The “nothing ever good comes from the ATL” edition:
Barbosa: when you are doing 30 minutes off the bench and they are actually solid minutes, you can’t do much more. He had a streak like this last season and it’s great timing to have it come around while Andrea (and now James Johnson) are out.
Butler: he’s pulled a Bargnani and decided to try dribbling past the 3pt line to try his luck and like Sofia Vergara in a tight dress, it kind of worked for me. 4/9 with 4 rebounds and a game where he didn’t look like a wet muppet.
Calderon: this double double was quieter than a Packers fan after 7pm yesterday. There were times today where Jose seemed downright invisible and you never want to say that about your PG, especially when you are facing Teague. Hell, Magloire went at Teague more often than Jose did and that lasted 4 seconds.
Davis: I just cringe when he picks up a shooting foul. I swear I would rather have knives thrown at my crotch than watch this guy shoot from the line. You can tell he knows it too since he looks like he has been asked what the capital of Sri Lanka is every time he gets there. He cleaned the glass tonight but his confidence is taking a pounding.
DeRozan: he played like Andrea did at times last season: he appeared disinterested, frustrated, and distraught. He couldn’t have provided a spark if he was standing in the corner looking for the ball while surrounded by open propane tanks and he was holding a lit torch. It’s embarrassing that we have to see that graphic with him being listed on the AllStar ballot when, if we are going with performance this eason, Aaron Gray should beat him out.
Forbes: your back up point guard (since apparently Anthony Carter was caught downloading episodes of Basketball Wives on Casey’s laptop) decided he had enough offensive panache to hoist 8 shots from the floor, Barbosa be damned. He made 1 of them. They showed a lovely piece on him during halftime where he listed the 82 leagues he’s played in around the world. He’s like the Wikipedia of the Toronto Raptors under Bryan Colangelo.
A. Johnson: the last few minutes of the game he appeared to be the only guy trying. He secured his double double with 2 putbacks that had him outleaping half of Atlanta’s population as the rest of his guys seemed to be checking out the pretty advertising in the arena and wondering where the postgame meal would be. Amir has been the poster child for (good) consistency this season. He’s worked hard for what he has got.
Kleiza: Linas picked up fouls like they were cashews on a bar. 10 minutes, 5 fouls. I haven’t seen negative production like that since hanging with a buddy in a class at York taught by some psycho that thought puppies were bred to feed the poor. This was in Sociology. Solid.
Magloire: the basketball version of Tiger Williams continues to throw his weight around and protect his litter. Cute. I respect that (kind of) but how about pulling down 7-10 boards a game against weaker opponents? You are built like a Transformer, yet you play the game like a Kinder project. Man up.
Driving the bus: Leandro Barbosa
Under the bus: DeMar DeRozan
Theme of the Game: