Raptors-Hornets Preview – Yahoo Sports
”(Tuesday) was a big game,” Gerald Henderson said. ”We’ve played all the teams that are in the mix there with us and we lost to them all. It’s never good.” Henderson scored 29 points, but the Hornets were unable to overcome the absence of Jefferson, who missed his second consecutive game with a sore right knee. Jefferson will miss Wednesday’s game as well. ”Like most teams, we had a busy March. We played 17 games in 30 days and he didn’t want to sit out,” coach Steve Clifford said. ”So I think it just progressively got worse. Now he’s trying to rest it and see if he can go maybe this weekend.”
The Most Important Free Agent for Toronto Raptors to Land This Offseason | Bleacher Report
Calling a two-time NBA All-Star who currently leads the No. 1 team in the conference in scoring “underrated” sounds awfully silly. That comes with the territory for Paul Millsap of the Atlanta Hawks, though. He’s made a career off of flying under the radar and being a beacon of consistency. Averaging 16.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists on the year, Millsap still feels he can be even better than he already is, per Michael Pina of Rolling Stone: “The sky is still the limit. I feel I can continue to grow as a player. I have a long time to continue to progress with my shooting, continue to keep my ball handling tight, continue to stay in shape. You know, all of it. I’m not going to pinpoint one thing, because I’ve worked hard to try to have all aspects of my game be pretty good. I want to grow everywhere.”
Ball Don’t Lie welcomes you back to the NBA | Ball Don’t Lie – Yahoo Sports
For the most part, the blame seems to fall upon the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards, two teams that seemed poised to break out this season. The former started strong and looked like a worthy challenger before a late-season swoon that coincided with injuries and struggles of All-Star Kyle Lowry, while the latter simply seemed to forget how to play effective basketball before returning to form in recent weeks. It’s difficult to trust that either squad will impress significantly, and not just because they’re likely to face each other in the opening round’s 4 vs. 5 series. It’s also worth wondering exactly where both franchises go from here if they don’t succeed. The Raptors have progressed at a steady rate over the past few years — would a second-straight first-round exit convince them that they need to make a major trade? The stakes in D.C. seem a lot clearer — Randy Wittman is coaching for his job, and it’s not even clear that a series win would save him.
Predicting how the NBA playoffs will shape up, Pacers, Thunder should make cut – The Washington Post
The Raptors would own the tiebreaker over the Bulls and are guaranteed to finish no worse than fourth after winning the Atlantic Division. That cushion has allowed them to be cautious with Kyle Lowry, who has missed the past six games recovering from a back injury. Toronto faces five teams with losing records but put itself in danger of losing homecourt advantage in the first round with losses last weekend to Brooklyn and Boston. The Wizards only need two more wins to have the highest win total in the past 36 years and could secure homecourt advantage in a playoff series for the first time ever at Verizon Center — even if they finish as the fifth seed. But Washington would have to finish with a better record than Toronto since the Raptors own the tiebreaker. With John Wall playing as if he’s determined to finish the season averaging at least 10 assists for the first time in his career, Washington likely only faces two teams that are playing for something down the stretch in Brooklyn
Who should the Toronto Raptors be hoping to meet in the playoffs? | National Post
Raptors’ dream scenario Washington: The Wizards are slaughtered by the Raptors’ reserves when Wall is on the bench, and Whitman, loathed by the team’s fan base, continues to coach strangely, with a conservative, out-of-date offence that fails to exploit Toronto’s bad perimeter defence. The Raptors win 4-1. Milwaukee: The Bucks’ lack of experience is the cure for what ails the Raptors’ defence. Milwaukee cannot burn the Raptors for their over-helping defence, rendering Milwaukee’s excellent defence irrelevant. The Raptors sweep the series. Raptors’ nightmare scenario Washington: Wall, one of the fastest point guards in the league, does exactly what you think he would do against the Raptors’ leaky guards. Nene and Marcin Gortat, the Wizards’ pair of big men, neutralize Valanciunas. Pierce hits a pair of late game-winners as the Wizards win in five games.
Are Raptors better than last season? | Raptors | Sports | Toronto Sun
From the all-star break on last season the Raptors would go 20-10. This year with five games left to play the Raptors are 9-15 since the break. At present they are not building a ton of positive momentum but it’s not hard to argue the 6-5 over the past 11 game is a huge improvement over the 2-10 in the 12 games prior to that. So why does it feel like people are giving up on this team a week and a half before the playoffs are even set to begin? “We are a different team in that we are more of an offensive team this year,” Casey said. “Last year we were getting criticized because we had a stagnant offence. No imagination used with the offence. Now it’s too much offence. We just have to get a balance. Whether we can do that between now and the playoffs, I don’t know. I think we can get closer defensively but we are who we are. But we are not that drastically different than we were last year. It’s just a different emphasis.”
