The Love-Darko frontline can be a scary proposition for the Raptors because they don’t have the strength or bulk to match underneath. Last night, it turned out they had the heart. Amir Johnson comes in weighing at 210lbs, Love is 260lbs, and Darko is 275lbs. This should be a blood bath in favor of their bigs, and it turned out to be a win for Johnson who dropped 19/11, had a ridiculous +31 in 30 minutes, and most importantly held Love to 3-16 shooting. The final rebounding tally was 44-39 in favor of the Raptors. Can’t say I saw that coming.

The offensive hero of the night again was Andrea Bargnani (31pts, 9reb, 11-25FG), who is the source of the offense right now. Ignore the FG percentage, those are shots he had to take and came within the flow of an offense that was struggling for the better part of the game. If he’s not scoring, his threat of scoring is counting for something. He’s developing some pet moves as well, notably a pump-fake (which is always respected), followed by a drive and a sweet reverse which you always think he’s going to miss but is actually finishing more comfortably with each game. There were parts of this game where it looked like the Raptors would fall short of offense since DeMar DeRozan wasn’t playing (some guy stole his jersey and was impersonating him on the floor, somebody needs to look into that), and Rasual Butler was making me miss Linas Kleiza by going 0-5 on wide open threes. Some of them were so open that the boxscore needs to have another column called WFOT (wide f***ing open threes). Bargnani’s 31 points and sheer presence overcame the short offensive supply, no doubt helped by the unexpected contribution of Amir Johnson.

If there was a game to get in this back-to-back-to-back, it was the first one at home coming off a day relaxing. The Raptors started off with Bargnani carrying the scoring load, and should have had a bigger lead if it weren’t for Butler’s long-range misfiring. To compound matters, it was Minnesota who got hot in the first from deep and edged to a 27-25 lead at the end of the first. The Raptors blew some key rotations on Love, almost being surprised by the comfort level he displays playing on the perimeter. Minny had five threes in the first which seemed to boost their confidence after a sluggish start (they were on a back-to-back as well).

The Raptors somehow managed to get themselves in the penalty very early in the second, and some lethargic play by the second unit caused Minny to march to the FT line 8492 times in the quarter. The game was slowed, the already sparse crowd wasn’t feeling it, Minny surged ahead on the backs of their FT shooting and the Raptors second unit couldn’t provide the required boost. DeRozan tried to take Barea in the post for a score, and that’s all I can remember of the guy. I’m sure he played more than that but you wouldn’t have noticed him. In my opinion, he’s struggling with team ball and needs to learn how to adapt from playing Triano’s style (freelancing offense where people just randomly shoot) to Casey’s offense (which is team-oriented even though it’s dependent on a key guy to anchor it). The weird part about DeRozan’s game right now is that he doesn’t have any go-to moves on the perimeter or in the post. His primary avenue of contribution the last two years have been FTs, and he’s not able to get to a position where he’s a candidate to be fouled. The reduction of pace by Casey is decreasing the number of times DeRozan can “come at” the defense in transition, hence the offensive drop.

I don’t know, I’m just a guy with a keyboard but that makes a little sense to me.

After the Raptors fell behind by 6 in the second, Casey called a timeout and reminded his team that there isn’t a guy on the T’Wolves that can matchup with Bargnani. He was right. Minny tried Derrick Williams, Darko Milicic, Anthony Randolph, and Anthony Tolliver on him, and none of those guys deterred Bargnani from his mission of doing the right thing. Kudos to him. Barbosa chimed in through traditional fashion (shoulders bent, head down, slicing through a defense, throwing up shots that make you go “I guess”), and a defensive spark was provided by James Johnson leading to a 16-2 run to end the half.

Note on James Johnson. There are blocks and there are blocks that save you two points. James Johnson had blocks that save you two points, he had four of them and they may as well be 8 points credited to him. Better yet, there needs to be another column added to the boxscore: BTDSP (blocks that directly saved points). He even got one on Love or Darko (can’t remember which), a true showcase of inspired basketball by Johnson, who is accepting his role off the bench and becoming a poor man’s James Posey circa 2008.

Halftime score was 55-49 Raps.

Rick Adelman reminded his cronies at halftime that they needed to go back inside, seeing how that’s where the Raptors were thin. And so they did, it worked for a few possessions before Amir Johnson said enough is enough, and started being a thorn in their side again. And not just any kind of thorn, the thorn that goes deep into your finger so you can’t see it anymore, making you go to your girlfriend, “Can you check what’s stuck here?”, to which she says, “I don’t see anything”, and you go, “You sure? I can feel something”, to which she finally says, “It’s probably nothing”. But you know it’s something even though you can’t prove it. F**k this world sometimes.

Bargnani’s nine points pulled the Raptors ahead by 12 in the quarter, and this looked like it was going to extend to 20 quite soon. Jose Barea had other ideas, his late assault on Jose Calderon and Anthony Carter had this a 6 point game going into the fourth quarter. Bayless would’ve helped here, he’s the only one on the team quick enough to try and stick with Barea. I’m a little surprised he lodged only 17 minutes to Rubio’s 30. Obviously Calderon has defended Rubio tons in the past, so not sure why Adelman didn’t exploit a known weakness through Barea way more often.

