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Spurs crush Raptors | DeRozan first career triple-double | Kawhi gets boo'd, doesn't care.

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DeRozan has triple-double, Spurs win in Leonard’s return

DeMar DeRozan 21 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for first career triple-double and San Antonio welcomed back Leonard with thunderous jeers in the Spurs’ 125-107 victory over the Raptors.

“You’ve got to thrive in moments like that,” DeRozan said. “You’ve got to love to play in that type of atmosphere, whether it’s at home or on the road. It kind of fuels you, kind of gets you going. That’s what made it so fun.”

It wasn’t much fun for Leonard and the Raptors, who saw a three-game winning streak snapped in inglorious fashion.

Leonard scored 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting, but the anger the Spurs’ fans showered on him seemed to impact the MVP candidate. Leonard had to take a step back at the free throw line and compose himself amid chants of “Traitor! Traitor!” and “Quitter! Quitter!” from the capacity crowd that adored him during his seven seasons in San Antonio.

The reception didn’t surprise Leonard.

“No,” Leonard said. “Media does a great mind to stir people’s minds and to influence them to think a certain way. So, I already knew how that was going to be the way the media was.”

DeRozan, Aldridge deliver dish best served cold – ExpressNews.com

The AT&T Center crowd, out for metaphorical blood. His former teammates in Toronto, transformed into foes by a summertime trade he did not want. A personal statistical line inching into territory that DeRozan, as good as he had been as a Raptor, had never before tasted.

When it was all over, after DeRozan’s first career triple-double lifted a team and unleashed catharsis for a sold out crowd of 18,354 and perhaps an entire city, the emotions he felt weren’t what he expected.

“It really wasn’t nothing,” said DeRozan, who finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. “It was fun, going out there and talking mess to my old teammates. It wasn’t emotional at all for me. It was fun.”

Spurs blow out Raptors and spoil Kawhi’s homecoming – Pounding The Rock

“I know I can score the ball — I’ve proven that,” said DeRozan, who’s pushed his assists per game to a career-high 6.4. “This is about me wanting to be that guy who makes his teammates better around me, as well… For me, it’s just fun getting everybody else rolling.”

How did former Raptor feel after getting this long-awaited game under his belt?

“It was extremely fun,” he said, shrugging off the emotional stakes once attached to the matchup. “Going out there, talking to my old teammates. That’s always fun. But it wasn’t emotional at all for me. It was just a fun game.”

Fun was likely the big takeaway for Spurs fans, as well — even those who’d come in with defaced Leonard jerseys and a focus on booing their lungs out. One star may have left them with months of pent-up emotions, but the man who replaced him is doing his best to keep the positive vibes flowing in San Antonio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGcOJG7Yf2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEuFiCGgl2s

Lots of Raptors flaws show on DeMar’s big night | The Star

Man, there are some issues creeping in with the Raptors that we’ll delve deeper into later today after I get this done and a couple of flights out of the way.

But once again the three-point shooting was problematic.

They went 6-for-30, the starting backcourt of VanVleet and Green were a combined 1-for-12 and I know they’re not that bad all the time but they’re bad more often than not and that’s got to get resolved.

Trouble was, most of the shots last night would have fallen into the “good” category and if you’re not making good and open threes, you’re not going to win too often.

I don’t think last night was an indictment on the entire year and there is still more than half a season to go but watching open look after open look miss had to be tough for them.

Sayeth Nick:

“I thought we had some really good looks in the first eight or nine possessions. I think we had three wide open threes and none of them go, we had a couple at the rim that didn’t go as well … That might have let us hang in there a little bit if we could have scored a little bit with them but we just didn’t guard them well enough tonight.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qYYDCUgATU

DeMar DeRozan Outshines Kawhi Leonard As The Spurs Rout The Raptors

Kawhi’s impending free agency sort of foregrounds the risk the Raptors took by trading away two important rotation players, including the team’s all-time leading scorer, in order to acquire him. But it’s worth remembering that the Spurs took a huge risk, too, by taking back a 29-year-old veteran guard with a an offensive style straight out of 2004, rather than draft picks and “assets,” when trading away a player who had up to that moment been the unquestioned future of the franchise and one of the best players in basketball. They took a chance that DeRozan wasn’t just a moderately efficient one-way scorer benefiting from a razor-sharp Raptors basketball operation, and could fit his midrange-heavy, ball-dominant game in an offense already more than a little squeezed by Aldridge’s post touches and Gay’s own midrange tendencies. And they took an even bigger chance that a team featuring three players not exactly known for stout individual defense could maintain their shape and discipline on that end. Turning down the chance to salvage some shiny draft picks out of the bad Kawhi situation appeared, at the time, to be short-sighted to the point of self-sabotage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU1h46MaQls

Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard free agency pitch could lose to Los Angeles Clippers for simple reason – Business Insider

It is Leonard’s right, of course, to choose what makes him happiest. He could love Toronto, but ultimately decide to move to Los Angeles, to be closer to his family, and to enjoy a better climate.

