 | Amir Johnson, PF 33 MIN | 6-7 FG | 2-4 FT | 12 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 14 PTS | -3 +/-I love Amir. He’s been the heart of the team for so many heartless seasons. Despite his body breaking down at an incredibly worrying rate, I still fear that his time in a Raptors uniform may be coming to a close. I hate seeing him run though…my body has sympathy pains. Either way, great effort to battle by Amir. He is not what he once was, and I think his time as an impact player is ending, but he still can make a big play here and there. |  | |||||||
 | Terrence Ross, SF 30 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 10 PTS | +1 +/-The Raptors as a whole concede plenty of good looks on defense simply by overrotating. That’s not the case for Ross. Ross just gets lost, caught on every screen he tries to fight over, and forgets where is man is. He makes up for it at points by getting a steal or a help block (such as early in the first quarter), but for a player who is supposed to be 3 and D prototype he leaves much to be desired on defense…and often from 3. |  | |||||||
 | Jonas Valanciunas, C 25 MIN | 4-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 10 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 8 PTS | +2 +/-Jonas was blocked three times in the first quarter…two by Drew Gooden. I felt like crying. He was abused all night by Gortat and looked two steps slow on all of his rotations. Huge disappointment. |  | |||||||
 | Kyle Lowry, PG 38 MIN | 5-22 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 7 AST | 4 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 15 PTS | 0 +/-Lowry came to play early, which was a pleasant surprise considering the reports earlier in the day of him being ill. His shot wasn’t falling, but he was flying everywhere and easily had his best game of the series to date. Granted, that’s not a huge accomplishment considering his first two performances, but he was clearly more mentally engaged tonight. | | |||||||
 | DeMar DeRozan, SG 41 MIN | 11-29 FG | 7-7 FT | 6 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 32 PTS | -6 +/-DeRozan hit all three of his shots from deep in the first quarter. I almost called my doctor to set up an appointment for my eyes. I have no idea how DeMar goes through bursts of such success from three, and then struggles to hit anything. Scoring 20 first quarter points (a franchise playoff record for points in a quarter), dominant doesn’t begin to describe how good DeMar was to start the game. The same cannot be said from the remainder of the game though as he would go on to score just 32 points despite starting with 20 in the first. |  | |||||||
 | Tyler Hansbrough, PF 12 MIN | 0-1 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 1 PTS | 0 +/-Hansbrough and Nene seemed at points to be playing their own game: Who can successfully rip an arm off the other without getting called for a foul. Great battle that led to very little, but still the biggest contribution that Tyler offered. |  | |||||||
 | Patrick Patterson, PF 27 MIN | 3-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 10 PTS | -13 +/-Shot well, but not regularly, and didn’t rebound: The Patrick Patterson Story. | | |||||||
 | Greivis Vasquez, PG 17 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -8 +/-He wasn’t terrible. So that’s an improvement. His performance was so unmemorable that ESPN had him listed as “Has Not Entered Game” yet in the third quarter. | | |||||||
 | Louis Williams, SG 18 MIN | 3-11 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -8 +/-The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year was missing in action. The man seems to either light the world on fire or fails to show up. Tonight we got bad Lou. Can’t defend well, and yet also couldn’t score. | | |||||||
 | Dwane Casey With his level of play, Valanciunas in no way deserved to play through his foul trouble, and yet Casey gave him that opportunity. I’m done trying to figure out how Casey makes his rotation decisions. My hope is that this move will pay dividends in the years to come as a learning opportunity for Jonas. I think the Raptors have better odds at winning this series than Casey has of returning to the Toronto bench next season. | | |||||||
Five Things We Saw
- The Washington crowd started the night with class by booing the Canadian anthem. I’ve got no beef with booing the opposition and making your home court difficult for the opposition, but booing an anthem is classless. Just because Canada set fire to the White House so many years ago, doesn’t mean you have to respond like this Washington. Can’t we be friends until tip off? At the very least the fans should realize that the Raptors are largely made up of American players.
- I hate Paul Pierce…I hate him so much. He wasn’t even very good and I was still distracted by how much I hate him.
- Beal is exceptional at drawing non shooting fouls. He clearly understands that his shooting forces his guard to chase so closely around screens, then he occasionally will just slam on the breaks and force his man to run straight through him. Vasquez in particular was taken advantage of this way.
- Drake was seen walking to his courtside seats halfway through the first quarter, and was met by resounding boos from the hostile Washington crowd. Clearly he didn’t win any of them over with his dap to Paul Pierce.
- Someone is inevitably going to complain about the officiating and blame it for the loss. Granted, the game was called poorly, but this was the case for both teams. The Raptors were simply outplayed and overmatched. If you let Drew Gooden dominate you then you deserve to lose, and now they likely have just 48 minutes remaining in their season.
