Last night’s 103-95 loss to the Charlotte Hornets was like bad sex: a couple of exciting moments but mostly limp, listless and disappointing.
The Raptors dropped their 4th straight game in their first game back from a 2-4 road trip. It was supposed to be the game where the Raptors righted the ship but ultimately the team, and the coach, failed to bring the requisite energy and effort level to make it happen.
The Raptors started the game going 3-9 from the field and falling behind 18-8. They crept back slightly with successive threes from Vasquez and Lowry but ended the quarter down 31-23. The Raptors failed miserably at stopping penetration and gave up a number of easy drop-off dunks and layups, allowing 18 points in the paint for the quarter. Moreover, they lost the rebounding battle 16-8 and turned the ball over three times to the Hornets’ zero.
In the second quarter the Raptors started moving the ball and clawed their way back into the game with an early 9-0 run that was capped by a 3-point trey from Tyler Hansbrough. The Raptors took a 52-50 lead into halftime by digging in on defense, denying penetration and forcing Charlotte into 38% shooting for the quarter. Their improved ball movement led to 4-of-9 three-point shooting and big Jonas led all scorers with 8 points (and 6 rebounds) for the quarter.
Much like in the Golden State matchup, things went to Poo-Poo Town for the Raps in the third. Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson took over the game as Charlotte started the quarter on a 14-1 run while the languid Raps shot 0-of-8. Lou Williams decided that ball movement was overrated and went full on Staggy P to the tune of 1-of-6 from the field and 0-of-3 from beyond the arc. In fact, the entire team was pretty uninspired, connecting on only 4-of-18 shots for the quarter. On the other side of the court, Walker and Henderson went a combined 9-of-12 and scored 18 of the team’s 25 third quarter points. Despite having his way with Biyombo in the second quarter, Jonas checked out with 6:01 remaining in the third quarter and didn’t return.
The Raptors made a fight of things in the 4th by going on a quick 7-0 run to start the quarter, but ultimately they lost the battle of attrition to Henderson and Walker’s relentless stream of drives and step-back jumpers.
Thoughts:
- We really, really miss Demar. I have some major issues with the way Casey is managing games lately but just as importantly, there’s a real talent shortage without Demar and that’s a tough storm to wade in a talent-driven league.
- Lowry #NBABallot is exhausted and that really showed on defense tonight.
- I was not a fan whatsoever of Amir’s body language. He was totally expressionless throughout the game, didn’t hustle up and down the court and generally seemed pretty disinterested. He had a couple of really careless handoffs early and he was called for an unadvised hip check on Gerald Henderson when we were only down five with 4:01 to play. Not sure what’s going on there…
- It’s pretty clear that opposing teams know that our guards have trouble denying entry into the second layer of the defense. The easy penetration early really got things going for the Hornets and gave Henderson and Kemba the confidence to catch fire as the game went on. The pair went 15-23 in the second half for 39 points.
- #FreeJonas
- James Johnson was great and made a number of excellent athletic plays throughout the game. Landry Fields was terrible. He literally contributed nothing in 10 minutes of play.
- This was the quietest that I’ve heard the Air Canada Centre all season. The players simply didn’t bring it enough to infuse energy into the crowd.
