Lowry ‘pissed’ about loss, DeRozan icing hand, and other post-game notes

I don't even know what to say about this one. They don't seem to, either.

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The Toronto Raptors just lost the ugliest NBA playoff game since…well, since at least Saturday. This series is just atrocious aesthetically, but at least it’s close, I suppose? I really don’t know. Games and series like these, played on the fringes of what can be considered acceptable basketball, are “fun” in the sense that they’re close and interesting in a voyeuristic way, but it’s really tough to be close to it.

But hey, the Raptors took home-court advantage back and will head home to Toronto with the series at 2-2 on Wednesday.

What is this garbage?

Well, competitive is certainly one word for this series. I suppose it is close, and both defenses deserve some credit, but competitive, to me, suggests some level of execution on either side. (I’m exaggerating and overreacting, but yeah, this is four out of four ugly ones.)


I really hope Kyle Lowry’s not alone in feeling like this.


I respectfully disagree, Dwyane.

In front of ROYALTY??

How you gonna pull a performance like this in front of P.K. Subban? If we find out Pitbull was in the house, too, Raptors are never getting a prime time game again.

Some questionable decisions late

The Raptors’ decision to stay big all game and then suddenly go small late, benching Bismack Biyombo for most of the key part of the game, was a curious one. We’ll have more on that tomorrow.


The final possession of regulation wasn’t meant to be a pull-up, but that’s hardly going to make anyone feel better – it’s bad execution instead of a bad call, then.

DeRozan still dealing with hand issues

It’s hard to remember a worse DeMar DeRozan performance than this. It was bad enough that he sat from the 3:09 mark of the third quarter until Kyle Lowry fouled out late and the team deemed their lineup too thin on playmaking to survive without him any longer. Again, more on this tomorrow, and the logic is at least understandable, but this did not end well.


DeRozan is still dealing with a sore thumb he bent the wrong way earlier in the series, and whether or not that’s the culprit for his current struggles, there’s little excuse for shooting so much when he’s this ineffective.

“You can’t let frustration get to you at all,” DeRozan said, per The Woz. “You can’t listen to what the outsiders have to say. You just can’t get caught up in that. You just have to stay positive. Like I said, it’s 2-2, and we have a great opportunity to go home and do what we know we can do. In the next two days, hopefully it will feel better, then.” 

There’s also the matter of Lowry fouling out swinging things. Which, yeah, things could have been different.

Assorted, mostly Wade stuff

*Well isn’t that sweet. (Dwyane Wade is so good and I’m so salty, sorry.)


*Oh, and Wade apologized for Game 3…kind of.


*I still kinda can’t believe this happened. I mean, I definitely believe it, but that we got video.

Sorry this is mostly sarcastic/negative. I need to sleep on things before writing my morning recap. I’m very annoyed right now.

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