“If you lose the last game of the season, nobody gives a s$@t.”

Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, Moneyball

So the Raptors did what Brad Pitt’s character could never do, in their win against the Celtics last night. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s what he actually had in mind.

It was fanapalooza night and the fans were treated to a good old fashioned blow-out. And while I have often criticized Raptor fans for being too emotional and too wrapped up in the moment, but I’ve also defended them as being among the most loyal in the NBA. And the most vocal.

Some sports writers, who shall remain nameless, will often throw out a Raptor comment knowing they get a lot of response from fans.

You go to any NBA forum and the Raptor boards are always the busiest.

This year, the Raptors had the 13th highest attendance in the league. And while that may not sound like much to be proud of, keep in mind that every team ahead of them had a better record, and either were in the playoffs this year or made the playoffs last year. The Raptors haven’t made the playoffs for the last 5 years.

That’s loyalty.

Speaking of the fans, there have been a number of comments on this site criticizing the writers here, including me, for being too negative. Some feel we should write more positive stories. Personally, I’ve always felt I simply wrote what I saw, whether positive or negative (and really, if I’m so negative, why did my prediction for the season fall one win short ?). With the team missing the playoffs for the 5th straight year, and a team that many feel is built for mediocrity, I think many of us can be forgiven if the “negative” outweighs the “positive” because that’s a reflection of the team. The team won 34 games for the season and were out of the playoff hunt almost a month ago. If it wasn’t for the Raptors taking advantage of a few playoff teams who treated the last few games as nothing more than an exhibition season, the Raptors might have ended up with the same winning percentage as last year, despite adding $20 million in salary and three “core” players to the team.

And then I really listened to Matt Devlin and Leo Rautins talk during the game.

If you listen to any Raptor commentator, and take what they are saying to heart, reading what any other Raptor writer, outside of Doug Smith, has to say would probably be jarring. You see, the Raptor commentators are Raptor employees. When Michael Grange was interviewing Bryan Colangelo, in the halftime feature, this was an employee interviewing his boss.

They HAVE to say positive things about the team or else they’ll be fired.

That’s why you heard Leo Rautins refer to Andrea Bargnani as a workable asset that has trade value, and not the unwieldy contract that will be nearly impossible to move.

That’s why they kept talking up the Rudy Gay trade as if it was such a great move for the team, and not a panic move that is meant to save Colangelo’s job. The organization knows the criticism being levelled at them, and they have an avenue to dispute it without argument.

Of course, there was a game last night, and while Boston came into it with the same level of interest as the Hawks and Bulls before them, the Raptors did have the professionalism to give their fans a good send off.

There wasn’t really a Raptors that didn’t play well, but the player of the game was probably Jonas Valanciunas, who finished the night with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. As usual, he got to the line and played hard every minute he was on the court.

In one sequence, Valanciunas beat every other player up the court to catch a lob from Kyle Lowry for a fast break dunk. If anyone is worried that the Raptors playing a faster pace is not conducive to playing Valanciunas, I suggest you watch this play.

One interesting moment. After a play where Valanciunas fouled Shavlik Randolph, first John Lucas approaches him to explain why it was a foul, and then Alan Anderson. A good sign that his teammates want to help him, and that he’s open to their help.

While Valanciunas had another good game, teams are obviously starting to scout him. All four of his turnovers were due to Boston doubling him and either taking the ball from him or making him pass it. Next year is going to be a big adjustment as teams start sending double teams at him.

Another of Valanciunas’ weaknesses is his penchant for fouling, which is normal for rookie big men. After his second foul in the first quarter, Dwane Casey, as usual took him out. One criticism I’ve had of Casey all year long, is he’s too by-the-book when it comes to removing players with fouls.

It was the last game of the year. Wouldn’t it be a good time to let Valanciunas play with two fouls and see how reacts? What’s the worst that can happen? He gets another foul and sits the rest of the half.

While it’s obvious the Raptors played well, one issue I have with them is the number of times they take a quick three early in the clock. Last night, many of them went in, but that’s hurt them a lot over the course of the season. When you’re hot, that shot is fine. When you’re not, it can be a killer.

