Raptors matching up to their opponents abilities and lead the Atlantic Division

The Raptors are leading the Atlantic Division with a very soft 6 and 7 record and played two games between November 18-24 won both games and actually were sharing the Rock and are respectably 3 and 4 on the road and a not positive 3 and 3 at home, So Wednesday The Raptors went to Kyle Lowry's hometown of Philadelphia for a showdown for first place in the Atlantic division against the Sixers and won 108-98 and really put away with back-to-back 3-balls from Terrence Ross and Steve Novak respectively in the last 40 seconds to build a 87-77 to a 93-77 (16-point lead). The Raptors burned the Sixers by going 14 of 29 beyond the arc and it all thanks to care is sharing approach as they had season-high 24 assists which is a good start for the assist team in the NBA. The Raptors had an incredible 2.4 to 1 assist to turnovers ratio (24 assists to only 10 turnovers) and 24 assists on 36 made field goal and were lead the hometown kid Kyle Lowry who had 10 assists to only two turnovers to go with 13 points. Rudy Gay had 8 assists and had 18 points (6 of 16 from the floor) but it was DeMar DeRozan who stole the show with 33 points which the third 30-plus point performance on the season helped by getting 12 free throws and making 10 of them and was 10 of 19 from the floor. Terrence Ross had a good game of the bench with 12 points. If the Raps rely on the three ball as much as they are right now they struggle so I hope when needed they change their approach to fit what works as they really need to be two or three dimensional team to stay on top of the Atlantic. Friday night the Raptors came back home to the ACC and evened their home record at 3-3 with a battling victory 96-88 over rhe Washington Wizards with help of a sick Rudy Gay put up 11 points in the fourth quarter and had the Raptors last 9 points in the last two and a half minutes to put the game out of reach with a 9-4 run. The second half was a run away train named John Wall who had 30 of his 37 points in the second half and saving grace for the Raps was that the Raps bench outscored the Wizards bench 25-9 lead by another 11 points by Terrence Ross. The Raps starters all had double-digits in points lead by Rudy and DeMar's 17 each and Kyle had 12 points to go with 9 assists compared to only 3 turnovers (3-to-1) while the team had another 22 assists on 37 made field goals(55%) compared to 14 turnovers. Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double with 11 points and 14 boards as the Raps out boarded the Wizards 46-39 and the Raptors outscored the Wizards 17-3 to battle back down 6 to up 8. So this a game that ended the Raps season last season on a Monday night after doing a Harlem Shake video that sent them in a huge tailspin that put them out of the playoff picture so it was nice to see them beat a weaker opponent instead of felling sorry for them and letting them win the game. On top of the world Tom Mehegan

Raptors are selfish group of players

Raptors came into the week 3-4 and then laid 3 pretty bad loses and they decided to get the only win against the Grizzles a team that scorned Rudy Gay by trading him north. In Houston to play the Rockets they went down 11 points in the second quarter as the Rockets reeled off 11 straight points as they tied at 20 with 2 minutes left in the first quarter and when 3 minutes into the second quarter DeRozan got a layup to cut it to 31-22 it 5 minutes of not even getting to the line. By the end of the half it was back up to 14 points and four minutes into the third quarter and the Raps fought back to 9 after three and took a 1 point lead with 40 seconds left and Gay had a chance at a jumper with 11 seconds left in a tie ball game and it went to two overtimes and the Rockets won 110-104 outscoring the Raps 13-7 in the second overtime. In the game the Raps put up 114 shots made only 38 of them and took 25 threes and made 8 of them and the shocking part is that they only shared the ball 10 times so everybody wants to be an one man army and that is why they lost this game and are at the bottom of the league in assists. Rudy Gay took almost a third (11 of 37) to get his 29 points and only 2 assists while DeMar DeRozan had 25 shots and made 6 (22 points) to make up 62 of the 114 shots just is incredible bad as they combined for only 17 makes in the game. Wednesday night in Memphis against the Grizzles Rudy Gay only put up 18 shots of the 67 shots (27%) and made 8 of the 31 made Raps field goals (25%) for 23 points in a Raps stream roll of the Grizzles 103-87. While Kyle Lowrie had 6 of the Raps 14 assists which is still horrible and put up 21 of his own and the Raps started off very well as they were up double digits with 2 minutes left in the quarter. It is like the game before heading to South Beach for a few days put everything together for an actual game Then Friday they come home and receive a very nice present as Derek Rose is resting for the Pacers and the Raps just mail it in the first quarter and were down 11 and were down 14 as they only scored 31 points in the first half (they have actually scored more than that in first quarters). In the second half DeMar DeRozan had 28 of his career tying high in points (37) and only 7 players scored points and Rudy Gay's 20 points was the only other player in double digits and they did have 19 assists on 36 made field goals which is a bit better but still not good enough. They have to do much better at home and own their home court and learn to share because kindergarteners know how to share much better than the Raptors do. Sunday the Raptors played no D in the first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers and neither did they but they still lead 31-29 after a quarter and the Raps actually shot 63% and had 18 points in the paint and the Trail Blazers played the better D in the second and third quarter having 20 assists to only 9 turnover and took a 17 point lead four minutes into the fourth quarter. The Raps ended regulation on a 28-11 run with 6 turnovers and Rudy Gay slammed home a dunk at the buzzer to tie the game @ 102 but the Raps had nothing left as they got outscored 16-8 in overtime to lose 118-110. Raps had more turnovers (16) than assist (15) and they allowed 44.4% shooting in the game after allowing 50% in the first quarter while the Raps went from 63 to 44.7% in the game as Gay had 30 points and DeMar had 29 in the game. They really need to get to more sharing as soon they will play inside their own division a lot and the division sucks a lot too Tom Mehegan

