The Bigger Picture: Managing Minutes to Prevent Injuries – Raptors Republic
There has to be concern for both Lowry and DeRozan and their risk of injury as the season progresses. While neither player averages an overly high speed when on the court, both are again in the top 10 in minutes played, and each player carries a high usage rate when they’re out there, with DeRozan at 36.5% so far this year and Lowry’s usage at 25.2%. Neither player has played less than 34 minutes in a game thus far, regardless of opponent. And while Delon Wright and Jared Sullinger have yet to play due to injuries, it’s hard to imagine either of those players has a large impact on the minutes of DeMar and Kyle given that Powell can’t get on the floor on some nights.
Maybe the solution isn’t necessarily a large reduction in minutes, but a retooling of the offense to take some of the load off their shoulders, and moving it more towards Jonas Valanciunas, DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross and Norman Powell, each of whom has shown signs they can, when needed, be relied upon to provide some offense. That, in itself, even with the large burden of minutes, could help lessen the chance of an injury.
Could reducing their minutes to prevent future injury cost the team wins? It’s entirely possible, especially if you do it by staggering their minutes more, because for the most part, any minutes without Lowry have been a net negative for the team, aside from the lineup of DeRozan, Joseph, Ross, Patterson and Poeltl, which has been solid in just an 18 minute sample size. At the same time, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and the goals need to be bigger than simply winning as many games in November and December as possible, the team needs to build towards a playoff run and advancing once again to the Eastern Conference Finals and perhaps farther, and in order to do that, the health of their All-Stars has to be of paramount concern. At the same time, giving the other players more time without the stars on the floor might establish some chemistry and offensive flow, and give some protection against a possible injury. Because right now, what the Raptors are doing is both increasing the risk of an injury, as well as providing no protection in terms of a plan for success should one occur.
Raptors lose 123-115 to the schedule and to the Clippers – Raptors HQ
The Raptors had no answer for the Clippers starting lineup. A 9-point Clipper lead at half time stretched out to the mid-teens, with the Raptors surrendering a basket on seemingly every possession. Dwane Casey even pulled out the Hack-a-Jordan to prolong our torture for the night to try and reel the Clippers in a little. DeAndre Jordan, to his credit, refused to comply with that game-plan, as he shot 9-14 from the line. He is a 44% FT shooter on the season. As a hater of the hacking strategy, I’m glad he shot it well.
We’ve come to expect relentless effort out of the Raptors, and despite the grueling nature of the recent schedule and the hole they were in today, they still managed to make a game of this in the fourth quarter. DeMar DeRozan and the bench unit cut the lead to 9 against the Clippers’ bench heading into the final frame, and Kyle Lowry and the bench further whittled that lead down to 5. Then, the Clippers starters checked back in and the Raptors had no answer once again. At one point, the Clips scored on 9 consecutive possessions, and despite Lowry’s best efforts to pull a heroic victory out of thin air, it just wasn’t to be tonight.
Concerning trend continues as Raptors fall short vs. Clippers – Sportsnet.ca
Where’s the D?
Death, taxes and the Raptors’ defence getting torched. All three are certainties these days as Toronto allowed its opponent to score at least 102 points for the eighth straight outing. After limiting the Clippers to 23 points in the first quarter, the Raptors surrendered 30-plus in each of the final three frames while allowing Los Angeles to shoot 53 per cent for the game.If Toronto wants to consider itself a serious contender, this concerning trend is going to have to be the first thing cleaned up. As a defensive-minded coach, this stretch must be adding years to Dwane Casey’s life.
“It seems like everybody we’ve played in the past couple weeks we’ve turned into an offensive slugfest,” Casey told reporters following the game. “I think our guys are trying defensively but we’re not getting it done and getting stops when we need to.
“We’re not going to go anywhere if we don’t get teams under 50 per cent. That’s our goal going into these next games, is to get better at something defensively. We’ve got enough offence.”
“I liked our team’s heart tonight, I thought we scrapped and fought,” Casey said. “We could have come in and laid down, we did not do that and that means something in this league after what we went through last night and everybody asking questions about last night.
