Overreaction: Game 7/82 - The Curse Is For Real

What a bummer. No Kawhi. No Giannis. No FVV and no OG. Did I expect the Raptors to win? To be honest, no. But I expected them to put themselves in a position where they have a chance. A chance that never happened. The Milwaukee Bucks pulled away in the 2nd half and the Raptors' wheels fell apart. Admittedly, I was barely paying attention to the game, as I spent pretty much the entire game carving our jack-o-lantern pumpkin with my little one.

• 22 points on a 10/16 shooting for Pascal Siakam. Is this his career high? He looked great playing extended minutes, and I really hope that he can sink at least 1 of every 4 threes that he would hoist up. While the box score only shows 2 assists, he had a few situations where the receiver did not finish, and he has at least 2 hockey assists.
• My Serge Ibaka apology streak just won't end. I've been eating crow when it comes to Ibaka-baka-baka as I've written him off this season. Now, he looks like he's an important cog for this Raptors team.
• CJ Miles' Go-Daddy curse is back, and this time it's worse. If he's not bricking shots, he's turning the ball over. You know it's bad if you played worse than Malachi and Lorenzo Brown.
• Kyle Lowry's shooting went back to earth, and what an unfortunate time for it to happen. It also didn't help that the Bucks defense focused on contesting his shots and making him more of a passer. I doubt that will be the case next game.
• Is it just me or Norm doesn't get the ball a lot whenever he's on the same floor with Ibaka? Norm posted a modest 2/3 FG tonight, yet as a starting SG, he should have been more aggressive and have more shots than that.
• Defense needs a lot of work - whether it's switching or just plain communication. It was terrible tonight.
• I know this is Delon's 1st real game, but at his age and given he's in his contract year, I expect a jump in terms of what he can bring to the table - and I'm still waiting.
• I love that Nurse is willing to enable and empower his non-starters, giving guys that are on the end of the bench to build up confidence. Malachi played decent tonight, hitting a 3, playing good positional defense a few times, and showing more effort and defensive awareness than before.
• Is it Casey or.... Well, let's look at this. Lowry's hit a new gear, DeRozan is flourishing in San Antonio, Alfonzo McKinnie is playing really well for the dubs, and the Raptors offense looked better and different from Casey's tenure. Ibaka and JV had been great for the most part. Was Casey holding them back?

Prospect Report: McKinnie and Miller shine while we learn more about Malachi

Last week, the Raptors 905 played 3 games: the team took a loss against (Markham's) Xavier Rathan-Mayes and the Westchester Knicks; cruised past Jeremy Evans and the Erie BayHawks; and punked Wisconsin Herd's green bin collection of Brandon Jennings, Ricky Ledo, Joel Bolomboy, and a random Plumlee.

Over at RaptorsHQ, I wrote about how Alfonzo McKinnie and Malcolm Miller are thriving post-Bruno, and we are getting more and more sample size of what Malachi Richardson can do.

Prospect Report: The Malachi Richardson Experiment Begins (Feb 12-18)

For those who don't know, I contribute at RaptorsHQ, mainly covering the Toronto Raptors' prospects (assignees, and two-way players) while they are playing for the Raptors905 team. I look at how these players perform during the week, provide some insight regarding what's trending up/down regarding their development, and some random things/tidbits that I liked during that stretch.

For example, last week, the Raptors905 played against Maine Red Claws (Boston Celtics affiliate) and the Windy City Bulls (Chicago Bulls affiliate), and I wrote about how Lorenzo Brown went down with an injury, Alfonzo McKinnie stepped up big, Malcolm Miller's got a lid on that basket, and Malachi off to a slow start.

Please check out RaptorsHQ, it's part of the SB Nation, and there are a lot of excellent content (and writers of course) about the Toronto Raptors.