Raptors Win Home Opener But Fail To Impress

I guess when you cover the Toronto Raptors you should never be upset when at the end of the night you walk away with a win. However, I can’t help myself from feeling that way after the home opener which they hung on to win 93-87. It did make think about the merits or lack of them in watching the pre-season to some degree. DeMar DeRozan had been without question the best Raptor through the seven complete games of the pre-season. His line for the home opener was pretty horrible with 13 points shooting a terrible 6-19 shooting night with 5 turnovers and steals in 40 minutes on the floor. Terrence Ross in just 12 minutes looked better with 6 points in about one quarter of the time. Rudy Gay did lead the Raptors in points with 19 but also had 5 turnovers and the same two steals while shooting 8-18 from the field. 

Amir Johnson who was on cruise control for most of the pre-season knew it was time to play for real games as he had 13 points and shot 6-8 including a three which you would rather not see him taking. In fact all the Raptors big guys  had nice nights. Jonas had just 8 points but 11 rebounds. While Tyler Hansbrough off the bench was the one guy that looked much like he did in the pre-season with 7 points and 12 rebounds in 24 minutes off the pine

Entering the game there was some questions about Kyle Lowry and how he would play with his injured finger. Not a good shooting night going 2-8 but got to the line a lot despite not shooting well their either going 7-12 but the best sign was the 8 assists and just 2 turnovers on a night that was full of them. D.J Augustin took the back up minutes and was equally as bad shooting it going just 2-7 with 5 points and one assist and just one turnover.

The Raptors within this game were wildly inconsistent. They came out flat as pancake after the over top player intros and pre-game nonsense. They trailed after one and started off giving up the first 6 points of the night before Amir Johnson broke the seal on the basket that seemed to be there in the early going. They came out in the second and looked like a totally different team. They would get up by a significant margin only to let the Celtics back in the game. At one point in the third the Raptors had a 16 point lead and by the end of the third the game was tied. Again in the fourth the Raptors got up 10 only to let the Celtics creep within shouting distance before finally shutting the door.

I guess it goes like this, if you accept the fact that Boston is a terrible team and factor that into things you really are left to wonder how good Toronto actually is. I mean at several points in this game it looked like two very bad basketball teams. When you look ahead the Raptors schedule in November and December is far from easy. A lot of road games and if this game was played on the road you have to wonder if the result would have been the same. The Raptors will need to be much better if they hope to avoid Masai Ujiri from hitting the self-destruction button on this group.

A couple of non-basketball notes for you, the first on the new mascot Stripes. At first I was like this is lame and they copied the name of the Hamilton Ti-Cats Mascot. I guess Mascot names are not copyrighted. I was angry until I saw what the Pelicans of New Orleans have as a mascot. It was some horrific green bird like creature that looked as if it had been on Bourbon St and was puked on. So the moral of the story is it could be worse and we are extremely lucky to have the best mascot in all of sports in THE REAL RAPTOR.

Secondly and maybe the most significant story of the day? I will not have to rant like a crazy person about pizza anymore this season. If you forget look below for a reminder:




Pizza Pizza has finally at least 3/4's fixed the problem with the pizza promotion. Now if the Raptors score 100 points AND WIN you get a free slice of Pizza. It will still allow for those awkward moments where the team is up 99-82 and have the ball with less than 24 seconds to play. Which is still an issue but at least we won’t have fans cheering for Pizza with the Raptors down 20. It only took 3 years or more to get that done. It only took New York fans one game to boo former Raptor Andrea Bargnani. Thankfully that is no longer our problem.

Raptors still have many problems though and nothing they did convinced me this is anything close to a playoff team. It is only the first game of the year so there is time to change my mind but it was not a ringing endorsement to save for your playoff tickets tonight.

Oh and actually the pizza thing is the second best thing that happened today. The first was not me completing the Wrestlemania Mode on WWE2K14 but the game is great. No it is Sam Mitchell being on TSN broadcasts this year. Maybe if we dare to dream he can replace someone rather than work along side them. Regardless of that it is great to have another truth teller on Raptor Broadcasts. Jack Armstrong and Sam Mitchell will always shoot straight from the hip and this Raptor fan base respects people like that.More to the point I do and that is what I do in my small way here everyday.

Starting 5 Season Preview with Jack Armstrong

A new season is here and I can't think of a better person to preview it for us in the Dino Nation Blog than Jack Armstrong. Jack and myself have are usual 20 minute interview that turns to double that. We cover everything from playoffs to hunting for Wiggins. Great stuff on many of the key players that will make up the core of this team for as long as they are competitive. So have a listen Jack never disappoints.


