An NBA player celebrating a birthday isn’t exactly a story, but if there’s one Raptor whose birthday is worth writing about, it’s probably Amir Johnson, who turned 26 years young last week. Amir has been heralded as a “young veteran” given the fact that as the last high schooler drafted into the NBA, he’s already played eight seasons at that tender age of just 26.
To put that in perspective, he’s only 10 months older than Stephen Curry.
The Raptors scored 100 points for the first time in 10 games and barely hung on against a severely shorthanded Bulls team to reach the 30-win plateau for the first time in three years.
Hooray for slightly less futile futility!
The Raps were in cruise control for the majority of the night before narrowly escaping an all too familiar fourth quarter meltdown in what was a pretty ugly finish.
Now here are some thoughts on the game…
Terrence Ross converts an and-one, a courtside photographer’s camera ends up on the floor, and naturally, Amir Johnson picks it up and proceeds to take some professional photos of his teammates…
Jose Calderon and the Pistons took advantage of a lazy fourth quarter effort from the Raptors, spoiling Rudy Gay’s great game and officially eliminating Toronto from post-season contention in the process.
Here are some thoughts on the game…
Earlier this week, I wrote about how the Raptors are still far from a surefire playoff team next season, and I maintain that. Upset wins over teams like the Pacers and Knicks or blowout wins over the Pistons don’t make any more of a statement for next season than losses to the Bobcats, Cavaliers and Wizards do.
If you recall though, my main concerns in the immediate future of this team are addressing the glaring hole at backup point guard, finding another competent big man (whether a solid bench big or a starter who can let Amir excel as the third big) and getting some value out of either trading or amnestying Andrea Bargnani. The current starting lineup, however, despite all of the negative attention on the combined shot selection of Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan, may just be good enough heading into 2013-14.
