- Cold start to the game for Rudy, but he bounced back in the second half. No one should ever doubt Rudy’s ability to take over the game because when he catches fire it’s over.
Rudy showing off that Timmy D skill set out there making all those bankers from the shallow angle. Shot was WET today shooting over anyone he wanted from Felton to Tyson Chandler. He was literally unstoppable in the 2nd half. It felt like almost any shot he put up was gonna be swish. Handles were tight breaking Amare’s ankles a few times first with the crossover to get the blow by for the double clutch layup and the go-ahead triple from the top of the key after shaking and baking. Man was straight BALLIN tonight.
- Solid game for DeMar mixing up his offense with some post-ups drawing the and-1 on Felton and a couple of drives. He is starting to become really crafty with his footwork when he backs down his man from that pinch post and it showed when he drew the foul on Felton. A lot of times players would turn with the wrong foot pivoting forward when they should reverse pivot and they’d have a bad angle at the backboard or rim for the shot (Blake Griffin is huge offender of this), but DeMar kind of did a crab dribble and managed to cleanly drain the shot that was nothing but net. The change of pace going from slow-to-fast to get the last shot in the first quarter was nice too.
- Lowry came up huge in closing time offensively AND defensively. Still shaking my head how he got blocked by old geezer Kidd, but he made that TOUGH runner against Chandler. It was great use of his body to protect that and great arc on the shot. And getting right up on Melo’s grill on the 3-point attempt forcing him to shoot back iron gave the Raptors the win right there.
- Ball movement was infinitely better tonight with not a whole lot of sticky fingers holding onto the ball and standing around. But those dribble hand-offs with the exchange of the big-to-guard looks like it’s about to turn into a turnover. The bigs need to hold onto that ball tighter and firmly forcing the guard to rip the ball out of their hands. None of this soft ish because the Knicks knocked the ball loose too many times.
I like how they’re using Lowry in those horn sets similar to how the Spurs use Tony Parker; bring the ball up, pass off to the left wing, cut strong side then set a staggered screen to free either Rudy or DeMar from the corner come up as a decoy for the catch-and-shoot but instead they’ll have Lowry curling back to receive the ball and make a play. I know it’s nothing fancy and most offense do the same thing, but it’s better use of talent than forcing Lowry to camp in the corner and wait for the kick-out to relieve pressure.