Built Ford Tough

Shame Ross couldn't get that dunk down on the first attempt. According to all the beat guys and Raptor broadcasters, he was doing that no problem in practise, during shootaround and all that. I'm thinking his next dunk is going to be the Vince Carter one where McGrady bounced the ball and VC went between his legs. I think I saw a Carter jersey and that is the most logical dunk to mimic. Terrence Jones, his buddy growing up, will probably be bouncing it for him, since no Raptor teammates are there. Oh yeah, and the West dunkers with a disappointing showing. Who didn't see that coming?

Melo and Gay seemed to get too caught up in that individual matchup and hurt both their teams. You can see that both players wanted to get the best of the other. I imagine some of that stems from them both being from the Baltimore area and that whole "hometown rivalry" crap. I don't know if they have a personal relationship or what, but there was definitely something else there. It got to a point in the 4th where the other 8 players on the court should've just sat down or something, because you knew that it was just going to be Gay isolating against Melo and vice versa. Fortunately for the Raptors Gay seemed to come to the realization that he was hurting the team and defered sooner than Melo did. I really think that was the difference in the game. Gay realized he sucked quicker than Melo did and Toronto won because of it.

Make up call for the joke that was the Lowry ejection. By the way, I agree. That was a brutal call. Gay just missed it, like he did pretty much everything else tonight. The refs were just pathetic tonight from what I saw. I've seen a lot of poorly officiated games this season but they are usually the type where one team (usually the Raptors opponent) gets all the calls. Today it was just brutal call after brutal call on both ends of the floor. Add to that all of the missed layups and wide open jumpers and this was definitely one of the most difficult games to watch this year. The Raptors game against Indiana the other day was ugly, but it was one of those fun ugly games. This was just bad.

Did anybody see the Noel injury in live action? How bad did it look? I've only seen a gif of it but you can't actually see his knee. Based on what I've read on Twitter, it sounds like many people think he might've suffered a very serious injury and his season is over.

How soon before teams finally realize that it is not a idea to let Gay go to that right baseline pull-up with the clock winding down? I swear, every clutch shot he has made has been from nearly the exact same spot on the floor. Give a foot here or a foot there, but it is always a two-three dribble, right baseline pull-up jumper from 8-12 feet.

A bunch of Addidas sponsered college schools are considering this as well. I don't know the whole list, but I've heard Indiana, UCLA, Louisville, Kansas and Baylor all being mentioned. I personally don't like them, but that could be as much because they are just so far from the norm as anything. You think basketball jersey you don't think sleeves, but if a bunch of teams do this I'm sure you will get used to it and think nothing of it.

Kadri's hands and vision are absolutely unreal. Some of the passes he makes nobody else on this team would even think about attempting, let alone putting it right on the tape. Him and Frattin have been awesome to watch together. If I wasn't still pro Tank Nation, I'd be very worried about Reimer. That didn't look good and Scrivens has been shaky as hell every game I've seen him play in so far. If Reimer is out for any real length of time it could be trouble.

If you would've told me that Toronto would bust this game open because Casey made the decision to put Rudy Gay in a point forward role in the 4th, I wouldn't believe you, but here we are. Taking Lucas off the ball and using him off screens was nice to see. He is lost when trying to initiate and run an offense, but he can get hot with his jumper and that has happened here. I like the decision to take the ball out of his hands in this quarter since him actually running the team never seems to go well.

Teams have combined for 8 turnovers and just 11 points in the first 6 minutes of the 3rd. Not a pretty start at all.

It is a trend. Every game Lucas comes in with a lead and by the time Lowry comes back into the game the lead is either completely disolved or is just one or two points. If this was the first time this happened, I could buy your agument. But the fact of the matter is that this has happened every game outside of the Clipper game. That makes 4 games in a row. That is not a coincidence. Lucas sucks and needs to be replaced. PS: All of the stuff you are saying actually happened the after Raptors had already blew their lead and Casey had to burn a timeout. Lucas settled down after that point and did hit a couple of open 3's but the damage was already done by that point. The lead was gone. Just look at the play-by-play. Even the point about Roberts going off with Ross guarding him can be partially attributed to Lucas. yeah, Ross played terrible defense but he was having to guard Roberts because of Lucas' inability to defend points. Roberts blew by Lucas and drew a foul so Casey made the switch to hide Lucas on Rivers and forced Ross to switch onto the point.

