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Serge Ibaka posterizes Jabari Parker as Raptors crush Bulls
On a near-nightly basis this season, Serge Ibaka has been one of the most impressive and consistent members of the Toronto Raptors on both ends of the floor.
And on Saturday night in Chicago, the big man put his offensive touch on display as he threw down a massive dunk over Jabari Parker in Toronto’s 39-point rout of the Bulls.
Unfortunately for Parker, he couldn’t get over quick enough to foil Ibaka’s effort and, for that, was posterized immediately by Toronto’s power forward. That was one absolutely ferocious slam.
Raptors Takeaways: VanVleet, Green step up to end losing streak – Sportsnet.ca
Danny Green is money
Danny Green didn’t miss any of his seven shots from the field and was 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.Green has eight games this season with a three-point shot, a steal and block, which ranks third in the NBA. It was especially helpful on a night when the Raptors were without most of their wing depth, Green showed up and showed out to the tune of 17 points and a game-high plus-35.
Green is proving to be much more than a throw-in from the Leonard-DeRozan trade as he is proving to be a vital component to Toronto’s championship aspirations.
Depleted depth on the wing
Despite missing some key parts, the Raptors’ depth won them the game with all 13 players in uniform scoring.Norman Powell has already been out for a while with a left shoulder subluxation, C.J. Miles is nursing with a right abductor strain and OG Anunoby was hurt on Friday spraining his right wrist. On top of that, Kawhi Leonard was undergoing his scheduled rest.
The Raptors’ depth, more specifically their wing depth, was put to the test on Saturday night. Miles is expected back next week and Powell is recovering faster than expected, so the Raptors should get some relief soon.
Bulls regular season: Short-handed Bulls drop fourth straight in losing to Toronto
It was the Bulls’ fourth consecutive loss and the third straight defeat that could be filed under “embarrassing.’’
Hoiberg, known for being even-tempered, admittedly would love to take numerous players to task, but he’s aware of just how fragile his team’s psyche is these days.
“Part of it is to try to keep our spirits up right now,’’ Hoiberg said. “There are plenty of times I’ve been overly [angry], and we have film sessions, practices behind closed doors where we have some pretty heated moments. But when a team is reeling, that’s not the time to do it. You gotta try to lift them up, you gotta talk about the things we did well and you’ve got to take positives out of every performance.’’
Those positives would be hard to find against Toronto.
At least in the meltdown in Milwaukee on Friday, there was a first half of textbook basketball. Without LaVine — and Lauri Markkanen, Bobby Portis, Kris Dunn and Denzel Valentine — against the Raptors, it was never a fair fight.
There were more stagnant moments from an offense that often forgets to show up in the third quarter.
A 13-point halftime deficit grew to 33 by the time the third quarter was over. The Raptors outscored the Bulls 32-12 in the third.
Late-game woes bite the Raptors for second straight game | The Star
The Raptors don’t use it an awful lot, at least they haven’t to his point in the season, but Nick Nurse has had them play zone defence every now and then.
Usually it’s out of timeouts to change up the look and steal a possession or two and I think they got two stops in a row when they went to it after the second timeout of the first quarter last night.
I don’t think a zone is anything any team should consider using often because teams simply have too many good passers and smart players to make it effective over any long stretch.
But with Toronto’s length and defensive abilities, using it to get two or three or even four stops in a row could provide the kind of momentum shifts in a game they need.
Game Centre: Raptors take out frustrations on Bulls in Windy City | The Star
This and that: It was the first career start for Fred VanVleet and it came in front of about 200 friends and family from his nearly hometown of Rockford, Ill., home of the Peaches … A stat from Friday night in Boston: When Leonard had 31 points and 15 rebounds, he became only the third player in Raptors history with a 30-15 game. Chris Bosh and Vince Carter were the others … Serge Ibaka had a season-high four blocked shots, celebrating one with a Dikembe Mutombo-like finger wag and another by turning both his thumbs down and looking off into the audience … Loyd had his first points as a Raptor in the fourth quarter.
Kawhi-less Raptors blow out Bulls to end losing streak | Toronto Sun
“He really looked like his old self,” Nick Nurse said of VanVleet. “He looked like a different guy out there tonight and that’s good.”
Lowry said he’d be fine and joked that he didn’t know how he hurt his ankle, blaming it on a ghost character from an old basketball movie that DeMar DeRozan has also referenced in the past. Lowry was only on the court at that point because he’s been unhappy with his shooting (he cursed loudly a few times at one point after a miss) and was trying to find a rhythm with a day off on Sunday looming.
Green said he couldn’t remember a previous perfect outing from the field and said a lot of his excellent play so far stems from feeling far healthier than he did in his final season in San Antonio.
Toronto is +11.5 with Green on the floor, the best mark on the team and -3.2 when he sits, also easily the best mark.
“It’s a big difference. I move a lot better,” Green said of being healthy.
“I move a lot more efficiently. I feel like myself — not 100% as athletic as I used to be, obviously getting older. At the beginning of the season I was actually making plays at the rim, which is rare. I’m trying to get back to that,” he said.
