Built Ford Tough

Jared Dudley will hit a game winning 3 to complete another Raptors late game melt down.

How long can you possibly justify playing Bargnani 33+ minutes a night when Davis vastlu outplays him night after night like he has for the past week?

Lol at that flop by Gortat. I'm unsure if Valanciunas even touched him. Glad the refs didn't get sucked into calling a BS foul, especially since it was Valanciunas.

Golden State should really look to post Barnes up more. Maybe not so much in this game since Gallinari can match up with him size wise (although Barnes does have a distinct quickness advantage) but on a whole they should do that more. Every time they've made it a point of emphasis to post Barnes up good things have happened, whether it is Barnes scoring himself or kicking it out to eventually lead to an open jumper like that Thompson one.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121128_UTA@NO

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121128_DAL@CHI

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121128_PHO@DET

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121128_CHA@ATL

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121128_SA@ORL

And you can say that Popovich is running a business (his team) and has all the right to do what is in the best interest of his team. David Stern doesn't have any right to say how Peter Holt can or should run his business so long as there are no NBA rules being broken, which in this case, there aren't. They aren't doing anything wrong. Does he have the right to be pissed? Sure, but then again, the schedule is the reason why Pop decided to do this. If the Spurs schedule wasn't so ridiculous, this doesn't happen.

Duke has gotten off to a ridiculous start. It isn't even December yet and they've beaten: Kentucky Louisville VCU Minnesota all on neutral courts. They've also got a win against OSU at home. I absolutely hate the team, but even I can give them some serious props for that. That is basically a season's worth of marquee non-conference wins in a single month.

Scrub in, scrub out.

And why not? If Stern does anything against the Spurs it is BS as well. Pop is completely within his right and isn't breaking any rule by doing this.

Raptors should start Acy on Friday. Dude is awesome.

My bad, I don't know why I thought it was Batum. In my defense, I had the game in picture-in-picture so it was just in the bottom corner of the screen. I understand what you are saying, but at the same time, you have to be more aware out there. There was 9 seconds left when they inbounded the ball and Lillard made his move almost immediately. Hickson should know that based on that there would be time to make a pass instead of forcing that contested, difficult shot. I honsetly don't think Hickson had any idea Mathews was there, though, so its not like he looked him off or anything. He just had no idea how much time was left or where his teammates were on the floor. Basically, he panicked.

Wizards win! Lucky for them that Hickson forced a ridiculous contested fadeaway off the errant pass from Lillard because he had a wide open Batum behind the arc for the potential game winning three. Terrible play from Hickson.

Rondo only got 1 and then an ejection. Humphries was ejected because of getting 2 technicals. The 2nd one on him was the extra one that resulted in a free throw.

Humphries got 2. One for the extra shove to KG and another for the Rondo shenanigans.

Davis' offensive game has improved significantly since last year. Not just his jumper, which I think most people have noticed, but his overall face up game. That move he just made on Randolph (yeah, yeah, I know, Randolph is a pathetic defender) where he caught the ball near the left elbow, faced him up, spun around him and hit a lefty hook was certainly something that we would not see from him last season. It is a shame he will be stuck behind Bargnani until he finally gets fed up and leaves the team, only to break out somewhere else.

But what exactly is the point of that? I'd rather see Valanciunas and Davis playing 30 minutes a night each, playing through their mistakes and getting significant development through game experience. I'm sure that Gasol would be a valuable mentor for both of these two and could definitely help improve their offensive games. He is one of the more skilled big men in NBA history, there isn't any denying that. But again, what exactly does this do for Toronto? They committ vast amount of money to a center who would then take playing time away from their most important long term piece (Valanciunas) and also handcuff them in being able to improve their team, whether via trades or free agency (Colangelo will be fired, of course, since we all know he doesn't know how to improve a team). Like I said, I'd be all for it if I thought the Raptors had ECF potential. Hell, I'd be for it if I thought they even had 2nd round potential. That isn't the case, though, and I think we all know that. Best case scenario? Trading for Pau helps Toronto sneak into the playoffs as an 8th seed and a 4 game sweep at the hands of the Heat. Keep in mind, that would also mean that Toronto wouldn't give OKC their pick this season and that could possibly be viewed as a negative since this years draft blows and the 2014 one projects to be substantially better. I get what you are saying and looking at it strictly from a short term basis, it is an obvious upgrade for Toronto. Can we really say the same thing for their long term success? Eh, I'm not sold.

Indiana's ball movement and transition offense is something else. They do an awesome job picking teams apart with their passing. Ferrell and Hulls in particular were doing a great job in all areas. It didn't matter if it was dribble penetration to find an open shooter on the perimeter (or a dump off to Zeller inside), making a crisp swing pass or a 40 foot stretch pass to Zeller streaking down the floor, both Hoosier guards were on point with their passes. Speaking of Zeller, he really is something else when it comes to big men running the floor. As much as I loved watching Tyler Zeller run the floor for UNC these past few years, Cody is even better and has even better hands, which is pretty scary considering how good Tyler was at that. The way Cody is able to create seperation and beat everybody down the floor without leaking out and sacrificing defensive rebounding position is remarkable. It must be awesome to be a Hoosier point guard when they know all they have to do is get the pass in the general vicinity of Zeller and it is going to be an easy assist. Dude has ridiculous hands for a big. For UNC, those last 3 minutes really hurt them. They did about as well as you could hope for the first 17 minutes and were answering every Indiana basket or run with one of their own but they just couldn't finish out the half and that 15-6 run is going to be a turning point in this game in my mind. It is going to absolutely crucial for UNC to get off to a fast start in the 2nd half or else I can see Indiana blowing this thing wide open. They really need Bullock to get going on offense. McAdoo had a solid 1st half and Brice Johnson gave them some awesome minutes, but they are definitely going to need Bullock to start contributing if they want to pull off the upset. That was a really entertaining first half, though. Definitely the best first half I've seen so far this season.

They aren't playing at a complete snails pace like they were last season. Also, a huge reason for the Raptors opponents FG% being 6th best in the league was that they just hacked everybody and sent them to the line. They gave up 27.2 FTA which was a full free throw more than the 2nd worst team. Their opponents PPS (points per shot) was 1.21 last season, which was in the bottom 3rd of the league. In comparision, their opponents PPS this season is 1.24, so not a whole lot of difference. Don't get me wrong, they played better defense last year, but its not like they were some defensive juggernaut last year. They just fouled everything in sight and played at a really slow pace. The lockout helped as well since offense was down across the league.

Impressive drive from Ross. By far the most explosive move he has made in his career so far. This has definitely been the best he has looked so far.

Casey's offense is just... wow. Who calls a play specifically designed to post up Dominic McGuire?