Lowry, DeRozan put in all-star efforts in Raptors win | Toronto Sun
The expectations that this one would be pretty for the Raptors were rather low. A bit of a London hangover was expected. But, between Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, Toronto’s backcourt made sure the rust and the hangover were limited to a first quarter, and a shorter swoon in the third, as the Raptors owned the rest of the night on their way to an as-expected workman-like 112-100 win over the Brooklyn Nets at the Air Canada Centre. It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Raptors and marked just the second time this season the win streak has reached those heights. Toronto opened the season winning its first five and twice since then they have won four in a row. Not until Monday had they matched that opening-season streak.
DeRozan on display as Raptors take down Nets | Toronto Star
“It’s easy for me because that’s our guy, that’s our scorer,” Lowry said of his buddy, DeRozan. “At the end of the day I get him the ball and he makes plays. For me it’s not about doing this or doing that. It’s about getting him in a position to be successful. It makes my job a lot easier when you have a guy who can get you 10 assists or 30 points. It makes your job easier.” Despite the duo’s brilliance, the Raptors did struggle more than perhaps they should have against a Nets team that has the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. Thanks to 29 points from Brook Lopez, 22 from Joe Johnson and stretches of awful to non-existent Toronto defence, the Nets hung around for three quarters until the Raptors pulled away with a 31-16 blitz. “It was good to get it in, get it out and now we have to reverse our focus to our division foe in Boston (on Wednesday) who is playing really good basketball right now,” coach Dwane Casey said.
10 things I noticed from Raptors-Nets | Getting Benched
DeMar DeRozan’s balance on his fadeaways has improved dramatically. I’m not sure if it’s just a case of him getting his timing right, or whether it’s just him getting stronger, but he’s fully in control on those turnaround fades, or the two dribble pull-ups. Maybe that’s the reason for his improved efficiency?
Lowry and DeRozan carry Raptors in timely performance | TSN
No Eastern Conference duo is scoring more points on a per game basis than Lowry and DeRozan but, as reserve forward Patrick Patterson alluded to following practice on Sunday and then again on TSN Radio Monday afternoon, they aren’t just putting up hollow numbers. They’ve been great before, DeRozan was rewarded for it with his first-ever All-Star selection two years ago, Lowry was rewarded for it last season, but their games are in sync more often than not these days and the team is better for it. The Raptors did their part to remind fans that Lowry and DeRozan are deserving All-Stars, bordering on overkill. Those in attendance got free t-shirts encouraging them to vote. A television was awarded to someone in the section that submitted the most votes over Twitter. The broadcast and in-arena hosts mentioned it more than a few times as you might imagine and it’s hard to blame them. Despite their career seasons, Lowry still trailed second-place Kyrie Irving for a starting spot in last week’s final voting returns, while DeRozan sat a distant sixth among Eastern Conference guards. However, no amount of propaganda, free t-shirts or TVs could do what Lowry and DeRozan did themselves. If you weren’t sold going into Monday’s voting deadline, maybe their latest statement sealed the deal. They’re pretty good.
Lowry and DeRozan are good. Raps beat Nets 112-100 | Raptors HQ
As outstanding as Lowry and DeRozan were tonight, they weren’t the only ones who helped the Raps stomp the Nylon Meshes. The bench produced yet another strong showing, something that’s becoming an encouraging trend. Terrence Ross had a trifecta of mean fast-break dunks and Patrick Patterson’s season got another dose of revitalizing shock therapy. In fact, just five Raptors posted positive plus/minus numbers on the night: Lowry and the four second unit guys – that was the unit that turned the tide for Toronto at the start of the fourth quarter.
Nets run out of gas, fall to Raptors 112-100 | The Brooklyn Game
And so it goes: first Lowry got hot and DeMar DeRozan followed in the second half. Two bonafide All-Stars, something the Nets haven’t had since Jason Kidd and Vince Carter both made the team in 2007, were enough, even on a general off-night for the rest of the team, to lead the Raptors to a resounding victory. And that, sadly, is the difference between the Nets and the Raptors: almost everything. The Nets needed Herculean efforts from Johnson and Lopez to even stay afloat, whereas you got the feeling that things were just going to suddenly click at some point for Toronto. That moment was somewhere around the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter when Lowry and DeRozan, now chasing the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, decided they simply weren’t going to lose; combining for 61 points and 13 assists on 22-38 shooting before capping it all off on a 14-0 run.