There wasn’t a snowball’s chance that Saturday night was going to be anything other than abysmal. Already shorthanded, the Bulls were without leading scorer Zach LaVine on the second night of a back-to-back facing the Eastern Conference-leading Toronto Raptors. Even without Kawhi Leonard and on its own tail end of a back-to-back, Toronto’s roster made the end result feel inevitable. And it was.
The Bulls offense was invisible without LaVine, tallying just 55 points through three quarters and finishing with 22 turnovers and 21 assists. They shot 35 percent from the field while the Raptors scored at will; the 122-83 loss was the fourth worst home loss in Bulls history, and the Raptors largest road win in their history. It was even uglier than the final score.
In a vacuum the Bulls are 4-13, the fourth worst record in the NBA, with the league’s third worst offense and seventh worst defense. The season is exactly one month old and the Bulls already have two four-game losing streaks, another three-game skid and only wins against four sub-.500 teams with a combined record of 16-45. Its best win came against a 7-8 Hornets team that was finishing a four-game-in-six-nights road trip. “Let’s go Raptors” chants breaking out at home while trailing by 38 is probably a new low in a season that’s quickly getting away from the Bulls.
“We have to find a way to stick together through this tough stretch that we’ve had, and we’ve got to find a way to build on the good things that we do and start to limit the bad stretches that we have, which are way too many right now,” Hoiberg said. “Got to find a way.”
It’s been ugly. But in context, the 4-13 Bulls are playing exactly like a team that a) is missing three of its top players, including its best, and b) is in Year 2 of a bare bones rebuild. The Bulls are one year removed from a 27-win season, the franchise’s worst in 14 years. They’re the youngest team in the NBA and o
Raptors crush Bulls to snap 3-game slide | CBC Sports
The Bulls managed just nine points in the third quarter (on 4-for-19 shooting) as the Raptors opened an 89-56 lead entering the fourth.
VanVleet had eight points and made all three of his shots in the third.
“He really looked like his old self,” Nurse said. “He’s been a shell of himself lately, in all phases. Not getting the ball where he wants to go. Not shooting the 3 at a high level. In my head, he’s a 45-plus shooter and he’s shooting somewhere in the 20s this year.
“He just looked like a different guy out there, and that’s good.”
None of Toronto’s starters played in the fourth, but the Raptors still managed to stretch the lead to 40 points.
“We need to do something,” Chicago rookie Wendell Carter Jr. said. “Try our hardest, don’t quit and play as hard as you can until the last second.”
Game Recap: Raptors throttle Bulls to snap losing streak, 122-83 – Raptors HQ
In addition to Siakam’s steady hand around the basket and on the break, fans were hoping to see a classic Fred VanVleet performance in his first career start. Overall, the third year guard had failed to impress early this season after inking a two-year, $18m deal in the offseason.
It was fitting, then, that two of the Raptors’ first three baskets after the tip came from these fellas.
VanVleet, who off the bench this season has looked apprehensive at best when handling the ball, was keen on making decisive plays with the ball, utilizing his quickness off the dribble to create open looks. Siakam and VanVleet combined for nine of the Raptors’ first 14 points before Fred Hoiberg called the first timeout of the game with his Bulls down seven.
The Bulls wouldn’t go away just yet, however. After the timeout, they managed a 7-0 run of their own to get back in the game, helped in part by a couple of ugly turnovers from — who else — Serge Ibaka. Ibaka had a rough start to this game, getting the hook for Jonas Valanciunas around the three-minute mark, after posting three turnovers and just two points on 1-of-5 shooting to go along with two blocks.
But back to the man of the hour: it’s tough to speculate what got VanVleet going tonight — whether it was playing next to Kyle Lowry; in front of his “hometown” crowd; a sub-par defensive team — whatever the case, it worked as he scored ten first quarter points. Behind FVV’s best start of the young season, the Raptors jumped out to a 27-18 lead after one.
Chicago Bulls: Third quarter collapse leads to fourth straight loss
Chicago was without their best player, Zach LaVine, due to a respiratory illness, so it’s not entirely fair to say that the Bulls should’ve been able to hang with this deep, talented Raptors team.
Without LaVine, the Bulls’ offense struggled to get anything going. As a team, they shot a poor 34.9 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from the 3-point line. The Bulls also turned the ball over 22 times – 14 of those turnovers came from the bench.
Despite struggling to produce offensively, the Bulls hung around in the first half. At the break, they were down by a very manageable 13 points. But for the second straight night, the Bulls would start the second half playing like a team that has no business being on the court with an NBA playoff team. Maybe that’s a sign that the Bulls aren’t anywhere close to contending with the league’s elite.
As far as individual performances go, there wasn’t much to be excited about.
Antonio Blakeney led the Bulls in scoring with 13 points but shot an extremely poor 6-of-19 from the field and had a -30 plus/minus.
Jabari Parker also struggled, shooting 5-of-14 from the field and finishing with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. To his credit, he was one of the Bulls’ top performers. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying very much at this point.
