The Raptors lone representative at this weekend’s festivities got the start in the rookie-sophomore game, played 22 minutes and had 14 points on 7-10 shooting, all of them coming in the first half. Let’s sum up his game:
- Guarded Spurs rookie Gary Neal for most of the time he was in there.
- Blew a dunk on his first attempt, fumbled the ball and ended up slamming it against the rim.
- Hit a jumper after sizing up Cousins.
- Had a dribble move for a short-fade.
- Mistimed his jump on a Stephen Curry alley, gathered it after coming down and layed it in.
- Played about 8 minutes to start the game and took a break.
- Threw up a nice alley for the oop to James Harden.
- Dunked on the break, was a little casual, I’d give it a 4.
- Had a tomahawk jam on the break, call it a 6.
- Picked off a long pass.
- Wasn’t in the game for the final minutes which both teams were actually playing defense.
It was an enjoyable program to watch, I wouldn’t call it a game, just a two-hour long show featuring guys having fun and the comedic stylings of Kevin McHale, who is a very funny guy. Give the NBA credit for micing up Steve Kerr and McHale, both were excellent and provided some tidbits of neat insights, even Chris Webber did a good job of distracting the audience enough that they were able to ignore the travesty of a game that was taking place.
DeJaun Blair was the only guy who broke a sweat and if the sophomores had won, he’d probably have won the MVP. As it was, John Wall’s 22 assists deservedly got him the award. DeRozan had a quiet night, wasn’t the talking point of anything in particular and didn’t look to have his name called out, unlike Cousins and Blair who were looking to do something with their touches every time. James Harden had a couple nice dunks, Blake Griffin hooked up with John Wall for an awesome dunk, and DeJuan Blair pulled a T-Mac type dunk.
Chris Webber dropped a hint towards the dunk competition saying that he saw some dunks in warmups that he had never seen before, and to get excited about it. Maybe he’s just hyping it up because Stern told him to, or maybe this year’s contest isn’t going to be the suckfest that everything thinks it will. Chicken suits FTW.
Forget about all that, DeMar DeRozan made it on #10 on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays of the first half of the NBA season.