NBA Preview – Toronto Raptors at Charlotte Hornets – Apr 08, 2015 – CBSSports.com
“I think sometimes we look just at the shooting, but Greivis’ heart is always in the right place,” Casey said. “Sometime he takes shots that you roll your eyes at, but again, it’s from him trying to help the team and not from a selfish standpoint.” Lou Williams has been significantly better under the increased workload. He scored 23 points in Friday’s 114-109 loss to Brooklyn, then tallied 27 in a 117-116 overtime loss to Boston on Saturday. Casey hopes to have his roster at full strength by season’s end, but is currently focused on his team’s poor defensive play. The Raptors allowed an average of 92.7 points during a three-game winning streak from March 27-April 1, but have ceded 115.5 points per game in their last two.
Toronto Raptors: Recent Losses a Positive?
Though the Raptors are still only a game back of the Chicago Bulls for third, the team has been struggling mightily to establish any sort of consistency or rhythm. They have lost two games in a row to Eastern Conference rivals, but head coach Dwane Casey said this could actually be a good thing. The two close losses came against the Brooklyn Nets and the Boston Celtics. If the playoffs began today, the Nets would finish seventh and the Celtics would finish eighth, so while the two teams are not exactly elite, they are legitimate playoff clubs in the awful East. Both games were decided late, where the Raptors came close but were simply unable to shut their opponents down.
Heart and Soul Not Enough in Toronto – Raptors HQ
Though his basketball IQ and determination are overflowing, it’s clear the Raptors need more from their starting power forward. Pulling in 3.9 defensive rebounds and blocking less than 1 shot per game as a starting big-man doesn’t contribute to a viable elite basketball system. Amir accounts for only 13% of total rebounds while he’s on the court, and grabs only 49% of possible contested rebounds (those which he is within 3.5 feet of, with one other opponent also going for the board: averaging 12 opportunities per game). Amir hasn’t been a dependable rebounder this season, and his lack of production on the glass puts physical strain on the rest of the team who are working harder to obtain and eliminate 2nd chance opportunities. Johnson has only 6 double-doubles this season.
Raptors at Hornets: Wednesday game preview | Toronto Star
With their playoff homes in limbo, the Hornets host the Raptors in the second game of a back-to-back after facing the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. In question is whether Charlotte’s centre Al Jefferson will see the court. He has been having knee inflammation troubles that have put his status in doubt over the past few games. Making matters worse in the Hornets frontcourt, forwards Cody Zeller and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist are nursing injuries of their own were listed as questionable early in the week . . . Point guard Kemba Walker has been playing well for Charlotte: he scored 24 points in the team’s last-second win over Philadelphia on Saturday, and is averaging more than 17 points in his last 10 contests.
Raptors’ rebound won’t come without rebounds | Toronto Star
“We’ve got to do a better job rebounding.” Left unsaid, of course, is the rebounding deficiencies often go hand-in-hand with lax perimeter defence. The Raptors surely could be better on the glass and have had a tendency not to finish otherwise success defensive plays, but the big men are often left scrambling because the team’s guards cannot keep opponents in front of them. And once everyone gets moving and out of control, opportunities for opponents to get second-chance baskets increase exponentially. That’s Basketball 101 and something the team is working on daily. “We’ll see what shows up,” coach Dwane Casey said of the team’s next game, Wednesday night in Charlotte that follows two days of intense practice.
Raptors GM: No timeframe for Kyle Lowry’s return – Sportsnet.ca
Toronto Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri says Kyle Lowry’s injured back is improving, but there is no timeframe on when the point guard will return to the court. “He’s done well. He practised yesterday, and he’s worked out the last couple days,” Ujiri told Dean Blundell & Co. on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Tuesday. “He’s hanging in there tough and we’ll see how the next few days go. “It’s going to be totally on how Kyle feels, and how his back feels. Yesterday was a positive sign.”
What is the Most Miserable Sports City?
Whereas Cleveland fans’ suffering has often come through heartbreak — the agony of seeing a championship slip through their fingers — Toronto fans have, for the most part, suffered in a more soul-crushing way. Toronto’s is a grinding, slow-burning torment, the result of year-after-year of losing seasons, poor decisions, and little expectation of future success.
