Kyle Lowry blowing by Steve Nash is something we hope to see at the ACC on January 20
In one of the more anticipated days of the summer for basketball junkies, the NBA announced its’ 2012-2013 schedule on Thursday, and as usual, there are some games that obviously stand out from the rest.
While I doubt the Raptors are featured in many, if any, of those games for the casual NBA fan, we’re here to cater to Raptors fans. And with that, here are the games we think you should circle on the calendar:
Start time: 7:00 PM ET
Channel: TSN
Probable starting lineups
Toronto: Ben Uzoh, DeMar DeRozan, Alan Anderson, Andrea Bargnani, Aaron Gray
Oklahoma City: Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins
Injury report
Toronto: Jose Calderon and Gary Forbes will be game-time decisions. Jerryd Bayless is out for the season.
Oklahoma City: Eric Maynor is out for the season.
A three-game losing streak by the Thunder has allowed the Spurs to tie them for first place in the Western Conference. How jacked up do you think Durant, Westbrook and co. will be to break out of this slump tonight?
I’m theoretically on-call to write the “six thoughts” recap of this game, but if it’s the steamrolling I expect it will be, I might not bother. Let’s see if anything interesting happens. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the regular season wrapping up so that I can focus on basketball that matters instead of witnessing the death throes of another doomed Raptors season.
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I’m a big fan of Joakim Noah’s fingerguns, but Russell Westbrook took it to another level with his “BOOM!” exclamation here. Maybe we’ll get to see this again tonight.
To a lot of people, today is simply December 23, the eve of Christmas Eve. But to Raptors fans, who may be in a foul mood as they await a season we all hope flies by and takes us straight to the 2012 Draft, they may be more inclined to celebrate Festivus this year.
So before I go on, I invite you all to bust out the aluminum pole, air your grievances (Raptors fans have 16 years worth of them) and pick a Raptor you’d like to test in the annual “Feats of Strength.”
First, some interesting news and notes from the land of the Dinosaurs.
- At 23, Kevin Durant is one of the best basketball players alive today (some would say the best) and looks like he should be on his way to a Hall of Fame career. So imagine the surprise to Canadian basketball fans then, when it was tweeted that Durant’s favourite NBA team is our very own Toronto Raptors. Personally, I’d like a little clarification on the matter. Were they his favourite team growing up because maybe he was a big Vince Carter fan? Was he a Jurassic Park fan and a dinosaur junkie? Is he a sports masochist? Or, was he actually saying that outside of the Thunder, he likes the Raptors the best right now, as a compliment to some of Toronto’s youngsters? I’m going to bet it was one of the former choices, rather than the latter. None the less, it looks like the first Festivus Miracle of the year has occurred.
- If you missed anything from RaptorBlog yesterday, I argued that Amir Johnson should be in the mix to start at centre and a Grantland article revealed that P.J. Carlesimo doesn’t think much of Andrea Bargnani’s rebounding ability, while Jay Triano ensured Bargnani knew nothing about this.
- This is a few days late, but in case you haven’t noticed, Dwane Casey wrote the foreword for this season’s edition of Basketball Prospectus. It is both interesting and encouraging to read about how much Casey values analytics and advanced statistics’ place in understanding the game. As you read in his foreword, Casey claims that the Raptors “have in place an analytical system that is second to none.” It’s also interesting, and confusing, to hear Casey speak about how the Raptors “guy” for advanced metrics and statistics is in Japan. Huh?
Since we at RaptorBlog understand and share your passion for advanced stats as basketball fanatics, we are going to have a new member of the team this season. Blake Kennedy will have stats-related posts throughout the season for RaptorBlog, to keep us sports nerds happy.
- As the Christmas weekend and therefore the 2011-2012 NBA season is practically upon us, a lot of sports sites and blogs are revealing their predictions for the season. I noticed a couple of things in ESPN’s predictions yesterday. First and foremost, Henry Abbott, renowned NBA writer for True Hoop, predicts that Dwane Casey will win NBA Coach of the Year. I don’t want to put words in Mr. Abbott’s mouth, but I’m assuming that if he’s picking Casey to take home Coach of the Year, he must also be predicting the Raptors to massively over-achieve, and possibly make the playoffs? Also of note, CBA know-it-all Larry Coon (he literally knows everything about anything when it comes to NBA CBA and salary cap rules) picked DeMar DeRozan to take home the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.
