The Raptors finally broke out of their 0-for-showing with Bargnani injured this season, and got a win with the franchise on the sidelines. Individual plays and levels of effort aside, you have to appreciate this one; the Raptors never lost a quarter, and dictated the flow and tempo throughout. In fact, had it not been for early solid free-throw shooting in the first half, and some above average offensive rebounding by the Nets, this would have been one of those games where a Nets blogger’s post-game would have been a picture of tightly curled turd on the Nets logo.

An aside to the win, the Raptors managed 94 points without Bargnani and Barbosa. Granted some of that has to do with Jersey’s lack of…everything, but the Raptors did as good a good as job as possible with defensive rotations and assignments that you could expect. I mean, Deron Williams dropped 24 points, but it took him 20 shots (3-10 3FG), and some heroic off the ball movement to get good looks at the rim.

Case in point, in the 2nd quarter, Williams started at the top of the arc, ran around the low block, brushed past two low screens, came around to the top of the arc, caught and shot the ball with Bayless on his ass. He hit the three (without as much space as you’d think), but the point is he wasn’t blowing by pylons to get his baskets. He’s the type of player that can make those kind of plays happen, the rest of the team couldn’t and caved to the Raptor defense.

I like Calderon and Bayless starting in the back-court together. As much as Bayless offends me with his decision making, when he doesn’t have to be the floor general, he makes things happen. He also takes pressure off Jose to cover the likes of Deron Williams. I’d like to explore a lineup of Calderon, Bayless, JJ, Bargnani and Amir with DeRozan, Kleiza and Davis as the first three off the bench for a few games. Bayless attacks the paint off the bounce as much as possible, something DeRozan and his new-found love for the jumper should be doing. It gives a bit more balance, which takes me to DeMar…

…I wasn’t that impressed with DeRozan’s game last night. Sure, 27pts on 8-12FG 11-16FT looks great on the boxscore, but it didn’t sit right with me. Three times in the first half, DeRozan pulled up on the break and popped (missed) a jumper when he could have made a move to the basket and either converted or drew a foul. His 27 should have been at least 30. The second problem I had was 17 of 27 came in the second half with the Nets thinking about dinner and watching Californication.

The saving grace of his second half “dominance” was that he got to the line 12 times and hit 9 of them. Had they all been jumpers, I guarantee we would have been watching him shoot jumpers at an even more alarming rate for the rest of the season. Not sure if it’s just me or is his development looking a bit like VC’s? He doesn’t have the same finish Carter had at this stage of his career, but we watched VC go from a guy who wanted to break the backboard, to the POS jump shooter he became. I’m way to lazy to pull stats on this (maybe Liston can put something for statophile), but I’ve noticed myself sighing with more regularity that he’s shooting instead of driving. I can live with the shooting if it continues to improve, but only if he gets to the line more; 4 times a game is half of what of what he should be doing.

Photo Credit: James Herbert via Twitter

The last time the Raptors played the Nets, it was a 97-85 loss and it was probably not a pleasant experience for you. The slow pace masked what was an awful defensive performance by Toronto: New Jersey scored 114.8 points per 100 possessions. Deron Williams got into the lane whenever he wanted and, once there, either found an open three-point shooter or got to the line. This snapped a six-game losing streak for the Nets.

Tonight, the Nets actually have some momentum – they’ve won three of their last four, four of their last six. It hasn’t been against the best competition, but it’s something. Bad news for Toronto: Williams has been on a tear in those wins and Jose Calderon isn’t suddenly going to be any better at containing him. Good news: Marshon Brooks is likely going to be out, just like last time, and I feel like he’d give the Raptors lots of trouble. Also, the Nets are worse at home.

Point Guard:

You don’t need me to explain to you why Williams has a matchup advantage against Calderon, so instead I’m going to elaborate on the “New Jersey is worse at home” thing. D-Will’s scoring numbers through seven games at the Prudential Center: 16.3 PPG, 35.9 FG%, 26.8 3PT%. In 12 games away from home 21.2 PPG, 41.6 FG%, 39.7 3PT%. Those damn sightlines…

As for the backups, it was encouraging to see Jerryd Bayless put up all those points in Denver. With Bargnani out, it shouldn’t be seen as a nice bonus when he fills it up. His scoring is essential. Jordan Farmar has quietly put up excellent offensive statistics this year off the bench, hitting long twos and threes at a rate way higher than we’re used to and, likely, higher than is sustainable.

Advantage: Nets

Shooting guard:

I could watch Anthony Morrow shoot jumpers all day. Sadly, that’s basically what the Raptors did on January 6, when he scored 24 points on 9-14 shooting, including 6-10 on threes. I know you have to send help when Williams beats his man, but you cannot leave this guy. You cannot. For DeMar DeRozan, the Jazz game was a bright spot but the Nuggets game was… uh… not. He’s still not looking as comfortable as last season; hope this changes soon. Can’t give this one to Toronto, even if the reliable rookie Marshon Brooks sits this out with an inflamed Achilles tendon as expected.

Fun fact: Brooks is just over six months older than DeRozan.