I could talk more about the game, but whether you like it or not, it was a meaningless game to finish off a pretty meaningless season. While ending the season going 7-1 might seem like a great thing, how a team plays at the end of a season generally has no bearing on how they do the next season. Worst of all, though, if there was any question before about whether MLSE would pick up Colangelo’s option, this probably seals the deal. And that’s not good news for any Raptor fans that care about building a REAL winning team.

So with the season over for the Raptors, I suggest that everyone watch as much playoff basketball as possible this spring. And make this past season a memory.

Started from the bottom:

Now we here:

Yup. A whole lot has changed but things remain more or less the same.

The team has, however, looked good of late, winning four straight against playoff teams and six of seven overall. Does this mean anything at all? Probably not, given the difficulty in taking anything this late in the season as true performance.

But there are positive signs – the development of Jonas Valanciunas, the defensive performance of the starting unit (seriously, it’s the fourth-best five-man unit in basketball if we loosen playing time requirements), the continued excellence of Amir Johnson, and more.

2013-14 might not be a terribly exciting season, but it definitely promises to be better than this year, the franchise’s fifth straight season missing the playoffs (the first time that has ever happened). So things should get better. But we thought that last offseason, too. Perhaps this late surge is just a part of the evil master plan, a way to galvanize fans before what will be an uneventful offseason, a red herring for Bryan Colangelo to point at and say “see?” to save his job. But maybe…

As the Raptors tip off at 8 p.m. against the Celtics tonight in a game that means literally nothing to either team, hope for a victory. The chances of keeping the team’s lottery pick are down to less than four percent, so a loss is meaningless, and at least a win let’s the team stick it to Hollinger with….one more win than he predicted.

I doubt we’ll see any Celtic regulars as the team tries to rest up for a first round match-up against the Knicks (and don’t underestimate the Celtics, that should be a fun series). So we’ll be treated to Courtney Lee, Chris Wilcox and likely game-MVP Shavlik Randolph, since he’s exactly the type of guy who would inexplicably have a big game against the Raptors.

But it should be a win, and a way to wrap up a very disappointing season on a somewhat positive note – a five-game winning streak and an up-tick in winning percentage. Plus, hey, just a few games back of the playoffs! BUY SEASON SEATS NOW!

I realize many of you are disenfranchised with the team and any wins now won’t phase you at all. That’s how it should be, since these games don’t mean a whole heck of a lot. But it’s the last time you’ll see a Raptors game until October, and by then I bet you’ll be missing it. Terrence Ross’ alley-oops, Rudy Gay’s separation creation, Amir Johnson’s hustle, Jonas Valanciunas’ enthusiasm, DeMar DeRozan’s mid-range game, Andrea Bargnani’s vacant stare…you get the point.

So yeah, just like Drake, for the Raptors “started from the bottom, now we here” means literally nothing. Drake had an in-ground pool and grew up in a rich suburb. The Raptors moved from cellar dweller to barely-also-ran. Aint nobody’s “here” much too far from where they started.

But embrace the meaningless winning streak. It’s all we have for six months in Raptorland. And after tomorrow….NBA playoffs. And you can’t beat that.

The Picks
Vegas: OTB
Hollinger: Celtics -5
Blake: Raptors by 8. 34 wins. Mathify that.

The Toronto Raptors are in the midst of a good run to close out the season and it’s the best way to sell out hope for the 2013-14 campaign.

Since April 3, Toronto has won five-of-six contests. Their last three wins came in succession and against playoff opponents. The Raps defeated the Chicago Bulls twice and most recently the Brooklyn Nets on April 14 at the Air Canada Centre.

During the string of victories, DeMar DeRozan has been averaging 22.8 points per game on 53.4 percent field goal shooting. He’s received some assistance from Rudy Gay, whose produced 17.3 points on 41.9 percent shooting from the field.

But let’s be honest here, those numbers aren’t quite jaw dropping. They are somewhere between decent and good, but obviously not the biggest aspect in these victories.

