Built Ford Tough

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130114_OKC@PHO

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130114_MIN@DAL

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130114_CHA@BOS

Rough game for the Raptors. Quincy Acy gets hit in the face and losses a contact lens. Alan Anderson gets hit in the face by Lopez's hand and gets a tooth knocked out. Kyle Lowry rolls his ankle. Jose Calderon gets kneed in the hip by Reggie Evans. All of them, with the exception of Lowry who likely won't return, were just minor bumps but man, a lot of weird, flukey plays in a half.

All game long the Raptors have punished the Bucks inside with Ed Davis and Amir Johnson. So what is the logical thing to do? Why, take out Ed Davis with 2:30 left in the game, of course. What happens? Milwuakee's next 3 possessions are a Monta Ellis layup, a Larry Sanders foul and a Larry Sanders oop and the lead grows from 4 to 10, effectively icing the game. Brilliant coaching.

Mike Dunleavy always kills the Raptors. I swear every time he has played agaisnt Toronto in the last 3 or 4 years he has dropped 20 on them.

It was pretty obvious. Turnovers and Amir and Ed needing to sit for a breather. The only reason why the Raptors are winning this game is because of Johnson and Davis' domination inside. It also doesn't help that the Raptors' 2nd unit is being outscored by about 35 points.

Talk about a tale of two quarters for the Raptors. 1st quarter - 34 points on 14-21 shooting with 1 turnover and gave up 16 points on 7-15 shooting. 2nd quarter - 18 points on 5-18 shooting with 10 turnovers and gave up 31 points on 12-21 shooting.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_UTA@DET

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_ATL@WAS

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_HOU@PHI

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_PHO@CHI

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_MEM@DAL

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20130112_MIA@SAC

I love how Colangelo was completely absent from all the games early in the season when the Raptors were playing like a steaming pile of shit and now that they are winning games he is miraculously seen at every single home game.

I don't know the numbers, but I'd be willing to bet that Ross turns the ball over around 40% whenever he goes left. He will either drag his pivot foot on his move, dribble the ball off his foot or use his right hand which opens up swipes from the help defense. Lol. An 18 point lead at the end of the first is down to 6 just 4 minutes into the second quarter.

The amount of defensive attention the Bobcats gave Drummond every time he set a screen was ridiculous. I'm not even exagerating when I say that every time he would come to set a screen, you would see his man come up tight with him, the guard's (usually Bynum) man go with Drummond and then an additional perimeter defender (usually MKG or Taylor/Gordon/Henderson depending on who was on the floor and which side the screen was set on) would be completely shading over as well. This attention that Drummond was getting opened up a lot of room for the Pistons in the 1st half and is, in my opinion, the biggest reason why they were shooting a blistering 70% from field before he came out with 3 or so minutes left in the half. Another thing that really surprised me was how much Charlotte switches on their screens. Detroit was really taking advantage of this early in the game by having Prince set a screen on Walker to create the switch and then immediately posting him up and just shooting over the top of Kemba. Prince was 5/5 in the 1st and I think 3 of those baskets came off of that exact play. I've got to hand it to Dunlap, though. He made some nice defensive adjustments at half time and entering the 4th and it really paid off for the Bobcats. They stopped switching those screens, stayed at home on the shooters more (even if that did result in 3 Drummond lobs, it took away the open perimeter looks that were killing them in the 1st half) and did a nice job of pressuring the Piston perimeter players which resulted in a lot of poor passes and turnovers (22 total Piston turnovers with Charlotte scoring 26 points off said turnovers). They really took Detroit out of the nice rhythym they had offensively in the 1st half. That and the offensive rebounding (Bobcats had 19 offensive boards and around 27 2nd chance points) ended up enabling the Bobcats to, in my opinion, steal a game on the road with the overtime win, although for what it is worth, they were definitely the much better team in the overtime period.

In his last 10 games he is averaging 13 ppg, 12.5 rpg (4.9 offensive boards) and 1.1 bpg on 51 FG% and, perhaps most importantly of all, 70% from the FT line on 4.4 attempts a game, which has his TS% up to a much more respectable 56% (opposed to 48% the first 25 games of the year). He has had 7 double doubles in this stretch and 8 10+ rebounding games. For references sake, the first 25 games he averaged 8.2 ppg, 7.6 rpg (3.2 offensive boards) and 0.6 bpg and 56% from the line (on just 2.6 attempts a game). He had a total of 5 double doubes in these games. I know he will never be an all-star or every live up the the billing of being a 4th overall pick (albeit in a weak draft) but what I think Thompson is proving to be a very good hustle big. If he ever improves his hands (he fumbles a lot of passes and misses a fair amount of gimmes underneath as well) I can see him being a 15-11-1.5-2 type of big. I have serious doubts about his long term offensive potential (although with how good he is on the offensive glass he will likely get around 6 points a night off that alone), but I really like him as a high energy, defensive big who cleans up the glass.

What's so great about him? Well... 1. He is arguably the most freakish physical specimen in the NBA. His combination of size (shade under 7'0, 280 pounds), length (7'6.25 wingspan, 9'1.5 standing reach), explosivness (just watch him move laterally and see how much space he can cover, it is ridiculous) and athleticism (34" vert and awesome co-ordination for a big man) is almost unheard of. He is even more of an athletic freak than Dwight Howard was. 2. He has been damn productive so far this season. His 21.66 PER is a full 2 points higher than the 2nd best rookie (Anthony Davis' 19.05 PER) and is also top 20 in the entire NBA. His Rebound Rate (21.1) is 2.5 higher than any other rookie and is also the 6th best in the NBA (his Offensive Rebound Rate is even better, with the 4th best mark in the league). His TS% is 4th best among rookies who've played more than 25 games. 3. Detroit is bringing him along slowly only playing him 19.5 mpg, but he is still putting up 7/7/1.5 in those 19 minutes. His per 36 numbers are 13/13/2.7 and, perhaps most importantly, he is only averaging 3.7 fouls per 36 as well. He is unarguably the biggest difference maker on the Pistons roster. Just look at these numbers: His personal ORTG is 116. The Pistons team ORTG is 104.2. His personal DRTG is 97. The Pistons team DRTG is 105.7. The Pistons have outscored their opponent by 56 points with Drummond on the floor and have been outscored by 106 with him on the bench. Per 100 possessions, the Pistons are a net 10.8 points better with him on the floor than off it. Every single one of the Pistons top 20 most productive lineups features Drummond on the floor. Despite only playing 20 minutes a game, he still leads the Pistons (even more than Greg Monroe) in win shares with 2.7. Keep in mind this is all done with him basically relying 100% on his physical gifts. He is still ridiculously raw yet is still managing to impact the game substantially every time he steps on the court despite just how raw he is. Ross has elite role player potential. Drummond has elite player potential. That is basically the easiest way for me to put it. Last thing I want to mention is that if the Raptors drafted Drummond, they probably have James Harden on their roster as well. According to almost everything I read, the first call that Presti made when it was clear that a Harden extension wasn't getting done was to Toronto and the asking price was Valanciunas and DeRozan (DeRozan's inclusion was speculated, Valanciunas' was confirmed). If Toronto had drafted Drummond, you can afford to take the risk of dealing Valanciunas (or even Drummond himself) because you have another young big to fall back on.

Blah. That is about the 10th time in the past week that I've wrote 2012 instead of 2013.

As if you weren't serious when you made this thread. You've been talking for years now about how it is only a matter of time until the USA surprasses Canada at hockey, so forgive me for not believing that this was a "troll thread".

Lockout over, time for a new thread.

Wasn't it you who used to always argue with Universe about how this tournament is meaningless and is laughable when he would bring it up as an accomplishment on a player's resumé? Pretty convinent change of heart you have in regards to this tournament now. Where was this thread last year when the Americans finished 7th? Like CmS said, using a two week tournament as the basis for who is the best hockey nation is pretty ridiculous.

Great, my favourite part of the game. The refs make a bunch of bullshit make up calls on the Thunder (was definitely not a charge on Durant and then he gets T'd up for good measure) after the game is out of reach so that after the game the league can point at the stat sheet and be all "See there is no favourtism. This game was very evenly called".

I would love to see more of that from DeRozan. That was probably the strongest take I've seen from him all season. I wish he'd try and dunk on guys more. I guess he learned his lesson earlier in the game on a similar play where he tried to lay it up softly over Ibaka and got his shit swatted. This time he just he just said [expletive] it and threw it down over Ibaka.