Advantage: Nets

Small Forward: 

The Nets have been starting DeShawn Stevenson at small forward lately, with Anthony Morrow sliding over to back him up at times and the recently called-up Larry Owens seeing a few minutes, too. I wouldn’t bet on Stevenson hitting five threes like he did last time, but I do expect him to have an impact by playing tough defense when matched up with DeRozan.

I’ve really been enjoying James Johnson over the past few games and his block numbers are helping my fantasy team.

Advantage: Raptors

Power Forward:

You never know what you’re getting with Linas Kleiza. Last four games: two points on 1-7 shooting, 25 on 8-16, five on 1-5, and 16 on 5-10. Kris Humphries, on the other hand, is a remarkably consistent double-double machine. The Raps have the advantage off the bench if we’re considering Amir Johnson the primary backup four rather than five — Shawne Williams hasn’t been hitting his threes this season and, as a stretch four, that’s the most important part of his job.

Ed Davis requires your patience.

Advantage: Nets

Center: 

Aaron Gray, Jamaal Magloire, Shelden Williams, Johan Petro. Oh, man.

I’m not sure how to analyze this. Raptors get the edge because Amir Johnson will play some center and Johnson is a good NBA basketball player. Is that enough?

Remember how Bryan Colangelo used to compare Bargnani to Mehmet Okur? Well, they’re both injured, so there’s that.

Advantage: Raptors

The line:

The Nets are favoured by five. The Raptors already lost to them by more than that with Bargnani in the lineup, so it’s tempting to pick New Jersey. That would make too much sense in an NBA season that makes little, so I’m going with Toronto. I don’t care about your tank train.

Over Christmas, my girlfriend and I got a puppy. I named him José (Yes, as an homage to Toronto sports stars Calderon and Bautista).

Without going into too much detail, my life for the past two weeks has been a mess. Between a severe lack of sleep, the waking energy requirement, and the complete lack of schedule flexibility, the dog has been more of a monkey (ZING!).

That said, he is an awesome dog. Even ignoring his adorable bat-face (having earned him the nickname Joey Bats, or Shit-Bat), there is a pretty overwhelming sense of pride that accompanies one’s first foray into dog ownership. Every successful urination or defecation in the designated area, every time a trick is performed successfully, and every time he allows us to sleep for more than an hour uninterrupted, I am immersed in calm, pride, and hope for a future where he is less of a stress.

And then, of course, he’ll wake me up having shit in his crate.

Tonight, the Raptors shit in their proverbial crate.

The reason I talk about my dog, you may have guessed, is because I feel like I can really relate to Dwane Casey right now. Dwane Casey is, for all intents and purposes, the owner of a young, impressionable, inconsistent, and maddening basketball team in the Toronto Raptors. The parallels are never-ending.

To wit, just yesterday John Hollinger was writing about the Raptors as one of the league’s most pleasant surprises, while one ESPN reader even posited that Casey was an early coach of the year candidate. You may remember that the Raptors were 3-3 through a relatively soft schedule at that point. Still, they were in the top half of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and were near the top of the league in opponent Field Goal Percentage. Casey, the credited defensive mastermind behind the defense of the NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks, appeared to have already brought over and installed his defensive schemes with a team that finished last year dead last in defensive efficiency and near the bottom in just about every other defensive statistic.

Basically, despite a shortened training camp, a roster without many strong individual defenders, and offseason additions that sadly included names like Butler, Carter, and Magloire, Casey had quickly trained himself quite a good puppy. Similarly, despite the challenges of being given a dog in Burnaby (Vancouver suburb) while staying a week with in-laws, and facing an exhausting flight home to his third home in his 14-week existence, we seemed to have a good puppy on our hands.

José was adapting quickly to pee pads, commands, and even the snow. The Raptors were adapting quickly to zone schemes, help defense, and Andrea Bargnani was rebounding (the equivalent of my dog writing this article for me, basically).

And then we left José in his crate while we left for an hour and he destroyed it with explosive diarrhea. And then he did it during a 15 minute absence. And then he did it in my car while I was getting Quiznos. Separation Anxiety or not, it doesn’t appear we have quite as easy a pup as we anticipated.

The Raptors, meanwhile, hosted a lowly 1-6 Nets squad that boasted starters like Mehmet Okur and DeShawn Stevenson, with subs like Johan Petro and Sundiata Gaines. And the Raptors had metaphoric diarrhea in their metaphoric crate. Dog analogies aside, this game was Pug-ugly.

Interestingly enough, the defense wasn’t that bad, as the Raptors held the Nets to just 38.8% shooting on the whole. The issues came almost exclusively with rotations and lazy close-outs on shooters, as the Nets rained down 15 threes in 31 attempts despite being just a 28% 3FG team entering the night. Sharpshooter Anthony Morrow was consistently left open by a lackadaisical DeMar DeRozan and a confused Leandro Barbosa, padding his reputation as a marksman with a 6-of-10 night from long range. Morrow finished with a team-high 24 points on just 14 field goals, without taking a free throw. That’s an impressive night in an empty gym, and that’s basically the resistance he faced tonight.

