Nick Young, Lakers Humble Raptors

LAKERS 112, RAPTORS 106

Cheer up, Sophomores.

Despite leading big in both the second and third quarters, the Toronto Raptors couldn't hang with the Los Angeles Lakers down the stretch, falling to a second defeat in three games. Nick Young, playing with a point to prove after his recent suspension, led the Lakers with 29 huge points, including five 3-point buckets. The Raptors fall to 20-19 on the season, and should feel as though this was another missed opportunity to move further above the fourth-placed Atlanta Hawks.



- I've said it before, and it looks like I'm going to have to say it again; this is not a team that should be jacking up 30 3-point attempts in a game. Terrence Ross is becoming completely reliant on the three, failing to use his ridiculously athletic body to drive the ball. The Amir Johnson "summer three" is funny and entertaining when it drops, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a far too risky shot, and Amir throwing up 4 threes is way over the top. It's really disappointing, because shooting 30 threes tells me that we're having extreme trouble creating good looks on offense. 

-Pau Gasol taught Jonas Valanciunas a lesson this game. The Lakers kept feeding Gasol the ball in the deep post, and he would continuously spin to the basket, or score right over Jonas. Jonas needed to keep a body on Gasol and defend with a little more strength, and as a result only saw 14 minutes of action; while I'd normally complain about Jonas being limited in this way, he was getting killed out there, and we needed to curb Gasol's influence. Chuck Hayes actually did a much better job, making a number of key stops on Pau down the stretch. 

DeRozan- 2/10 from midrange and deep.

-This was the sort of game Raptor fans seemed to fear from Demar DeRozan upon Rudy's departure; very hero-ball centred, and way too much jump-shooting. It's been pretty clear that the difference between the Raptors before and after the Rudy Gay trade has been crisp ball movement offensively, so I really do have to wonder why we're moving away from this, especially in clutch situations. While I respect Demar a lot and continue to enjoy his development into an All-Star, he needs to stop trying to always be the hero, or at least draw contact driving to the rim and make some easy points at the line.

-Twice we lead by huge margins (19 points up in the second, 17 points up in the third). In the second quarter, the Raptors earned the lead on the back of brilliant defense, only allowing 4 points in the first six minutes of the quarter. However, the energy level on D clearly declined, and the Lakers were able to score 21 points in the next six minutes, seeing the Raptor lead only 4 points at the break. The third quarter saw a similar scene, where Nick Young and Ryan Kelly found their range and quickly ate up the Raptor lead. The point is this: the Raptors can't play tight defense for only halves of quarters and expect to remain in the lead. Imagine what a quality team like Miami would do to us, if we gave them 6 minutes of lacklustre defense.

-Swaggy P. It was always happening, wasn't it? Fresh after his suspension for fighting the entire Suns line-up, Nick Young came off the bench to score 29 points, including big threes down the stretch to kill of the Raptor fight. Yes, he shoots too much, he takes terrible shots, and has a seemingly terrible attitude, but when he's feeling it, Swaggy P is a whole lot of fun. 

PLAYER VOTES

3 votes- PATRICK PATTERSON (17pts, 7/12FGs, 7rebs). Maybe I'm sick of having to call Lowry our best player every night, but I loved what Patrick did off of the bench. He drained his first 5 shots, only taking premium level looks, harassed the Lakers' bigs on both ends, and had some nice second chance points too. Earned the right to close out the game, especially with Jonas' poor night. 

2 votes- KYLE LOWRY (21pts, 8/13FGs, 9asts). Kept the team in the game late with some big buckets. Continue to love his ability to find the open man, especially him combining with DeRozan for that curling wing jumper. As good as he was, I wanted a little more out of Kyle, maybe making a couple more of the open shots he found, but nevertheless, a good showing.

1 vote- GRIEVIS VASQUEZ (11pts, 5/11FGs, 8asts, 5rebs). Grievis has been heavily criticized recently, and I still feel that the backup Point Guard role remains the need requiring the most urgent attention. This, however, was a pretty good night from Grievis, aside from his 1/5 shooting from downtown. 


NEXT- DECEMBER 20 @ CHARLOTTE. Raptors need to get back to their winning ways and handle the Bobcats tomorrow. This is the second flat performance from the Raps in the last three games; the wheels haven't fallen off, but the standard of play is certainly decreasing. The next few games will likely tell us whether we really are the 3rd best team in the East, or if the boys have just been playing at a ridiculous level.

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