Barea finally went to the bench with 6:00 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 80. I’m thinking Adelman’s going to give him a minute’s rest, combine it with a timeout and bring him back out. Barea never saw the light of day again. Whew. Instead, the T’wolves only managed one field goal the rest of the game, as the Raptors defense upped its focus, and started making rotations that a quarter ago, you would’ve never thought they’d have the energy to make this late.

The Raptors defense isn’t a complex organism filled with intricate matchup-zones, strategic help assignments, they’re basically instructed to cover the guy that’s near you. That’s what they’re doing and it’s paying dividends. It helps to have some versatility with DeRozan, J. Johnson, A. Johnson, and Ed Davis on the floor, in that those guys can guard multiple positions without giving up too much in terms of rebounding and/or quickness.

The Raptors defense in combination with four jumpers iced the game: two by Jose, one by Bargnani, and a totally unexpected one from Amir, who was being begged by Love to shoot. This is what I call defense and shot-making winning you the game. It’s also fitting that it was Amir Johnson’s late steal off an in-bound, followed by a foul that sent him to the ground that iced this one. Bargnani and Johnson the players of the game for me.

On the road in Washington tonight, before coming home to face Sacramento. Somebody should swing by with a pre-game at some point, go Raps!

Barbosa: for one night at least, he was back to the Barbosa we need. Crisp passes, getting to the line (where he was a perfect 9/9), active hands on defense…it was good to see.

Bargnani: this is verging on redunkulous. His game is almost written by a Hollywood script night in and night out: get pushed around, ignore it, give up taking a 3 to get a high percentage shot, have one reverse, pull one never-seen-by-him-before defensive move out of nowhere, make your critics eat crow. He got off 25 shots and 9 free throws in 45 minutes of action and he looked like he would go full throttle in OT if needed. Incredible.

Butler: I’ll give $20 to the first person to take a picture of his vehicle’s gas cap opening because I’m sure it is surrounded by gashes from the nozzle. This guy just can’t find a hole and fill it. How he has escaped the boo birds by the local fans is mindblowing. 0 for 5 from deep and every time he hoisted you almost knew it wasn’t going in. Embarrassing.

Calderon: I can’t be the only one who was terrified to see what Jose would do tonight. Going up against Rubio with at least a few thousand more Spaniards watching online than there were Canadians at the ACC tonight, the proud Calderon was bound to be wound up more than Liston at a new release of Microsoft Excel. Happy to say, though, that this is an older/wiser/freshly shorn Calderon and he passed with a solid B.  He held Rubio in check and refused to be on the bad part of a highlight reel.

Carter: sweet momma….7 minutes, –17, no points, no assists, 2 fouls. If you had given him a jar of pickles to open tonight, I’d put my money on the jar.

Davis: I’m not going to say that, one again, I’m disappointed in Davis’ game and he underperformed against a team that he should do better against.  i will say that I am less disappointed in my dog who ate my roast beef dinner and drank 2 bottles of my Carlsberg then went to the bathroom on my newly purchased area rug. The excuses are running out for Davis and soon one has to wonder if Solomon was actually the most deserving of being sent to the DLeague.

DeRozan: he once again made an attempt to redeem himself late in the game but as was deftly pointed out by Mr. Armstrong, we need more out of a guy who represented the team at Allstar weekend and is constantly referred to as our future. There are times he seems disinterested.

A. Johnson: I know the season is just underway, but if there was ever a game to show the change in Amir, this was it. 30 minutes, with the majority coming against Kevin Love, almost a double double at the half, 7/9 from the floor, 5/6 from the line. Last year he would have been saddled with 3 fouls in 4 minutes and then pick up a quick 2 in the second. This year all he did was make Love look like he’d met his match. Phenomenal game.

J.Johnson: James didn’t fare as well against Love. Heck, he lasted one possession at one point where he came in for Amir, he fouled love in a few seconds and Casey swapped Amir back in immediately. Just like DeMar, he saved his soul in the 4th with 2 wonderful blocks that set the tone for the Raptors to finish the game. I have no doubt that he’ll be punished by watching a lot of video tomorrow, but that’s well deserved. We still need him playing like he did in game 1.

Driving the bus: Amir Johnson

Under the bus: Rasual Butler

Theme of the Game:

I caught my first Wolves game of the Rubio era yesterday; liked what I saw. They are a nice team, with some real solid pieces to build around: young point guard with all-star potential; elite power forward who does everything; and a young talented supporting cast. Even without their 2012 1st round pick, you could argue they are better positioned than the Raptors going forward; especially considering no one on the roster makes more than $6.5m (no bad contract imho).

I spoke with Benjamin Polk of A Wolf Among Wolves:

The Wolves seem like a nice, young, deep team in-spite of Khan’s best efforts; am I wrong?

