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Raptors Report: Week 13
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a monarchy in the NBA, with LeBron James ruling as King. The Raptors opened a tough, action packed week Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. In the season opener on October 28, Toronto overthrew James and company and they hoped to do it again.
The first quarter ended in a 28-28 tie, thanks to the heroics of DeMar DeRozan, who scored more points (10) in the opening 12 minutes than he averages for entire games (around 8). In the second quarter, the teams put on an offensive clinic and Cleveland led 62-60 going into the second half. With Hedo Turkoglu in early foul trouble, Antoine Wright stepped up and chipped in 10 points in his early playing time. The third quarter picked up in the same spot the game left off, but the Cavs’ late run gave them a bit of a cushion as they moved out on top 91-83 with 12 minutes to play. The Raptors began the fourth quarter on an 11-4 run, fueled by Marco Belinelli’s hot shooting, but Cleveland turned the tables with a 7-0 spurt right after that. Toronto responded, but in the end the Cavaliers were able to come out with the 108-100 win. Even though they lost, it was great to see the Raptors hanging in and playing competitively for the whole 48 minutes against arguably the best team in the league. In the game, future Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal became the 5th player in NBA history to score 28, 000 points, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, and Wilt Chamberlain.
A night after falling to the Cavs, the Raptors aimed to walk into Milwaukee and take care of business against an inferior Bucks team. Toronto controlled the flow of the game for much of the first half and as a result led 56-49 at halftime. Chris Bosh recorded a near double-double in the first two quarters alone as he filled the stat sheet with 22 points, 9 rebounds while also dishing out 4 assists. Milwaukee was sticking around thanks to their massive differential in points in the paint, as well as their numerous offensive rebounds. In the third quarter, Milwaukee seized control, thanks to Andrew Bogut and Luke Ridnour. The Raptors held a brief one-point lead early in the fourth, but Milwaukee answered and emerged with a 113-107 win. CB4 ended with a career best 44 points, but he couldn’t shoulder the load entirely on his own. The Raptors finished the game shooting just under 45% - a number greatly inflated by Bosh’s 15-26 effort from the field.
The Raptors looked to dish out some payback against the Bucks at the Air Canada Centre Friday night. Missing in action was Andrea Bargnani, which thrust Rasho Nesterovic into the starting lineup. The game started out exactly how Wednesday’s game left off, with the Bucks outperforming the Raptors, which resulted in an early lead. The Raps clawed their way back, and thanks to Jose Calderon’s long distance buzzer beater, they led 28-25 after one quarter of play. The second was horrendous for Toronto, as Milwaukee scored twelve more points than them and looked to be headed for the sweep of the home and home. The third stanza was low scoring, as the teams combined to score 36 points, but it was in the fourth that the Raptors made their move. After trading leads throughout the quarter, the home crowd got behind their team, willing them to victory after being down by as many as 15. Jarrett Jack was the most outstanding performer as he amassed 27 points, while Marco Belinelli came off the bench to score 16. Once again, it was Luke Ridnour and Andrew Bogut who did the most damage for the visitors, and they topped the list of Bucks scorers with 27 and 22 points respectively.
With the Los Angeles Lakers in town, yellow and purple jerseys of #24 could be noticeably seen in the rafters at Air Canada Centre on Sunday evening. The Raptors welcomed Andrea Bargnani back to the starting lineup, and he made his presence known, finishing with 22 points. The story of the first quarter was the amount of points in the paint Kobe Bryant and company scored – 22 of their 24. Despite this statistic, the Raptors only trailed by three after one. In the second, Kobe went to work on the Raptors defense and finished the half with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, but it was Andrew Bynum who led the Lakers in scoring for the half with 17. The Raptors were able to match the offensive output of their Californian counterparts and trailed by a basket at the break. The Lakers opened the second half on a 7-0 run, but Toronto answered and still only trailed by two points going into the fourth. Chris Bosh and the rest of his team found themselves sticking around, and knew they would have an opportunity to win the game. With 11 seconds to play, Hedo Turkoglu took the inbounds pass and dribbled around before driving the lane and drawing a foul with just over one second to go. Hedo knocked down both free throws to put the Raptors up 106-105, but the game was not over yet. Kobe Bryant is as good as anyone in the league at making game winning shots, but that was not the case on this night as Antoine Wright heavily contested the shot attempt to secure the victory. This game has to be the high point of the season thus far.
The Raptors will have a chance to move up in the Eastern Conference standings in the coming week, as they play Miami at home before travelling to the Big Apple for a date with the Knicks. The Raps close out the week at home against the Indiana Pacers. 3-0 should be expected this week if Toronto wants to be considered a serious team.