Built Ford Tough

Wall, obviously. Young if he is willing to accept a 6th man role, but something tells me that isn't something he would be willing to do. Booker can be a Jason Maxiell type of energy big. I'm talking Maxiell during the Pistons better days in the early/mid parts of 2000, not the current Maxiell. Singleton has potential as a Thabo Sefolosha type defender. I'd also keep Vesely around to at least see what he can do. I wasn't high on him coming into the draft and thought it was a bad pick by the Wizards, but he is long and athletic and doesn't play outside of himself, so maybe he could develop into a decent role player. Other than that, nobody really. McGee is a brain dead idiot, Blatche is only out for himself, Crawford is useless except for one out of every 10 games and everybody else basically sucks.

Boston has really had some terrible losses this season, a lot of which came at home. Detroit Toronto New Orleans Phoenix Cleveland Games in bold were at home. That is nearly 40% of their losses coming against non-playoff teams with all but one coming at home. Meanwhile, Detroit is getting on a bit of a roll. They've won 5 of their last 7 games and if not for Hack-A-Ben, they might've beaten the Spurs the other night as well. With them facing Sacramento, Boston, Cleveland and Toronto before the All-Star break, they might even find themselves winning 8 of 11 or something similar.

Au contraire my friend. I'm loving Calderon's offensive production as of late, especially with it coming so close to the All-Star break. If he is able to keep up this kind of play in the Raptors last two games before All-Star Weekend, it will do wonders for his trade value. Toronto is going to beat Charlotte anyways because nobody can out tank that world class battalion, so even if his offensive production leads to a win on Friday I'd be fine. Although, Detroit is a whole different story. That is the Raptors biggest game of the season so far. An absolute must lose. Who knows, maybe some sucker will see his offensive production, blame his inability to hold anybody he is guarding to less than 30/10 on the Raptors as a team and trade for him after the weekend is over. I highly doubt it, but regardless, his strong offensive play has to be inflating his value a bit and if that means Toronto can get an expiring, 1st, prospect or something like that, it was well worth him nearly stealing 3 games on this homestand.

Lol. Now DeRozan fouls Manu away from the ball to give the Spurs two free throws and the ball. Watching the last 2 minutes of this game has been pure gold. EDIT: Nevermind, I guess they didn't call a foul and just gave San Antonio a timeout.

I love Calderon's excited, angry, mean face he makes after a big play. He really just looks like he is trying to take a gigantic dump. Clutch turnover by Forbes. Double dribbles on a fastbreak when the Raptors have the numbers. Epic play by Forbes. Him and Butler have done a great job pissing away any chance of winning this game.

Commander Butler taking over. Foul, brick, brick and brick. He is doing everything in his power to ensure that the Raptors are going to lose this game. What a great guy.

No matter how many times I watch the Raptors play, I still can't believe that there are guys like Rasual Butler, Anthony Carter and Jamaal Magloire still in the league. What makes it even worse is that these guys get 4th quarter minutes for Toronto. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing this happen.

Judging by the time of the post, I'm guessing this was made at the start of the 2nd half, right? People are late getting back to their seats at the start of the half. Leaf games are the same way as the place is always packed (not saying Raptor games this season are packed) but because people are late getting back to their seats for whatever reason (concession, smoke breaks, etc...) it makes it look like the pace is dead.

Non taken. They [expletive]ing suck.

Over the summer. I wouldn't exactly say he is a 3 point shooter, though. He is still wildly inconsistent from there. He has had games where he would hit 4 or 5, like against Cleveland and Milwaukee earlier, but there are also times when he will go 0-4 or something and have an extended streak of not hitting anything, like a week straight or something at the end of January. Unfortunately, it seems like his improved 3 point shot has come at the expense of his mid range game. Last year he was great from 15-19 feet but this season he can't hit anything from that range, which happens quite often with young players when they improve their long range shooting.

DeRozan doesn't look incompetent out there tonight. He's improving!

Really wish that Joseph 3 went in. Would've been a huge relief for his nerves to get in and hit a shot early. That turnover was a classic example of him being a little too overzealous out there. A little too jacked up to play in his hometown.

CoJo!

Looks like it might be both Butler and Carter, which is saying something considering they are Casey's go to tankers. Really though, Butler will get back to his usual awful self soon enough. There is a reason why he is the worst shooter in the league.

A pretty interesting stat for all of those people who say that Barnes can't create his own offense, is spoon fed by Marshall and things like that. http://www.tarheelblue.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021512aaa.html Speaking of Barnes, UNC plays in about 20 minutes. UConn also plays today. I believe the game has actually already started.

I agree. He had one good game against Atlanta, but every other game he looked very raw. I fully expect him to go to the D-League as well, which is why I hope I can get to see him get some decent run tonight before he is sent back to Austin. Ford should be back after the All-Star break, right? Personally, I was shocked to see him declare for the draft and was very happy to see San Antonio pick him late in the 1st so that he at least got a guarnateed contract.

