Raptors top Knicks in New York | Toronto Sun
Nobody seemed overly interested in putting the round, orange ball into the hoop, particularly in a first half that saw the Raptors score 31 points and shoot 1-for-10 from three and the Knicks put up a mildly more impressive 36 on 38.1% shooting. It was so bad in the opening 24 minutes that one person on press row fled the scene and nearby fans pleaded with the media to change the channel on the monitors to the NFL game. At the half, DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson had hit 6-of-10 combined shots, Williams and Chuck Hayes 2-of-3 each. The rest of the Raptors? One-for-20. Even by pre-season standards, that’s poor. Luckily, things got moderately better from there. The Raptors found their shot in the third, putting up 29 points to New York’s 18, to take the lead for the first time since early on. The fourth was mostly uneventful.
Raptors edge Knicks | Toronto Star
he Madison Square Garden crowd saw some familiar faces and some new ones and got its first look at the Knicks’ new triangle offence Monday night. In the end, the Toronto Raptors prevailed 81-76. With Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry sitting this one out, Lou Williams started and led the way with 21 points in 24 minutes. Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas also got the night off, while former Toronto No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani of the Knicks sat out with a strained right hamstring. Coach Derek Fisher said Bargnani might play Tuesday against Philadelphia, though the medical staff might prefer he gets a little more rest.
Raptors, Knicks Agree to End Preseason Game with Toronto in the Lead 81-76 | Raptors HQ
The Raptors won without Jonas Valanciunas, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan (for the second half). The team got minutes and production from the entire roster (even Landry Fields hit a shot). We can assume that some credit for the Knicks’ horrid shooting can be given to the Raptors defense.
Lewenberg: Raptors to limit DeRozan, Lowry’s minutes in preseason | TSN
“We’re going to be smart with it,” Casey said Sunday, promising to monitor the minutes of his prized backcourt – DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry – closely for the duration of the pre-season. The list of recently fallen star players serves as further proof that injury prevention is not a simple proposition. High performance athletes, like anyone else really, can get hurt anywhere, at any time, whether it’s the result of overexertion or simply bad luck. “You can slip down the stairs and hurt yourself,” DeRozan noted. The Raptors were fortunate with good health a year ago, losing just 52 games to injury or illness, fewest in the NBA. While Toronto’s training and medical staff, one of the league’s finest, deserve credit there are far too many variables – some of them luck dependent – to count on that good fortune repeating itself in 2014-15. For a team with their sights set on April and May, the risk of setting an impact player back before games begin to matter is just not worth it.
Where’s The Hype Around Terrence Ross? | The Sports Quotient
He jumps like Andrew Wiggins, shoots as well as Bradley Beal (yes, look it up), and possesses at least average defensive potential, yet he garners little coverage from the media and receives sparse adoration from NBA fans. Why don’t we talk about him? More importantly, why should we?
67RIEFNS No. 14: The mysterious and unexpected Bruno Caboclo | ProBasketballTalk
Maybe it Caboclo – the most unexpected first-round pick in recent memory – was a reach. Maybe there’s a reason no public talent evaluator was so high on him. Or maybe Toronto sees something else nobody else did and will reap the rewards. I love the idea of the daring risk Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri took. The NBA is a more interesting place when people break the script. Ujiri set fire to the pages. Will it work? I have no idea. I want it to work. I want teams to be rewarded for thinking unconventionally. At this point, some of the mystery is gone. It’s just up to Caboclo to play well.
Catching up with former Raptor Jose Calderon | Toronto Sun
Casey, who refused to write off the Brooklyn Nets after a terrible start last season and ended up being correct, believes the scoring options the Knicks possess will keep the team in the hunt. “I look at New York as a talented team. You’ve got some bonafide scorers J.R. Smith, you’ve got Carmelo Anthony, you’ve got some big-time scorers on that team and some good role players,” Casey said Monday. “I think Jose Calderon is one of the best pass-first, shoot the three second point guards in the league. People dismiss them and I don’t see it that way. It’s going to take them some time to learn the Triangle and that system, it takes time, if you’re committed to it it works.”
Who Has The Best Backcourt In The NBA? | If I Were a GM
Lowry and Derozan are coming off great seasons, and are defensively one of the best backcourts in the game. Offensively, the only thing that stands out is Derozan’s lack of 3 point shooting ability, but overall these two paired together is a balanced backcourt that can be effective in a variety of different ways.
Lucas Nogueira Is Not Quite Ready To Play For The Raptors | Pro Bball Report
“Nogueira can block shots and he’s played in the in the ACB which is the second best league in the world,” Ujiri told Pro Bball Report. “He played a good role there when he was healthy. He is a big player that is very mobile and can protect the rim and he can rebound. His body is still a-ways-a-way, but we’ll get him there. Contributing consistently, he’s still a-ways-a-way, but we plan to develop him.”“I have a lot of advantages because I have a 7’5 wingspan and I can jump, so I am huge,” Nogueira said. “But NBA has a lot of guys like me and I never played in the NBA, so I hope to (be able to) do the same things that I did in Spain.”It has been rough on Nogueira personally since joining his teammates ahead of training camp because of the groin injury.
Toronto Raptors Preseason: What have we seen so far? | Raptors Rapture
The team keeps having defensive ups and downs. They start strong, they become “lazy” during the second and third quarter, letting the opponents to score many points, and they bounce back during the last quarter. This “tempo” reminds me a lot last season. We’ve experienced many games with this type of defensive awareness. Consistency is important in order to achieve great things, so they have to be focused on this part. Lou Williams is still trying to find his “mojo”. He may score above 10 points per game but his stats were very low during the first 3 games. He bounced back although tonight, scoring 21 points against the Knicks with 6-9 Field goal attempts. When he feels more confident and comfortable with his new role in this team, he will be an offensive threat. James Johnson seems to have matured. He’s impressed everybody so far, he knows his role and he’s OK with this (at least for now). He will be an important player coming from the bench, more defensively but also offensively.
Toronto Raptors 2014/2015 Season Preview | The Runner Sports
One other knock on the Raptors is that they’re a bit like the Denver Nuggets have been recently since the Carmelo trade, in that there’s no real superstar on the team. It’s hard to win in the playoffs without that A+ All-Star. When the going gets tough, who gets going? Is it Lowry? Will DeMar DeRozan make that leap? Or is Masai Ujiri, the former Nuggets GM and current Raptors GM, going to prove that he can win with superior depth? Like all NBA seasons, all we have are questions and we have to wait for tip-off to get the answers. For some of those questions, we’ll have to wait until a final buzzer. This season, Toronto fans will be happy to root for a regular season winner. And maybe the year after that, as well. At some point, though, the expectations are going to shift and more of these questions will need answers. I guess I’m looking a bit too far forward now, though.