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Nets’ ugly 4th-quarter habit rears its head again | New York Post
“It’s been a poor first half of the season in regards to our team play. There’s a lot more we can do to help ourselves win ball games, and that’s kind of my fault, because I’m just trying to figure that out,’’ Brown said before the game. “One of the things that I’ve already initiated is playing a little faster. … Once we get nine or 10 guys understanding what we want, I think our play will improve.’’ In truth, it has improved. Just not enough, letting Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry score a game-high 31 points on 10-of-13 shooting with eight assists, and DeMar DeRozan — a possible free-agent target this summer if he opts out as expected — add 30.
Nets will Nets: Brooklyn hangs tight but falls flat in 4th quarter, 112-100 | NetsDaily
The Nets made it out of Toronto similar to Meek Mill: With a loss. The Nets dropped their 31st game of the season with a 112-100 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Martin Luther King Day. The duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan was simply too much for the Nets to handle. Two seasons back on MLK Day, Nets fans took over Madison Square Garden and chanted, “Brooook-lyn” as the Nets ran up the score and defeated the Knicks by 23. Those were much better days and quite the opposite of where the Nets stand today.
Toronto Raptors down the Nets behind Lowry & DeRozan’s 61 Points | Raptors Cage
First half of the game, the Raptors were terribly inconsistent; at times playing stagnant, and at times the Raptors showed how effective ball movement can be. Everything picked up in the second quarter, with some solid minutes coming from a lineup of Cory Joseph, Lowry, Terrence Ross, Patrick Patterson, and Bismack Biyombo. The pace picked up, where a lot of the offense came in transition during the first half. The other part of the game, the movement was better, with lots of guys looking at the rim first, opening up a ton of outside looks. The bench was terrific, with big performances from Ross and Patterson; 33 points overall from the bench, with the already mentioned 61 point from Lowry and DeRozan.
Nets fall apart late, lose to Raptors, 112-100 – Sports | NorthJersey.com
But while the Raptors frustrated the Nets on this night, perhaps there is something positive to take away. The man who designed this Toronto team, one of the best in the East, is on the market. Bryan Colangelo, the two-time NBA Executive of the Year, is one of the front-runners to land the open Nets general manager job, according to multiple reports. And in Toronto, they know Colangelo better than just about anyone. Colangelo, 50, was the Raptors GM from 2013. He’s familiar with quick turnarounds. The season before he took over, the Raptors won only 27 games. In Colangelo’s first season, 2006-07, the Raptors won 47 games and went to the playoffs. He was also responsible for bringing in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who torched the Nets on Monday night. Colangelo drafted DeRozan in 2009 and traded for Lowry in 2012.
DeMar DeRozan endorses Bryan Colangelo for Nets job | NetsDaily
“Oh, man he’s one of the most stand-up guys I’ve known, ever met coming into the business,’’ said DeRozan of the man who drafted him.
“He gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, you know? And I credit a lot of my success to him,” DeRozan told Brian Lewis. “[He’s] one of those stand-up honest guys. [He’ll] work extremely hard, and wants the best for whatever organization and players that he’s working for.”
Quo Vadimus: Blake Murphy and the Toronto Raptors | Hardwood Paroxysm
Jared Dubin is joined by Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic to talk about the Toronto Raptors. Topics include the Raptors’ surprising position in the league’s top 10 in defensive efficiency (1:10), their ability to maintain a top offense despite the absence of Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll (13:10), Dwane Casey’s coaching job (22:38), expectations for the Raptors in the postseason and which teams may or may not be good matchups (26:23), a brief Knicks interlude (34:50), potential Raptors trades (37:40), the team’s biggest weakness (40:40), and the All-Star chances of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan (42:16).