Raptors up by, I believe, 13 points with 1 minute left in the 1st quarter. Casey takes out Lowry and puts Lucas in. Less than 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter and Raptors are down by 1. This team desperately needs to find a backup point guard. Lucas is not the answer and every time he comes into the game things go to shit.

Dunk contest at the ACC. Gay with 3, including a nasty tomohawk from the dotted line, Amir with a jam off a sweet dish from Lowry and then Aaron Gray with the 360 windmill.... Ok, maybe Gray didn't do a 360 windmill but he did get about 2 inches off the ground, which is basically the equivalent of that for him.

Gay's finishing at the rim has been awful since coming to Toronto. His TS% in the first 4 games has been below 50% and a huge part of that is because of how woeful he has been around the basket. It really is weird seeing a guy with his combination of size, athleticism and length missing so many easy shots right around the rim.

Valanciunas back into the starting lineup for this one. Does this mean he'll actually play or will Casey pull the whole "you only play the first 6 minutes of each half" garbage again? Also, Fields will dress and be available as well. I really hope with Fields back this means Anderson doesn't see the floor unless outside of garbage time. However, knowing Casey, this will just eat into Ross' minutes anyways.

Andrew Nicholson will be replacing Andre Drummond. I thought he should've been on the team in the first place, so glad to at least see him get the replacement nod. It really sucks that Drummond won't be playing, though. I'm sure he would've put on quite a show in this game.

Did anybody catch the 5 OT Louisville/Notre Dame game last night? I was at a hockey game so I missed it, but damn, it sounded unreal. Notre Dame was down 8 points with 50 seconds left and ended up winning 104-101 in the 5th OT. Jerian Grant was 0-6 for the game up to that point and then went off for 12 points in the last 47 seconds of regulation. Some more stuff from that game. - 8 players fouled out. - There was a combined 97 free throws and 158 shots. - 6 players played over 50 minutes and 10 players scored in double digits. - It was the longest game in Big East regular season history. As crazy as the Big 10 has been this year, the Big East might even be more wide open conference. Come tournament time, I wouldn't be surprised at all if any of Gerogetown, Pitt, Louisville, Cincy, Syracuse, Notre Dame or Marquette win. Hell, you can throw St John's in there as well as they've looked good in conference play too. Even the regular season crown could easily end up being a 4 way tie. Ridiculous.

I didn't watch the game but was there a particular reason why Melo only took 2 shots in the 4th? Something Clippers defense did? Poor offensive execution from the Knicks? Melo being passive? Combination of the 3? It seems strange how he was 13-24 in the first 3 quarters and only took 2 shots in the 4th, especially given the makeup of the Knicks.

Fun fact. Indiana has lost 4 games at home this year. 2 of those 4 came against the Raptors. Those 2 games were decided by 2 points each, or in other words, 4 points total. Kind of cool.

Dave Pasch and Doris Burke are starting to get on my nerves. No this is not a surprising result. Nor is it anywhere close to being an upset or shock or any other stupid adjective they've used. The only thing UNC has going for them is the fact that their uniforms have "Tar Heels" on the back of their jerseys. Miami dominated UNC in Chapel Hill. Miami is 9-0 in ACC play. Miami is the 8th ranked team in the country (and will potentially be in the top 5 next week). Miami is a vastly superior team than UNC. Everybody who knows anything about college basketball expected something like this.

