Whoa. No matter how often games like this one occur for the Toronto Raptors, you can’t help but be at the edge of your seat as these intense situations unfold. Tonight, the Raptors were given a 104-102 loss by the Charlotte Bobcats as the overtime buzzer sounded. Following this heartbreaking defeat, Toronto has a 9-14 record on the season.
Offense: B-
The Raptors only succeeded in hitting 43% (41 for 96) of their looks from the field, but a good portion of the shot attempts that Toronto took were quite makeable. Like it has in the past few games, the ball was moving tonight against a surprisingly good Charlotte defense. However, when those shots don’t seem to be falling, there isn’t much that you can do. This game started off quite slow, with the two teams trading buckets until the Raptors were able to pull away courtesy of a scoring run in the second quarter. DeMar DeRozan went on a scoring tear of his own, scoring 11 of his game high 30 points in the period. With a 47-37 lead at half, things were looking pretty good for Toronto.
Unfortunately when the third quarter came around, our beloved Raptors lost the rhythm they had found in the later stages of the first half. The Bobcats were able to get back into the game as they took advantage of Toronto’s offensive errors which led to many live-ball turnovers. For the umpteenth time this season (seriously, I’ve lost count) the presence that Jonas Valanciunas had in the game seemed to disappear as time passed. The big man scored 10 points in this one, and at this particular time in tonight’s game, with the Raptors looking somewhat bothered by the defensive pressure of Charlotte, a bit more post play may have helped the team settle down.
Interestingly enough, down the stretch, the Raptors somehow pulled back into the game that they led much earlier. The Charlotte Bobcats missed a flurry of free throws and gave Toronto a chance to get back in this one. Kyle Lowry (17 points, 6 assists) hit a huge three late in the fourth to send this one to overtime, but the team couldn’t do enough in the extra period to get their tenth win of the year. Late in OT, DeMar DeRozan had an opportunity to put the Raptors up by one as he walked to the charity stripe, but he missed one of his free throws and Toronto had to settle for a tie game with one second remaining. I guess I should get to what happened next…
Defense: C+
I’ll make this quick. The major things that stuck out tonight on this side of the floor were Al Jefferson‘s impressive post play and Kemba Walker‘s ability to slice the Raptors defense with relative ease. Big Al had a solid game, putting up 24 and 11 in tonight’s game. The man in the middle for Charlotte had the upper hand against all the bigs that Dwane Casey threw at him. He didn’t hit any threes like he did in last year’s triple-OT thriller, but he still played a great game. If you’re looking for some underlying solace in this explanation of Toronto’s defense tonight, it’s worth noting that Dwane Casey made sure that his team executed a logical late game fouling strategy, unlike the last game versus this opponent.
However, at the expense of the Toronto Raptors, Kemba Walker was no slouch in this one. With Gerald Henderson having the opposite game of the one he had versus Toronto earlier this season, it was up to Walker to carry the backcourt load for his team. The former UConn Husky dropped 29 points in the winning effort. Two of those 29 points came from this:
Rebounding: A-
Toronto won the rebounding battle against Charlotte 50-40. In this game, the Raptors gave a commendable effort on the glass, not only winning this stat by ten, but by limiting Charlotte to just 7 offensive rebounds as well. Not much to complain about here. Amir Johnson got a double-double, pulling down a season-high 13 rebounds to go along with his 10 points in the loss. Johnson brought his usual scrappy style of play in this matchup, diving on the floor several times for loose balls and getting extra possessions for the Raptors. Unfortunately, a W wasn’t the result for his team.
Game Ball – Kemba Walker
Kemba Walker does Kemba Walker things. Not much else to say. It’s nice to see the Bobcats not as the laughingstock of the league anymore.
By the way, what is it with opposing point guards torching the Raptors with game winners at the ACC?
