Five Storylines for the Week of August 3rd
Racial justice, OG's confidence, Ibaka's finishing, and more in the five most interesting storylines of the week.
Oren Weisfeld
Raptors’ margin for error is small, but a healthy top seven could go the length
The Raptors played 64 games before the season was suspended and it’s clear which players head coach Nick Nurse trusts.
Sports are too big of a distraction to resume just yet
Let’s start here: What made the current Black Lives Matter movement for social reform and against police brutality bigger, lengthier, and more influential than ones in the past? What made it so diverse and so united towards one single cause? The circumstances leading up to the tragic murder of George Floyd certainly played a part.…
The suspension of sports will force a lot of us to reckon with our humanity
For a lot of us, sports is the ultimate escape from reality. It’s cliche to tell the stories of sports saving lives, whether it’s an athlete bouncing back from rock bottom, a lost soul finding their calling in coaching, or a mother finally living comfortably thanks to her son’s new contract, we hear these stories…
Five Storylines for the Week of March 9th
After defeating the surging Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, the Toronto Raptors are on a three-game winning streak — all on the road — and are 3.0 games ahead of the Boston Celtics for the all-important No. 2 seed in the East. The Raptors will finish their five-game road trip tonight in Utah against the…
Why Pascal Siakam is the best and most important Raptor
Yes, even more important than Kyle Lowry. NBA Twitter is often a perfectly binary place, shaping the way we see the game. Arguments are made or they are not made. If one player is good then the other player is bad. If my team is fun then your team is boring. And if our…
Five Storylines for the Week of March 2nd
The Raptors lost three games in a row and all hell broke loose. Are there no rules anymore!? Seriously, I was shocked to see the Twitterverse (and my dad) explode after the Raptors lost to *checks notes* the No. 2 seed Denver Nuggets on the road without their only two reliable centers and a starting…
Raptors fall to Bucks in physical contest between two best teams in the East
Defensively, the Toronto Raptors did about as well as any team can against the Milwaukee Bucks in Tuesday’s 108-97 loss at Scotiabank Arena. It’s not often that a team will hold Giannis Antetokounmpo to just 19 points and the Bucks to just 10 fast-break points. The Raptors, however, execute defensive schemes about as well as…
Five Storylines for the Week of February 24th
The Toronto sports scene is changing and you can blame the Maple Leafs as much as the Raptors for that. This week showed a stark contrast between two Toronto sports organizations. The night after the Carolina Hurricanes utterly embarrassed the Toronto Maple Leafs by defeating the Leafs’ with their own minor league affiliate team’s zamboni…
Five Storylines for the Week of February 17th
All-Star weekend is finished and what a weekend it was! Saturday night saw Aaron Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. go at it for six rounds in the dunk contest. Gordon finished the night by dunking over 7-foot-5 big man Tacko Fall only to… lose. Still, my favourite dunk of the night was a different one…
How Serge Ibaka defied the odds and became irreplaceable
It was game 4 of the Toronto Raptors’ second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers last playoffs when Raptors head coach Nick Nurse made a key, potentially series-altering decision: To match Marc Gasol’s minutes with those of Joel Embiid. In the first three games, Ibaka, a power-forward for most of his career until switching primarily to…
Five Storylines for the Week of February 10th
Holy smokes, the Raptors are on a 14-game winning streak! The Raptors are 39-14, still 3rd place in the league, now just 1.0 game back of the Los Angeles Lakers for 2nd place in the league. The Raptors road record of 19-7 also ranks 3rd in the league, an important marker for a good team. …