Raptors have a lot to learn about being a pro team and will have to do it without Lowery

It was a very bitter pill the Raps had to take in the second week of the 2013-14 season as they went 1-3 on the week and fell to 3-4 on the young season. It started off with a bang with LBJ and coming to town without CB1 in the lineup and the Raps punched LBJ and the Heat in the mouth going up 9 half way through the first quarter (17-8) with Jonas Valanciunas had 10 of the 17 points. Then they fought the Heat the rest of the quarter and took 5 point lead into the second and with 3 minutes left they were still up 8 (47-39) but that is when LBJ and the heat took control of the game as he scored 5 points in the last 71 seconds as the Heat went on a 12-3 run in the last 3 minutes of the half to take a 1 point lead (51-50) to the locker room. The Heat outscored the Raps 52-45 as LBJ along with 35 points he had a good chirping everything from the Raps bench, to the popcorn vendor, and even made babies in the crowd cry (not really but he did have a good time). The thing that sticks out in this game is that Kyle Lowery had 3 assists in the first 7 minutes of the game and then 2 the rest of the game as the Raptors had 21 assists on 31 buckets in the game and 6 in the strong first quarter and the start out going to the basket at the beginning of the game and forget the rest of the game and lose 104-95. Then the next night they are in Charlotte to play with the Cats and played with they diffidently did and a minute into the second quarter they were down 16 to the Cats and then they battled back to tie it at 53 @ half with a 13-3 run just like the heat did the night before but instead of putting their foot on their throat in the second half they allowed those furry fur balls to take a 6 point lead (68-60) half way though the third quarter. In the fourth quarter the Raps got within 2 points 3 and a half minutes into the quarter before the bounced back up to 9 points with a 9-2 run which lead to the Raps being somewhat serious and got it 2 again with DeMar with 26 seconds having a shot to tie it but missed and instead of going into the contact he fell away from it. Dwayne Casey was so confused by the whole game that he thought there was 29 seconds (plus 5) instead of the actual 26 seconds (plus 2) and decided to play it straight up and Gerald Henderson hoisted up a shot at the end of the shot clock that bounced off the rim into the air and by the time it came down the Cats had a 92-90 victory. The reality is that Dwayne Casey and Sam Mitchell are not much different wins wise but season three this where Mitchell made a name for himself and he would not have them losing like that to Charlotte so Casey needs to be more aware of what is needed and needs to get more 48 minutes out of players. Then after a say off they play the 5-0 Pacers of Indiana and but up 32 points in the first quarter and have a 10 point lead (32-22) by getting the rock into the hole and were shooting 55% with 9 assists and Rudy Gay with 14 in the quarter. Then in the last three quarters they get 52 points and only 7 assists as they outscored by 23 points (50-27) in the second and third combined and seeing their shooting fall to 44% in the game. The Pacers outscored the Raps 69-52 in the three quarters to make it a laugher 91-84 with Gay having 30 in the game and his 14 first quarter points was more than any Raptor in the game. The Raps need to stick to the game plan for 48 minutes and that is exactly what they did the next night at home as the cooks made great meals for the boys before going out there against the Utah Jazz and put up 30 in the first quarter (plus 14), then beat that with another 32 (plus 12) and were up by 26 at half (62-36), and then came out in the third and put their foot on the winless Jazz team with another 29 (plus 5) and cruised to a 115-91 victory. They did lose Kyle Lowery sprained his ankle in the second quarter and now the likes of Dwight Buycks and Julyan Stone maybe relied on heavily for the next bit and it maybe good or bad but it is the facts of basketball that players go down given others opportunity to shine just Jeremy Lin did in the big apple. Tyler Hansbrough came up big in extra minutes to pick up 23 points in the game and is nice for a tough noise player like him to get this reward. So this week is a learn week with very good things and very bad things and it is now up to Casey to drill it into the players brains the good and that it needs to more of it and a lot less of the bad because it is a choice and a lot of them are settling for the easier bad choices over the more rewarding good choices. On ward and up ward (hoping) Tom Mehegan

