Yes, in our ever-increasing attempt to reach rock bottom. 
VanVleet shredded our defense last time around. If he’s injured, we might have a shot.
After what had to be one of the least deserved wins, Portland did indeed prevail, but not until the last 13 seconds of the game. Toronto dominated the entire game with excellent defense. If not for their poor shooting, it would have been a rout. As bad as their shooting was, Portland’s was worse. Lillard had a total of two points in the first three quarters. If not for Carmelo, they could have packed up and gone home very early on.
Though I wish the game and a coupla late calls had gone differently, Portland played a great fourth quarter and made many beautiful 3-pointers from way, way out. Carmelo has been around for a long time and it is nice to see him playing well. But even injured, Toronto probably should have won that game. Horseshoes and hand grenades, sure. Portland still deserves credit.
Nice to see the 
Raptors 905 (oh and Lowry and Ibaka) scrape by Charlotte with a nailbiting 122-110 overtime win. (ETA: and doing it on the second night of a back-to-back…surpassing the Bucks in leading the NBA with most consecutive back-to-backs with at least one win: 22) At points, it looked surreal, when Kyle and Serge weren’t on the floor at the same time, so that Anunoby was the only ha! “veteran” player on the floor.
How Nick Nurse is powering this green, walking band-aid of a team (yeah, I get it - not as bad as the straights GS are in*, but still) is really impressive, especailly with his recent motivation of youngster Terence Davis, whose previous two games weren’t up to his or anyone’s standards. Nurse called him out after the Portland loss, and lit a fire under his rump by giving TD II his first start, next game against the Hornets, to which the latter responded with a 14-point first quarter and finishing up with a career-best 23 points (with 11 rebounds!)
Norm Powell was an almost for the game - hopefully next one. So far the Raps are 6 and 5 without Gasol, Siakam, and Powell. (No - not Emerson, Lake, and Powell!) Hopefully Van Vleet won’t be on that list for too long, but has an unpromisingly vague “out for a while” staus.
*Trivia fun-fact: the Raptors and Blazers (as of earlier this week) had lost the same amount of man-games to injury: 128.
Er, make that a 112-110 win.
Anunoby’s playing well after being called out, but yesterday belonged to Davis. Most of January’s games are against <.500 teams that would normally be mostly wins. But Toronto is 3rd in the league with missed injury time (behind Golden State and Washington) and the bench are playing long minutes and look exhausted by the end of the game. Since resting until Sunday, lots of time for minor injuries to return.
Still, a decent comeback win last night and proof that a deep bench can solve some problems. But the difference in stats for the first and second halves tells a tired tale. Hoping they’ll be firing on all cylinders in a few weeks.
I’d just like to pop in to say that my Thunder have been quite the pleasant surprise this year. Last summer, no one thought that Paul would ever wear a Thunder uniform. Now, it looks like he’s settled into his mentor role and OKC could actually be a playoff team. With all of the draft picks that they have stockpiled, the future looks pretty bright.
Well, here we are at the halfway point of the season. No real surprises out there, it seems. POR continues to try to get its act together. They had a surprisingly robust game in a win against Houston last night, with the defense holding Harden to 13 points. The team maintained its energy throughout instead of doing its usual fainting act in the second half. I suppose they could still claw their way into the playoffs, but the bench is just too weak.
With Siakam and Gasol in the line-up, the Raptors played well against home-team Oklahoma yesterday. They shot 70% or so and were up most of the game. They looked like a championship team. Of course, the favoured (-2) OKC rallied with a 17-4 run and came within three points near the end. The Raptors looked great but have recently lost four games in the last few minutes. When energetic VanVleet returns, they should have the endurance they need. The Raptors only have played six games this year with their squad at full strength.
As noted in post #2, I was skeptical the Wizards could crack double figure wins. Much to my, and everyone’s surprise, while they literally play zero defense, they are actually quite effective on offense; effective enough that they’ve managed to win 13 games so far.
Davis Bertans, acquired in a 3-way trade last summer, has been an amazing pickup for them and if they were interested in moving him they could almost name their price, but rumor has it they are going to try and resign him.
Portland is in the trade game again. They’re getting rid of Tolliver (no great loss) and Bazemore (good defender) and picking up Trevor Ariza, who’s been in the league for 16 years and coming off the bench for SAC. We are apparently also getting Caleb Swanigan back for some reason. He wasn’t worth a shit when he was here the first time, and I doubt that things have changed much.
Oh, and as of last night C.J. McCollum is out with a sprained ankle. So, with the trades and injuries, Portland will be able to field about 7-8 players for tonight’s game against OKC.
If I was Damian Lillard, I’d be saying ‘fuck this mess; somebody buy out my contract’.
Raptors played a great double header, first against Washington two games ago when they set a franchise record with 140 points in regulation, as Gasol - who appears to have not lost his stride, at all, from injury - matched a personal best six made three’s, while youngster Terence Davis II matched his career best with 23 points. Meanwhile Powell continues to dazzle with his mix of downtowners and slightly-more-ninja-than-usual dunks:p Nice little shot of dopamine each time I see one of those - can’t get enough of’em.
Gasol has been like a taller Lowry (ok maybe not in looks, perhaps) in terms of motivating - no - commandeering - the team to play at their highest level, to be sure, encouraging extra passing, providing defense that made him 2013 D.P.Y., along with many intangibles.
Heh - kinda sad seeing Boucher sitting on the bench, looking a little glum. (Well, until with about four minutes left against the Wizards - I guess Nurse was still smarting from losing too many late leads.) (with Boucher even sadder when Freddie gets back!)
