Raptors Basketball: Canada's Raptors just can't seem to find a way to win, Raptors vs Spurs and much more!

 

       This blog post will talk about the Toronto Raptors losing woes, their 3rd loss of the season, how are they doing 13 games into the season, tomorrow's preview against the Spurs at home and much more. The Raptors currently sit 3-10 and are 2nd last in the Eastern Conference.

       The Toronto Raptors faced the Detroit Pistons who were 2-10 last night and ended up losing 90-91 as Kyle Lowry missed the final shot in the dying seconds of the 4th quarter. Looks like Bargnani heard everyone that he had been playing like crap lately and finished with 34 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Kyle Lowry also came out big with 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists along with a 14 point explosion. As a result, the Raptors have now dropped 8-10 of their games and have also lost 3 straight games.

       So what's the problem? Why have the Raptors lost 3 straight games? It's all about being able to hold a lead and not playing "catch up". For example, yesterday, the Pistons put a 11-2 run in the beginning of the 3rd quarter and the Raptors were outscored 18-9 in first five minutes of the the 3rd quarter. For the second straight game, the game had to be decided on the final shot. If the Raptors cannot be clutch in the last final seconds of the quarter, they shouldn't be putting themselves in the position that they have been for the last two games. The Toronto Raptors need to come out stronger every game and need to have a lead, hold on it and even prevent themselves from getting into a hole and then playing "catch up".

      In case you did not know, the NBA officials have announced a couple days ago that in the final possession in the Charlotte game, the officials missed a foul by Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist against Toronto's Andrea Bargnani on a jump shot and that Bargnani should have been given two free throws. In my opinion, this is not right. The NBA officials should have not announced it because it's too late and we cannot go back and fix the game. As we all knew that there should have been a foul on MKG when he created contact with Bargnani, the officials deserve to be suspended for missing a obvious call just like how NBA players are suspended when they violate the league's rules.

       Today, the Toronto Raptors (3-10) are hosting the San Antonio Spurs (10-3) and are 2nd in the Western Conference in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre. The game will start at 1 and you can also catch it in Sportsnet if you are not going to the game. Let's see if they can get the W!

Projected starting line-up: 

Raptors:

Kyle Lowry
Demar Derozan
Dominic McGuire
Andrea Bargnani
Jonas Valanciunas

Spurs:

Tony Parker
Gary Neal
Danny Green
Tim Duncan
Dejuan Blair

Other notes for the game: 

- Jonas Valanciunas was banged up yesterday as he injured his ankle. He showed a lot of toughness as he played through the injury and often was limping on one leg and then was taken out of the game

- Spurs are missing Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson with injuries

- Raptors have lost two straight games by 1 point

- Grey cup will be going down in Toronto

- After that the Raptors will be facing the Houston Rockets at 8PM on Tuesday

       Stay tuned for more blog posts next week. If you like what I'm posting feel free to follow me on Twitter and like my page on Facebook. Just click on the icons on the top right corner and the links are also posted below.

Raptors Basketball: Toronto Raptors regular season process, other Canada Raptors related news, Vince Carter and more!

      This blog post will talk about Raptors progress into the regular season as they've already played 5 games. This post will also talk the latest Raptors important news, Vince Carter truth and etc.

      So far, the Toronto Raptors have played about 5 games into the regular season and have a compiled record of 1-4 (maybe we should fire Dwayne Casey?), just kidding. The Lakers fired Mike Brown so early into the season as the team had a 1-4 record even with all the big pieces they acquired in the summer. Anyways, going back to the Raptors, they have been dealing with a couple injuries and have lost two straight. We all know the season is young and the Raptors have fresh faces, so here's hoping that they will get out of this slump and will get there game straightened out soon.

      The Raptors have not been playing well and I think the reason to that is there defence. There defence has been worse this year than last year when Casey adapted the defence first philosophy. As Casey has said, the Raptors have not been controlling the paint and getting back into transition. You could see that in the game as the Toronto Raptors were out rebounded 31-13 in the first quarter against the Mavericks. Another problem with the Raptors are bad starts because they dig themselves deep in the first quarter as they allowed the Mavericks to score 36 points on 60 percent shooting. Then the Raptors tried to make a come back at the 4th quarter but fell short like they always do.