Thanks to Jack as always who has been a joy to work with for many years now for me. By the amount of people that come listen to these interviews I know it is not just me who enjoys when Jack pays the DNB a visit. Enjoy the game and the season ahead no matter what your rooting for Playoffs or Wiggins in the end we all want a better Raptors basketball team at the end of the day.

This Week In Raptorland: Season Preview

Raptors get rolling for real tomorrow against the Celtics. Today myself and John Chick preview the season and hear from Amir Johnson and DeMar DeRozan in this episode.



Tomorrow a special edition of The Starting 5 as we preview the Raptors season with Jack Armstrong. So tune in for that tomorrow.

Raptors Get Ready To Roll For Real.

Over the next two days will be having two season previews. This Week in Raptorland with me and John Chick will have an interview with Amir Johnson and some thoughts from DeMar DeRozan too. In addition we will have a season preview with the one and only Jack Armstrong.

In case you missed it the Raptors final pre-season game vs. Bucks never made it out of the first quarter on Friday. The court was deemed unplayable do to condensation coming up from the ice below the court. If I remember correctly they have an AHL Hockey team that plays in the same building.

Over the weekend the Raptors cut Chris Wright and Carlos Morais were told thanks for coming out and waived from the roster. Julyan Stone is currently injured but it seems like he may have nailed down the fifteenth roster spot.

Kyle Lowry as mentioned will be playing with a splint on his ring finger on his non shooting hand for likely the next 6 weeks. Given what we have seen at the back-up point guard position if Lowry were to miss any time that would have been a major blow. Even though he is not, you still have to wonder how well he will be able to deal with the pain.

It all gets started for real on Wednesday against the Boston Celtics.

Lowry Damaged But Not Out For Raptors

It has been determined that Kyle Lowry has the tendon in his left ring finger. He will be able to play and practice with a splint on the injured finger. He will be wearing this splint for a period of six weeks on his none shooting hand. Lowry was checked out this afternoon in Toronto and did not make the trip with team for the final pre-season game in Milwaukee.

Jonas Valancuinas was back at practice today with the three stitches in his chin. He was feeling much better and is expected to be fine. He also as a formality had his option on his rookie contract picked up as did fellow rookie Terrence Ross. No surprise in either having their rookie contracts options picked up. It is more shocking story around the league when a player doesn’t have one picked up.

Raptors will try to stay healthy as they close out pre-season against the Bucks on Friday. Tyler Hansbrough and Julyan Stone also came out of Wednesday with some minor bumps and bruises. One thing that even the most optimistic Raptors would have to admit is this team can not afford injures.

Back At ACC To See Raptors Maul Grizzlies

I made my first trip to the ACC for basketball this season. Let’s be honest it wasn’t much of a game on Wednesday night. The Grizzlies looked like they decided to hibernate from this pre-season contest. The Raptors took control of this game and were never really challenged the entire night.

It was however a night that was cause for worry as Kyle Lowry left the game with an injury to his left ringer finger that is expected to be evaluated some time today. Jonas Valanciunas took a hard shot and need only a few stitches in his chin and coach Casey said in a regular season game could have returned. It was not a gash like we saw in the main event of the UFC show that was in town about a month ago.

Speaking of the UFC had some fun talking with Amir Johnson who was at those fights. We talked about a number of things and as always it was a fun conversation. You’ll be able to hear it on the next episode of This Week in Raptorland. In addition will have some thoughts from DeMar DeRozan on how he has been playing this pre-season. That episode should be out next Tuesday.

In addition date to be determined but Jack Armstrong will be stopping by to preview this Raptors season. It is always a highlight when Jack drops by and he often has some interesting things to say and I expect this time will be no different. We just have to set something up with Jack’s schedule which is always a busy one but he does always find time for us in the DNB which is fantastic.

As for the game itself honestly it was hard to make many evaluations from it. This was a pre-season game that one team showed up for and one team just didn’t. The good news was the Raptors were the team that showed up to play. Some points worth noting:

• Casey still says that the back-up point guard spot is up for grabs. Bad news for D.J Augustin and good news for Dwight Buycks and Julyan Stone.
• DeMar DeRozan remains the most consistent performer the Raptors have had this pre-season.
• Landry Fields really seems to have found his game finally after a long search and battling with injures and recovering both physically and mentally.
• Terrence Ross is gaining some confidence scoring but he still needs to remember it will be his play on defensive end that will determine his minutes.
• Kyle Lowry has been turning up his play and it continued tonight until the injury. Will see if it is a minor one. I would suspect minor or not he might not play Friday. In addition he might not have played much anyway with some indecision on his back-up.
• Nice night for Austin Daye and Raptors as a group picking it up from long range. Steve Novak has been on the sidelines but seems on pace to be ready for opening night.
• For the moment Rudy Gay seems content to be Robin to DeRozan’s Batman will see if that remains the case going into the real season. It seems clear what both said last season remains true. They have said they can play together and they are showing it thus far in the pre-season.

Probably some other things I could note but those are the major ones that come to mind. Hansbrough continues to be the sixth man for this group to this point. I wasn’t crazy about the signing but he has seemed to gel with this team. In a bench that has been far from great this pre-season he has been the one consistent element.

Just one more pre-season game Friday in Milwaukee and then it starts for real next Wednesday against Boston. How this team gets out of the gate is going to be really important. They can not afford to fall behind if they do the pressure to take a part this group will increase. 

The Little Boy That Cried Raptor.

I find myself trying to get inspired for this Raptors season and it really just isn’t happening for me. I want to believe there is a brighter day and that may well be the case with Ujiri and Leiweke. This is of course likely the way many felt when Bryan Colangelo first got here. This might be the point I am getting to after 18 years of this team basically I think we have seen it all. 

Ok I admit a Global Ambassador rapper was new but really maybe not. Is Master P getting a tryout really much different than Drake? I guess time will tell on that one.  Both at the end of day seem like gimmicks to draw in a broader audience and attract attention.

Landry Fields is the latest over paid guy that people hate based on just that. Terrence Ross is the latest young up and comer that people try to make into Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady. It takes so little to get people excited about players like Ross. He has a fan friendly type of game with the highlight dunks. A couple of good games and the T-Ross train is back on course to super stardom.

I remember long before there was this blog I use to host a basketball segment on a sports talk show. On that segment I would chat with at the time Raptors broadcaster Chuck Swirsky. I remember being in the little studio thinking how awful the week ahead looked for the Raptors. I would have a conversation with Chuck and I was convinced that maybe I had been wrong and to jaded. Most times I in fact wasn’t and the grim reality started to sink in about what the Raptors actually were as a team.

No one could sell this team like Chuck Swirsky. I think what happened though is a lot of fans like myself wanted to believe in this team and what Chuck was selling. Now it seems far too silly to buy into the hype and nonsense that is said about a lot of the players on this team.

Raptors are once again looking like a team on surface that looks pretty good in the pre-season. The record that we all say doesn’t matter is still kept and let’s face it if this team was 1-6 and not 6-1 people would be in a panic mode. Just last season this team exited the pre-season with just one loss and had a lot of people wondering if they would be a surprise team. After a 4-19 start there was no one left wondering about the merits of how good this team was anymore. 

So what is different about this team? The obvious is Rudy Gay who was not a part of that horrible start to the season. I just have not really been impressed with what we have seen to this point. The guy is paid like he is an elite player and an all-star but he falls short of that level. Tyler Hansbrough has got a lot of talk in the pre-season but is he really going to be much better than the hot start Ed Davis had last season? Bargnani is gone at least there is that right. Jose Calderon is as well but the Raptors situation behind Lowry is far less stable without him.

To take this to a broader level the Raptors bench which was by no means world beaters last season looks to be not even as good as that this season. Even if I put on my rose coloured glasses on full blast I have a hard time seeing this team being any better than seventh in the East. Which when you haven’t made the playoffs in five years isn’t the worst thing in the world. In any other year but this one that might be true.

The elephant in the room and that hangs over this season not just for the Raptors but many teams in this league is a young talented Canadian native at the top of every draft board at Kansas. He is backed up by some more than acceptable consolation prizes. If there was ever a year to target the lottery this might be the year for the Toronto Raptors and several other traditional NBA bottom feeders. It has to be good when the Celtics and Sixers have already waved the white flag on this season before it ever tips off.

To me Andrew Wiggins is the answer to many of the Raptors problems. I have preached for years in this blog about the need for a true Canadian contributor for this team. Drake is not going to score a basket for the Raptors at the end of the day. Andrew Wiggins quite simply will be a game changer for whoever drafts him but no where is that more the case than in Toronto.

Perhaps I am just looking for something or someone to believe in. If I am forced to choose if I believe in this group or Andrew Wiggins to me the answer is pretty obvious. It is hard to believe in much of anything after 18 years that have offered very little joy or hope for the future.