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