DeShawn added 5 triples in 12 attempts for 15 points, which is one more point than he had in the six previous games combined, and was his highest total in a game since January 8, 2011. That left the rest of the team to go a combined 4/9, which aint too shabby either.

Of course, it wasn’t just the distance shooting that hurt the Raps, as Deron Williams finished the game with 24 points on porous 6-of-18 shooting, aided by a 11-of-13 night at the line. Deron added 5 boards and 9 assists, and really took over in the second half from a scoring and distributing perspective. I know the Raptors contingent of Calderon, Carter, and at points Rasual Butler’s Corpse aren’t exactly world-beaters defensively, but the wings need to figure out when to help and when to stay on their men. There was one maddening play where Deron waltzed toward the bucket and Barbosa left his man just enough to give him the open shot while being in no position to help on Williams if he continued under the basket (basically, the least perfect spot on the floor he could choose to be), and you bet your best kicks Deron found Morrow for an easy triple.

Should I continue? Why not, I’m only 900 words in full of dog shit and stories about my puppy (see what I did there? Hey-oh!).

The rebounding was pretty awful tonight too. I mean…Baby Huey (K-Hump) had 16 boards, NINE of them on the offensive glass. NINE! In all the Nets won the rebounding battle 44-39 with a 13-9 edge on the offensive glass, but it was much worse than that makes it seem when you realize the Raps closed that gap with some garbage time buckets. Amir Johnson and Ed Davis were the only interested parties on the glass, collecting 10 and 8 respectively, while Bargnani, who I’ll remind you is 7 feet tall, somehow managed just 4 boards in 36 minutes of play. One rebound should hit just land in his hands every eight minutes if he held them above his head with no effort (Hmm…).

Speaking of Bargs, where the hell did he go in the second and third quarter? He started off red hot 4-for-4 shooting, and then took just five attempts until the fourth (missing all five), finishing just 6-of-12 for 17 points. He was guarded by Kris Humphries, Shelden Williams, and Johan Petro…C’mon Son! If you can’t be aggressive against that convoy of A-plus defenders, what matchup can you recognize and exploit?

It was no better for our other top scorer, DeRozan, who seemed to sulk his way through his 27 minutes at both ends, finishing just 1-of-6 for 3 points with just two boards. That line is just completely unacceptable, and at least Casey took notice and sat him down for good with about 8 minutes to go. Nice to see some accountability, but that move could have come at halftime and I couldn’t really have argued.

Once again, puppy namesake José Calderon was our best and most inspired player, posting 19 points (7/13) with 8 dimes and playing turnover-free basketball. No, he’s not a strong defender, but he works his ass off and is an offensive dynamo. I love how he wears the emotion of every play on his face and clearly cares at all times, and while I know this shouldn’t factor into “analysis” it’s something I love and appreciate (obviously…I mean, my dog’s name is José).

We’ll do a quick lap around the rest of the line-up: Amir showed solid hustle and continues to prove himself a better player than the box score would show with 8p-10r-2b but a best-among-the-starters +/- of -1. I’m sure when we have enough data for Liston, Amir will grade out as a high-quality player in terms of adjusted-+/-; Ed Davis has looked better the past two games after Casey’s big sit-down, and he earned a season-high 26 minutes. He posted 11 points and 8 boards, adding a block and some solid energy; Rasual Butler’s Corpse somehow managed 11 points but is still welcome to retire any time now; Silky Johnson had 8 points and a pair of blocks, but despite shooting 4-of-6 from the floor looks just completely lost offensively. I made the Antoine Wright (King of PER) comparison (offense only) during the game, which I feel kind of bad about in retrospect; Forbes continued to struggle in limited playing time, going 1-for-5 in 8 minutes; Barbosa continues to struggle with his shot, going 1-for-5 and dropping close to 40% FG% on the year; the old guys played a bit.

Really, it was a huge let-down. This game should have and could have huge implications for the confidence of this team moving through an extremely tough stretch of schedule. Including tonight they play 7 times in 9 days, going Home-Away-Off-Home-Away-Home-Off-Home-Away, a stretch that will allow Coach Casey very little practice time and will allow the players very little downtime between disappointments. The quality of opposition isn’t exactly daunting but isn’t full of push-overs either, so starting off with a lethargic loss to the Nets is definitely a bad sign.

Of course, you could easily just blame this loss on me. If you’ll think back to 2010-11, the Raptors went 1-12 in games I covered for this site. Here we are at 0-1 for 2012.

Or you could blame it on the growing pains Casey and the fan base will continue to deal with as this young, inexperienced team continues to learn the value of defense and improves as a unit (we hope). We can keep hoping the Raptors see their potential when they can block 10 shots and hold a team, even one as bad as the Nets, to 16-of-49 (32.7%) shooting on two-point shots, and how with continued improvement to rotations and close-outs (among other things), they can show this defensive efficiency to be more than a sample-size error. Meanwhile, I’ll keep praying to whatever God will listen that my dog sleeps through the night and that I don’t return from a morning coffee run to a messy, brown-anxiety-covered crate.

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