That in actuality would be their defense. Indeed, since April 3, Toronto’s been surrendering 97.9 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com’s advanced stats tool.

That would be the third best defense in the league over that period of time, right behind the Memphis Grizzlies and Miami Heat.

Consequently, the Atlanta Hawks might have a tougher contest than initially anticipated tonight. On their end, they just recently bounced back from a three-game losing streak with back-to-back wins over the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks.

It’s worth noting Atlanta has already been victorious twice against Toronto this season thanks in large part to their frontline play.

Al Horford has simply been a beast against the Raptors this year, averaging 24 points, 11 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game on 60.6 percent field goal shooting.

Matching up with the former Gator will be an incredibly tough matchup. He’s hurt the Raps this year both on the block and in the mid-range game with his jumpers. Every time Dwane Casey has called for his team to rotate off him to contain drives, he’s made them pay.

In addition, his synergy with Josh Smith has simply been impressive. They have a knack for finding each other in a fun set they love to run. They typically both start at the elbows and one of them catches the ball and runs a pick-and-roll with the other.

The action usually results in a smooth big-to-big alley oop.

If the Raptors can contain Atlanta’s big man tandem, they should have an opportunity to slay another playoff team on the Optimism Tour.

On national television no less.

Statistical support provided by NBA.com.

To borrow an now over-used term, DD was en fuego on Sunday afternoon as he notched what must be a career high in three-balls. Not one, not two, but three, folks. The third one was so surprising that the officials reviewed it, when it was clear his foot was not close to the 3-point line.

Now the real question is whether this is the beginning of sustained improvement from behind the arc or not. If in fact it is, then not only does DeMar improve his own efficiency and help space the floor (which is what a shooting guard should do, not a big by the way), it opens up his own game that much more. Despite his handles being non-elite, it’s easier to do it from further out then it is long two range.

As has been pointed out recently on this site and elsewhere, the shooting guard position is going through some sort of famine. Never has the talent pool been so diluted, especially with the rules tilted so much in the favor of perimeter players. With that in mind, a DeRozan with a somewhat proficient shot would become a net-positive player going forward. It is a development everyone should keep an eye on.

If you really want to analyze this game, it was really Brooklyn’s anemic offense in the first half that cost them the game. They settled for too many jumpers, thinking the Raptors would be another notch on their winning streak belt. By the time they made their run, it was just enough to make it a close game, rather than to pull ahead.

Quincy Acy was a second round steal. Finally Bryan Colangelo pulled one off. He’s a good fit for today’s game of mobile bigs, although the term “big” is quite generous when applied to him. His basketball instincts, like his pass out of a double team to a streaking DeRozan, are above average.

A word here to temper any kind of optimism you want to draw from this stretch of decent games. The Raptors are in the enviable position of playing relaxed stress-free basketball with nothing to lose AND without “tanking” being a factor. That’s why a banged up Amir Johnson is getting big minutes in these inconsequential games. Generally management and coaching start to give more playing time to the lesser lights under the veil of “development” but really are hoping to not win as many games.

Now Brooklyn is playing for playoff positioning, but come on, it’s not really that important. But what we can applaud is the way the team withstood the 4th quarter run and were able to still preserve a victory when the Nets flipped the switch.

The team then underachieved and fired head coach Avery Johnson. Ever since, the Nets have been out of the spotlight. They’ve been completely forgotten within their own conference.

Between the Miami Heat’s 27-game winning streak, Derrick Rose’s unwillingness to rejoin the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks’ 13-game winning streak, Brooklyn’s been swept under the rug.

Perhaps the league should start paying attention.

The Brooklyn Nets have won seven of their past 10 games. They are peaking at the right time and seem poised for a good postseason run. Part of their recent turnaround can be attributed to the play of their multimillion-dollar backcourt.

Joe Johnson’s been a solid clutch performer this season and figures to be a prominent figure for the Nets going forward.

The unquestionable catalyst for the Nets as of late though is Deron Williams. The player that many argued once upon a time was on the same level as Chris Paul is officially back.

