Overreaction: Game 38/82 - New Year, New Career High

• Kawhi with a career night and pretty much got what he wanted and even took Joe Ingles' soul in the process. I mean, what can that accountant do to Kawhi?
• Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell combined for 7/28 shooting. Thank god we have Kawhi and Danny Green.
• Not to be outdone, Pascal Siakam also had an under the radar career night. 28 points and it looked very easy. He could've gotten more if he forced the issue a bit more.
• I know it's not gonna happen this year, but I can't wait to see a stronger and more skilled Siakam. I think there's another gear to his improvement.
• Norm Powell came in and did what most of us Raps fans hope he would do: be a spark off the bench, playmake, and hit the occasional 3. With him out there playing like this, the Raps don't really need to give Lorenzo Brown his minutes (Sorry Lorenzo).
• I thought CJ Miles's 3 minutes weren't a waste, he has a couple of steals/loose ball rebound. Let's start with small victories for now when it comes to CJ.
• I also thought this would be a game where Chris Boucher could come in handy, but I guess Nick Nurse does not think the same.
• Moose with an equally good as an equally bad game. I'm not sure if the good wipes out all the bad he's done all game.
• It would be interesting to see whether the Raps will bring Boucher and Malachi (either or?) for the trip. The Raps go to Texas to play the Spurs and DeMar on Jan 3rd, then go to Milwaukee to face Giannis and the Bucks on Jan 5th. The 905 plays on the 4th and the 5th back to back.
• Speaking of Spurs and DeMar, they just announced that Lowry is getting anti-inflammatory injections for his back, and there's no timetable for his return. So yeah, I expect him to play on Thursday against his best buddy DeMar.

Overreaction: Game 33/82 - Game 1 of the Mooscher Era

The Pacers were in a lose-lose situation. Oladipo is not 100%, coming off a back-to-back. Still, there's no excuse for them to lose a game against a team that's missing 3 of their top 6 players, and one of them is banged up (Danny Green). Especially when you were up 17 against a team that can't seemingly buy a bucket. There's just no excuse for them not to win the game.

More thoughts about the game:

• Excellent job by Nick Nurse throwing things at the wall and figuring out what would stick, and here are some things that I'd like to note:
• Zone Defense
• Pascal Siakam at C
• Got the Pacers move away from their usual plays and made them iso on the post
• Quickly trying to see what would work between CJ Miles/Malachi Richardson/Lorenzo Brown
• Victor Oladipo was bad for most of the second half. I know he's not 100%, but do you need to be 100% to get the ball across to beat the 8-second count? That was a costly turnover.
• Speaking of Siakam, a couple of his moves are getting stopped more often than not now, so I guess that's the scouting report effect. The few times he was successful, he was able to beat his man because he had the space/head start. Something to keep an eye on.
• Chris Boucher made his appearance - finally - and I thought he played better than I expected him to.
• He was not shy to shoot, no hesitation, and that's a good thing because unlike with Brown, he's shooting "his shots." Those shots are the shots he's taking and making on a regular basis in the G-League.
• As expected, opposing bigs will try to muscle him down low. It was evident during his first half minutes.
• It looks like my hunch on Boucher's PNR defense is true
• What should not be missed is the way he adjusted in the second half. I thought he did a good job fighting in the post, and staying vertical instead of letting his man take the shot and try to block it in the air.
• I've never been upset and happy at Kawhi on the same game. That's normally reserved for DeMar up until this season, but he's filling in nicely. I didn't like how he gave up on that play where he was looking for a foul. Obviously he was frustrated, but that's a DeMar move FFS lol. Not complaining too much because when it mattered, he grabbed the game by the neck and got us the W.
• Ok, Moose is good offensively. But if he doesn't have the ball, he's a liability on the offense. Defensively he's bad. But he's fun to watch lol.
• A lot of people hate on Lorenzo Brown - and coming from someone who saw his MVP season, I think it's justifiable. But unlike those people, I'm not hating on Brown. I'm just disappointed. I saw what this guy can do, but for some reason, he can not get comfortable enough to do the things that he's capable of offensively.
• More on Brown - I've never seen Brown play with better defense and with more hustle than he did against the Pacers. IMO this game is better than any of his games where he got the post-game interview.
• In regards to the last play, I guess this is the time where we get to say "part of the ball" LMAO

Overreaction: Game 31-32 - Limping To The Finish Line

I've consolidated Game 31-32 (@Blazers, @Nuggets) as they both have the same narratives, such as:

• The game is on the road
• No Lowry
• No JV
• Kawhi's back
• Both losses

The Clippers are crying foul/tampering after seeing this picture

What a tough 10-game road trip, the travel, the occurrence of the games (every other + b2bs), the injuries. Thank go the Raptors are coming back home and won't be playing 'til Wednesday. A few observations from the last two road games:

• I'm done with CJ Miles. I hope that the Raptors can find him a new home this upcoming trade deadline. I like the guy, he's a really good vet, but we need someone better than we can count on to hit those open shots.
• The bench worked really hard, but there's just no scoring talent with that group. Moose, Lorenzo Brown, OG if you pair that with Miles who can't shoot and Delon at times, it'll be really hard for that group to score, especially for a team that's top 5 on defence.
• Speaking of Lorenzo Brown, I'm probably one of the few people in the Raptors blogosphere that knows what he's capable of, but man, oh man, he just hasn't shown enough to justify his roster spot. He's playing with zero confidence and walking on egg shells, afraid to make mistakes. He's actually brought more stuff on D with the Raps than what he's done at the 905.
• I think CJ McCollum's foul on Pascal Siakam was dirty. Had it was the opposite (Pascal fouling McCollum the same way and McCollum taking a hard fall) Siakam would've been tossed, if not fine. It's just a very irresponsible way. Also, like I mentioned previously with Draymond, CJ's starting to have his collection of "greatest hits." Maybe he's not the goody-two-shoes that we think he is.
• I don't know what's happened recently, but Fred VanVleet is back, and maybe even better. This back-to-back games just shows the Raps fanbase the difference between Delon and FVV if you play them separately.
• Should Kawhi be flailing or flopping everytime he drives? Because he's not getting the foul that he deserves. Denver's Craig should have fouled out before the end of third quarter last night, with all the grabbing/impeding/pushing that he's doing. Good for Nurse to stand by his guy.
• I'm a bit disappointed but not surprised with the minutes that Chris Boucher got vs Denver. I doubt Nurse would play Boucher ahead of Moose, and he'll definitely not get rotation minutes on a tightly contested game for his first game. I just hope they did this (getting his feet wet) against the Blazers.
• I do expect Boucher's minutes to creep up, especially if Siakam misses another game or two. However, Siakam or not, I expect Boucher to get some look every game, especially if Moose is playing bad.

Overreaction: Game 17/82 - Nurse and the Art of Building a Player's Confidence

Finally, some breathing room.

After a rough 3 game losing skid, the Raptors 905 got back into the winning column. Yeah, Raptors 905 as the majority of the players that were active today have ties with the 905 club.

Confidence

It's obvious that Nick Nurse is trying to rehab his players' performance by giving them the longer leash and empowering them the more that they struggle. Right now, while the intent is good, Kyle Lowry went down with an apparent ankle injury while the team was up 30 in the 3rd period -- all for getting Lowry to shoot his way back into rhythm.

It worked for Ibaka, Siakam, and JV -- it's starting to work for Delon Wright. It was slowly working for Norman Powell.

Nurse is trying to make it work for CJ Miles, Lorenzo Brown, and Malachi Richardson. It looks like Malachi is starting to get there.

Had this been Nurse, CJ would have been in the doghouse after 5 games. Brown and Richardson won't be seeing rotation minutes unless it's really, really bad.

Looking at how Nurse's handling the Kawhi situation - especially the late game gaffes -- it looks like Nurse is doing the same with Kawhi.

Nurse knows that he needs to elevate his team's individual performance to get as deep as possible in the playoffs. Kawhi by himself won't cut it, regardless of how good he is. Kawhi's going to need an army of solid players to play off and play with.

Tonight was a good sign of progression. We saw Kyle got the leeway to get himself out of the slump. Siakam, Ibaka, and JV are playing better than expected. Malachi and Brown started off shaky but was able to shake off the cobwebs and contribute.

Jordan Loyd and Chris Boucher even got some good burn tonight.

Personally, I like the approach, and a team like the Bulls tonight was a good practice run.

