blowout victory | CBSSports.com
The New Orleans Pelicans played this game without Anthony Davis and without Jrue Holiday, and yet the Toronto Raptors couldn’t take care of business at home. This is just not an acceptable loss in any way, and that’s not necessarily a slight against the Pelicans. They made the game ugly and they played exactly the way a team without their best players needs to play. They grinded out a victory after catching their opponent off-guard in the first half. That’s on the Raptors to avoid that situation though. Perhaps they believed the Pelicans would just go away at some point. Toronto settled for a lot of jumpers in the first half and they weren’t connecting. We also had Alexis Ajinca (more on this later) outscoring the dynamic backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined in the first half (12-9).
Raptors Sink Deeper into Mud, Lose to Pelicans 95-93 | Raptors HQ
Today saw the Raptors come out to as sluggish a start as they’ve had this season, with only 36 points scored. The Pelicans, emboldened by the play of the aforementioned Ajinca (22 points on 10-for-13 shooting, I can’t believe it either), looked in control. The Raptors stormed back, as they have been known to do, with some timely shooting from DeMar DeRozan (22 points), Lou Williams (17 points) and Greivis Vasquez (16 points and nine assists). Even the recently slumping Patrick Patterson got into the mix, dropping 10 points and a pair of 3-pointers. As bad as the first half was, the third quarter saw the Raptors outscore the Pelicans 35-14 to take a lead into the fourth. Unfortunately, still stuck in the mud for the Raptors: Kyle Lowry (a meager 8-5-5), Jonas Valanciunas (an invisible six points and seven boards), and, good lord, Terrence Ross (hopeless today with one solitary rebound). In fact, Casey opted to play Ross only 11 first half minutes. “We are not giving up on him [Ross],” said Casey after the game, in a statement sure to rile up many of Toronto’s fans.
Toronto Raptors continue free-fall, lose to Davis-less Pelicans | Raptors Cage
The first half offense was atrocious. Toronto dropped a whole 14 in the first quarter. Considering this team is supposed to have an ‘elite’ offense, that isn’t going to cut it. Kyle Lowry struggled again, scoring a mere 8 points paired with 5 assists. Those #NBABallot’s aren’t going to continue to pour in at this rate. DeMar DeRozan scored 22, however it was on 7-18 shooting. There was a ton of iso-ball tonight, which resulted in a pathetic 18 assists for the Raps. This is a problem. The Raptors two most efficient players, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas combined for 12 shots. Their two least efficient, Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez, combined for 23. Go figure.
Raptors Blow Another Game At Home 95-93 To Pelicans | Pro Bball Report
“We had talked about putting James (Johnson) on (Evans),” Casey said. “Greivis did the best job, other than that last possession, of all our guys during the game and that’s why we stuck with Greivis on (Evans). He did a good job of containing him, making him score over a big body, I thought he did a good job (overall).” Casey didn’t have a lot of other options to go to than Vasquez in this game. Ross was M.I.A. and James Johnson was having an off game as well. Johnson is the Raptors best wing defender and Casey went to him to start the fourth quarter and he promptly turned the ball over twice and picked up a technical foul in 3.7 minutes. In hindsight, Casey should have brought him back in as the Raptors lead was unraveling, but it’s pretty easy to understand why Casey didn’t believe this was Johnson’s night. There is no time to mourn another game that got away. The Raptors are in Milwaukee on Monday to face a pretty solid Bucks team that’s a couple of games over .500 on the season.
Grieving That Last Play – Raps vs Pelicans | Mediocre No More
I don’t blame Vasquez – he tried his hardest, and was restricted by his own limitations defensively. Tyreke Evans made a hell of a play, and 3 Raptors were on him by the time he put up his shot..but the initial blow by, you can’t help but ponder what would have transpired if Johnson, or really, anybody other than Vasquez was on him. At half time, my friend Malin texted me “change the name of the blog back”, referring to, the original blog being “Mediocre Forever”. *Facepalm*
Is there an issue with Dwane Casey? | Raptors Rapture
Players like Jonas Valanciunas aren’t being utilized a lot, even if the Lithuanian center is playing better and better during the last stretch of games. Coach Dwane Casey prefers the smaller (and less talented but more aggressive centers as Tyler Hansbrough (mostly), Amir Johnson and Chuck Hayes (he has almost the same amount of 4th quarter minutes as JV). We’ve never (or almost never) seen Greg Stiemsma on the floor. The play with the 3 guards (Kyle Lowry, Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez) is not effective but they share much time together on the floor (especially Lou and Greivis aren’t the best defenders this team has). Now the team is expecting DeMar DeRozan to return, to do what? Defend? Of course he can help the team overall, but defensive plays are Casey’s responsibility. He’s the defensive minded coach that we all believe. But, until now, this team doesn’t play any kind of effective defence.
Toronto Raptors: Starting Lineup Optimization | Hoops Habit
Terrence Ross is the new Jonas Valanciunas. Assuming the title of Toronto’s most polarizing basketball figure. Questions of whether or not JV would ascend to the next level are decreasing rapidly, while concerns (depending on what part of town you’re from) over T-Ross are now travelling in the opposite direction. A kryptonite representation to a select portion of Toronto’s fan base. At times, any second guessing, tongue-lashing, or simply pointing out flaws in his game have been met head-on with resounding resistance. Well, folks … The time has come to stop treating Ross with kid gloves. Besides, a demotion to the bench doesn’t necessarily mean a stoppage in contributions. But it does, at the very least, aid the Raps in optimizing their production.
DeMar DeRozan wears shoes designed by fans for Raptors Throwback Nights (PHOTOS) | ProBasketballTalk
It was a contest of sorts, where the fans could not only see DeRozan wearing their very own design if it was one that was chosen, but they’d also receive the pair they designed if they submitted a winning selection. DeRozan picked out the winners, the first of which was designed by Kevin Xie (@Xie888 on Twitter) and features the “moonwalk” print designed in Raptors colors.
Toronto Raptors at Milwaukee Bucks: Monday NBA game preview | Toronto Star
It’s the Bucks’ first game since they beat the New York Knicks in London, England, last Thursday. . . . Milwaukee’s Larry Sanders is out, serving a minimum 10-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug program. . . . Game marks the midpoint in the season for the Raptors. . . . Dwane Casey was non-committal when asked Sunday whether the second-half benching of Terrence Ross was a permanent move or a one-night message. The options would be Greivis Vasquez or James Johnson and it won’t be known until game time which way they go. . . . DeMar DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in all three games he’s played since coming back from injury.
Raptors tipoff: Bucks up Monday | Toronto Sun
Few teams have turned things around as well as the Bucks. The NBA’s worst team in 2013-14 with 15 wins, Milwaukee, under Jason Kidd, already has 21 wins, is in the thick of the playoff hunt in the East and is 12-11 on the road, after winning just five times away all last year.
NBA Preview – Toronto Raptors at Milwaukee Bucks – Jan 19, 2015 | CBSSports.com
“We’ve just got to be there for him the best way we can, help lift him, just like we do everybody else,” DeRozan told the team’s official website. “We’ve all been there, playing in this league, everybody’s been there in some type of way. We’ve just got to help him out the best way we can, and get him back on his feet. Once he gets rolling, it’s going to be something he definitely needed when he looks back at it.” The season series against Milwaukee started much better with a 124-82 home win on Nov. 21 to extend the Raptors’ winning streak in the series to five after 10 consecutive losses.
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