Since the beginning of March, Williams has been averaging 23.2 points and 8.1 assists per game on 48.5 percent field goal shooting.

The Nets’ point guard has been nothing short of sensational. He’s been getting in the lane more often by simply breaking down defenders off the dribble. Also, he’s been masterful in the pick-and-roll, baiting defenders into stepping up on him and blowing by them.

Once in the paint, the former Utah Jazz member has been either taking the ball to the rim, dishing off to his big people or kicking the ball out to shooters. Not so coincidentally, Brooklyn is the proud owner of the fourth best offense in the league since March 1 per NBA.com’s advanced stats tool.

Brook Lopez has increased his scoring during the run by virtue of an uptick in his field goal percentage, thanks partly to the new Deron Williams.

With their point guard playing at an elite level, the Nets dropped 117 points two nights ago on an Indiana Pacers team that boasts the best statistical defense in the league.

The Toronto Raptors will unquestionably have a tough task on their hands at the Air Canada Centre today when they host their divisional foes.

The Raps are coming off back-to-back victories over the Chicago Bulls and are more than happy to play spoiler down the stretch for teams with playoff aspirations.

Despite matching up against the Bulls’ tough perimeter defenders in the past two contests, Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan averaged a combined 40.5 points per game on 50 percent field goal shooting against them in the back-to-back contests.

Needless to say, how the Raptors’ swingmen perform will go a long way towards deciding the outcome of the contest, but that’s not the lone area of concern.

Since remerging as a playoff contender on March 1, Brooklyn has been the second best offensive rebounding team in the league according to NBA.com’s advanced stats tool. That’s pertinent given that Toronto has been in the bottom five teams in allowing opposing offensive rebounds during the same stretch.

The Pick

Brooklyn by 5.

Kyle Lowry and Deron Williams should give us a good show.

Enjoy the game folks.

Statistical support provided by NBA.com.

With both Terrance Ross and Jonas Valanciunas likely sitting out with injuries, it will be interesting to see how Casey rolls his bench tonight. Heavy minutes and sets have gone to the development of these too, especially Valanciunas. As a result, we’re likely to get a heavy dose of the Quincy Acy show tonight, so set your DVRs to record! (*Sarcasm asterisk: Quincy Acy has actually been surprisingly entertaining and improved at times in recent games, and I’ve enjoyed it. But it’s just not in me to pass up a chance at a cheap joke.) Lowry has looked alternatively on point and disinterested since playoff elimination made the season something of an exercise in vanity. The same can be said of Rudy Gay, who has insisted on dribbling the ball a little bit higher each game for the last 2 weeks. My theory is that he’s playing a game of turnover-chicken with himself as a way of fighting off boredom. I can only hope it’s fun for him, because it hasn’t really gone so well and it isn’t exactly a treat to watch.

The Raptors beat the Bulls in their last meeting on Tuesday. While conventional wisdom tells you to put your money on the much better team (Bulls) beating the team in tank/development/ready for summer mode, I would not be surprised to see the Raptors pull out another sorry looking victory in the form of Tuesdays win.

Chicago has had one of the strangest regular seasons in recent memory. Depending on which night you watch them and which day’s injury report you read, it’s tough to tell whether or not the Bulls are a sleeping giant peaking just at the right time, or a team thats completely and utterly spent, in need of a week’s worth of sleep. In the last few weeks, Chicago has beaten all four of the teams that are ahead of them in the standings. Even more impressive has been their dragon slaying of Miami’s 27 game win streak, followed by vanquishing the Knicks 13 game winning streak last night. However, over that sam stretch of time they’ve also lost games to half-strength Detroit, Toronto, Washington and Sacramento teams.

