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…
There's no revenge in the regular season, but the Bucks will be looking for it anyway.
Ryan Hollins and Kendrick Perkins got into it on Twitter over the Raptors' contention status.
Now please bear with me as I try to tie these threads into a story. We’ll start with the end and go backward: Deadspin dead, as of two days ago. The apogee might have been when 20 writers and editors quit. Or it might have come the next day when a freelancer foolish enough to…
I was introduced to clichéd sports mantras at an early age. I remember strapping on my boots in little league soccer — my first foray into organized sports — and my coach telling me, “there is no ‘I’ in team.” It’s an oft-used quote from the ‘Coach Talk’ handbook that I’m sure many readers have…
In a sport ravaged with high-low actions, advanced analytics and complex defensive schemes, sometimes things really aren’t as complicated as a they’re made out to be. Occasionally basketball is really quite simple. Who wants it more? It sounds cliché, I know. But with each gravity-defying offensive rebound, every body thrown on top of a loose…
The Toronto Raptors grueling double overtime on Sunday showed us a lot of things. It showed that Marc Gasol was actually capable of not only playing, but thriving, in this series. It showed that there is some life hidden in the bench in the form of Norman Powell. And, for those that have not been…
The Raptors get on the board after a marathon double-overtime win over the Bucks.
I wrote a piece back in December called “Finding Good Things, in a Sea of Good Things”. I talked about Delon Wright’s 3-point shot, Pascal Siakam’s unparalleled dominance when defending corner threes, and Kawhi Leonard’s forays into the paint. Now, like that time in Raptorland, there’s a lot of things to like from the team.…
The adrenaline of Kawhi Leonard’s game 7 heroics have finally faded. Leonard himself said that he’d moved on from the glorious moment by the next day, though it took the rest of Raptorland a whole lot longer. (I probably still watched 15 times on Twitter this morning, weening myself off of the high.) So what…