Gutsy W!
This was shaping up to be one of the worst games of the season for the Raptors, until it wasn't.
All those ugly stretches and embarrassing shooting in the first three quarters set the stage for the 4Q heroics, as we rallied past the Pacers 99-96. This was perhaps the hardest-fought win of the season so far, and not just because of the deficit we had to erase.
We overcame a 17-point deficit. Entered the final 12 minutes down 10 points but held the other guys to a meagre 11 points in the 4Q. Really strong D down the stretch without some key pieces in the lineup.
Steady Freddy made just one of his first 12 shots through three quarters, before draining three 3-pointers in the last stretch, including this bomb that put us up for good at 97-96 with about 26 ticks to go:
On to my takes.
Injury Bug
Norm came back after missing weeks, but then Serge was out with some knee issues. He joined Kyle and JV on the sidelines.
Coach Nurse was in the scrambling mode again, using his 11th different starting lineup. Danny G is the only player to start and play every game this season.
So Moose started at center. He made his first five field goals and put up 13 and 8. That's really all you can ask for. Siakam later spelled him at the 5, though in this day and age, it doesn't really matter who plays where anymore.
Norm didn't look all that sharp. And he even got a bloody lip after running into a hard Sabonis screen (No foul! But more on officiating later) and generally had a forgettable game.
So it really put some pressure on the big horses to carry the load. And for the first 36 minutes, I didn't like the effort I was seeing. Shooting woes continued, and even the usually realiable Kawhi was missing jumpers from his usual spots.
And we were giving up way too many easy buckets at the other end. The other guys scored 34 in the first quarter and 22 of them came in the paint. I know the Pacers don't take that many 3-pointers but that's just way too many points from close range.
Battling
We put together some runs here and there to kind of hang around, but I didn't once feel that we were truly in this game until those final 8 or so minutes in the fourth.
We went down by 17 during the third quarter but even after a 7-0 run, I didn't think we could get it done.
I even lost some interest in the game during the early fourth quarter. I was doing something else and was just stealing a few glances. Then this happened.
That's about as emotional/pumped-up as you'll see Kawhi get after a play. Man, that was a beautiful slam, and it really sent a jolt, both up and down the Raptors bench and throughout the arena.
On our next possession, FVV made a three to cut it to 90-88. We were outscoring the visitors 13-5 in the quarter at that point.
Later on, we had some opportunities near the rim but Myles Turner had three straight blocks to keep the Pacers in the game.
(On an aside, I have a love-and-hate relationship with Turner in fantasy basketball. I draft him pretty much every year, thinking this could be his breakout season. But I always end up dropping him before the All-Star break because he has yet to live up to his massive potential. He gives me some rebounds and blocks and all, but he could be so much more. Turner may be a better real-life player than he is a fantasy player. I can name a few more like that but I gotta get back to the regular programming.)
Anyway, we also tightened things up defensively. Collison made a runner for a 92-88 lead with just under 5 minutes left, but they would make only two more FGs the rest of the way.
So we won in a dramatic fashion, thanks to Freddie's three and Green's two late FTs. But my favorite part of this W was this:
This was the final play of the game. Bogdanovic was going for the game-tying 3 and OG clearly got his hand there.
But no call! We got away with this one. But you know what? Given all the s*$% we've taken from the refs all year, we deserved one in our favor. And OG's reaction was priceless!! Bog embellished the thing anyway, doing his best Neymar impression.
In my book, that call was worth $15,000 that Coach Nurse paid in fine for criticizing the zebras.
All those ugly stretches and embarrassing shooting in the first three quarters set the stage for the 4Q heroics, as we rallied past the Pacers 99-96. This was perhaps the hardest-fought win of the season so far, and not just because of the deficit we had to erase.
 |
| Yes, please |
We overcame a 17-point deficit. Entered the final 12 minutes down 10 points but held the other guys to a meagre 11 points in the 4Q. Really strong D down the stretch without some key pieces in the lineup.
Steady Freddy made just one of his first 12 shots through three quarters, before draining three 3-pointers in the last stretch, including this bomb that put us up for good at 97-96 with about 26 ticks to go:
On to my takes.
Injury Bug
Norm came back after missing weeks, but then Serge was out with some knee issues. He joined Kyle and JV on the sidelines.
Coach Nurse was in the scrambling mode again, using his 11th different starting lineup. Danny G is the only player to start and play every game this season.
So Moose started at center. He made his first five field goals and put up 13 and 8. That's really all you can ask for. Siakam later spelled him at the 5, though in this day and age, it doesn't really matter who plays where anymore.
Norm didn't look all that sharp. And he even got a bloody lip after running into a hard Sabonis screen (No foul! But more on officiating later) and generally had a forgettable game.
So it really put some pressure on the big horses to carry the load. And for the first 36 minutes, I didn't like the effort I was seeing. Shooting woes continued, and even the usually realiable Kawhi was missing jumpers from his usual spots.
And we were giving up way too many easy buckets at the other end. The other guys scored 34 in the first quarter and 22 of them came in the paint. I know the Pacers don't take that many 3-pointers but that's just way too many points from close range.
Battling
We put together some runs here and there to kind of hang around, but I didn't once feel that we were truly in this game until those final 8 or so minutes in the fourth.
We went down by 17 during the third quarter but even after a 7-0 run, I didn't think we could get it done.
I even lost some interest in the game during the early fourth quarter. I was doing something else and was just stealing a few glances. Then this happened.
That's about as emotional/pumped-up as you'll see Kawhi get after a play. Man, that was a beautiful slam, and it really sent a jolt, both up and down the Raptors bench and throughout the arena.
On our next possession, FVV made a three to cut it to 90-88. We were outscoring the visitors 13-5 in the quarter at that point.
Later on, we had some opportunities near the rim but Myles Turner had three straight blocks to keep the Pacers in the game.
(On an aside, I have a love-and-hate relationship with Turner in fantasy basketball. I draft him pretty much every year, thinking this could be his breakout season. But I always end up dropping him before the All-Star break because he has yet to live up to his massive potential. He gives me some rebounds and blocks and all, but he could be so much more. Turner may be a better real-life player than he is a fantasy player. I can name a few more like that but I gotta get back to the regular programming.)
Anyway, we also tightened things up defensively. Collison made a runner for a 92-88 lead with just under 5 minutes left, but they would make only two more FGs the rest of the way.
So we won in a dramatic fashion, thanks to Freddie's three and Green's two late FTs. But my favorite part of this W was this:
This was the final play of the game. Bogdanovic was going for the game-tying 3 and OG clearly got his hand there.
But no call! We got away with this one. But you know what? Given all the s*$% we've taken from the refs all year, we deserved one in our favor. And OG's reaction was priceless!! Bog embellished the thing anyway, doing his best Neymar impression.
In my book, that call was worth $15,000 that Coach Nurse paid in fine for criticizing the zebras.
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