“This is the best team in the league and we put ourselves in a position to win but there’s no consolation prize.”
No, no consolation prize but if there was a booby prize, it would have once again gone to Toronto’s defence, which again was non-existent at times.
The Clippers shot 53 per cent from the floor, scored more than 30 points in each of the last three quarters and got pretty much whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
They became the eighth straight team to score more than 100 points on the Raptors, who lost for the fourth time in five games and fell to 8-6 on the season.
“I think our guys are trying, they’re trying defensively but we’re not getting it done and getting stops when we need to,” Casey said.
Raptors this week: Poor officiating no excuse for porous defence – Sportsnet.ca
After starting the season 4-2 allowing only 99.9 points per 100 possessions, Toronto has stumbled in its last seven contests, going 4-3 while giving up an egregious 108.9 points per 100 possessions. This massive slip in defensive play has dropped what was a top-10 ranked defence into the No. 18 spot.
Looking closer at the Raptors’ first six games compared to their last seven, there’s been a significant drop in just about every defensive category with the exception of points in the paint allowed, which ultimately is a little negligible as teams are shooting better from three-point range on the Raptors than before.
Going back to the Sacramento game, the Raptors did match their best defensive effort of this seven-game stretch, giving up 102 points, but they ended up getting 36 and 28 points hung on them in the first and third quarters, respectively, so as bad as the final play was, the Raptors deserved to lose that game because right now they seem incapable of putting together a sustained defensive effort for more than a few minutes at a time.
In fact, by this same logic, the Raptors probably deserved to lose every game of their last seven because they’ve consistently allowed teams to hang a high number on them in at least one quarter.
Game Rap: Raptors 115, Clippers 123 | Toronto Raptors
UNABLE TO CLOSE THE GAP
A 13-point third quarter from DeRozan helped the Raptors trim a 17-point Clippers lead to nine going into the fourth. In the final frame, the Raptors got within four points, but couldn’t complete the comeback. Although Toronto outscored the Clippers 36-35 in the quarter, Los Angeles shot 64 percent and the Raptors couldn’t get enough stops down the stretch.
Griffin, Paul score 26 apiece as Clippers beat Raptors – Sportsnet.ca
Blake Griffin and Chris Paul scored 26 points each as the Clippers beat the Raptors 123-115.
Tested by Raptors, Clippers held on to take the win | Toronto Sun
The Clippers held on, but it took everything in their power to get out of this one with a 123-115 win.
That’s the league leading Clippers coming off a full day of rest and possessing the No. 2 defence and the No. 2 offence in the league.
Midway through the third it looked like the Raptors were ready to throw up the white flag down 17 but then a lineup with Patterson at centre, Terrence Ross at the four and three smalls in the backcourt somehow worked.
The Raptors got the deficit down to four at one point but then the Clippers re-established control and pretty much coasted home.
Chris Paul, Blake Griffin each score 26 in Clippers’ 123-115 win over Raptors – LA Times
“It was a very frustrating [half] from a coaching standpoint because . . . it felt like we should be up a lot,” Rivers said. “We got a ton of stops to start the game and we basically fumbled the ball and missed shots. We looked bad offensively. I thought the whole team was frustrated at halftime. We were up by eight or nine, and it felt like we should be up more. We allowed them to stay in the game.”
LA Clippers stand firm, edge out Toronto Raptors to win 123-115 – Clipperholics
Late in the first quarter, Jamal Crawford hit a two-pointer to go ahead 20-19, the last time the Raptors would lead. For good measure, Crawford hit a wild, falling three at the buzzer to extend the lead to four at the end of the first.
Paul hit a huge three (thanks to a Blake Griffin assist) with a little over two minutes left in the game to give the Clippers a 113-104 lead. Paul raced down the court on the next possession and was fouled in the act of shooting, making the shot and then the free throw. The Raptors responded with a timeout.
Toronto continued to foul the Clippers in an attempt to claw back into the game, but it wasn’t enough. And neither was their attempt to use Hack-a-DJ against DeAndre Jordan; he went 9-of-14 from the line (64.3 percent).
