Built Ford Tough

So, umm.... Did DeRozan touch the ball at all after the first 6 minutes of the game? They started off the game going to him and it worked well as he had the ally-oop to start, another dunk later, a trip the line and set up 2 or 3 baskets in the first 6 minutes of the 1st quarter and then I don't even remember him touching the ball for the rest of the game. His defense on McGrady was awful in the 2nd quarter, though. He usually struggles defensively but in that 2nd quarter he was getting absolutely abused on defense. EDIT: One thing that really bugs me about this game is the pathetic amount of burn that Davis and Alabi got. The game was over with around 6 minutes left to go in the 3rd quarter and despite that, Davis and Alabi only played 13 minutes and 1 minute respectively. That is an absolute joke.

Of course after I give Calderon praise, he completely sucks for the rest of the game. Ever since I posted this he has been god awful, bricking jumpers, making terrible decisions and turning it over constantly. He has been brutal since I posted this. Serves me right for giving Calderon praise. -_-

I'm pleasently surprised how Calderon has played since Jack was traded. His numbers in December have been superb and his floor game has been great as well. Defensively he hasn't been the complete liability like he was last season and his offense has been nearly at the same level as it was a few years ago, although he isn't as aggressive attacking the rim like he was back then. I definitely like the way that he is playing as of late, though. He may not be completely washed up like I thought he was. McGrady has been solid in the 2nd for Detroit. His jumper looks nice and is doing a great job of scoring within the flow of the offense. This is the first time I've seen him play this year and he looks a lot better than I expected him to.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-12-21/sports/os-orlando-magic-news-1222-20101221_1_daniel-orton-van-gundy-marcin-gortat I just don't see his knees holding up and allowing him to ever become much of an NBA player. He is talented, has nice size and all of that, but his knees are just shot. I think this will be his 3rd knee surgery in the past 3 years.

Watching Raptors Game Day right now, they just said that Weems isn't going to play for the third straight game due to back spasms and Jerryd Bayless isn't playing tonight either, although they didn't say why. Bargnani will be playing, but they said that his knee is still bothering him a bit. Johnson injured his back (I think) against the Lakers on Sunday and he will dress, but he is still sore. Good thing the Raptors will be getting a bit of time off after this game.

With how [expletive]ty the '11 draft is shaping up to be (still early, but not looking good right now) I might actually go into this game hoping for a Raptors win. Hopefully DeRozan doesn't get phased out of the offense again like he did in the fourth quarter on Sunday. Just once I want to see the team feed him the ball, especially when he gets into a zone like he did in the third quarter on Sunday, but that is probably too much to hope for.

If you find murder intersting...

http://twitter.com/#!/mr_jasonjones Here is the play: I love this guy.

He might as well. He didn't really seem all that into coching anymore after that debacle in New York and at his age, what is the point in doing something that you really don't want to do? It would be one thing if his coaching was actually making a difference or was on a contender, but the team is going nowhere other than the lottery and he has never been one to coach a rebuilding team or mentor youth (although they don't really have any youth on the roster). The team seemed to tune him out as well. I was actually surprised to see him come back this season after the team got worse over the offseason. I thought he would step down then, so this doesn't come as a surprise to me at all.

The talent has to actually declare for the draft, though. I agree that there are usually a couple of good 2nd rounders in most drafts and there will always be those sleeper picks that nobody thinks much of at the time, but the odds of finding guys like that greatly decrease when the overall talent pool is diluted, which seems very likely to happen this season. Sure, there will be a few surprises in the '11 draft, there always is. That doesn't change the fact that a weak draft is a weak draft and this class is shaping up to be a very weak one due to the uncertainty surrounding the CBA and the underperforming play of top prospects (so far).

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/feed/2010-09/enes-kanter/story/kanter-will-stay-at-kentucky-if-asked-to-sit-out-a-year Good god, this draft is shaping up to be the worst draft since '00 with the potential lockout scaring middle of the pack prospects away, potential injuries to top picks (I still think Irving declares, though), dissapointing play from highly touted Freshman like Harrison Barnes and Brandon Knight and now one of the marquee European prospects likely to not enter it. This draft is looking like it is going to absolutely suck with the way things are going.

It wouldn't have made much of a difference. The Lakers played to their full potential for maybe 10 minutes this entire game. They were coasting all game long and only played like they are capable of whenever the Raptors cut their lead to around 6 points. They coasted for 90% of the game and were still in complete control for basically the entire game and won this easily. Besides, if Bargnani dresses, Johnson probably doesn't have the game that he had, Dorsey certainly doesn't have the game that he had, etc... You can't just say that Bargnani playing equals 20 more points on the board because those points would come at the expense of others. Having him would've helped, no doubt about that, but the Raptors were losing this game regardless. The Lakers are simply the vastly superior team.

Yeah, he should make sure it is LeBron James the next time. Seriously though, I love this guy. His combination of ridiculous athleticism and complete lack of brains makes for some absolutely hilarious plays. I can't wait for the next time he tries to dunk from the free throw line.

Right, my bad. Forgot about how popular football is in the States. I honestly hate this Raptors team, though. DeRozan plays the best quarter of his NBA career, puts the team on his back and scores 19 points. What is his reward? 1 touch in the entire 4th quarter and that doesn't even count consideirng he was thrown the ball with about 4 seconds left on the shot clock and had to put up a fadeaway over two defenders to beat the clock. EDIT: Lol, why are the Raptors fouling down 8 points with 10 seconds left? They don't foul down by 7 with 30 seconds left, but now they do. This team does everything backwards. Go away from the hot hand, foul when they shouldn't, shoot when they should pass and pass when they should shoot, etc... At least it is entertaining.