You are not wrong. A few qualifiers on that though. First, although Kahn certainly has his fair share of bewildering moves (drafting Jonny Flynn chief among them), I don’t think he’s quite as terrible as he’s made out to be. When he replaced Kevin McHale, the team’s roster was a hot mess. Untangling it all would have driven the best of us to drink. Second, while people are feeling pretty good about them right now, they are still a wing scorer/defender and an actual (not Darko-holographic) big man away from being for real. If can can make that happen (without a ’12 first-round pick and without giving up anything serious) then you can color me impressed.

True or False: Rubio is the real deal.

That is true. Nobody passes like that by accident; the kid is seriously gifted. But: I’m still not convinced that his solid shooting isn’t an anomaly. If he regresses back down into the sub-40% range (where he was projected), he’ll be a lot easier to defend. Also, right now he has the second-worst turnover rate of any point guard in the top 30 (Mario Chalmers is worst). That’ll take some fixing.

Call the game.

Well, since both the Raptors and the Wolves are working on new identities under new coaches it’s still really hard for me to know who they are. Statistically, they’re pretty even so far–the Wolves have been a bit better defensively, while the Raps have been a bit better on O. But because I’m a blatant homer I’m gonna go with the Wolves, let’s say by five.

Match-ups

Point Guard
Both Ridnour and Rubio have been doing their damage from the perimeter this season. Yesterday against the Wizards, they took three shots inside of 9 feet between the two of them.  Now that we know how these guys score/operate, Calderon and Carter should be prepared, right? We may see some remnants of fatigue tonight with Calderon, and if the Raptors get into an early hole, don’t expect to see heavy minutes from him. Barbosa may even see some time at the point since Carter really can’t put in much more than 10 minutes himself. I’m just hoping Ridnour doesn’t have another career night against the Raptors; he always gets up to play us. Barea might see action tonight, but the guys been injured to start the season, so he wont be a huge factor given he wont be logging heavy minutes.
Edge: Even

Shooting Guard
DeMar hasn’t been helping himself at all the last couple games. I still stand by my assessment of him needing to get to the line more; three trips in the last two games is unacceptable. Both Ellington and Johnson are perimeter players who will make DeRozan pay if he gives them too much room to shoot. He needs to set the tone early, test the Wolves defense early, and be engaged from the onset, otherwise another 8pt 2reb performance is all we can hope for.
Edge: Even

Small Forward
By all rights, Beasley should be playing for the Raptors; why we passed on taking him back from Miami is beyond me. I’m asking because I’m interested to know what people think: would you rather have Beasley and Norris Cole or James Johnson and a trade exception that wont get used? Fortunately, Michael is injured and wont be dropping 31 on us tonight. Leaves a combination of Derrick Williams and Wesley Johnson for JJ, Butler and Forbes to deal with. Wont be quite as bad as it could have been, but with three games in three nights, we’re going to bear witness a lot of ugly.
Edge: Wolves

Power Forward
You’d be hard-pressed to name a better power forward than Kevin Love right now. Bargnani could actually do worse than look to him for some pointers on rebounding and putting himself in the right spots at the right time. Otherwise, I am really looking forward to this match-up. Love will have a hard time defending Bargnani off the bounce, but will give him more than a handful on the glass. Love should win the match-up and post somin’ nasty on the box score, but Bargnani will take back his. Whatever happens, I have a feeling that this game will be won on the wing.
Edge: Wolves

Center
Darko doesn’t play heavy minutes, and when he does, he doesnt leave much of a mark on the game. The guy will block a couple shots, grab a couple rebounds and score a couple from 3 feet; that’s it. The Wolves will go small ball whenever they can, making Magloire less useful than he already is. Amir should benefit against a smaller front court, but he still needs to show up and make things happen. This will be the least interesting match-up tonight.
Edge: Even

Injuries

Raptors
Linas Kleiza – Knee, Game-Time Decision

Timberwolves
MIchael Beasely – Foot; Out
Jose Juan Barea – Hamstring, Out
Malcolm Lee – Knee, Out

Keys to the Game

1. Limit Kevin Love’s effectiveness on the boards: the Wolves are 2nd in the league in rebounds/game; have to box the guy out make him work for everything
2. Control the pace: Raptors do much well when they slow the pace, and walk the ball up on offense. Getting into an up-and-down will do nothing but create space on the perimeter for the Wolves to shoot uncontested jumpers which they are good at hitting.
3. Attack the paint: the Raptors went to the foul line 12 times against the Sixers; this is utterly unacceptable. You need to be able to get easy points on the board; have to take advantage of the athleticism our key-players have, and attack the defense off the bounce.
4. No open looks: I’m not sure how much more of this I can take, but the Raptors do a great job of giving opposing teams clean looks at the rim from the perimeter. How many open shots did the Nets hit on Friday? …makes me crazy…

The Line

The gamblers have the Raptors as 3.5 point favourites with an over/under of 188. If the Raptors are to win a game over the next three, it will be tonight (we’ve never seen the Raptors play three games back-to-back-to-back, but it’s going to get very ugly come Wednesday). I hate to say it, but I’d bet against the line right now, and take the Wolves by 4. This is a team that walked into the Wizards house shorthanded, and beat them like they stole something.