I should've clarified that I don't think it would be a good move. I don't like this potential trade. I'd rather just amnesty Bargnani in the offseason than flip him for an even worse contract. I was just trying to play devil's advocate with that post by pointing out that so long as the Raptors ownership group was willing to pay the tax, which, in all likelyhood they wouldn't since they'd bee looking at a $21M tax bill in 2015, it really wouldn't hurt the Raptors from a playing standpoint too much. Because of the Gay trade, it doesn't matter if you have Boozer or Bargnani. Toronto's core is locked in until 2015. We are looking at a team that will have a rotation of Lowry, Gay, DeRozan, Fields, Amir, Valanciunas, Ross, Boozer/Bargnani and minimum deals to round out the roster. Almost everything you said is correct. The only real thing I have a problem with is this part: What exactly is Toronto now, if not a treadmill team? The Gay trade cemented that. This team, even if they keep Bargnani, is the very definition of a treadmill team already. - No cap flexibility or real trade assets (assuming they keep firm on their stance of Valanciunas and Ross being untouchables) to improve the roster. -Too good to get a realistic shot at an impact player through the draft. - Too bad to make any noise in the playoffs. They are basically the Scott Skiles Bucks of the past 5 years. Sure, they may sneak into the playoffs and even potentially give a team a scare if Gay/Lowry/DeRozan get going offensively. But at the end of the day they are what they are, which is a treadmill team. Adding Boozer doesn't change their treadmill status.

You mean for next year, right? They have about a 0.1% chance of making the playoffs this year. An 8 game hole is hard enough to overcome at this junction of the season. Having to not only make up 8 games, but also leap frog 2 other teams in the process? Not happening.

Eh. Brust hit a halfcourt, buzzer beating three. I get that they had a foul to give, but I'm not going to call out Beilein for not fouling there. The chances of accidently fouling Brust in his shooting motion are probably higher than making that shot. It was just an incredibly flukey shot that you just have to tip your hat to. UNC getting smashed by Miami. Shane Larkin played about as perfect of a first half as you can ask from your starting point guard. Very impressive performance by him so far. Meanwhile, McAdoo sucks. Shocker. His touch around the rim is brutal. The more I watch this team play, the more I think Brice Johnson is better than McAdoo, which is a huge turnaround from the start of the season when I thought McAdoo was a legitimate All-American and player of the year contender. Oops. I did get a kick out of the Miami fans chanting overrated at the end of the half, though. Nobody thinks this UNC team is worth a damn and, barring an unexpected run to finish conference play and into the ACC Tournament, everybody knows this team is headed to the NIT.

Would it really, though? They're right near the tax now and will be over it when DeRozan's extension kicks in next year. They need to amnesty Kleiza to just get under the tax for next year anyways. Then, on top of that, they'll need to extend Lowry after next year as well. You're likely looking at a $10M+ deal there, pushing them even further into the tax. Boozer makes about $9M more over the course of his contract than Bargnani does, but they both expire at the same time (summer of 2015). Assuming the Raptors are going to be a tax team anyways, they might as well go all in. They're owned by a multi-billion dollar corporation who just increased the Blue Jays' payroll by $120M+ so they clearly are willing to spend the money if they think it necessary or worthwhile (which, is another argument in itself). Then, you are looking at a clean slate in the summer of 2015 when you have Gay, Fields, Boozer and Amir all expiring, which is close to $50M. So long as the ownership has no problems paying the harsh luxury tax, the contracts aren't that big of a factor. They're hands are going to be tied anyways. PS: According to what I read, the Bulls approached the Raptors and it is basically up to Toronto if they want to do this trade. The talk was Boozer/Robinson for Bargnani/Lucas. Toronto thinks they can get a better deal, though. Just based on what I've read.

So a few things: First off, lol at this whole number one seed losing immediately after being named number one. Indiana's loss against Illinois makes this, what, the 5th straight week a number one seed lost? It will be the 6th straight week (maybe, I'm not 100% sure) we will have a new #1. Secondly, is the Big 10 this year the most exciting conference we've seen in the past decade? I can't remember a last time we've seen so many thrilling games in a single conference. Every time you have any two of Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State play each other it is an awesome game. Throw in teams like Minnesota and Wisconsin (and maybe even Illinois after their Indiana upset) and the conference has been just ridiculous. So much fun. Thirdly, speaking of the last decade, was TCU's upset of Kansas last night the biggest of the last decade? You have the Jayhawks coming off a loss, facing an 0-7 team - who's 7 Big 12 losses were all by double digits no less - drop two games in a row for the first time since 06 and get throughly embarassed in the process by scoring 2 points in the first 10+ minutes. Lastly, Duke fans strike again:

Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross combined played a bit over 6 minutes. Alan Anderson and Aaran Gray combined played a shade under 42 minutes. Brilliant.