Speaking of Van Vleet’s return, tonight he came back in the Raptors’ 122-112 win, and put in a 29-point performance (and career-high seven three’s!), against the T-Wolves, who came out high-flying in the first quarter (too lazy to find out their shooting % but it was amazing, even with close contesting). I was thinking, great, the Raptors will have their hands full, here, but with the Raps being lead by Freddie (And Gasol again) Minnesota wasn’t able to keep up that torrid pace, as TO clamped down with better defense for the remaining three quarters.
Without Kawhi, they’re two points off their pace from last season. 
Over half the Raptors’ points tonight from the small guys; Lowry, VanVleet, Powell. Pascal Siakam wasn’t anything special and OG Anunoby was a non-factor.
Siakam hasn’t really got his stride back off his injury.
I had a discussion with a colleague at work the other day; who is the greatest Raptor ever? I argued, and am really convinced, that it’s Kyle Lowry. Surely it has to be? Yes, Vicne Carter put the team on the map, but he wasn’t that great a player for more than 3 seasons in Toronto and he led them to nothing. Yes, Kawhi Leonard, but he was only here a year. Demar DeRozan played more games and scored more points but piling up points was his only skill; he wasn’t a two way player, not even close.
Lowry has the longetivity, he’s a two way player and truly a great one, and he’s got a ring.
Yeah figured Siakam hasn’t quite found his stride yet with a groin recovery, which can be protracted. Hopefully he didn’t come back too soon.
Lowry - goat - without question. For the reasons, RJ, you outlined.
It was a pleasure to see the Raptors back to full strength. The Timberwolves are a good team - Wiggins is great - but were outmatched at home.
VanVleet is my favourite Raptor, and a lot of the defensive coverage, assists, leadership, forcing turnovers, and endurance to play well for 40-45 minutes falls under the radar. It’s a different team when he is around. Other players get tired at the end of the game, and the Raps sometimes struggle to put games away.
Gasol has been shooting better than before. He was always a decent defender. Last night he was sinking the balls from a distance.
Anunoby has struggled but had some bright moments. Siakam reached some heights when everyone was injuried and it was badly needed. He hasn’t quite reached them recently, but only the playoffs really matter.
With Eastern teams 2-6 generally solid, I’m looking forward to future games. Hopefully they peak when needed and avoid further sprains. Nick Nurse is so clever I half-suspect he kept some of the injured players out longer to test the bench…
A co-worker and I were talking NBA the other day - we are the biggest basketball fanatics in the office - when the subject of the Knicks came up.
As we all know, the Knicks suck, and they have sucked for a long time now. They aren’t just a bad team, they’re a trainwreck of a franchise. Everyone in New York City hates James Dolan. It’s the place players and coaches go to quietly die, or at least wish they would. The Knicks are the subject of an Onion article pretty much every other year:
Here’s the thing; we can’t think of an example in a major pro sport of a team that should be a flagship franchise that is so, so god-awful terrible. I mean, sure, the Cincinnati Bengals are a disgrace, and the Seattle Mariners’ history is not filled with glory, but one would not expect those team to be premiere franchises even if they won. The Knicks play in the Big Apple; they literally do business in Madison Square Garden. If they put a champion out there they’d be the biggest thing in sports.
We considered the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’ve made the playoffs the last three years. Despite losing in the first round every year - in comical fashion, sometimes - we decided the Knicks edge them out because recent playoff appearances has to be worth a lot in this “Competition.”
Dallas Cowboys?
ok maybe not
The Habs haven’t exactly been exemplary for quite some time now.
Excellent seeing Norm Powell coming into his own. Going back before his injury, he’s scored 20 or more points in 8 of his last 9 games. Starting to hear some buzz about him becoming one of the better transition scorers in the NBA.
Greasy win over Atlanta. :rolleyes:
Wow, a veritable slugfest last night between POR and GSW. Lillard scored 61 points with 10 rebounds and 7 assists. He set a personal and franchise scoring best, and a franchise record of 11 3-pointers. He’s one of only five players in NBA history (since the merger) to put up stats like that. POR won in overtime 129-124. Whiteside had 6 blocks in a game that was close throughout.
They’re a disappointing team right now but their 10-15 year recent history is far, far better than Toronto’s. Buffalo has now missed the playoffs eight years in a row and it looks like they’ll make it nine, but I think Buffalo is not ever going to be a premiere franchise.
Getting this back to the NBA, I think most people would agree the league’s three marquee teams are New York, the Lakers, and the Celtics, for reasons related to market size and (with the Celtics) history. The Bulls are just a hair below that, and the Raptors are an odd case moving up the ladder. (The Nets and Clippers are i nthe two big markets but are poor cousins.) Only the Knicks are terrible and a marquee franchise.
The longest NBA streak without playoffs on the go is Sacramento, who’ve missed the playoffs 13 years in a row, and they aren’t looking good to avoid number 14. That is really kind of an amazing accomplishment when half the league makes the playoffs. However, Sacramento, again, is not a premiere franchise no matter what. The NFL is 17, by - of course - the Browns. Baseball, the hardest one to make the playoffs in by a small margin over the NFL (10 out of 30 teams; the NFL is 12/32) is the Mariners at 18 years. None premiere franchises.
The Houston Oilers deserve some sort of career achievement award. A pro football team in Texas’ biggest city, they were flat terrible for a while, got a hall of fame running back but then lost in the playoffs every year anyway, were flat terrible for a while again, finally amassed enough high draft pick talent that they became good almost in spite of themselves, then proceeded to lose in increasingly humiliating fashion in the playoffs every year until they collapsed again, then basically ran themselves out of town.