Sunday Split
Just as I predicted, the Leafs won and the Raptors lost.
It was a Sunday morning double header for me. I watched most of the first period of the Leafs' win over the Rangers, including Patty Marleau's opening goal, as I was making pancake for the family.
(I am not much of a cook, but I prepare breakfasts most weekends. Toasts, pancakes, cereal, soup, fruits, or whatever that doesn't require a great deal of actual cooking.)
Then I turned to the Raptors game, which started about half an hour after hockey. We'd been 6-0 on the second night of back-to-backs, but even with Lowry back in the fold, it was going to be a tough one against the Sixers.
I turned off the Raptors game about midway through the fourth and switched to hockey. It was great to listen to Bob Cole call his rare HNIC Leafs game (more on him later) and I'll make sure to go back and listen to him for the full game.
My takes, starting with the Raptors.
Embiid Too Much
Serge was out again, and with JV out a few more weeks, the Moose again got the starting nod at the five. Siakam also saw time there.
Pascal had 26 points but he missed on all of his six 3-point attempts. And defensively, he couldn't handle Embiid (or anyone else, for that matter).
But Siakam gave us Raptors fans this bit of highlight. One of few from this loss:
Embiid has his way down low, to the tune of a 10-of-15 shooting day. He didn't even attempt a three.
Simmons, who'd made 18 turnovers against us in the first two meetings this season, obviously loved not having to play against Kawhi. Ben scored his season-high 26 points and committed just one TO.
There were some lead changes early on but it was one of those games where I felt we were never quite in it. Our three-point shooting struggles continued (CJ with some ugly misses) and Danny G was just 3-of-12 in his return to the lineup after his one-game absence.
Kyle thrived in his hometown but we just didn't have it.
It was also a bizarre game in that two different heaps at the buzzer, first by Redick at the end of first and then by Kyle at halftime, went in and didn't count.
If Kyle had launched his before the buzzer, that would have cut the deficit to 65-62. As it was, the Sixers opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run. By that time, I kind of lost interest.
Since I fully expected us to drop this one, I wanted my fantasy players to do well more than anything else. I have Embiid on my main team this year, and Siakam on my other team. A better fantasy basketball day for me than a real-life hoops day.
More thoughts on Siakam
Speaking of Siakam, the Ringer had a nice little video feature on him the other day. Well, the moment the Ringer calls him "the best kept secret in basketball," he's no longer a secret.
I found the timing interesting. In recent games, I had this feeling that opposing teams had kind of figured this guy out. The early season surprise element seemed mostly gone, and it looked to me as though teams had started game-planning for him.
Siakam's defining move this season has been going coast-to-coast after grabbing a defensive board, putting on one of his signature spin-o-rama, and finishing with a layup or a dunk. Watch the first play below.
Now, this was an early November game against the Lakers, at a time when the rest of the league was trying to figure out if this kid was for real.
Siakam has some freakish athleticism. He can put the ball on the floor, go the length of the court, and drive to the bucket with such shocking ease. With his long strides (evident in the first clip above), it seems almost effortless for Siakam to go from Point A to Point B. And he can finish with both hands and use the glass to his advantage.
Off a turnover, he can get out in the open in a hurry and score an easy two in transition. For most 4s and 5s in the NBA, it can be quite daunting to stop this lanky freight train on fast breaks.
But I think I've seen more teams try to stop him with smaller and speedier guards on him in transition and force Siakam to be more precise with his handle. He has been foiled on a number of occasions in recent games when he tried to get to the rim on fast breaks.
He's just got to adjust. No one ever said playing consistently at a high level in the NBA was easy. He's just coming into his own. If he can become a more dangerous shooting threat, well, the sky is the limit for Siakam.
Now on to some hockey.
Mitch Does It Again!
I am enjoying Mitch's goal-scoring streak. Ever since I wrote in this space that he's got to look to shoot more, he has been on a tear. I feel like I have a stake in this thing now.