The reason for Chicago’s over and under performance is head coach Tom Thibodeau. Thibodeau is a great coach. He is a brilliant defensive mind and a great motivator, almost always getting the most from his team. He is also insane and something of a sadist. Thibodeau, whose team spends more time playing at playoff intensity–especially on defence– than any other team in the league, barely ever plays more than 8 players a game, with 40 or more minutes going to Deng, Butler and Noah on most nights. Butler has played a combined 90 minutes in the last 2 games alone! Luol Deng is leading the league in minutes played per game for the second consecutive year. Joakim Noah has played over 40 minutes in 26 different game this year. There was a stretch back in December where he spent less than 30 minutes total on the bench over seven games. Joakim Noah has been playing with plantar fasciitis (also known as turf toe) all season. The only way to heal turf toe is to give it consistent rest. Or, you know, you could play 40 minutes a game through it instead for a fifth place seed and one round of playoffs. It’s not like chronic foot injuries have ever proven to be a bad thing for talented young centres… There is no coach in the league for whom a single regular season victory is worth more to than Tom Thibodeau, and his team’s injury report is the result.

I expected Chicago to start crashing back to Earth a couple of months ago, and it’s a testament to this team’s determination that they’ve stuck around as long as they have. But there is a reason that they’ve had 4-6 players officially listed at ‘day-to-day’ for every single game over the last 6 weeks. The big games where Chicago leaves it all on the floor are impressive exceptions to the rule. Right now, they look a lot like a team of humans whose coach plays them as if they’re robots.

Betting Lines: Toronto -2.5

Thibodeau’s Bulls-bots batteries are dry. I’ll give Chicago the two and a half points and take the Raptors. Noah and Gibson are both likely out for the Bulls, who must be feeling a kind of exhaustion right now that tires me out just thinking about it. Everybody’s favourite Amir Johnson is likely to get big minutes, and without Noah or Gibson, I like his matchup on Boozer. If I’m wrong, it’s likely to be because Nate Robinson continued to do ridiculous Nate Robinson things. He’s done it twice in the last week already, so maybe I’m a fool, but I say anytime you get a chance to bet against a team that’s riding on Nate Robinson’s back, you do it.

Go Raps!

@MarmaladeJacko

Let’s have a look at what each team is focused on heading into Tuesday’s game at 8 p.m. on Sportsnet One.

Raptors – Lottery Odds
The Raptors are 22nd in the NBA with a 29-48 record, tying them with the Washington Wizards for the eighth worst record and thus, the eighth best lottery odds.

Keep in mind that “lottery” means far less than in previous years with the Raptors not owning their pick, while “odds” has become far more important because even tiny shifts in odds could give the Raptors their pick back, if it falls in the top three.

With five games to go, the “best” the Raptors could do is finishing with the fourth worst record, but this seems extremely unlikely. It’s far more likely that the Raptors finish between eighth and tenth in lottery odds, since any team they’re “chasing” will also be losing, both for tanking reasons and because they’re bad.

As a refresher, here are the odds of getting a top-three pick at the three most likely landing spots for the Raptors in terms of overall standings:

23rd – 10%
22nd – 6.1%
21st – 4%

So there’s some serious incentive for the Raptors to try and finish below Minnesota and Washington. I wasn’t a proponent of tanking earlier in the year, but with just five games left and such significant marginal odds for each win and loss now, it certainly doesn’t help to win.

Of course, all of this means little since even in the best case scenario, there’s just a one-in-10 chance the Raptors get a top-three pick. But hey, we’ve gotta hope for something, right?

Raptors – Development
Jonas Valanciunas is the man. While he cooled a bit in that terrible loss to Milwaukee on Saturday, he’s been an absolute treat for about a month now and is the only reason I’m still tuning in for (most) games. I love this kid and can’t wait to see how he’ll look after another summer of development.

Chicago Bulls – Actual Basketball
At 42-34, the Bulls deserve a ton of credit for staying above board with Derrick Rose missing the entire season injured. Add in injuries to Joakim Noah, Richard Hamilton, Taj Gibson and Luol Deng, and it’s a wonder this team has managed a 6-3 record over their past nine. Noah and Deng are questionable for tonight, while Gibson, Hamilton and Rose are out.

