It was already unlikely, but with an overtime loss in Milwaukee on Saturday night, the Raptors’ chances of making a run at the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed virtually went out the window.
Here are some thoughts on the game…
Archive for the ‘Andrea Bargnani’ Category
Bargnani Shouldn’t Play, Period
Posted by Joseph Casciaro under Andrea Bargnani, Dwane Casey on Feb 28, 2013
How many defensive possessions end when Bargnani forgets to rotate/help
If you read my thoughts on the game after the Raptors coughed up another winnable game last night in Cleveland, you’ll know that I was flabbergasted by the sight of Andrea Bargnani for the last 10 minutes of the game. Bargnani had done absolutely nothing in his first few minutes of action in the first half and had sat for the entire third quarter, yet there he was in crunch time, rewarded with minutes he didn’t drop a bead of sweat to earn.
Bargnani lost his starting job while he was out of the lineup with an elbow injury, and rightfully so, as Ed Davis and Amir Johnson gave more to the Raptors in that two month stretch than Bargnani has in over a year. The obvious answer was to bring Andrea in off of the bench and try to turn him into a scoring spark in the second unit. For a couple of games, it actually worked, as Bargnani averaged 13.5 points on 60 per cent shooting in two contests against the Celtics and Pacers. Sure, he didn’t really rebound or do much else, but it seemed like a promising venture since Bargs could focus on the one thing that actually seems to interest him – scoring.
Unfortunately, since then, Bargnani has produced some of the most uninspiring basketball we’ve ever seen (and remember, we’ve watched the Raptors for the last 18 seasons), averaging 3.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and a turnover in about 18 minutes per game over his last seven games, all while shooting 30 per cent from the field and failing to reach the free throw line at all in his last 160 minutes of floor time. Just stop, read those numbers over again and let them sink in. And for the naive among us who believe poor Andrea is just being negatively affected by those “cruel” home fans, Bargs is averaging 3.7 points on 41 per cent shooting to go with 1.7 rebounds in his last three road games.
To make matters worse, despite that consistently pitiful display of basketball (other than the Wizards game, where Bargnani looked to be trying, but was just incapable), Bargnani has still logged at least 11:50 of playing time in all seven on those games, logging over 21 minutes in three of those seven games. Now based on the first 300 words of this post, you probably assume that I’m going to advocate for cutting back Andrea’s minutes, but you’re only half right.
Thoughts On the Game: Cavaliers 103, Raptors 92
Posted by Joseph Casciaro under Andrea Bargnani, Cleveland Cavaliers, DeMar DeRozan, John Lucas III, Jonas Valanciunas, Kyle Lowry, Recap, Rudy Gay on Feb 28, 2013
The Raptors’ starters jumped out to a big lead in Cleveland, watched the second unit piss it away, then failed to recover the lead the rest of they way, as Toronto’s season may very well have come to an end with a disappointing loss on Wednesday night.
Thoughts On the Game: Wizards 90, Raptors 84
Posted by Oliver Macklem under Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan, Dwane Casey, John Lucas III, Kyle Lowry, Recap, Rudy Gay, Washington Wizards on Feb 26, 2013
The Wizards have now won three straight and seven of their last nine after Monday’s win in Toronto. They came into this game fresh off wins over Denver and Houston so there was no reason for any Raptors player to be taking this team lightly. Unfortunately, Toronto’s best player had a very indifferent approach to this game and as a result…
RaptorBlog Radio: Oscar Worthy
Posted by Joseph Casciaro under Andrea Bargnani, Jonas Valanciunas, Raptorblog Radio on Feb 25, 2013
In this week’s edition of RaptorBlog Radio, Drew, Oliver and I get a little sidetracked with some Oscars talk before we delve in to the big win over the Knicks, the booing of Andrea Bargnani, the improvement of Jonas Valanciunas, the biggest week of the season so far for Toronto and the potentially exciting future ahead.
All that, plus find out which young Hollywood actress is most like Bargnani (and why) and which NBA player may or may not have been threatened by us at the conclusion of the episode.
