Starting Lineup
Oklahoma City Toronto
Nenad Krstic Amir Johnson
Jeff Green Jose Calderon
Thabo Sefolosha Andrea Bargnani
Russell Westbrook Sonny Weems
Serge Ibaka DeMar DeRozan
First Quarter
The Raptors are sharing the boards with Bargnani, DeMar, and Johnson all have 3 in the quarter and the Raptors have 8 assists with Calderon leading with 4 assists in the quarter and they are playing better defense starting with Ed Davis and his active hands and 2 boards. Bargnani has 10 points and DeMar has 6 points while for the Thunder has equal scoring with Jeff Green with 5 points and 5 players with 4 points for the Thunder Thabo Sefolosha 3 boards and 2 steals and Jeff Green along with Russell Westbrook have 3 boards each. The little bit more defense have a 28-25 lead going into the second quarter with the Raptors shooting 59% and Thunder shooting 48% and if the Raptors can get more active hands defense in the rest of the game should be able to help the Raptors win the game.
Second Quarter
The Thunder played harder in the second quarter with 34-24 in the quarter and out rebounded the Raptors 10-6 lead by Jeff Green with 8 points and James Harden with 7 points along Russell Westbrook having 6 points. The Raptors got a 0 for 5 from Bargnani and 1 point in the quarter but did have 4 boards and Jose Calderon had 3 assists and Barbosa had 10 points in the quarter after 0 in the first and Kleiza had 4 points but a 9-2 run in the last 90 seconds hurt the Raps down 59-52 at half.
Third Quarter
The Raptors equal their 12 first half assists in the third quarter and opened the third on a 17-4 where they lead 69-63 and ended the quarter on a 5-2 run to build it to 9 point lead 86-77 after three. DeMar DeRozan and Sonny Weems had 8 points each while Bargnani had 7 points along with 3 boards (his first double-double of the season) and Amir Johnson had 6 points along with 2 boards. Weems also had 3 boards and Jose Calderon had 8 assists in the quarter (7 in the first half) and only 1 turnover in the game and for the Thunder James Harden had 8 points and lead with 2 boards and Jeff Green had no points until the last minute of the quarter (then made 2 free throws)
Fourth Quarter
The Raptors continued going hard and got it up to 14 points early and went back and forth the rest of the quarter to win the game by 12, 111-99 Leandro Barbosa equaled his first three quarters with his 11 points with a board and 2 steals while Bargnani had 8 points and 2 boards. Kleiza and Johnson both had 3 boards in the quarter and for the Thunder Russell Westbrook had 6 points and 2 boards.
Final Thoughts
The Raptors shared the ball especially in the third quarter and Jose Calderon lead by example with 15 assists and showed everybody what a good PG is suppost to do and helped the Raptors outscore the Thunder 59-40 in the second half. Andrei Bargnani lead the team with 12 boards and got his first double-double of the season and he should be doing both more often especially with Evans out for 8 weeks and Amir Johnson had 9 boards and could have had more if he did not get in foul trouble with 5 fouls and Barbosa (22 points) was a great No.2 scorer next to Bargnani (26 points). The Raptors got a little lucky not having to face Kevin Durant who did not play in this game and the Raptors are 6-4 at home and they started 1-3 at home so recently they have been playing at home the way they need to.
Go Raptors Go
Tom Mehegan
More @ tomiesworld.blogspot.com and tommehegan@twitter.com
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