“But it’s just cold. You know, I came from California, and I moved to San Antonio, and there’s no snow in either city,” Leonard told ESPN of Toronto. “It’s my first experience having Christmas with snow on the ground and just seeing snow throughout the year for the first time.”

From a basketball perspective, the Clippers and Raptors might not be so different. Both situations, without Leonard, might be about equal. Both teams have talented young players, proven veterans, and future flexibility.

Could winning a championship this season potentially be so enticing that Leonard simply can’t leave? Maybe.

But Leonard won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs. When star players win that elusive championship early on, they seem to feel more comfortable doing what makes them happiest, regardless of the championship potential. So, for Leonard, it might come down off-the-court items, things the Raptors can’t control.

Why Toronto believes it can convince Kawhi Leonard to stay

“So here we are in a meeting,” Nurse said last week inside that same office, “and I was thinking: What if this guy just sits there and says, ‘I’m not ready to talk to anybody yet?’ What am I gonna do?”

It turned out that Nurse had nothing to worry about. When the meeting started, he asked Leonard if he had any questions. The star forward said yes.

The rest, Nurse said, took care of itself.

“Next thing you know, it led to me being at the board, drawing plays, with him standing up there with me,” Nurse said. “It was an interesting first meeting. He was super engaging, and his basketball mind was awesome, and it was fun.”

It was the moment Leonard’s integration into his new team began. In the months since, Leonard has become the clear go-to guy on a team that has the most wins in the NBA this season. The Raptors also hope it was the moment they can point to as laying the foundation for a years-long relationship with the pending free agent.

“We’re playing well,” Leonard told ESPN. “It’s a lot to make an adjustment to be here. It’s different. It’s a different culture, a different mindset than what me and Danny [Green] are coming from.”

DeRozan records first career triple-double as Spurs roll over Raptors – The Globe and Mail

Leonard forced his way out of San Antonio in a trade that yielded DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl from Toronto for Leonard and Danny Green.

Leonard was booed heavily from the moment he walked onto the court for warm-up. The boos continued during a pregame video tribute and player introductions, whenever he touched the ball and as he walked off the court following the lopsided loss.

DeRozan and the Spurs dominated the battle of former teammates, leading by as many as 28 points in snapping the Raptors’ three-game winning streak.

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 23 points for San Antonio, Bryn Forbes added 20, Derrick White 19 and Rudy Gay 13.

The night belonged to DeRozan, though as he became the first San Antonio player with a triple-double at home since Tim Duncan in 2003.

After leading by as many as 26 points in the first half, San Antonio opened the second half on a 12-0 run to take a 79-51 lead.

Spurs-Raptors: DeMar DeRozan has career game in Kawhi Leonard’s return

DeRozan is still upset the Raptors — and more specifically, Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri — traded him. DeRozan, who has Texas-sized chip on his shoulder, says Ujiri told him days before the trade he wasn’t going anywhere. Ujiri claims no such promise was made. DeRozan said this week he has no reason to talk to Ujiri. No reason at all.

See, Leonard, who scored 21 points, wanted out of San Antonio, for reasons that remain a mystery even today. Spurs fans aren’t happy an All-Star, defensive player of the year and Finals MVP didn’t want to play with San Antonio and booed him. The franchise, however, played a Leonard tribute video before the game.

DeRozan wanted to stay in Toronto. He loved it there. It was home. He helped the Raptors become one of the better teams in the East. In 2016, he signed a five-year, $139 million contract. At the very least, he wanted to finish the remaining years on his contract with Toronto alongside his good friend and (former) teammate Kyle Lowry.

San Antonio vs. Toronto, Final Score: Spurs corral the Raptors 125 – 107 – Pounding The Rock

In an electrifying atmosphere fit for Wrestlemania, the Spurs jumped on the Raptors early with a scorching 65% shooting. Their offense mainly consisted of penetrating the paint and kicking the ball out or barrelling in for a dunk. The Spurs looked crisp while the Raptors were active but sloppy with several turnovers.

The Raptors managed to klaw their way back to within 16 off of a few Spurs turnovers after being down as much as 26 early in the game. Being up 16 at halftime was the Spurs’ reward for their fiery energy against the team with the best record in the NBA.

The Spurs continued to stay aggressive and came out in the second half looking to blow out the Raptors. The starters, in particular, kept pushing the pace and pounding the ball inside while swarming all over on defense. Leonard started out playing a little tight against the backdrop of cascading boos but loosened up as the game wore on.

An emotional night eased towards the end when Coach Popovich emptied the bench with less than 5 minutes to go in the game. Tonight the good guys win their first game of 2019 against a talented Raptors team also missing Kyle Lowry.

https://twitter.com/davidmfajardoo/status/1081032825732845568

Eric Gay/The Associated Press

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