Overreaction: Game 8/82 - It's not Rebound-ball

• A bit of a nitpicking here, but Kyle Lowry needs to stop hunting for assists sometimes because the shots are right there
• I don't know how many games has it been, but even though the Raptors are winning, it feels like they are losing the rebounding battle on a nightly basis
• I don't want to write anything new about CJ Miles because there's nothing new to write
• Pascal Siakam's starting to break out. I don't know how this will affect OG's playing time, but we have too many decent young players, and at least one of them need to step up and become good or even better
• Just imagine how this team will look once FVV, OG Anunoby, and a healthy Delon Wright are back in the lineup. Speaking of Delon, it's good to see him start to look like his old self.
• Again, a couple of major difference between Nurse and Casey - Nurse will get Malachi and Brown some reps that they need, and CJ all the rope to get out of his rut
• I guess no matter how much weight JV loses, his heavy feet will always be a weakness when teams utilize Cs to get their three-point shooters open
• I love how simple Kawhi's game is offensively, yet he would easily get 20-25 a night. We're not even seeing those games where he would force 2-3  turnovers leading to his fastbreak points.
• Norm Powell is quietly putting together a decent showing offensively, however, he still struggles to chase guys off the ball. He needs to watch how Danny Green -- someone who's way slower than him -- chases guards off the ball. It's not just about sprinting. He keeps getting caught on those screens as if he really didn't see them coming. Maybe he didn't.
• From what I've heard from my friends, certain employers in the middle east region would hold the passport of their expats as part of their employment agreement. Is this what Masai is doing?
• For the road - Raptors won despite getting pummeled on the boards -- As Raptors legend Andrea Bargnani once said "It's not rebound-ball, it's basket-ball"

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?

Overreaction: Game 6/82 - "The Lorenzo Brown Game"

• What a fourth quarter for our 4th PG Lorenzo Brown. I was ready to write him off after the third quarter. I went to the garage to get my groceries during the intermission, feeling a bit down because the closing lineup blew the lead, and not really looking forward to Lorenzo Brown play the beginning of the 4th. Lo and behold, I came back a few minutes into the fourth quarter and the Raps were up 10 again. I had to re-start the 4th quarter because I literally missed something amazing, which is, Brown, playing like the G-League version of himself.
• Serge and Kawhi got too trigger happy in this game -- I thought that both players had at least 3 shots where they could've moved the ball to an open teammate.
• Kyle's evolving into a much more complete, efficient version of himself. Looking at the games this season, it looks like the game is coming to him very easily -- he's pretty much cruising along that 3rd or 4th gear and still end up as the teams top 2 if not top 1 player on a nightly basis. This is without him going super-Saiyan mode that we're accustomed to in the past.
• I'm really impressed by Siakam's court vision. He finished the game with 3 assists - which should've been 6 or 7 if the recipients did not screw up their bunnies. Siakam needs to be more of a threat as a scorer and it should open up more passing lanes for him if he can do that.
• It's great to see CJ Miles play like his old self tonight. His 10 points tonight might be the most in-rhythm streak of points he's had this season.
• Could be just me, but I cringe every time Kawhi would get whacked and end up on the floor, which is what happened several times tonight.
• Six games in and we still haven't seen FVV and Delon Wright share the floor. I'm really intrigued how the bench rotation and what the actual product on the floor would look like once Delon and FVV are back and healthy.
• I saw a few posts on twitter about Celtics' DEFRTG. I don't really care who's number one. As long as the Raps are in the top 10 and winning with some sort of defensive showing, that's all I care at this point. I'm more interested to see whether the Raps have holes on their defense -- i.e. last year, even though the Raps are top 5 in defense, the defense is weak when it comes to the LeBron/KD/Giannis type, and JV was just a 1/5 PNR nightmare on defense (for our team). I see some slippage on defense every now and then like what happened tonight, which is just a bunch of guys getting accustomed with each other.

Overreaction: Game 5/82 - Even the "Floor" is high

• Probably the sloppiest the team have ever been defensively and offensively, yet the bare minimum is enough to make the game feel like the Wolves don't pose a threat
• I'm very satisfied with how Nurse is handling the JV/Ibaka utilization. Not just on who's starting, but also how they're utilized on the floor. Ibaka just needs to avoid getting the ball not on scoring position around the perimeter with the clock winding down, as it's a disaster waiting to happen.
• A little bit confused why Siakam did not see a lot of time in the 2nd half, especially in the 4th. OG had a shaky first half offensively but was really great defensively the entire game. Nurse probably went with as many people that can defend Jimmy Butler as possible.
• I've seen all of Lorenzo Brown's games with the 905 last year, and what I can guarantee is that the Brown that we're seeing with the Raps is not the same MVP Brown. It feels like he's trying to play too nice, trying too much to fit into the system, to the point where he loses his offensive identity. Brown is a really good PNR/PNP shoot-first guard, and he can be dangerous from the mid-range onwards. What he's not --- an outside threat -- especially pulling up for 3pt shots off the dribble. He's also not the type of player that would always kick the ball out on a PNR/PNP situation. Lastly, he's not an offensive stopper at his position.
• It's great to see Norman Powell's confidence slowly come back, and I hope he can continue his upward trend.
• Lastly, Kawhi is good, really good. so damn f***** good. damn.

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.