He was stuck on six goals and hadn't found the back of the net for 13 games. Now Mitch has scored in four consecutive games, tallying six goals in that span to match his previous season total.
This was a beauty.
JT does most of the work there with the takeaway and the feed. Love Mitch's celebration, pointing at Tavares with the look that say, "Yeah baby! That's what I am talking about!"
So Marner appeared to have scored earlier in the third period but it was later credited to Johnsson, who, to my delight, found himself at the LW spot on that JT-Mitch line. But I guess the crowd didn't know it. When Mitch got an empty-netter, a few hats came down, with those fans thinking Mitch had scored a hat trick.
A second time this week some quality headgear were wasted on a phantom hat trick, with Mitch in the thick of both.
(Some updates after re-watching the game)
Johnsson ended up with a goal and two assists. Made that beautiful pass to Rielly for our third goal. Johnsson was in Babs' doghouse at the start of the season, but now he's our first line LW.
(Actually, I don't even know which line is our first. JT's? Auston's? Just 1A and 1B, I say.)
Rielly is having a monster offensive season. Leads all D-men with 42 points (12-30). He's been great defensively as well. And in this one, he was particularly sharp with his stretch passes. Works when you face a team like the Rangers, and when you have skilled forwards who can do something with those passes.
Kadri saw his point-scoring streak end at three. He hit a goal post on a mini-break in the third period. I don't think they keep track of these things, but I bet Naz leads the Leafs in posts/crossbar hit this season.
Ennis Out
I've been a huge Tyler Ennis booster in this space, and it pained me to no end to see him leave with an ankle injury after taking friendly fire no less, a shot by Rielly.
Turned out Ennis broke his ankle. That's second ankle injury to our forward group, after Hyman. Two very useful forwards will be out for a few weeks.
So the injury bug has gotten to the Leafs now. Babs will have to call up a kid from the AHL and stick him in the fourth line. For a good while, he'll have to ride his top 9 guys hard.
Ennis was in the midst of a strong stretch. Had a multi-goal game the other day and even in games when he wasn't scoring, he was putting in solid fourth-line shifts. He was also a fixture on our 2nd PP unit.
Kapanen, who kills penalties but doesn't play on PP, is a logical choice to replace Ennis on the PP unit. He may play his off-wing on that left half-wall but either way, it could bump his offensive production.
I feel like we have enough depth to get by without Hyman and Ennis for now. Marleau has come on strong of late. It seems a matter of time before Nylander comes around. I like Johnsson's speed, skills and underrated grit in Hyman's usual spot. Matthews and Kapanen will continue to do their things. If Naz and Nylander can start clicking, our top 3 lines will be as lethal as any top 3 in the NHL.
Oh, baby!
Say what you will about Bob Cole: that he is too old now, he gets behind plays, he misidentifies players, etc, etc. I am old enough to have grown up listening to him and Harry Neale do the Leafs' Saturday night games, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed Cole until I heard him today.
He calls other Canadian teams these days, with Jim Hughson the main Toronto guy now. But since this is Cole's final year on HNIC, they're giving him a select number of Saturday prime time games. He'll also call the regular season finale between the Leafs and the Habs.
I like Hughson, though he has his own detractors, the biggest reason being that he's a Leafs hater. Well, I don't know about that one. Maybe he's a Canucks fan? (because he's from BC and he used to call the West Coast games on HNIC when Cole was doing the Leafs back in the days) It doesn't matter to me either way.
They're two completely different play-by-play guys. Cole is a great one in his own ways, and Hughson, at least to me, is perfectly fine in ways that Cole isn't. It's a matter of tastes or preferences.
But I guess nostalgia can be a huge factor whenever Cole gets these prime time games. It did for me. It took me back in time to the mid-90s when I first started watching hockey. Cole was the play-by-play man for most of my favorite hockey moments.
As much as I enjoy Hughson, he'll never occupy the same spot in my heart that Bob Cole does.
