Summer League: Raptors vs Lakers Live Blog

Follow the game on @raptorsrepublic

‘Sup everybody, they’re singing the national anthems. They got a real cow to sing the Canadian one. Never really liked how the US national anthem gets a louder cheer even though it was sung worse.

DeMar DeRozan, Patrick O’Bryant, Roko Ukic, Quincy Douby, Paul Davis are the starting lineup.

McCauley is killing Patrick O’Bryant on the offensive glass, POB looks a little soft footed there. Douby turns it over to fuel the break. 8-0 Lakers. Sasha Vujacic is in the game for the Lakers. DeRozan with a nice floater on the baseline, looks good. McCauley now taking POB outside with the jumper. Hand this guy a 10yr/60M deal. Some guy named Paul Davis scored for us. Lakers killing us on the boards. Ukic actually drove and kick and got the ball back on the swing and hit the three!

Roko just crossed hard to his left, bad defense. Very lackadaisical. He follows it up with a layup-fake on the break and a behind the back pass to Douby on the break – Raps pretty on the break.

Smush Parker is in the game, walks as soon as he comes in. Ukic still keeping his hands on his hips like a girl Douby’s been doing most of the ball handling so far. Smush uses the high screen and drains a three. Nice stroke. Then comes up with a steal and gets fouled on a break. I reckon he’s shown enough for a 5yr/60M deal. So far Douby and Smush have been trying to get their own while POB is getting owned on defense.

Adam Morrison feels he can take any shot. Making is another story

Spanish forward for the Raptors, David Doblas, executes a hard pivot post-move for the foul. Best move of the game so far for us. Goes 1-2. David Aldridge is calling the game, he appears to be high.

POB needs to be dominating this and he’s not. I think he just got his first rebound. It’s 14-14. POB should’ve gotten a block on Justin Hawking there, but got scored on. Very unimpressive performance by him so far. Raps are 2-8 from the FT line.

Smush Parker with another step-back jumper, he’s outshining Roko right now. Raptor Demetris Nichols (Syracuse, ex-Blazer) just went up strong for a dunk after a baseline move. Showed quickness there, got fouled hard and hit both FTs. Brent Petway got a block that POB should’ve gotten. Very nice, got up high and timed it well. It’s 18-16 Raptors.

Smush using the high screen and turning off of it to get fouled. POB set the screen and rolled, Smush getting his right now. Boy, Quincy Douby can’t hit a shot. He’s taking it early in the clock and missing badly. Brent Petway ran the break well for us to get two, POB hits a jumper right after and its 24-16 Raps. Petway and Nichols showing some very good athleticism for us. Lakers have called a timeout.

BTW, Carl English has not entered the game.

Petway showing us some passing on the break, too bad Douby can’t finish. DeRozan’s drive looks a little raw but at least he’s driving. Roko is back in the game, breaks down some no-name punk and goes in for the layup. Smush’s little show probably woke him up. Petway has been one of the best Raptors so far. Got a block on a guard driving in, bad offense, good defense. He’s shown some great athleticism. It’s 28-19 Raps, 6:28 2nd.

DeRozan picks up a charge. He’s looking to be aggressive, once he gets his timing right he’ll be fine. Roko showing a case of tunnel-vision after the drive and gets REJECTED. Douby’s second spell has been much better, hit a jumper, drove the ball and looked generally more composed.

One-on-one POB vs Morrison on the semi-break and POB gets called for the AND1. Adam Morrison is unable to guard Douby, no lateral movement. Morrison making Douby look good. As soon as Smush comes in for Ukic, he goes one-on-one, loses handle but ball falls to a Raptor who drains the spot. Smush is really looking to get his.

Smush once again turns off the high pick and sets up a Raptor who blows the layup. Nice move though. DeRozan showing us a 14-foot jumper. His jumper is fundamentally sound.

Brent Petway closes the half with a massive left-handed dunk after Parker set him up after the drive. It’s halftime. 40-31 Raptors. Will return for the second when it starts.

Raptors letting Douby handle point duties with Roko at off-guard. Douby is doing well against Morrison. David Aldridge picks the Raptors to finish 6th and if they stay fully healthy, maybe 5th.