The Bulls are an elite defensive outfit, fifth in the league in defensive rating even with all of those bodies in and out of the lineup. Tom Thibodeau deserves some publicity as a Coach of the Year candidate for keeping this Rose-less squad as a power in the East.

In fact, the Bulls are fighting to host a playoff series right now. They trail Brooklyn for the fourth seed by two games with six to play. It seems unlikely but it’s not impossible for the Bulls to pick up those two games (I’m not sure who owns the tiebreaker). They’re also just a game up on Atlanta, and I’d guess that they’d rather play Brooklyn than Indiana (the third seed), so they have the incentive to get wins right now. Which means…

The Picks
Vegas: Bulls -4.5
Hollinger: Bulls -6
Blake: Bulls by 8.

Yup, not happening, folks. Even banged up, the Bulls should be able to take this thing based on motivation alone. If Deng plays, I’d double down, since he will probably do a really good job on Rudy Gay (love Deng). I hope this team gets healthy over the next two weeks because they’re a lot of fun and I don’t want to watch them whimper out in the first round because of injuries.

Milwaukee was in complete control from the first to the end of the third, which is when the lead was 25 points. The Raptor made the token garbage-time “run” to make it less humiliating. You can check the box score for the low-lights such as Rudy Gay’s 1-10 FG shooting performance, or you could take your pick from DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry etc. Even the lone bright spot of late, Jonas Valanciunas, suffered a poor game as the Bucks tested the Raptors to a man in transition and came out on top. Ironically enough, the team the Raptors were chasing for that final playoff spot clinched it right in front of their eyes in resounding fashion.

[Also read: Quick Reaction: Raptors 83 vs Bucks 100]

DeRozan found Ellis tougher than he had Ridnour the night before, and Gay stayed on the perimeter against Daniels, and never did assert himself. The third quarter surge that he’s come up with a couple times this year never materialized. Maybe his back is bothering him, and if so, shut him down because there’s zero reason he should be playing. The defense was non-existent, both in transition and in half-court. Effort was a major factor as is expected in a game as pointless as this. Maybe preventing Milwaukee from clinching a playoff spot might’ve been motivation, but that wasn’t clearly the case. The Bucks beat the Raptors in every single major statistical category here: rebounding, FG%, assists, turnovers, blocks, FTM…

Looking ahead to the off-season, and given the lack of flexibility on the roster (BTW, where’s the DeRozan’s worth $10M crowd?), I’m even pondering whether this is the year we do want that first round pick. It might be the only way we have a chance to add a quality player. Then again Bryan Colangelo was apparently in Italy scouting some people. Or looking for a job. Both are equally believable.

The Raptors strategy of building a team from other team’s rejected parts is backfiring fast, making the earlier strategy of playing out the season with Davis/Valanciunas/Ross/DeRozan and adding a piece or two in the off-season look rather attractive. The odds now are that the Raptors do a variant of one of the following:

1. Stay the course and bring this team back to training camp. The same results will be repeated, as teams around the Raptors aren’t exactly going to take a major step back (maybe Boston or Philly, but Detroit will get better).
2. Bargnani has zero trade value and we would have to trade an actual asset just to get rid of him (or amnesty him). The guy that Colangelo is likely to move in another gamble is DeRozan, and nobody would quite shed a tear, except that Terrence Ross’ terrible play has resulted with the Raptors having no insurance there. That won’t stop Colangelo to try to move DeRozan for someone that used to be something.
3. Adding Carl Landry and selling him as the missing piece, while bring back Jose Calderon as an official backup. Or something.

Either way, the core of Gay and Lowry will return which means it’s those two guys that the Raptors are going to lean on to improve the current pathetic state of the club. I think Lowry can turn it around and become a productive member of this team. I’m not sold on Gay, this theory of him adding weight in the summer and returning next season as an All-Star type player is ridiculous (sorry, Leo).

I’m kind of sad there’s no draft to look forward to, because that’s sort of kept us going between April all the way to June.