The teams that Nash would waive his NMC for are: Toronto Boston Los Angeles New York (Rangers, obviously) Those are the only 4 teams that have been confirmed. There is also speculation that Vancouver and Philly are on that list as well, but no confirmation on that. The list has been said to be very small, so it may only be those 4 teams that are already confirmed. Also, Pierre LeBrun had some to say on the subject: - CBJ is looking for at least four quality assets in any deal - For Toronto, "any deal begins with Gardiner" - For LA, "any deal begins with Bernier" - For NYR, "any deal begins with Kreider" Personally, I think Nash is overrated, especially considering his gigantic cap hit and would be very reluctant to trade for him considering what it would cost. I absolutely love Gardiner and think he is going to be a stud, and since it would be Gardiner and likely 2 or 3 other assets, two of which would be a 1st and one of Kadri/Colborne, I'd rather the Leafs not trade for him. I just don't think it would be worth it for any team considering how high the asking price would be.

Hopefully the Raptors get blown out so I can get a longer look at Cory Joseph. I'm sure Pop will play him a little bit given that it is his hometown, but if it is a close game I'm not sure he will get much burn. As far as DeRozan goes, I'm expecting another stinker from him. I can't see him doing much against Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs defense.

Well, yeah, the opportunity doesn't exactly present itself given there have probably only been a handful of teams who even had the chance to win road games on consecutive nights. In today's NBA, it would require a special circumstance, such as a lockout, to even be given the opportunity to accomplish this feat. I just thought it was a pretty interesting fact and an impressive feat.

Man, that Boston win is really bugging me right now after how things have played out in the last few days. If they would've lost that one like they were expected to, they would be sitting really pretty right now with teams like Washington, Detroit and New Orleans getting some unexpected wins. As of right now, Toronto is 6th. They are 5 games back of Charlotte, 3 of New Orleans, 1.5 of Washington, 1 of Detroit and 0.5 of New Jersey. Had they lost that game against Boston, they would be tied with Detroit for 4th worst and just a half game back of Washington and 2 games back of New Orleans. Normally this wouldn't bother me but since the Raptors schedule eases up considerably after the San Antonio game tomorrow, and Bargnani likely coming back in March, they really need every loss they can before those two things happen. I guess I should be thankful that they really avoided disaster by having Kobe and Lin hit game winners against them. If they would've won those two games, it would have been a crushing blow.

Yeah, I agree that the real test will come when he goes up against a legit defensive team like a Miami, Philly, Chicago, Boston etc... The Raptors did a really nice job of containing him in the 1st half and forced him into a lot of turnovers and difficult shots. Lin did a great job of making adjustments at halftime and coming out strong in the 2nd half, and was great in the 4th quarter. However, despite how improved the Raptors are defensively this season, they are still by no means a great defensive team and Calderon is still a brutal defender who allowed Lin to go to his right way too often in the 4th. It should be interesting to see how one of those teams above defend him and what kinds of adjustments Lin makes. He made great ones against Toronto, but it will be a whole different story when he goes up against a Miami or Boston. As good as he has played, none of New Jersey, Utah, Washington, Minnesota, Toronto or LA very good defensively. Well, LA is but their inability to contain point guards is well known. Now that Lin will stop sneaking up on teams and have gameplans built around stopping him, it will show just how good he really is. Sunday against Dallas and next Thursday against Miami are going to give us a much better indication of what exactly Lin is.

So I think it is safe to say that the Pacers want absolutely no part of the Heat in the playoffs based on how the first two games these two have played each other have gone. Heat have absolutely crushed them so far. Also, the Heat became the first team in 33 years to win back-to-back-to-back road games.

Shaliq, #linsanity, stop with the pissing contest.

Neither really. Toronto has a huge Asian population and the arena was packed with them tonight. The Knicks as a whole got very little cheering, but Lin was getting huge ovations after every play he made. That makes me think it was mostly Lin fans/bandwagoneers.

I thought he was pretty bad in the first half. I wouldn't say horrible, but he was close. Brutal defense on Calderon, plenty of turnovers, not running the offense that well and things like that. Sure he had 6 assists, but they weren't a good indicator of how he actually played in that half. He sure as hell bounced back in the 4th quarter, though. As for Shump's D on Calderon, there really is no excuse for D'Antoni not to have put him on Jose earlier. It is a well known fact that Calderon struggles horribly against bigger, athletic guards who can prevent him from turning the corner on the screen and roll. With Shump's athleticism and length, he really should've been on Calderon all game long, or, at least whenever the two of them were in the game together. If Jose can't turn the corner on a screen, he is useless and Shump prevented him from doing that very well.