Other notes  

       Dwayne Casey should be looking at shaking up the line up as the Raptors have been struggling. He should definitely be giving Terrence Ross extra minutes to show case the rookie and see what he can do. Terrence Ross played about 14 minutes against the Thunder and had 10 points. By the way, do any of you guys have NBA 2K13 and have used Terrence Ross? I've used him many times and he is such a CLUTCH player because its so easy to knock down 3 pointers with him and scoring from the perimeter.

       Remember how I said earlier in one of my blog posts that John Lucas III was playing so well that he could have easily placed Calderon if he got traded? I take that back because he has been a different guy into the regular season. He's been struggling with his shooting and I also noticed that he was chucking a lot of shots when the Raptors played the Thunder.

Vince Carter wanted to stay put in Toronto

       I'm pretty sure that you guys have probably heard about this that Carter wanted to stay in Toronto the day before he got traded. I find this kind of shocking and makes me hate former Raptors GM Rob Babcock(worst GM ever) even more because he traded Vince Carter the day before he said he wanted to stay and acquired two scrubs, Alonzo Mourning who didn't even want to stay in Toronto and a couple 1st round picks which wasn't even going to help our future. Babcock shouldn't had even pulled the deal because we would have been an all-star team back then with Bosh, Carter and who else at that time.

       What makes me even more mad and stupid and has probably made other fans feel that way is that we booed at Vince Carter when he was with the Nets because we thought he requested a trade to be out of Toronto when he clearly wanted to stay. Vince Carter has done many things to the Toronto Raptors that made them recognized in the league. Therefore, I  think that the management should be open to make Vince Carter a Raptor again (hopefully retires as a Raptor) but that all depends on if he still has the same feelings that he did before the sour goodbye. 

Philadelphia 76ers v.s Toronto Raptors preview

       The Toronto Raptors will play against the 76ers on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre at 7PM and you can watch it on TSN if you live in the GTA. If you're going to the game tomorrow, the Raptors will be wearing there camouflage jerseys to honor Canada's veterans. This is going to be a critical game for the Toronto Raptors as they are 1-4 and it is a game time decision for Kyle Lowry as he is dealing with a sprained ankle that he sprained in the OKC game. However, Kyle Lowry was not wearing a walking boot or had a limp in yesterdays practice and that might be a good thing. This team needs Kyle Lowry back as he has been averaging astonishing 23 points and 7 rebounds per game and has just been a machine. Andrew Bynum won't be playing for the 76ers as he's been dealing with his knee injury and that will hopefully make it a easier night for rookie Jonas Valanciunas.

      Landry Fields is also questionable for tomorrow's game as he has been dealing with discomfort with his right hand and he saw a hand specialist to diagnose his hand. Most likely, Alan Anderson or Dominic McGuire will start for Fields. Perhaps Fields injury is to blame for his poor performance with the Raptors as he has been unable to hit open shots and missing easy layups.

      After this game, the Raptors will be off to face Utah Jazz on Sunday and then they will have more tough games as they will be facing the Celtics and Pacers.

       In conclusion, this blog post talked about how the Raptors have been struggling in the beginning of the season, how Vince Carter wanted to stay put in Toronto and also a preview of the Raptors game against Philadelphia 76ers tonight. If you like what I'm posting on my blog page, please check out and like my Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest and links are posted below or you can click my the gadgets on the side. Feel free to subscribe to receive daily updates of my blog! I've also posted videos below for convenience Thanks and stay tuned!

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Raptors basketball: Toronto Raptors first game at the Air Canada Centre, Demar Derozans contract extension and more!

       In this blog post, I will provide my thoughts and review about the Toronto Raptors first regular season home opener game against the Indiana Pacers. The Toronto Raptors lost to the Indiana Pacers 88-90 as Andrea Bargnani missed a jumper in the final seconds to push the game to over-time. In this post, I will also provide my thoughts on Demar Derozan's new contract extension and I will also provide a preview of the Toronto Raptors game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets.