It was a Sunday morning double header for me. I watched most of the first period of the Leafs' win over the Rangers, including Patty Marleau's opening goal, as I was making pancake for the family.
(I am not much of a cook, but I prepare breakfasts most weekends. Toasts, pancakes, cereal, soup, fruits, or whatever that doesn't require a great deal of actual cooking.)
Then I turned to the Raptors game, which started about half an hour after hockey. We'd been 6-0 on the second night of back-to-backs, but even with Lowry back in the fold, it was going to be a tough one against the Sixers.
I turned off the Raptors game about midway through the fourth and switched to hockey. It was great to listen to Bob Cole call his rare HNIC Leafs game (more on him later) and I'll make sure to go back and listen to him for the full game.
My takes, starting with the Raptors.
Embiid Too Much
Serge was out again, and with JV out a few more weeks, the Moose again got the starting nod at the five. Siakam also saw time there.
Pascal had 26 points but he missed on all of his six 3-point attempts. And defensively, he couldn't handle Embiid (or anyone else, for that matter).
But Siakam gave us Raptors fans this bit of highlight. One of few from this loss:
Embiid has his way down low, to the tune of a 10-of-15 shooting day. He didn't even attempt a three.
Simmons, who'd made 18 turnovers against us in the first two meetings this season, obviously loved not having to play against Kawhi. Ben scored his season-high 26 points and committed just one TO.
There were some lead changes early on but it was one of those games where I felt we were never quite in it. Our three-point shooting struggles continued (CJ with some ugly misses) and Danny G was just 3-of-12 in his return to the lineup after his one-game absence.
Kyle thrived in his hometown but we just didn't have it.
It was also a bizarre game in that two different heaps at the buzzer, first by Redick at the end of first and then by Kyle at halftime, went in and didn't count.
If Kyle had launched his before the buzzer, that would have cut the deficit to 65-62. As it was, the Sixers opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run. By that time, I kind of lost interest.
Since I fully expected us to drop this one, I wanted my fantasy players to do well more than anything else. I have Embiid on my main team this year, and Siakam on my other team. A better fantasy basketball day for me than a real-life hoops day.
More thoughts on Siakam
Speaking of Siakam, the Ringer had a nice little video feature on him the other day. Well, the moment the Ringer calls him "the best kept secret in basketball," he's no longer a secret.
I found the timing interesting. In recent games, I had this feeling that opposing teams had kind of figured this guy out. The early season surprise element seemed mostly gone, and it looked to me as though teams had started game-planning for him.
Siakam's defining move this season has been going coast-to-coast after grabbing a defensive board, putting on one of his signature spin-o-rama, and finishing with a layup or a dunk. Watch the first play below.
Now, this was an early November game against the Lakers, at a time when the rest of the league was trying to figure out if this kid was for real.
Siakam has some freakish athleticism. He can put the ball on the floor, go the length of the court, and drive to the bucket with such shocking ease. With his long strides (evident in the first clip above), it seems almost effortless for Siakam to go from Point A to Point B. And he can finish with both hands and use the glass to his advantage.
Off a turnover, he can get out in the open in a hurry and score an easy two in transition. For most 4s and 5s in the NBA, it can be quite daunting to stop this lanky freight train on fast breaks.
But I think I've seen more teams try to stop him with smaller and speedier guards on him in transition and force Siakam to be more precise with his handle. He has been foiled on a number of occasions in recent games when he tried to get to the rim on fast breaks.
He's just got to adjust. No one ever said playing consistently at a high level in the NBA was easy. He's just coming into his own. If he can become a more dangerous shooting threat, well, the sky is the limit for Siakam.
Now on to some hockey.
Mitch Does It Again!
I am enjoying Mitch's goal-scoring streak. Ever since I wrote in this space that he's got to look to shoot more, he has been on a tear. I feel like I have a stake in this thing now.
