Built Ford Tough

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121214_SAC@OKC

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121214_GS@ORL

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121214_MIL@CLE

D'Arnaud is the best catching prospect in baseball and, I believe, ranked as the 10th or 11th best prospect overall. As far as the rumors/speculation/whatever goes, I don't know what to think. On one hand, I definitely believe that the teams have had serious discussions and probably aren't too far off in terms of a deal being completed. Toronto is well known to be after another pitcher and Dickey is clearly available for trade. On the other hand, AA never has his trades leaked like this. All of his moves have been completely out of the blue with little to no speculation before hand. Nobody saw the Miami blockbuster coming, nobody talked about the deal for Rasmus until it happened and so on. The only trade that was known before hand was the Halladay trade, but that was obvious since Doc said he wanted to go to Philly. So yeah, I don't know what to think. All of the leaked "information" is coming from New York, at least from what I've read. The only thing I do know is that if D'Arnaud, one of Sanchez or Syndergaard and another spec are involved, Toronto better be getting a damn good player (prospect or otherwise) along with Dickey, although based on what I've read, if you can believe what has been leaked, that seems to be the case anyways. I'm sure Dickey signing an extension would be a part of the deal so I'm not worried about that.

Butler with their 2nd huge upset of the season. They just beat Indiana by 2 in overtime. Really though, the Hoosiers were lucky the game even went to overtime as it took a perfect storm of calls going their way, Bulldog players fouling out (Roosevelt Jones, who was having an awesome game, and Andrew Smith), some poor late execution from Butler (a blown bunny and a turnover) that even enabled them to be in the position for Yogi to knock down the game tying 3 with 5 seconds left (great play, though). Butler was definitely the better team in regulation, although overtime could've gone either way. Barlow ended up hitting a floater in the lane with 2 seconds left and Hulls missed a half court heave that would've won the game. It was pretty awesome to see, although it was bittersweet since it likely means Duke is going to be the new #1 seed. Ugh. Looking forward to the Florida/Zona matchup tonight. Should be a great game.

I wouldn't go as far as saying his career is at risk or anything, but depending on the extent of the tear, this could actually be a pretty serious injury. A torn ligament in the elbow of your shooting arm (at least, I believe he fell on his right arm, can't remember for sure) isn't something that you just take a few days off and return good as new. It could definitely keep him out of the lineup for a significant amount of time. Depending on the severity of the tear, Bargnani could potentially need surgery and miss the entire season. If I had to guess, I'd say he is out for a month at the minimum.

What makes it even better is that on the Raptors broadcast they showed another angle and you can clearly see the ref nail Humphries in the face with his follow through (well, at least more clearly than the gif ECN posted). But yeah, the Raptors may suck but you can usually count for at least a couple of "highly entertaining WTF" moments each game.

Mark Jackson is making a fool out of a lot of people. He has done a fantastic job with this team this season. I've been very impressed with his coaching this year. He has improved tremendously.

Sure it likely wouldn't have made a difference in the game since the Raptors were down 4 but you never know. Toronto could've got a quick 2 and Brooklyn could've turned the ball over on the inbounds or split a pair of free throws. Maybe Toronto hits a 3. Suddenly it is a 3 point game, maybe even 2 if the Nets don't make their freebies, and Toronto has a chance to win it or send the game into overtime. What happens if the Nets turn the ball over trying to inbound it, which actually did happen on their next possession? Is it highly unlikely that things would play out that way? For sure, especially since Toronto isn't a good 3 point shooting team, but stranger things have happened. By no means am I saying that play decided the game or anything because it definitely did not. I was just pointing out what I thought was an obvious blown call at the time. PS: Don't even get me started on not getting calls. The Raptors have gotten the short end of the whistle way more times than the Nets have this season.

How do you miss such an obvious backcourt violation? Watson clearly caught the ball in the frontcourt.

Not really. He loses his pay for the game and that is around $80K or so.

I wouldn't say he is a ball hog. It is more questionable decision making. He has done a solid job of driving and kicking. I don't know the exact numbers, but I believe he only has 10 or so less 3 point assists than Rondo does and that is with him missing those 2 weeks or so with the foot injury. Toronto isn't exactly a great shooting club either so it's not like he is finding Ray Allen on the perimeter or anything like that. (I also realize that Boston isn't a very good 3 point shooting team either, making just 5 a game). His screen management hasn't been very good. He doesn't seem to have any real chemistry with any of the Raptors bigs and does a poor job of finding the roll man. This isn't all on Lowry as the Raptor bigs are generally poor at setting screens and even Calderon only works well with Amir. Him being in and out of the lineup so often may be part of the problem as it is making it difficult for him to develop any real chemistry and get used to his teammates tendencies. My biggest complaint is his defense, though. All he does is gamble and rarely actually defends his man straight up anymore. I think this is where his teammates are calling him selfish (well, this and the early shot clock deep 3's) as he is just gambling non-stop. It is pretty discouraging because we both know how good he can be defensively when he sets his mind to it. The few times he has actually gotten into it defensively, good things have happened. Speaking of, when exactly did Lowry stop playing defense? You've obviously seen a lot more of him the past few years than I have and would know better.

