No Surprises In San Antonio

Not a great deal of thoughts on the Raptors losing to the Spurs 100-80. It was likely expected if you allowed yourself to look at this game objectively. The Spurs based on their past encounter with the Raptors at the ACC which went to double overtime were not about to overlook them. The fact they had won five games in a row heading into this game was likely helpful in that regard as well.

It was another rough night for DeMar DeRozan against the Spurs which as pointed out on the broadcast has been historically the case. Just 8 points for DeMar going 3-9 from the field is not what you need from the most talented player on the floor arguably in terms of scoring.

Landry Fields was back and got to see some time in this game. Casey even tried going with a small line-up playing Fields at the 4 which was pretty odd to say the least. Fields hopefully can play his way into taking Linas Kleiza’s minutes because he clearly has not learned how to shut up.

Kleiza’s constant complaining about calls does the Raptors no favours at anytime let alone against a top team that is likely to get the majority of calls without his help.

Calderon had his usual brilliance in the assist column with 10 but only scored 7 points to go with 3 turnovers. Raptors committed 15 on the night which is not a terrible number on the surface. The problem was they were ill timed and the defense was getting burned on the break on many of them.

The bench remained solid and you don’t see this everyday in the NBA with 4 guys on the bench hitting double figures and not one of the Raptors five starters getting beyond double digits.

Amir Johnson had 12 points and 6 rebounds to lead the team tied with Alan Anderson who also had 12.

It is not so much the Raptors lost this game as it is in how they lost it. What now becomes the focus is if they can recover from it and be able to get wins in two games that they honestly should vs. New Orleans on Friday and Orlando on Saturday.