^^^ See what I mean. Raptors cut it down to a 7 point lead, Lakers go on a run and extend it back up to 12. It has been like this all game long. DeRozan scores 19 points in the 3rd quarter and what does he get in return? One touch late in the shot clock in the 4th, then gets benched for 5 minutes. Awesome. Kleiza has played well today, though. Doing a nice job on the glass, battling against Odom down low and has, for the most part, played within himself offensively. If only he could play like this all of the time because he can be a really nice player when he doesn't force things and plays within himself.

The Lakers are toying with the Raptors and have been the entire game. The Lakers start chucking up jumpers and stupid shots which allows the Raptors to get out and run and cut into their lead, like what happened in the 1st and 3rd quarters. Once the Raptors get it within 6-8 points, the Lakers pound the ball inside and build the lead back up to 13-15 points. Rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help the Raptors much that their front court is Joey Dorsey and Linas Kleiza right now.

And why is that? It's not like the Lakers played last night at home or anything. They had yesterday off. Is it brutal scheduling whenever an Eastern team goes to LA and has to play at 7:30? Lakers are just being out worked in this quarter by the Raptors, and they are still up by 8 points. DeRozan is just lighting it up right now. I've never seen him play with this kind of confidence before. He has been a different player since the 1st half ended. It is about damn time that the team is actually feeding the ball. Usually whenever he gets on a roll he doesn't see the ball for the next 5 possessions. 19 points in the quarter, 23 for the game on only 10 shots. This is far and away the best I've everr seen him play. Barbosa from half court! And then he goes and hands the ball to a fan.

Since the first quarter, the Raptors have made a grand total of.... 4 shots. Nice!

If anything, the Raptors are the ones who look tired. They seemed to blow all of their energy in the 1st quarter by scoring 34 points and shooting 60% from the floor. In the 2nd half all of their jumpers were short and hitting front rim, which is usually a sign of fatigue. Plus, they were doing a great job of getting into the open court in the 1st quarter but basically stopped running in the 2nd (part of which can be attributed to them not getting turnovers or stops in the 2nd). Guys like Johnson and Davis looked absolutely gassed at the end of the half as well.

Fisher has to be a top 5, maybe top 3, flopper in the league. That flop he pulled on Barbosa was hilarious. Barbosa was probably about 4 inches to Fisher's left, doesn't even come close to touching him and Fisher randomly throws himself to his right, wildly kicking his feet out and gets the call. Pretty hilarious how easily refs fall for flops now. Can't complain about the players doing it if you are going to constantly reward them for it. Also, I found it pretty funny how Alabi gets his first legitimate game action against the Lakers despite being in the lineup against teams like New Jersey or in blowouts like the Chicago game. Throw him into the fire agains the Lakers ridiculous size and have him guard arguably the most skilled offensive big in the league in Gasol. Welcome to the NBA, rook!

I don't know if there is enough ball to go around to make everybody happy offensively. People complained about Carter needing the rock to be effective, but that is just as true, if not more so, for guys like Turkoglu and Arenas. Add in Nelson at the point and Howard going to want to be involved offensively down low and it makes you wonder if everybody will be able to play up to their capabilities without getting the touches that they want. Richardson was the only guy who they acquired who doesn't need the rock to be effective as he has developed into a pretty reliable spot up shooter. They are also scary thin in the front court now. Howard is going to have to really avoid foul trouble because he is the only real center in that lineup now and outside of Howard and Bass, they don't have any prototypical bigs. It should be interesting to see how everybody adjusts. It is going to take a while before they develop any sort of chemistry, though.

Matt Devlin's overreactions are just so awesome. Guy just had a legit orgasm after Amir's oop. You could barely understand what he was saying because he was so excited. That was a nice dunk, though. Amir loves playing the Lakers it seems like. Had 14/15 against them in LA and already has 12 points tonight on 6/6 shooting. Just picked Odom's pocket when he tried to drive by him, too. Love his game so far. Pretty close on that goaltend. I thought it was one for sure when it happened live, but on the replay it looks like Davis may have got there in time. Oh well, he doesn't have the respect as a shot blocker from the officials to get those 50/50 calls yet.

Yeah, I'd just check ATDHE. They always have links for Raptor games. Just keep checking back and one should eventually be up. Jack Armstrong: "Amir Johnson involved in a collision and... HE DOESN'T COMMIT A FOUL!" Even though he hasn't had many blocks this year so far, I really love the way that Davis contests shots in the paint. He has been dunked on a couple of times this year, like Gasol just did there, but he still tries to contest everything at the rim. Raptors haven't had a guy like that inside since Jermaine O'Neal. Nice spin move in the post from Kobe. I hope the Raptors don't plan on going with single coverage with DeRozan on Kobe all game long, especially in the post. He will pick DeRozan apart if they do.

Get to actually watch this game, so that will probably mean that the Raptors will get slaughtered and everybody will play like complete garbage. That seems to be the case whenever I watch their games. The games that I miss also seem to always be the ones that they play well in and certain players really step up (Bargs 24 in the 2nd half against Jersey, Bayless 32/5/9 or whatever, DeRozan's 22 in Miami etc...). Have to wake up at 10AM to watch this, though. I should probably go to bed now that I think about it, haha.

Denver wins 115-113 despite being outscored 38-27 in the 4th quarter. Top performers for Denver were: Carmelo Anthony - 24 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks Ty Lawson - 23 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals JR Smith - 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists Top perofrmers for Minnesota were: Kevin Love - 43 points, 17 rebounds, 5-5 from three Michael Beasley - 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists Jonny Flynn - 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists