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  • 3 weeks later...

First Raps game I will be going to in a while, the last time I went was pre-Hedo. The last home opener I went to was vs the Warriors, JO's first game, which was a great game. I am expecting the ACC to be rocking tomorrow, despite this shit weather I am hoping the city is buzzing. Just the first time I feel like the team is worth dropping 50 bucks on a ticket for + everything else. I know the playoffs are a longshot, but at least I know the team will play their nuts off. Not something I could have said with certainty before a game 2-3 years ago.

 

Sounds like the Pacers are pretty banged up too, so them not having Granger/George Hill for extended minutes would obviously go in our favour. Excited though. Hoping we pull off a win and get some free shit at the game.

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First Raptor game I'll have ever attended....

 

 

Ok, not really.

 

 

Anyways, Bargnani may not be playing tomorrow as he was sent home from practice today with the flu.

 

The most important piece of actual news to come out of Tuesday's practice was that Andrea Bargnani was sent home with flu-like symptoms and will be evaluated on Wednesday to see if he's able to play in the opener against the Pacers.

 

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey wouldn't rule him out for the game but said he "didn't look very good" when he saw him on Tuesday

 

http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/2012/10/30/andrea_toronto_raptors_bargnani_flu_could_miss_season_opener/

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Valanciunas and Lowry seem to be rubbing off on Bargnani. I've only watched the 3rd quarter (will watch the first half later) but he seems to be playing with a lot more passion.

 

I also heard a nice, loud, "[expletive]" after he missed a dunk which I can't say I've heard before.

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Davis gets the dunk, but that should've come about 5 seconds earlier as he was wide open off the pick but Lucas completely missed him.

 

Luckily Anderson made a nice move in the corner to get by his man (Stephenson I think)and force the help, which opened up Davis once again.

 

I like what I saw from the Raps in that quarter, though. They didn't exactly shoot the ball all that well (FG% dropped from 39% to 37%) but their activity level was off the charts (at least in comparision to what I'm accustomed to seeing from Raptor teams) and that enabled them to take an 8 point lead heading into the 4th despite the poor shooting.

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Raptors really pissed this one away down the stretch. Terrible offensive execution and too many blown defensive assignments (particularly on West who torched them in the 4th with 14 points) was the difference int his one.

 

Sure, you can point to the obvious charge on West and the weak call on Lowry that led to 3 Indy points, but that doesn't excuse the numerous breakdowns they had down the stretch.

 

EDIT: And that last play sums up perfectly what I said. What the [expletive] was that? You have two chances to draw up a play and that is what you come up with?

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That was a very exciting game to be at. Crowd was loud and into it most of the night. I like how we played for the most part, but there was some bad spots to the game for sure. Barg's defense on David West in the 4th was awful, and Landry Fields was a joke to watch. If this is what we're going to get used to seeing from Fields this year, then wow. What a waste of money on him. He [expletive]ing sucked tonight. On the bright side, Lowry was phenomenal. He came close to a triple double which was awesome. Valanciunas also played really, really well for his first NBA action. He was great at grabbing offensive boards and grabbing those hustle buckets. Derozan struggled most of the night, but his ally-oop was sick. Overall it was a solid game, hopefully we can improve on this game and be better for Saturday against Brooklyn.

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Lowry put in one of those games he contributed with last year in Houston, but I still wonder just how long that can last. I realized that his numbers fell pretty good partially because of injury, but that wasn't the only reason, and it looks to me like the Raptors will demand these kind of games out of him each night he's on the floor.

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Lowry put in one of those games he contributed with last year in Houston, but I still wonder just how long that can last. I realized that his numbers fell pretty good partially because of injury, but that wasn't the only reason, and it looks to me like the Raptors will demand these kind of games out of him each night he's on the floor.

 

Obviously he won't be putting up these kind of numbers (21/7/8/5) every night, but I don't think it is unrealistic to think he could average around 17/5/7 for the year. Remember, Toronto doesn't exactly have a dominant rebounder (Valanciunas has potential, but is still a work in progress on the defensive glass) so that will open up rebounding opportunities for him, especially since DeRozan and Bargnani are such terrible rebounders for their positions. Same for the scoring since it will likely be a 1a/b/c deal with him, Bargs and DeRozan, so he is going to get the attempts. The assists are pretty obvious since he will have the rock a lot and be relied on to create a lot of offense.

 

 

On another note, after watching the entire game, I really think the Raptors got shafted by the refs tonight. It still doesn't excuse the lost as the complete implosion down the stretch cost them the game. Even with the poor officiating they had this game in the bag if they executed and defended properly, but there were definitely a lot of questionable and just plain bad calls go against the Raptors tonight.

 

Hibbert and West in particular seemed to get away with a lot of fouls or had some really chincy ones go their way.

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-Refs were brutal last night. Crowd was going nuts at some of those calls. They were pretty brutal both ways though, and I definitely won't sit here and say the refs lost us the game, because they didn't. Most of the bad calls were throughout the game, and by the time the comeback started, there weren't as many bad calls (at least compared to earlier). But Demar should have been at the line at least 6-8 times last night. He got shafted (as usual) by the refs. Like BFT said, Hibbert probably should have been close to fouling out of that game.

 

-JV is a stud. So active on the glass. You can tell he is really anxious though with some of the shots he took. That is to be expected though. Loved what he brought against on the best interiors in the league. He got abused in the first half (hard to watch), but came back almost as a new player defensively in the 2nd half. His development is going to be fun to watch.

 

-Derozan's stat line looks a lot worse than what he played. He should have been at the line numerous times like I mentioned. I was kind of concerned by the fact I don't think he was in the post a single time the first half, and probably only 3-4 times in the second half it seemed. The times he did get it though,even with a bigger defender on him at times, he looked good operating down there. He still needs to find a way to get involved when plays aren't run for him. He disappears at time and is still really disinterested defensively it seems. He is running out of "he's still young" time. He needs to up the energy level.

 

-I know Fields is bad. But he is even worse in person. I was at the game stupid early (like 80 minutes), and I swear even when he was out taking 3's (the only shots he was taking in pre-game), he was probably shooting below 30%. When he got introduced, there were already some boos in there. Toronto fans are not stupid. He will be getting booed by 50 games into the year.

 

-Lowry is a stud. He is going to be good for us. It was actually pretty awesome to see Jose give the ball up to him, since he has been so reluctant to play off the ball in the past. If he is actually willing to be used as a spot up shooter, something he never has, that will be huge for us since he can shoot it. His reluctance to play off the ball was why Hedo was useless, but if he can with Lowry, that will be awesome. It will also make him a more useful player for a contender if he wants to leave next summer.

 

-Ross is bad. I know he's young (not really, 21 already), but he was totally irrelevant out there. He was lost defensively (got yanked immediately after he didn't even know who he was supposed to take on D in transition) I know he is known as a shooter, but we had a break I can recall, and he just drifted to the 3 point line when he probably could have cut to the rim and got an easy dunk/layup. Hopefully it comes with time, but right now he is one of our only shooters, and if that shot isn't hitting, and isn't even close, there is no role for him.

 

-We were a really pesky defensive team after that first quarter. The Pacers were getting really pissed off (especially Green) at how physical we were playing (Anderson and Lowry in particular) and not getting called. It was awesome to see. Watching West and Hibbert pretty much have their way with us (in the 2nd and 1st halves respectively) was a concern though. Bargnani is still a big minus defensively, and while Demar is too, at least we can hide him.

 

Overall it was a really fun game to be at. Sucks that we lost, but there were a lot of good things we could take away from this game. People might say "Granger wasn't playing", but I honestly think that may have worked in their favour. If Granger is there do they go inside to Hibbert and West 25+ times on the night? Do they only take 11 threes? I don't know. Pacers are a good, tough team, and we played right with them despite Bargnani being brutal offensively, Demar not getting a single whistle which was ridiculous, Demar blowing a chip shot layup he hits 98% of the time, and having Landry Fields as a starter.

Edited by Check my Stats
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Overall it was a really fun game to be at. Sucks that we lost, but there were a lot of good things we could take away from this game. People might say "Granger wasn't playing", but I honestly think that may have worked in their favour. If Granger is there do they go inside to Hibbert and West 25+ times on the night? Do they only take 11 threes? I don't know. Pacers are a good, tough team, and we played right with them despite Bargnani being brutal offensively, Demar not getting a single whistle which was ridiculous, Demar blowing a chip shot layup he hits 98% of the time, and having Landry Fields as a starter.

 

Agreed with pretty much everything you said. What section were you sitting in btw?

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I forget. I think 116 lower bowl? We were in the corner. Great seats for what we paid though, can't really be sitting anywhere "bad" as far as I am concerned, and for 44 bucks (tickets said 67 a piece on them, got from stubhub) you can't really go wrong.

 

Crowd was awesome. There were some dickheads where we were sitting but still, great atmosphere.

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I forget. I think 116 lower bowl? We were in the corner. Great seats for what we paid though, can't really be sitting anywhere "bad" as far as I am concerned, and for 44 bucks (tickets said 67 a piece on them, got from stubhub) you can't really go wrong.

 

Crowd was awesome. There were some dickheads where we were sitting but still, great atmosphere.

 

Thats pretty good. My friend got a deal on our tickets too. Not a great deal, but the tickets say $98 on them and it cost us $85, so whatever. I was in section 115 so I would have been very close to you lol. Were you sitting near the ones in the captain crunch and toucan sam costumes? Or by the guy that kept screaming about how he loved Jonas? lol

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Thats pretty good. My friend got a deal on our tickets too. Not a great deal, but the tickets say $98 on them and it cost us $85, so whatever. I was in section 115 so I would have been very close to you lol. Were you sitting near the ones in the captain crunch and toucan sam costumes? Or by the guy that kept screaming about how he loved Jonas? lol

 

We were behind the guys in those costumes. Not close enough to get caught on camera with them, but probably like 8-10 rows up.

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We were behind the guys in those costumes. Not close enough to get caught on camera with them, but probably like 8-10 rows up.

 

I was on the other side of the tunnel from them, probably about 5 rows lower than them. So I was fairly close to you.

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