—

After giving Don Nelson and George Karl their 1000th win as coaches, the Toronto Raptors denied Rick Adelman from joining the exclusive club. A club that has fewer members than SNL’s Five Timers Club. It was nice, not only because it prevented the Raptors from being add to list of answers to trivia questions that include, “What team did Don Nelson beat to win 1000 games?”, “What team did George Karl beat to win 1000 games?” and “What team did Kobe Bryant score 81 points against?”. It was also nice because it gave some meaning to what would otherwise be a meaningless game.

Neither the Raptors nor the T-Wolves will make the playoffs, and about the only thing they’re fighting for now is draft seeding. And with the Raptors unlikely to retain their pick, I’m wondering how many Raptor fans even care.

Of course, now the Raptors are riding a two game winning streak, their longest in 20 games. The only danger now is that the Raptors start playing well, giving Bryan Colangelo more of a chance of returning next year to continue mismanaging the team and overpaying players.

But on to the game…

The Minnesota Timberwolves are a peculiar team. They have four point guards on the roster, the only shooting guard has knees worse than mine and who already retired once, their best three point shooter is probably their power forward and their best interior defender is their small forward.

Without a real shooting guard, 6’2 Luke Ridnour has been starting there for most of the season. If you’ve been following the Raptors at all this season, you should know that this pretty much guarantees a big game from DeMar DeRozan, who routinely feasts on undersized defenders.

I’ve been pretty critical of DeRozan over the last couple of seasons, but this year his post-up game has grown by leaps and bounds. And while he takes WAY too many long twos, still has poor ball handling skills and is a below average defenders, what he does do is take advantage of smaller defenders. And that’s exactly what he did against the T-Wolves.

While most of his shots still came from outside of the paint, he hit more than half his shots on the way to 25 points. On the downside, he only got to the line once. Not surprising since he only took took shots at the rim and only four in the paint. While did did score well and when the team needed him to, it was another inefficient night.

 Rudy Gay was the team’s leading scorer, with 26 point, his efficiency mirrored that of DeRozan’s, going 12-23 with only one free throw on the night. On the plus side, he seemed more engaged, after the first quarter, and got into the paint more than usual.

Speaking of Gay, I’d like to watch the game again and see what the ratio was of how many times Gay scored and then let his man easily drive by on the very next play. For a guy with his defensive ability, the number of times he let’s this happen is unforgivable.

Of course, the main reason for many of us to watch the game was to see Jonas Valaniunas. Before the game, it was announced that he had won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for March, which seems like a great honour until you realize that most of the decent rookies are in the West, and the last Raptor that won it was Jamario Moon.

Jonas was going up against possibly the strongest player in the NBA, Nikola Pekovic. Pekovic is an absolute beast and the guy Blake Griffin said was the toughest player in the NBA to play against. I also don’t know if there’s a more underrated player in the league. This is a 7 foot center with pretty decent mobility who weighs in the neighbourhood of 280 lbs, most of which appears to be muscle. And he’s averaging 16.2 ppg and 8.8 rpg for the season. I’d say he’s easily a top ten center this year, yet you never hear anyone talking about him.

Jonas actually played Pekovic pretty well, and was able to score in double digits, yet again, but did have an off night on the boards, only managing 4 in 30 minutes. Still, considering what he was up against, you have to give him credit.

With Pekovic, you knew Aaron Gray was going to make an appearance and he didn’t disappoint. He definitely made an appearance. I was disappointed that I didn’t see his regular reaction whenever he’s called for a foul. I don’t recall another player arguing such obvious foul calls as Gray. Well, maybe Alan “Stink” Anderson, but despite playing in his hometown, Casey didn’t give him very many minutes.

So the Raptors won and are now a half game ahead of Washington for 10th place in the East.

Random thoughts for the game:

- When Andrei Kirilenko goes in to get his haircut, does he ask for the Tom Chambers?

- While the wife of T-Wolves owner, Glen Taylor, isn’t young, she’s quite attractive for her age. Taylor, on the other hand, was definitely not married for his looks.

-  I’ve really been intrigued about Derrick Williams as someone who might blossom on another team, and then I watched him slowly jog back on defense, well behind both teams. Twice.