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Utah @ Lakers

 

Jamison is starting to look pretty comfortable out there. Offensively, he's able to find his spots, but he seems really focused in defensively. Of course, he's playing against a 2nd unit of a preseason team, but I like the focus.

 

I liked how Kanter was schooling Sacre out there with different looks of moves and counter moves. Sacre needs these pre season games where he's being challenged on the defensive side, especially since he wants to be known defensively. On the boards and screen an rolls, he's looking to be very productive. Sacre has the potential to be a very good role player.

 

People I'm still waiting on: Meeks and Pau.

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I haven't been so excited about the Raptors since we won the 1st pick in the draft lottery. I know we might not even win 40 (actually probably won't) but I think our team has some actual bright spots (for once). This could easily shape into the best Raptors team ever, which isn't really saying much lol, but still. Like BFT, I am doing my best not to set myself up for disappointment with JV. He is going to hit the rookie wall hard this year... he isn't going to be able to play at full speed for 82 games, but if he can give us good production all year, we are going to be in the mix for one of those last playoff seeds for sure (the less Gray is on the floor, the better). Still, I love his energy, and the kid loves to get after it on D, which is a nice change for our bigs.

 

JV-Davis-Demar-Ross-Lowry is a lineup I really hope we get to see throughout the year.

Raptors are a Playoff team .

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Kanter lost a LOT of weight...just putting that out there.

 

I don't like Brown playing Jamison at the three, at least not when Howard is out there...and I realize that Dwight will be, but I'm not so sure he plans on playing Jamison at the four when Howard is on the bench, so I'm crossing my fingers.

 

The only time Jamison backs up Ron Ron is if Dwight is out there contesting everything at the rim. Otherwise, we can't afford guys like LeBron dropping 20 on him alone.

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Damn, Brook is a solid player? Its almost like everyone forgot that there was all-star talk around his name 2 years ago. Hope the kid beasts this year so I can bump ALL my old posts where I pumped his tires and basically got called an idiot (especially his extension thread).

Edited by Check my Stats
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Blatche with another outstanding showing. Nice to see Tele bouncing back. Evans with his expected dominance off the glass. Shengelia finally got playing time and had a great game offensively. Starters will probably be back in action Thursday.

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I'm a little worried about how we almost got beat by a Wizards team that was missing their two best players. If we want to make the playoffs this year, Washington is probably one of those teams that we'll be fighting with. It's still preseason and we got the win so I'm not going to say any more about it. Jonas had a very good game again from what I saw. Lowry was good offensively but I didn't like his defense.

Edited by DunkinDerozan
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I am beyond excited for JV. 4 turnovers is obviously not great, but 8 boards, a steal and 3 blocks, and only 3 fouls in 25 minutes? It is looking more and more like this kid is going to contribute from day one, at least more than I would have thought.

 

To be fair, it should've only been 2 fouls and 3 turnovers (plus another 2, possibly 3 points) since he got called for a bogus offensive foul call that was clearly a blocking foul.

 

 

 

As for the game last night, here are my thoughts.

 

- Fields looked better with Lowry in the lineup. He made some nice cuts that Lowry took advantage of, ran the floor well and played nice help defense. His shooting is still terrible and his free throw shooting is even worse. I'm a bit worried about teams packing the paint against the starting unit since neither Fields or DeRozan are a threat to do much from the outside.

 

- Amir and Calderon PnR against 2nd units is going to be awesome to watch. I know I've mentioned this before, but it may not have been on here, but the Jose and Amir PnR is going to be huge for the Raptors, especially if Johnson is draining jumpers like he was last night. That sequence where he nailed 3 straight top of the circle jumpers was very impressive.

 

- Alan Anderson is making a serious case for stealing backup SF minutes from Kleiza. He has drastically outperformed Kleiza so far in the preseason. He doesn't excell at any particular area, but he doesn't really have any weaknesses either. He can shoot the 3 ball, handle a bit, defend, slash and he doesn't try to do anything outside of his ability. I was impressed by him late last season and continue to like what I see from him. Kleiza has the ability to get on a hot streak and drop 20+, but it is looking like Anderson is the more consistent and steady player.

 

- I love DeRozan's committment to attacking and posting up, but he really needs to start looking to distribute more. I know he is a scorer by nature and that his natural instinct is to try and score, but he is becoming way too much of a black hole on offense and defenses will take note of that. There was a possession where Fields had a smaller defender sealed down low but DeRozan looked him off and instead turned the ball over (I believe it was a charge) trying to create his own shot.

 

- Lowry looked shaky early, but I thought settled in as the game went on. He was active on defense which resulted in a couple of steals and rebounds that enabled the Raptors to get out in transition. I'm a bit worried about his durability if he continues to throw his body around like he did last night. I love the aggressiveness, but it is a bit worrisome seeing him hit the deck multiple times in a game considering how important he is to the team.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and there was this:

 

 

The thing I really like about this is how he used this to set up the defense for an easy jumper later in the game. I believe Barron was guarding him and he gave him the same up fake causing Barron to take a step back and Valanciunas stuck the jumper. His offensive game looks a lot better than it did at the end of his season last year.

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I really like this team. I know their ceiling is a 7th/8th seed (unless Valanciunas becomes a 15/10/3 big man overnight, which obviously won't happen) but I think the last time I enjoyed watching a Raptors team this much was the 47 win team with Ford, Parker, Bosh and Rasho.

 

Even during the games where they struggle, I think they are going to be a lot more entertaining than the Raptor teams of the last 4 or so years.

 

PS: Lucas has no conscience. I'm fully expecting him to launch one from 35 feet with 18 seconds left on the shot clock before the season is over.

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Wow, the Raps turned a double-digit deficit into a 107-88 preseason win over the Knicks?!! I'm impressed.

 

Ch-check this out:

http://www.nba.com/raptors/video/great-sequence-raps-oct-19-2012

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PrvQzCwG63k/T2Z9fpQ-OOI/AAAAAAAAA1o/iGzc2P7v9MY/s1600/friday-damn-gif.gif

 

Dayummm, Amar'e got owned!!!

Edited by Sħãlïq
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I only watched the 4th quarter, but from what I watched, we dominated. Valanciunas was grabbing boards and had one nice block on amare. Lowry and Barg both were shooting very well. I liked what I saw from Fields too, he had a nice assist to Derozan on the fast break and a couple nice finishes too. I don't want to let myself get too excited, but as it stands right now I really think we've got a playoff team right now.

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For some reason the game wasn't blacked out on the league pass so I was able to catch the end of the 4th quarter. JV is going to be such a stud man I'm so excited about this kid. I love this team. I know we're probably nothing more than an Atlanta Hawks/Indiana Pacers team at best in the future, but when you consider our history, that is pretty damn good.

 

I am so happy we wound up with Lowry instead of Nash too. I was kind of happy in the summer, but now I'm just so happy about it. He is a really solid player.

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