I hope you like haikus.
 | Amir Johnson, PF Shot Chart 18 MIN | 1-3 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 3 PTS | -10Looks like Gary Cole, Man! what happened Amir? Outplayed by Thompson?!? |  |
 | Terrence Ross, SF Shot Chart 21 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | -18Out from the cocoon, A butterfly flies freely, Nope, just not tonight. | |
 | Jonas Valanciunas, C Shot Chart 21 MIN | 5-8 FG | 2-4 FT | 11 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 3 BLK | 2 TO | 12 PTS | -4Mauled by the Lion, Swallowed by the challenges, Run from DMC |  |
 | Kyle Lowry, PG Shot Chart 41 MIN | 7-16 FG | 5-6 FT | 7 REB | 8 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 3 TO | 21 PTS | +3Lonesome Lowry lost, Lego lemur lust loquaciously, Second line too long. |  |
 | DeMar DeRozan, SG Shot Chart 38 MIN | 5-17 FG | 7-7 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 18 PTS | +2Jack and Jill up the hill, To swallow the bitter pill, Of Demar’s long-two’s | |
 | Tyler Hansbrough, PF Shot Chart 7 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-1 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 4 PTS | -5ALJDJ;’;QL ;JLDS l;LJS;LFJ;LK KLAJK;L KAKFJ Al;SDKLFJ- said Hansbrough | |
 | Patrick Patterson, PF Shot Chart 23 MIN | 6-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 14 PTS | -8TuPat hit ’em up, Ambitions as a Raptor, He don’t give a f*** |  |
 | Chuck Hayes, PF Shot Chart 17 MIN | 2-3 FG | 1-1 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | -1“Round mound of rebound, Dance to the whistles”, said the, Zebras who hated him |  |
 | John Salmons, SF Shot Chart 16 MIN | 0-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -13Live in Pineapple, Spongebob lives under the sea, Salmons flops on deck |  |
 | Steve Novak, SF Shot Chart 12 MIN | 4-7 FG | 1-1 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 12 PTS | +11AC/DC shocked, Lightning Steve McQueen caught fire, Only to crash and burn | |
 | Greivis Vasquez, PG Shot Chart 26 MIN | 1-4 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 5 PTS | +3Racing against Ford, Car in park, or mayor Ford, Winner will be Ford |  |
 | Dwane Casey Pound and pound the rock, Liquor and cigars treat pain, Please share with your team | |
Five Things We Saw
- Don’t gripe too much on the officiating. It was brutal, and quite possibly the worst I’ve ever seen, but it was bad for both teams. Yes, Lowry’s potential four-point play being waved off the Raptors should have never been down as much as 22 points to the Western Conference’s worst team (by record)
- Having said that, the offensive foul call on Lowry was the poops. I can’t express my feelings for it on this forum, so here’s Ltd. Daniels from The Wire. Well said, Cedric. Well said. The whistle represented a potential five-point play: no three-pointer for Lowry, no free-throw for Lowry, and a technical free-throw for the Kings. For the record, Gay took and missed that free-throw. What’s that, ‘Sheed? Oh right, ball don’t lie.
- Aside from all the referee hate, the Raptors were just totally overwhelmed by the Kings. Cousins, Thompson and Gay crashed the offensive boards, and the flummoxed front-line had no answers. It would have helped if the wing players either A) limited dribble-penetration, or B) helped out with defensive rebounding, but outside of Lowry scaling up bigs, there was no help. The results were long, arduous possessions in which the Kings either came away with buckets, or free-throws.
- This should be noted as the only silver lining from this game: early in the second quarter, Quincy Acy hit a turn-around, fade-away 15-foot jumpshot that went glass, and into the basket. I miss that man so much. I’m going to gif this as soon as possible. Check back in 20 minutes.
- So…Rudy outplayed Derozan on both ends of the court. How about them apples? Demar hit a couple of jumpers and he drew some fouls (but let’s be honest, who didn’t?), but Gay’s length bothered him all night. Defensively, Demar wasn’t matched up on Gay, but Marcus Thornton was getting open look after open look by running Derozan through screens. I know Derozan plays a Thibideau-ian amount of minutes, but he needs to give a more consistent effort on the defensive end, especially when his shot isn’t falling.
- Here’s a mini recap, since everyone is so furious about my attempt at creativity:
- Sacramento dominated early. The Raptors wings couldn’t generate any offense and Jonas landed in early foul trouble. The Kings front-line crashed the boards and netted extra possessions and free-throws. The perimeter defense for the Raptors wasn’t all too hot either.Second quarter looked much like the first. The Kings ICE’d pick and rolls, which really stymied Lowry and Derozan, who constantly reset the play, rather than attacking head on. Part of that was due to DMC’s defensive presence, and part of that was the activity level of the Kings’ wing players, who’s length and quickness effectively contained the Raptors guards. Greivis Vasquez and his super-slow motion everything wasn’t helping. The only offense came from Patterson popping out for wide-open midrange jumpers.
Too much iso-ball was played in the third, while the Kings continued to parade to the stripe. The Raptors shot a jumpshot on five straight possessions near the start of the third, which allowed the Kings to push the lead to 22. Casey threw everyone he could at DMC — Val, Hayes, Johnson, Hansbrough — and nothing worked. He continued to block shots and collect rebounds. Kings led by double-digits going into the fourth.
By this point, the whistles and constant stoppages killed any semblance of flow for both teams. Play was stopped every few seconds. Novak was brought in for some instant offense, and he hit a couple of big three’s to bring the Raptors to single digits. The Raptors eventually clawed until they were down just 6 points with 28 seconds left. Lowry hit a three, got fouled, but the refs called Lowry for the offensive foul instead, which as you can see from Observation #2′s link, was completely bogus. Exasperated, Lowry runs away from the refs to avoid picking up a tech, but instead the refs do whistle him for his second tech, and the game is effectively over.
