“I thought as the game went on he got his rhythm,” head coach Dwane Casey said. “He got his feel for the game, he got his conditioning, he got his legs back. It took him a little while but I thought he gave the effort on the defensive end. He was into the ball and then I thought he found his shot late.” Lowry missed three games — against New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland — while recovering from a variety of unspecified minor ailments. The Raptors lost to the league-worst Knicks, then beat the Sixers to snap a five-game losing streak, before going down to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As a team the Raptors shot a woeful 40.7% from the field and made just seven of its 22 three-point attempts. Even those numbers were skewed by a trio of late threes by Lowry, who at least left the game having seen his shot go down with some consistency, if only over the final few minutes. Casey admitted the starting five overhaul probably had a negative impact on his bench as well as the growing pains that were evident within the starting group Friday night. “We have everybody back healthy now so we have to get that rhythm back, get our rotations down and stay together,” Casey said. “The guys were dejected after the game. They were down but if we fight and scrap and play in the desperate mode the way we ended the game for the entire game we won’t feel like that.”
Only Philadelphia ranks lower than the Hornets in offensive efficiency this season, yet the Raptors allowed them to score over 100 points on 47 per cent shooting, becoming the fifth straight opponent to break the century mark and third in a row to eclipse 25 assists. Defensively, communication has been an ongoing challenge for a team that lacks vocal leaders on the floor and often leads to fractured possessions when the opposition moves the ball or forces a switch on the pick and roll. DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson are the most experienced in Casey’s system, both soft spoken players who lead by example more than anything else. At 22-years-old and in his third NBA season, Jonas Valanciunas is still getting comfortable in his role as the anchor of their defence. Much of that responsibility of directing the defence falls on Lowry. “Talking can alert you to a lot of different things and we’ve got quiet guys naturally,” Casey said. “That’s something the other night against Cleveland when [Terrence Ross] got pinned in, they kind of snuck in and got him from the backside and set a back screen. On the film, you see the coaches jumping up and down, yelling, screaming. But the players on the court should be able to anticipate that, see that and a lot of that comes from experience, anticipation, having confidence in what you’re saying. It helps a lot and that’s one area defensively that would help us tremendously is talking, communicating and alerting your teammates.”
The game was decided by two big runs. After keeping the lead manageable for most of the first half, Charlotte was allowed to suddenly break the game open to double digits to end 2nd Q up 53-44. The Raptors had a 4-minute spell during which they only scored two points. Then, after clawing back in the third frame, the Raps once again let the game get away from them in the middle stages of the fourth quarter. After scoring three points in a horrible seven minute spell, during which Charlotte took a 97-78 lead, the game was just about done. Lowry hit four 3s in garbage time to make the scoreline look more respectable than it really was.
“Me and DeMar, and JV, we’ve got to set the tempo, try to press it inside early and get that going. Our second unit, we’re a jump shooting team. That’s what we are to be honest, but we’ve got to find a way to get ourselves in the paint a little bit better, attack more and not have DeMar being the only guy shooting free throws.” – Lowry on not settling for jumpers “We play defence in spurts. We look good in spurts. We get stagnant a bit, give them a rhythm, a little run and we’re fighting back. We’re so up and down with that. We’ve got to be consistent with that throughout the whole game, and depend on our defence. Don’t worry about our offensive side. As long as we play defence on a consistent basis for 48 minutes we’ll be in every single game.” – DeRozan on the Raptors needing to focus its attention on defence
Charlotte Hornets cruise in 4th to a 103-94 victory over the Toronto Raptors | At The Hive
The Toronto Raptors never looked to be in control of the game, even when it was close, and eventually the Hornets managed to slowly pull away from them in the fourth quarter. The Hornets did this with some very impressive ball movement, and getting players into the spots where they can succeed most. Their method of attack was an inside out strategy that they used a lot last season. Someone would dump the ball in to Al Jefferson down low, and he would either work on his man in the post, or immediately fire it to a player moving on the wing, who would then get the chance to shoot, or pass it off to another option in the corner. If all else fails then they dump it back down to Big Al, or kick it out to Mo Williams, and let them create their own shot. This was effective all game and kept their offense at an efficient pace throughout the night. It was especially effective for Jefferson, who happens to be playing some great basketball since the All-Star break, and tonight was no exception. Even though it took him 21 shots, Big Al finished the game with 23 points, and also manged to pull down 13 rebounds, while dishing out six assists.
Hornets Keep Mo-Mentum Rolling | Charlotte Hornets
Holding a 77-71 at the start of the fourth quarter, Charlotte unleashed a 20-7 run on the Raptors to grab hold of a 97-78 lead with 2:41 remaining in the game to put things out of reach for Toronto. During this stretch, the Raptors would go nearly five minutes without scoring as they were unable to keep pace with the red-hot Hornets. In the end, Toronto did tack on some garbage-time points but it was too little, too late as the Raptors lost to Charlotte for the sixth-straight time.
The game got chippy in the third quarter, leading to official Joey Crawford calling a pair of double-technical fouls. The first two were called on Charlotte’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas. The second two were called on Charlotte’s Gerald Henderson and Toronto’s Terrence Ross.
Raptors fall to Hornets in heated affair – Article – TSN
2h ago NBA TORONTO RAPTORS CHARLOTTE HORNETS Raptors fall to Hornets in heated affair The Canadian Press Comments (3) NBA: Raptors 94, Hornets 103 CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Mo Williams is playing so well that Hornets coach Steve Clifford has no plans to sit the 12-year NBA veteran even when Kemba Walker returns from a knee injury next week. Clifford said he plans to play Walker and Williams together because “they’re two of our best three scorers.” Williams proved that again Friday night. Williams made four 3-pointers and scored 23 points, Al Jefferson had 23 points and 13 rebounds, and the Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors 103-94 in a game featuring six technical fouls handed out by longtime referee Joey Crawford. Jefferson was 11 of 21 from the field en route to his team-leading 19th double-double of the season. Williams had 15 points in the second half as the Hornets won their fourth straight game. It was a big win for Charlotte, which entered the night in the eighth and final pla
Toronto Raptors ticket prices rise by about six per cent, amidst growing demand | Toronto Star
Given the team’s top position in the Atlantic Division and this year being the first since 2001 that the Raptors experienced a season-ticket sellout, Hopkinson said, ticket prices could have been raised even more. But he said, “This is not a time where you go and get greedy.” “What we don’t want to do is choke this … We are having a nice little run right now and I think we are on pace for a record for wins, but we haven’t won anything yet,” he told the Star. “We have to be very, very cautious that we are not pricing fans out of the building or we will wreck this thing.” He also pointed out that the announced increase isn’t much of an increase at all because six years ago, prices were rolled back about 16 per cent due to the Raptor’s poor performance after losing shooting guard Vince Carter. Since then prices have been eking up slowly to the point where they are now on par with the rates before the drop.
Photo by Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
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