You know it is coming, Brandon!

Problem is that Casey isn't allowed to do that because that means Bargnani would never see the floor and that is a huge no-no around Toronto. I may be completely off base here, but I think that if Casey was truly given full autonomy when it comes to the lineup this would be the case. From everything we heard about him prior to getting the job he was exactly this kind of coach. He stressed defense, effort and hustle. If you don't provide those, you will be picking splinters out of your ass. We've seen him do it when it comes to guys like Ed Davis, Jonas Valanciunas, Amir Johnson and even DeMar DeRozan (more so last season than this year because DD hasn't given Casey any reason to bench him this year as his effort level has been top notch) but not with Bargnani. That leads me to believe that he isn't allowed to bench him. After all, Sam Mitchell was basically fired over his handling of Bargnani (at least in my mind) so the precedent is there.

Totally worth it. Toronto will get dominated tomorrow against Brooklyn anyways and that was by far the most entertaining moment of the Raptors season thus far.

Griffin should stick to finishing lobs, not throwing them. That lob to Jordan was awful.

That isn't an excuse. A big part of the reason why the Raptors are so bad is directly because of Lowry's poor play. These 25 foot 3's with 20 seconds on the shot clock, holding onto the ball for too long instead of swinging it, out of control drives and completely matador defense are absolutely killing the Raptors. Just because the team is sucking doesn't mean you go out there and do whatever you damn well please or mail it in. The fact that Lowry is supposed to be a leader on this team makes it even worse.

Meh, no call in my opinion.

Looked to me like Kidd kicked out his leg there. After seeing the replay, he definitely did. Bad, bad call. And Kidd misses the free throw. As Sheed would say, "BALL DON'T LIE!"

Smith definitely got away with an illegial screen on that play there. He completely stepped in front of Wallace.

Lowry also got some heat as well for playing seflishly, which is valid as well. Glad to see the players letting Bargnani have it, though. http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/12/11/desperate-raptors-at-yet-another-crossroads/ This team is comedic gold, though. They are entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

Why on earth would Artest take that shot? Re-post Kobe or swing the ball, don't jack up a 3 with 18 seconds left. Of course, Irving comes back and sets up Varejao for an open jumper ont he ensuing Cavs possession to likely ice the game.

Irving's handles are absolutely ridiculous. So much fun to watch him create off the bounce.

Well, in tonight's game against Portland, the Blazers shot 0-20 from three. This set a new NBA record for the most 3's attempted in a game without a make, surpassing the old mark of 18. If a team sets a new NBA record for failing, it had to mean the Raptors won, right? Nope. Toronto lost by 18. That's right, the Blazers set a new record for incompetent 3 point shooting, yet still beat the Raptors 92-74. By the way, did I mention that the Blazers were missing Nicolas Batum and Wesley Mathews? Did I also mention that they started Sasha Pavlovic and Viktor Claver, as well had a lineup of Nolan Smith - Pavlovic - Claver - Luke Babbit - Meyers Leonard on the floor at once? So to sum up, no Batum, no Matthews, worst bench in the league and 0-20 from 3 = 18 point loss.

I gotta be honest though, this game may be the most entertaining Raptors game of the year. It has nothing to do with the actually basketball being played, because that is just cringe worthy, but it is just a wonderful train wreck. - Amir going postal and launching his mouth guard at a ref becuase he wouldn't let him hold onto the ball after a made free throw - Raptors color guy Jack Armstrong doing an ad for Miller Genuine Draft and forgetting what day it is (he legit had to ask Matt Devlin what day it was lol). The fact that it was an ad for a beer just makes it even better since I believe Armstrong is a closet alchololic. - 3 players getting injured on either harmless plays such as Lillard contesting a Calderon jumper and rolling his ankle coming down (didn't land on a foot or anything) or Lowry falling down on a 1-on-1 and hurting his shoulder or just pure stupidity like Bargnani trying to statue of liberty JJ Hickson 10 feet from the rim and jacknig up his elbow. - Mickael Pietrus trying to go all Michael Jordan on Portland but getting about 4 of his drives emphatically rejected. He then follows it up with a MJ shrug after draining a 3. - Portland shooting 0-17 from 3 and Toronto about 3-18. - Aldridge dropping 30 and 10 without breaking a sweat. Literally, dude hasn't even been sweating whenever the camera zooms on him. It has been a complete comedy of errors and then LaMarcus Aldridge being all "WTF? Am I the only guy who actually knows how to play basketball here or what?"