Carroll said the injury worsened when he and DeAndre Jordan banged knees in the Raptors’ Nov. 22 game versus the Los Angeles Clippers. “That’s when my knee said ‘Ah, you need to do something about it,”‘ Carroll said. “I tried to play through it for a long time. . . but sometimes you’ve got to listen to your body.” Carroll missed nine games with the injury, returned for five, then sat out a game before having surgery in New York. The 29-year-old, who was one of the keys to the Atlanta Hawks’ 60-win team last season, said the time off the court has been a blessing in disguise. He’s able to heal his ailing foot — he also suffers from plantar fasciitis.
Raptors’ DeMarre Carroll says time was right for arthroscopic surgery on right knee | Toronto Star
Timing indeed is everything, as DeMarre Carroll figured out. Knowing something had to be done to ease an increasingly bad right knee and taking a long look at the schedule, the Toronto Raptors forward decided it was time for a little cleaning of the joint. After all, his team had basically a week off for a one-game trip to London, another week-long break comes with next month’s all-star break and his wife giving birth to a son last week gave him another reason to want some idle time now. “The doc came in and he described what it was . . . I felt like this was the best time,” Carroll said of the arthroscopic procedure he had almost two weeks ago.
Raptors’ Carroll on injury: ‘Not everyone can be He-Man’ | Sportsnet.ca
“I was playing with a lot of inflammation in my knee for a long period of time,” Carroll says. “I tried to fight through it. But not everybody can be He-Man.” No, not everybody, but that didn’t stop Carroll from trying for nearly two months, ever since he landed awkwardly on his right leg during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans in mid-November and immediately felt something wrong in his knee. Many athletes would have gotten things taken care of right then and there, but the famously stubborn Carroll had just returned from a three-game break to rest nagging plantar fasciitis in his right foot and wasn’t about to take himself out of the game. So he simply turned up-court and got moving. “I think the adrenaline just kept running,” Carroll says. “I never said anything about it to anybody.”
Raptors’ DeMarre Carroll focused on fatherhood and a full recovery | The Globe and Mail
He initially went to New York just to visit the knee specialist while the team was nearby to play the Brooklyn Nets. He decided to have Dr. David Altchek do the procedure right away at The Hospital for Special Surgery, so his recovery could begin immediately. Carroll had missed nine games back in December with a right knee contusion, then returned later that month and played in five games. He said the knee first started bothering him when he landed on it awkwardly back in November in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans. “I had a lot of inflammation in my knee for a long period of time,” Carroll said. “I just want to get back out on the court. I just want to play at a level I know I can play at. I tried to play through it; it didn’t work.”
Raptors’ Carroll eager to return | Toronto Sun
Even the doctor was surprised DeMarre Carroll had continued to play on his bad knee for as long as he did. Almost two weeks to the day that it was announced the forward had undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, Carroll stood in front of the Toronto media to provide an update on his progress. “They just went in and cleaned some stuff up,” said Carroll in the Raptors dressing room before his team took on the Brooklyn Nets on Monday. “I had a lot of inflammation, I was playing with a lot of inflammation in my knee for a long period of time.”
NBA Trade Rumours: Randle a possible Raptors trade target? | Sportsnet.ca
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle wrote about the possibility of a Toronto Raptors-Los Angeles Lakers deal involving DeMar DeRozan and Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and Lou Williams.
Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan a step closer to making his Olympic debut | Toronto Star
DeRozan joins an elite group including LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, each looking for a fourth Olympic berth, and Stephen Curry, who is in line for his first. DeRozan was part of the American squad that finished 9-0 and won the gold medal at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain. He averaged 4.8 points, 1.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 11.7 minutes, while shooting .536 from the field. DeRozan scored 10 points off the bench during the gold medal game against Serbia.
USA Basketball names 30 finalists for 2016 Rio Olympics | USA Today
“This selection process was difficult from the start, and obviously it is only going to get more difficult as we look to get to the official, 12-man roster,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I’m excited about the possibilities this team has. Among the finalists we have multiple players who won gold medals at the Olympic or World Cup level. The roster of finalists features incredible talent, great balance, outstanding leadership, and I believe like we had with our previous teams, this team will have a special chemistry. “Having a deep, very talented, and extremely versatile roster is of critical importance in our pursuit of the Olympic gold medal in Rio.”
Picture courtesy of J.E. Skeets
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