- Lastly, stay tuned to RaptorBlog throughout the next couple of days, as I will be unveiling my predictions for the Raptors’ season, as well as my final thoughts on the Raps’ rotation heading into the regular season, some time today or tomorrow. To ensure you don’t miss a beat, ‘like’ our RaptorBlog facebook page.
The Thunder have won six straight games going into tonight, including the last three games with Kendrick Perkins as their starting center. They allowed fewer than 90 points in all three of those games, so it looks like their defense has been given that extra boost the Thunder needed to be taken seriously in the playoffs.
Not that the Raptors fare well against most teams, but the Thunder usually provide a particularly tough matchup because of their deadly combination of skill, speed and youth. When they last met on December 3 in Toronto, the Raptors won by 12 because Kevin Durant wasn’t playing. This game has “blowout” written all over it.
Injury report
Toronto: A rare clean slate for the Raptors, aside from Linas Kleiza.
Oklahoma City: Kevin Durant is probable for tonight with a bruised left shoulder.
Five questions
1. Do you think the acquisitions of Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed make the Thunder legitimate championship contenders?
2. Would you trade DeMar DeRozan for James Harden?
3. Which Raptors would you like to see get more playing time as the season winds down?
4. Were Andrea Bargnani’s 18 free throw attempts on Friday a fluke or was that part of a new trend? He’s gone to the line 47 times in his last five games.
5. If you could bring back either Leandro Barbosa or Reggie Evans next season — but not both of them — which one would you choose?
Start time: 7:00 PM ET
Channel: TSN
Probable starting lineups
Toronto: Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, Amir Johnson, Andrea Bargnani
Oklahoma City: Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins
It’s 30 minutes to gametime as I type this and I’m not feeling particularly inspired, so you get “Thunderstruck” for your pregame song today. But there’s a twist! It’s this dude, Igor Presnyakov, playing the song on acoustic guitar.
Jose played some solid D, and showed he is rounding back into form
I’m not sure if it was due to the Thunder missing Kevin Durant, but you could tell by the Raptors’ body language early on that they believed this was a game they could win. Over the last couple of years, there have been too many nights when you couldn’t say that.
Toronto came out of the gates aggressive and got running, a style of play they have had success with this season. The quick pace of the game got a solid Friday night crowd rowdy and energetic, and the Raps fed off of that energy.
Andrea Bargnani got off to another good start, and the first half, overall, was good from a Raptors perspective. However, a second quarter lapse and some Sonny Weems turnovers had the Thunder up seven at the break.
Then, as if they believed they were the better team, the Raptors simply came out and dominated the second half, taking it to the Thunder for a consistent 24 minutes. The third quarter, in particular, was the difference-maker, as Toronto outscored Oklahoma City 34-18 in that decisive third period.
Much of the credit for the third quarter explosion has to go to Jose Calderon. Jose had the Raptors running, and did his best to get everyone involved, throwing perfect lobs for Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson, DeMar DeRozan and Ed Davis.
Jose (and Jerryd Bayless) also deserves credit for working his butt off on the defensive end tonight, keeping Russell Westbrook as contained as possible. Calderon has been better defensively of late, and he deserves praise for that improvement, in addition to the way he is running the Raptors’ offence.
Those who have read my stuff over the last few years know I have often been critical of Jose, especially his defensive inabilities. But I’ll definitely give him his credit when it’s due, and right now it’s more than due.
Bargnani also continued his improved play, notching his first double-double of the season by adding 12 rebounds to his 26-point outburst.
Leandro Barbosa got in on the fun by netting 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting in just 26 minutes. You often hear of guys who can score in bunches, but there is perhaps no one who does it like Leandro.
No matter how you square this one up, the Raptors picked up an impressive victory with another total team effort. Sure, it’s easy to say the Raps grabbed win no. 8 because Durant wasn’t on the floor. But admit it, even without KD, most of you still probably assumed another loss was on the way.
Raptors Player of the Game: Andrea Bargnani – 42 Min, 26 Pts, 11-20 FG, 1-3 3Pt, 3-4 FT, 12 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Stl
Thunder Player of the Game: Russell Westbrook – 32 Min, 20 Pts, 9-19 FG, 0-1 3Pt, 2-2 FT, 3 Reb, 7 Ast, 2 Stl
