The Raptors dropped one to Philly in Vegas. Up by a deuce with 16 seconds left, they let Philly tie it on a layup (think defensive breakdown) and committed an offensive foul to give them the ball back with four seconds left. This of course was enough time for Jamont Gordon to lay one in with 0.6 left.
The PG play was a bit better with Ewing and Lucas improving their shot selection enough to have more points than attempts. Joey Graham and Hassan Adams got their run in and the Raptors had a nice rally in the third where they cut down an 8 point deficit. Nathan Jawai didn’t play (presumably because of his injury) and Rod Benson finally got off the bench for 0 points in 4 minutes. Honorable mention goes out to CJ Giles for grabbing 12 rebounds and being very active on the glass. There’s no point talking about this game because we’re not going to be signing a single player from this roster that we haven’t already inked.
Leo Rautins ripped into Samuel Dalembert on the Fan 590 and called him a prima dona. There are rumours that fire was coming out of Leo’s nose and smoke out of his ears when he was speaking.
The game against Croatia was nothing short of a blowout as recorded so excellently by the Posted Sports Live Blog. As Grange points out there was never a doubt about who the superior team was as Croatia suffocated the Canadians into horrid shooting spells to take the game 83-62. Canada shot 27.1% for the game! So ends Canada’s Olympic dreams and so begins the speculation of what the future of Basketball Canada holds including Leo Rautins’ job status. The Raptors interest in the game was Roko Ukic who ended up with an unimpressive 1/5 for 3 points (box score). As the Posted Blog notes, the main fault today was the inability to execute on offense more than the Croatian defense and that blame must lie somewhere. The game repeats in the evening at 10PM on The Score.
They’re trying to come up with a nickname for the Oklahoma City team and some douchebag is saying that naming the Raptors the Raptors was a mistake and just a 90’s fad. I beg to differ, so what if Jurassic Park was the thing back in the day, the Raptors name still isn’t half bad. The real mistake was associating the color purple with the team which could only mean Barney! Aren’t dinosaurs supposed to be big, dark and menacing? Our early marketing never really captured that image. I’m happy with the name, I just wish they’d stop using the word “extinct” every time we get kicked out of the playoffs.
A nice post here about how Phoenix is no longer the attractive NBA market that it used to be because of the way Robert Sarver does business which is in stark contrast to how Jerry Colangelo did it. The report also suggests that the Suns are going after Shaun Livinston among other second-tier guards. Deron Williams has agreed to an extension with the Jazz and the Clippers have signed Kelenna Azubuike to an offersheet as the exodus from Golden State continues.
Jay Triano will help P.J Carlesimo lead the US Select team which now also features O.J Mayo. Triano is obviously a very well-respected coach whose involvement with USA Basketball speaks volumes about his credibility around the league and his coaching skills. I never got around to figuring out why he was made the scapegoat for Team Canada’s failures. He got the short end of the stick on that deal and I’m happy for the bloke anytime I see his name popping up anywhere. Future NBA head coach this man right here.
Quick one today.