Raptors in Milwukee for the first time in over 5 years to a great first week of 2013/14

1827 is the amount of days between w's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as it took since November 1, 2008 to tonight November 2, 2013 (5 years and a day later)but it is now over as the 10 game losing streak broken with a huge 97-90 victory to move to 2-1 on the early 2013-14 season. So the five years has changed a lot as Sam Mitchell has gone from having a month left in his Raptors coaching career (he was canned on December 3, 2008) and now Raptors analyst. While the Raptors still had 147 games left with Chris Bosh (he did not play in all of them) and the guy we the rights to Roy Hibbert for Jermaine O'Neil was still on the team (he lasted the first half of the 2008-09). So now back to November 2, 2013 and the Raptors 97-90 victory which looked easy going into the fourth quarter after their first winning third quarter 26-19 and a 12 lead (77-65) but the Bucks came out ran a 10-3 run into a 5 point hole and a tied game with 5:53 left in the game. The Bucks down the stretch could not cash in on the Raptor's charity at the line they missed 5 of 6 from the line and then also a pair of three balls and it helped the Raps to fight back and finished off the Bucks with a 12-5 run to end the game. They show another side of them as they finished strong instead of the usual folded chair act that helped them to lose a lot of close games in the three games which is hugely refreshing. Rudy Gay had off night from the floor (4-14) but made up for 1t by getting to the line 10 times (making 8) and Terrence Ross was given a huge opportunity playing 22 minutes and was smart with a couple of the four fouls he used as he made the Bucks work for their points instead of easy dunk points that would of gotten the crowd out of their seats and he added 5 boards. Landry Fields is a much different so far this season with 5 boards and 4 assists to go with 11 points (3 for 7 from the floor) and has averaged 23 minutes and 6.9 boards and 7.7 points so the new dad is more at eaz. Another new dad DeMar DeRozan came up with 17 points against the Bucks after 31 against the Hawks last night in a losing effort and is averaging 37 minutes and 20.3 points in the first three games. Tyler Hansbourgh has been a reminder in the first three games off the bench to the rest of the team as he had 6 rebounds and took 3 shots in the game had 7 points in 16 minutes tonight and went to the line 4 times but he showed what he could do in the home opener against the Celtics in a 93-87 victory when played 25 minutes and it felt that half of his 12 boards came in the first 3 or 4 minutes of the fourth quarter and set the tone after the Raps destroyed in the third by the Celtics. The Raptors have two horrible third quarters as they got outscored by the Celtics by 12 points (34-22) and fought in the fourth quarter to win and then gave 30 in the third after getting into a huge hole in the second quarter -9 (24-15) and after a strong fourth quarter (27-23) it was not enough (lose 102-95). If it was not for the second quarter the Raps would be 3-0 and they still have work to do on the dirty half (defensively) as they allowed the C's 47% shooting (over 60 in the first quarter) and 48% shooting to the Hawks last night. It looks promising with more practice O YA the Heat and that LBJ guy come to town (piece of cake) Tom Mehegan