My thoughts about the Toronto Raptors home opener against Indiana Pacers

       The Toronto Raptors had a pretty good first game against the Indiana Pacers, however there were a lot of flaws in the game like when the Toronto Raptors blew a 10 point lead when there were six minutes left in the 4th quarter and also went scoreless in the last 4 minutes 4th quarter. Overall, the  Toronto Raptors shot 36 percent from the line and were out rebounded 42-46. Dwayne Casey had positive things to say about the Raptors after the game at the Air Canada Centre and thought that the Toronto Raptors showed "grit and funk" which I also agree with him because the team did play hard, however little mistakes cost them the game.

      Jonas Valanciunas and Kyle Lowry who are the newest editions to the team played well as rookie Jonas Valanciunas was nervous in the beginning in his first game did have trouble guarding Roy Hibbert. 12 points and 10 rebounds and shows that he has the capability of being a double double every night.

      Point guard Kyle Lowry nearly had a triple double with 21 points assists, seven rebounds and five steals. Kyle Lowry is what the Toronto Raptors need as he can pick up the scoring load, make plays for his team and plays defence.

      Landry Fields who looked promising during preseason who I preached will be a important piece to the Toronto Raptors had a disappointing night with 0 points in 24 minutes.

      Andrea Bargnani in the first quarter seemed to look like he was coming to grip to be the player he was last year before he got injured as he had 11 points. However, he finished the game with 16 points, just 3 rebounds (more than Kyle Lowry), 3 assists with 4-16 shooting.

Demar Derozan contract extension

       I'm pretty sure that many of you have heard that Demar Derozan was granted a contract extension 4 years, 38 million dollars. Some people are happy and some are disappointed with the deal. In my opinion, I think it is fair for what Demar Derozan received because say if he will have a breakout season this year? We would probably end up having to pay him more than around 10 million per year.

       Bryan Colangelo also said that the Toronto Raptors may have lost Demar Derozan in free agency because as he would have been a restricted free agent where the Raptors would have had the rights to match any contract offered by another team. However, other teams would have overpaid Demar Derozan by offering him a poison pill contract which the Raptors would not want to match because they would feel he would not be worth the money and would have to lose him and a core piece. The other choice would have been that they would have matched the poison pill contract that the other teams offered which would ruin their Raptors cap flexibility and future plans. However, both choices are not a win situation.

       Demar Derozan is still 23 years old and has the work ethic to be sucessful. He still has loads of potential because in 222 games, he has averaged 14.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 30.3 minutes in 222 career games with the Raptors and has made 743 free-throws out of 927. He also had the biggest scoring increase in his second year from 8.6 points to 17.2 points. Demar Derozan is a fan favourite in Toronto and he also has lots of love for Toronto. However, I hope that newly awarded contract will make him more motivated and will eventually improve his game that he is not fully developed like being efficient in scoring, passing and defending.

Toronto Raptors v.s Brooklyn Nets preview

       The Toronto Raptors will face Brooklyn Nets today at the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn 7:30PM. If you live in Toronto you can also catch the game on television on Sportsnet. Brooklyn Nets will also make their season debut after being affected by Hurricane Sandy and also moving from Newark which they were previously known as the New Jersey Nets.

       It's going to be challenging to handle the duo back court combination of elite point guard Deron Williams and guard Joe Johnson because the Toronto Raptors mostly used the back court combination of Jose Calderon and Kyle Lowry against the Pacers. However, let's see how Brooklyn's bench will last against the Toronto Raptors.

       This blog post provided a review about the Toronto Raptors first regular season home opener game against the Indiana Pacers which the Toronto Raptors lost 88-90. I also provided my thoughts on Demar Derozan's new contract extension and a preview of the Toronto Raptors game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets. The Toronto Raptors will play there next game against Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, November 4th at 6PM.

       If you missed the first Raptors game of the season, check out the highlights! It was a tight and very exciting game.

Kyle Lowry v.s Jose Calderon

     With preseason just a couple days away, coach Dwayne Casey will get a chance to evaluate his group and determine who will start on opening day. Coach Casey will definitely keep a close eye at the point guard position to see whether point guard Jose Calderon or newly acquired point guard Kyle Lowry deserve to start on opening night.

