Was able to watch the Detroit game live on League Pass on Sunday, and caught up Tuesday evening with the Bucks win. The game at the Palace was a tough watch - long, lots of foul calls and breaks and the Raptors generally made hard work of it.
How great is the potential battle between Andre Drummond and Jonas in the coming years? If they stay in the same conference they'll see a lot of each other, and it seems at the moment that the Detroit big man has the better of JV. He seems stronger and more athletic and his big block on Jonas made me cringe a bit. Drummond caught the eye at the Rising Star challenge when he got MVP and stats-wise edges his fellow sophomore.
The Bucks just continue to be bad, there wasn't much to learn there. There wasn't much to learn from Greivis Vasquez's post-match "I wanna prove I can play" speech that he must practice into a mirror either.
Weirdly apprehensive about the events of this evening, when playoff seedings will settle. I guess the "ideal" scenario is a 3rd place seed versus the Wizards, giving the prospect of the Pacers in round 2 rather than the Heat and avoiding the Nets?
To be honest, I'd take any. I trust the coach to make adjustments needed for a play-off series against any of the three prospects - and the Nets could be a great series for the neutral fan too. It seems to me that experience of a playoff series is needed at some point, and I wouldn't put too much pressure on this young group to do serious damage anyway.
Tonight versus the Knicks it would make sense to rest DeMar and manage the minutes of Kyle and JV, maybe let Mr Novak loose to send some three-bomb reminders to his former team and have a healthy starting 5 for the weekend.
Let's Go Raptors
#RTZ
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Valanciunas must now prove he can take his medicine
There's nothing like the ominous "Toronto Raptors statement on Jonas Valanciunas" to make one sit up in bed when you check Facebook first thing in the morning. And then wait, a statement from JV too.... s*** man, what's he done?
My first instinct was a brawl, but driving-under-the-influence is possibly worse. I abhor drink-driving as we call it in the UK - there is just no need and the way this played out leaves lots of questions about how the young centre handles his time away from the court.
Overwhelmingly I'm frustrated. At this point of the season the team and the fans don't need the distractions, it was a situation that was easily avoidable, and the casual nature of how he has got caught just shows a tip of the kind of above-everybody attitude that pro-athletes can have sometimes. I had a ton of love for the young kid from Lithuania going making it big in the NBA and it's hard not to fall for his humble interview routine, and - well - he's let more important people than me down, for sure.
Jonas is going to have to pick himself up from a big mistake
Then part of me thinks - the lad is 21 years old. Now, I wasn't drink-driving at 21 but pretty sure I was doing stupid stuff. And we get our wrists slapped and we carry on. JV has now got to find a way to put it behind him, focus on the next game and build his public persona back up - let's be honest, two or three dominant displays and a hand in a play-off series win and nobody will remember the day he broke the law.
I'm hopeful, and the early signs are good, that he has the right professional people around him to do that. Ujuri playing Head Master and Lowry playing the Head Boy/Prefect role - there should be enough arms around the young Center to help him focus, take his medicine and move on.
But we know from a few of his slumps that he has a tendency to put the weight of the world on his shoulders and take things hard...
My first instinct was a brawl, but driving-under-the-influence is possibly worse. I abhor drink-driving as we call it in the UK - there is just no need and the way this played out leaves lots of questions about how the young centre handles his time away from the court.
Overwhelmingly I'm frustrated. At this point of the season the team and the fans don't need the distractions, it was a situation that was easily avoidable, and the casual nature of how he has got caught just shows a tip of the kind of above-everybody attitude that pro-athletes can have sometimes. I had a ton of love for the young kid from Lithuania going making it big in the NBA and it's hard not to fall for his humble interview routine, and - well - he's let more important people than me down, for sure.
Then part of me thinks - the lad is 21 years old. Now, I wasn't drink-driving at 21 but pretty sure I was doing stupid stuff. And we get our wrists slapped and we carry on. JV has now got to find a way to put it behind him, focus on the next game and build his public persona back up - let's be honest, two or three dominant displays and a hand in a play-off series win and nobody will remember the day he broke the law.
I'm hopeful, and the early signs are good, that he has the right professional people around him to do that. Ujuri playing Head Master and Lowry playing the Head Boy/Prefect role - there should be enough arms around the young Center to help him focus, take his medicine and move on.
But we know from a few of his slumps that he has a tendency to put the weight of the world on his shoulders and take things hard...
Monday, 7 April 2014
3 games, 3 wins - a weekend of sport
A couple of years ago there was a rule that one of my teams lost in a particular weekend. If I'd woken up Saturday morning to a Toronto Raptors loss, then Bolton Wanderers would invariably win. These days, I can't cope. Both teams winning at once. Please don't stop.
I managed to watch the win against the Pacers first thing Saturday morning on League Pass. I've been so impressed with Valanciunas' progress in the last fortnight. He had a tough slump to break through but now he seems to have simplified his game and focusing on fundamentals. He looks so much better for it, setting good screens and following up with some important offensive rebounds.
I hope there was an important lesson learned too about - as the IGBT called it - poking the bear. The set-to between Salmons and George was fun but it gave the All-Star all the fire he needed to go on a run. I wouldn't want to do that too often in a play-off series.
The follow up game against Bucks was a bit more disjointed. A lot has been made of the "easy" run-in (and really, 2 games against a Knicks team that needs to win doesn't make this easy) and we'll have to hope the players can wake up for games like this. Pleasing to see T-Ross come of age too and his 3 seems to be coming back just in time for play-offs.
For BWFC I was confined to radio, which always makes me think of following the team in the 90s. It was a great surprise to get a late goal, nice 3 points and solid clean sheet. Not quite sure what we're playing for now, we seem to be in no-mans-land but considering there was a point I thought we might go down, I'll take that.
I managed to watch the win against the Pacers first thing Saturday morning on League Pass. I've been so impressed with Valanciunas' progress in the last fortnight. He had a tough slump to break through but now he seems to have simplified his game and focusing on fundamentals. He looks so much better for it, setting good screens and following up with some important offensive rebounds.
I hope there was an important lesson learned too about - as the IGBT called it - poking the bear. The set-to between Salmons and George was fun but it gave the All-Star all the fire he needed to go on a run. I wouldn't want to do that too often in a play-off series.
The follow up game against Bucks was a bit more disjointed. A lot has been made of the "easy" run-in (and really, 2 games against a Knicks team that needs to win doesn't make this easy) and we'll have to hope the players can wake up for games like this. Pleasing to see T-Ross come of age too and his 3 seems to be coming back just in time for play-offs.
For BWFC I was confined to radio, which always makes me think of following the team in the 90s. It was a great surprise to get a late goal, nice 3 points and solid clean sheet. Not quite sure what we're playing for now, we seem to be in no-mans-land but considering there was a point I thought we might go down, I'll take that.
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