He was stuck on six goals and hadn't found the back of the net for 13 games. Now Mitch has scored in four consecutive games, tallying six goals in that span to match his previous season total.
This was a beauty.
JT does most of the work there with the takeaway and the feed. Love Mitch's celebration, pointing at Tavares with the look that say, "Yeah baby! That's what I am talking about!"
So Marner appeared to have scored earlier in the third period but it was later credited to Johnsson, who, to my delight, found himself at the LW spot on that JT-Mitch line. But I guess the crowd didn't know it. When Mitch got an empty-netter, a few hats came down, with those fans thinking Mitch had scored a hat trick.
A second time this week some quality headgear were wasted on a phantom hat trick, with Mitch in the thick of both.
(Some updates after re-watching the game)
Johnsson ended up with a goal and two assists. Made that beautiful pass to Rielly for our third goal. Johnsson was in Babs' doghouse at the start of the season, but now he's our first line LW.
(Actually, I don't even know which line is our first. JT's? Auston's? Just 1A and 1B, I say.)
Rielly is having a monster offensive season. Leads all D-men with 42 points (12-30). He's been great defensively as well. And in this one, he was particularly sharp with his stretch passes. Works when you face a team like the Rangers, and when you have skilled forwards who can do something with those passes.
Kadri saw his point-scoring streak end at three. He hit a goal post on a mini-break in the third period. I don't think they keep track of these things, but I bet Naz leads the Leafs in posts/crossbar hit this season.
Ennis Out
I've been a huge Tyler Ennis booster in this space, and it pained me to no end to see him leave with an ankle injury after taking friendly fire no less, a shot by Rielly.
Turned out Ennis broke his ankle. That's second ankle injury to our forward group, after Hyman. Two very useful forwards will be out for a few weeks.
So the injury bug has gotten to the Leafs now. Babs will have to call up a kid from the AHL and stick him in the fourth line. For a good while, he'll have to ride his top 9 guys hard.
Ennis was in the midst of a strong stretch. Had a multi-goal game the other day and even in games when he wasn't scoring, he was putting in solid fourth-line shifts. He was also a fixture on our 2nd PP unit.
Kapanen, who kills penalties but doesn't play on PP, is a logical choice to replace Ennis on the PP unit. He may play his off-wing on that left half-wall but either way, it could bump his offensive production.
I feel like we have enough depth to get by without Hyman and Ennis for now. Marleau has come on strong of late. It seems a matter of time before Nylander comes around. I like Johnsson's speed, skills and underrated grit in Hyman's usual spot. Matthews and Kapanen will continue to do their things. If Naz and Nylander can start clicking, our top 3 lines will be as lethal as any top 3 in the NHL.
Oh, baby!
Say what you will about Bob Cole: that he is too old now, he gets behind plays, he misidentifies players, etc, etc. I am old enough to have grown up listening to him and Harry Neale do the Leafs' Saturday night games, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed Cole until I heard him today.
He calls other Canadian teams these days, with Jim Hughson the main Toronto guy now. But since this is Cole's final year on HNIC, they're giving him a select number of Saturday prime time games. He'll also call the regular season finale between the Leafs and the Habs.
I like Hughson, though he has his own detractors, the biggest reason being that he's a Leafs hater. Well, I don't know about that one. Maybe he's a Canucks fan? (because he's from BC and he used to call the West Coast games on HNIC when Cole was doing the Leafs back in the days) It doesn't matter to me either way.
They're two completely different play-by-play guys. Cole is a great one in his own ways, and Hughson, at least to me, is perfectly fine in ways that Cole isn't. It's a matter of tastes or preferences.
But I guess nostalgia can be a huge factor whenever Cole gets these prime time games. It did for me. It took me back in time to the mid-90s when I first started watching hockey. Cole was the play-by-play man for most of my favorite hockey moments.
As much as I enjoy Hughson, he'll never occupy the same spot in my heart that Bob Cole does.
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