Roko alley-oop to DeMar DeRozan on the break. Sick stuff He’s missed his last two jumpers though, keep with the drive kid, keep with the drive. 48-43 Raps, 5:37 left in the third. DeRozan misses his third jumper in a row. Ukic isn’t showing much at all and Douby is settling. Lakers have taken the lead on an offensive put-back right in front of POB. Roko finally asserts himself with a drive to the right and gets fouled.

Raptors aren’t getting back anymore and Roko settling for a 25 footer doesn’t help. WTF? Smush using his height advantage over his cover well, another step-back jumper. Good man. Best Raptor today you could even say. Just had a sick pass to POB from beyond the 3pt line off the pick ‘n roll. He has been impressive, looks like an NBA player. 8/3/5 for Smush.

DeRozan showing us a baseline jumper. Used the pick, went to his let, dug his feet in the ground and elevated nicely. It’s 62-61 Lakers at the end of 3. Raptors shooting 53%, Lakers at 40%. Lakers getting a lot of second chance points early in the game.

Am I being unfair when I expect Patrick O’Bryant to sorta dominate? Just as I’m thinking that, POB finishes hard and gets fouled after rolling on a high screen. They’re trying to front O’Bryant again and he caught the pass and finished. He should be able to do a lot more of that if we just be a little patient and use him.

Douby showing us a little drive to the left, got fouled. He’s had a much better second half but that doesn’t change the fact that we had no business signing him to an extension last year. Two 10-days sounded about right. Douby misses an open three, gotta hit that, it was even in rhythm. Drove to his right, controlled the body, absorbed contact and finished. Good move.

The announcer keeps calling Roko “Rukic”.

DeRozan and Morrison getting at it. Morrison hitting a couple jumpers and DeRozan comes back with a nice move drive, turn-around spin for a short-jumper. If he can get that move going we won’t even remember Anthony Parker. Morrison is having a pretty good game, he’s filling it up from the perimeter. 9-16 FG for him. 73-73 5:53 left.

DeRozan is looking very fluid and confident. Some of the jumpers are off but overall he appears to know exactly what he wants to do and goes about it in a confident way. The defense has also been very good although Morrison’s hit some jumpers on him.

Ukic had a post-up and walked, committed an offensive foul (hook) and then made a bad pass, all at the same time. That’s three turnovers on one play. Nice. Comes back with a floater but overall he’s been unimpressive. 77-77, 2:53 left.

DeRozan with a nice hop-step type drive but gets rejected at the rim. Ukic hits two FTs to tie the game at 81 with 1:32 left. Ukic launches an ugly jumper with :52 left, misses. Had a nice drive ‘n kick which didn’t go anywhere (probably should’ve just finished). Ukic sets up POB who misses the jumper, DeRozan misses the put-back one-handed jam.

Lakers execute a pick ‘n pop with McCauley launching a big jumper from 20 feet out to give them a 2 point lead. 83-81 Lakers. 14 seconds left. Raps come back with DeRozan going one-on-one with Morrison, drives to the rim but doesn’t get the roll. A good move, just didn’t fall.

Raps forced to foul and Morrison seals the game with two FTs. Roko hits a three at the buzzer to make it a one point loss. Disappointing loss really, the Lakers had one NBA player on the team whereas we had 4. DeRozan looked great, Smush’s offense looked great, Roko didn’t assert himself and ended up having very little impact, I thought he got away with at least three walks. POB played like POB does: very hesitant on offense, looked very raw and unpolished, tried to be big on defense but the timing wasn’t there and got scored on a little too much. Douby had a bad first half, a good second one and took advantage of the slower Morrison checking him. Raptors missed tons of FTs which probably cost them the game.

At least we now know that Smush is motivated to make the game and if his summer league goes the way this game went, he’s going to get at least a call to training camp. His jumper is superior to both Douby, Ukic and Banks which could be the difference in him making the team. DeRozan, as I said earlier, is a confident multi-skilled player. He’s more than just raw athleticism, he’s got the willingness to drive and the makings of a solid jumper. It might not happen this year but he’s already ahead of year 4 Joey Graham. Really enjoyed watching him think and maneuver with the ball, looking forward to the next game.

Brent Petway impressed with his athleticism and drive, reminded me a little of Pops when it comes to sheer aggressiveness. Seems like he’s got a high basketball IQ, he looked very comfortable out there and was physically on par with anyone on the court.

Thanks for swinging by, here’s the Raptors official roster.