Fast Break: Early season MVP candidates – Video – TSN
In this edition of Fast Break, the NBA on TSN panel gives their early season MVP candidates including Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan
In age of sports transparency, how did Raptors controversy happen? – Sportsnet.ca
Why can’t the NBA do what would happen at every pick-up game across North America: Have a do-over.
At the moment there is no rule allowing for that. In the case of a clock malfunction they simply time the play in question and if it was completed in the amount of time that was on the game clock or less, it stands. If it takes a fraction of a second more the basket doesn’t count.
It’s a subject that would have to be reviewed by the league’s competition committee – Raptors president Masai Ujiri sits on it – but the soonest anything could be implemented would be next season.
In the meantime, Raptors nation – and even many within the Raptors organization – can only sit and stew. Notions of an anti-Canadian conspiracy are never far away among a certain strain of Raptors fans. There is a reason that We The North – a slogan that panders to the fan base’s sense of isolation and alienation – has resonated so powerfully over the past three years.
It’s hard to make the case in this case – a Sunday night Kings-Raptors game was the one the league was waiting to put the fix in on? But that hasn’t stopped countless people from doing their own video reviews and posting their findings online. And it won’t stop it in the future.
The answer as the league thrusts deeper and deeper into the digital age is to have all the calls reviewed, or none at all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNF3S5xgYAv/
Raptors to protest buzzer-beater call in Kings game | Toronto Star
But Ujiri’s concerns go beyond just one game. The longer-term implications are serious, he said.
“Mistakes in basketball are inevitable, we deal with them on a daily basis no matter the team or player. But wins and losses in the NBA are finite and last night goes down as a loss on our record,” he said. “At some point, these calls start piling up and matter at the end of the season. Calls like these are demoralizing to our players, coaches, staff, and even our fans. We all expect better than this.”
Ujiri felt Ross, whose shot started the controversy, was playing against the clock he saw in the arena and could very well have altered his timing had he known there was a problem.
“When Terrence caught the ball near half court, he knew he only had a couple of seconds to shoot the ball before time expired, but he also knew he had a clock above the backboard to glance up at as time winded down,” the president said. “Unfortunately, the clock he needed to look at was in New Jersey.”
The play will be forever etched in the minds of players and fans: Down three points with 2.4 seconds left on the game clock, the Raptors appeared to have miraculously tied it on a Ross desperation shot at the buzzer. But three on-court officials determined the clock hadn’t started when Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins deflected an inbounds pass and after referee Zach Zarba watched the play at the league’s replay centre in Secaucus, N.J., he determined Ross did not get the shot off before the buzzer should have sounded.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNGNryZgGzG/
Know Your Raptors: Take a 360 tour of the locker room – Sportsnet.ca
Ever wondered what Kyle Lowry’s go-to karaoke song is? The most ’embarrassing’ song on DeMar DeRozan’s iPod? Cory Joseph’s favourite order at Tim Horton’s? Or what Dwane Casey’s dream job as a kid was?
Know Your Raptors returns for its fourth season, and this year it’s bigger and better than ever. Get to know a fresh side of your favourite Raptors with video profiles on each player that let you catch a glimpse of their personalities away from the court. To view each video, just click ‘Play’ below and scroll through the interactive Raptors locker room to to catch a side of your favourite players that you’ve never seen before.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNGOE-8gtfh/
Kings Sweep Raptors in Last Second Thriller | Sacramento Kings
https://vine.co/v/5tXHPng3v75
JJ Redick walks by Terrence Ross explaining his OT 3, calls it bullshit. #rtz
In conclusion, the referees of the game Courtney Kirkland, Kevin Cutler, Mike Callahan have made mistakes. But that is not the problem. They have openly denied any wrongdoing and lied to the media about any mistake being made in the first place. Due to the different nature of such an incident, the proper punishment should also be different. I suggest that the NBA and the NBA refereeing commitee revise its rules on end of game plays and consider more attentive and better safeguards against shot clock inaccuracy in the future.