As it was announced that the Raptors had acquired Kyle Lowry in the summer, point-guard Jose Calderon was not impressed with the trade. Various sources of media reported that he requested a trade as he was expecting to be the starting point guard for the '12-13 NBA season. Colangelo also said that he has no plans of moving Calderon. Therefore, there will no doubt be competition as to which one of the point guards will deserve the starting role on opening night. Below are the strengths and weaknesses that I found of Jose Calderon and Kyle Lowry to give an idea of who deserves the starting role on opening day. 

Kyle Lowry

Strengths:

- Young (26 years old)
- Good scorer and is able to find ways to score to the basket (15.9 points per game last season)
- Great rebounder (5.3 rebounds per game last season)
- Good work ethic

Weakness:

- Lacks experience as a starting point guard (starting point guard with former team Houston Rockets for only two seasons)

Jose Calderon

Strenghts:

- Pass-first point guard
- Able to make plays for his teammates (8.8 assists per game last season)
- Experience (started 293 games for the Raptors since 2005)
- Valuable (expiring $10 million dollar contract)

Weakness: Poor defender

Based on this comparison, I would want Kyle Lowry to start as he is young and would fit with the young, energetic and fast core squad (Demar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Jonas Valanciunas, ED Davis and so on). Also, Lowry is pretty young and his hard work and energy will help anchor this team to be energetic and fast paced. In my opinion, coach Casey's plan to make his team more defensive should easily give Lowry the starting role because I think his double dribble penetration defense and pressuring the ball against his opponents will be an advantage over Calderon's poor defense.

What do you guys think? Should Kyle Lowry deserve the start over Jose Calderon or vice versa? Feel free to comment on your opinion and there will be more posts to come!

A review of Toronto Raptors 2012 off-season

     Welcome to my blog! This blog will be all about the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association. I will be blogging almost everything about the Toronto Raptors whether it’s a trade, about important games and any other Raptors related news.

As the NBA season is just around the corner and preseason just a couple of days away, my first blog post will be a review of Toronto Raptors offseason. More specifically, my first post will be about the Raptors free agency period and the draft in the offseason for those who may have not paid much attention!

Free Agency

     The Toronto Raptors no doubt did have a busy offseason. Coming into the offseason, the Toronto Raptors had to address their needs which were the point guard position, small forward position and the centre position. 

The Raptors really wanted to address the point guard position by pursuing Steve Nash and did everything they possibly could. Bryan Colangelo and his team met Steve Nash on the first day of free agency to get him to sign with the Raptors and offered him the most money(36 million dollars). However Nash chose Los Angeles Lakers as family was his main priority. 

The Raptors also acquired Kyle Lowry who was playing at an all-star calibre before the all-star break with the Houston Rockets. The Raptors traded away their protected first round draft pick and Gary Forbes. Lowry who is 26 and still young, will bring two way point guard play by pressuring the ball and making all-star plays for his teammates. 

The Raptors also acquired Landry Fields through free agency by signing him to a 3 year 20 million dollar contract. It was reported that the Raptors signed him to prevent New York from a sign and trade for Steve Nash. This may seem a lot of money for Landry Fields, however, if Fields can be the same player in his rookie year when he was named Rookie of the Month twice and named to the NBA All-Rookie first team in 2010, his contract might be worth it.

The Draft

This years draft, the Raptors chose 21 year old athletic Terrence Ross from the University of Washington with their 8^th pick. Many fans were not in favour of the pick as many Raptors fans were hoping for centre Andre Drummond or point guard Austin Rivers with their number 8 pick if Harrison Barnes was taken. However, Terrence Ross is really what the Raptors needed with his ability for athleticism, shooting, defense and rebounding. 

The Raptors also chose power forward Quincy Acy in the 2^nd round of the draft who is similarly being compared to former Raptor, Reggie Evans as he can rebound, defense and score in the paint.

Please stay tuned for more as I will post a part two blog about the Raptors offseason and much more!