[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYcoB-nOSA0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bygMRBbwDmg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUJlen6TY2I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2qe5KXnWdM[/youtube]
Toronto Sun
Raptors open up season with win over Hawks
Between them Lowry and DeRozan made good on just 7-of-28 attempts which normally would spell doom for the Raptors.
Instead the home side came away with a 109-102 win on the strength of a diverse attack that saw seven different Raptors in double digits but no one with more than the 17 that Jonas Valanciunas had.
It was by no means a pretty or even tidy win but it was a win and the fact that the Raptors did it with their two biggest scorers struggling like mere rookies should only boost confidence in the GTA in this team that begins the year with expectations beyond anything a basketball team has had in this city in a dozen years.
“We are a team,” Lowry said. “We are a complete team. Me and DeMar, we didn’t play as well offensively, but we did other things to try and help the team win. But Amir played well, the big fella (Valanciunas) played well, Greivis (Vasquez) played well, everyone filled in and played a role.”
And as tough as scoring was for either of the Raptors Big 2, it wasn’t, as Lowry pointed out, as if they didn’t contribute.
DeRozan had a pair of career highs in the game with 11 rebounds and six steals to go along with his 15 points. Lowry had a game-high 10 assists to go with his 11 points.
The Hawks, despite the lack of hype they come into the season with, are not an easy team to play against.
“The way they play is unbelievable,” Lowry said. “They cut and they move and they get shots off. They can all shoot threes. Their bigs shoot threes. Korver is one of the best in the three-point shooters in the league. The way they play makes them very tough to guard and I think we did an OK job. We held them down for a little while but they got hot.”
Raptors bench may be their best
On a team that doesn't have great late-game shot-makers on its starting five, Vasquez and Williams should be invaluable.
They are confident and capable offensive threats who try to position themselves effectively enough defensively to keep opponents honest.
The bench chipped in 47 of the team's points, with Vasquez scoring 12, Patterson eight. Vasquez and Williams combined for four assists and just one turnover.
Vasquez, oozing with confidence afterward, said it shouldn't be a surprise that the bench is a major strength for the Raptors.
"We can start for anybody else. I say that in a humble way, but we're just happy here," Vasquez said.
"I'm just here to do my job, whatever it takes. I'm going to really, I'm just happy and proud to be in the second unit and I know we're going to help this team a lot."
But it's a balance, with players believing they could have bigger roles.
"Sometimes I'm going to feel like I should have played more, but at the end of the day, we just want to win," Vasquez said. "When the Raptors win, we all win, so that's the most important part.
"It's not easy, sometimes you want to do more, but you've got to understand the situation. It takes a lot of cojones to really understand and we all do. The guys coming off the bench, because we want to do and that's what winning does and I know this franchise really rewards winning and I'm excited, I'm happy. It's going to be a great season."
Raptors bring hope to Toronto
In this sporting city so often devoid of hope, and certainly devoid of contenders, the Toronto Raptors are suddenly front and centre. They offer something the Leafs honestly cannot, the Blue Jays often wrestle with, and the forgotten Argos are disregarded no matter where they sit in the standings.
They offer hope.
They offer belief. They offer something to attach yourself to. It may be real. It may not be real. At the beginning of most seasons in just about every sport, there is no reasoning about what any team will be. More often than not, we’re wrong with prognostications, wrong about anything that isn’t obvious.
Last season was one of the most memorable Raptors seasons in their 20-year history. But on this date a year ago, if you remember, there was talk of tanking. Dwane Casey was coaching for his job. Masai Ujiri was managing for his reputation and the future. The team was supposed to be playing for a draft pick not a last shot of a Game 7 in May that left this city heartbroken.
Being heartbroken we understand. It’s part of the Toronto sporting landscape. The Blue Jays give us a glimpse but no more than that. The Leafs are in that terrible place of being a tweener — not good enough to win anything, not bad enough to lose everything in a year where doing that can bring a large prize. And here are the Raptors, with huge expectations, at least by the standards of this market.
Lou Williams sees better fit with Raptors
"It's not really a sour taste in my mouth," he said about an hour before tipoff Wednesday night. "It just wasn't a fit for both sides. No hard feelings there."
But there is without question a better feel in a Raptors uniform than there ever was for Williams in Hawks colours.
"Absolutely," he said. "They run plays for me here. That's a start. They appreciate what I bring to the table here and they run sets for me."
Williams endeared himself to the roster and vice versa and the coaching staff throughout the pre-season both on and off the court. Even with nine years in the league and a reputation as a gifted scorer, Williams still felt he had to show his new team something.
"It absolutely needed to be earned," he said. "They have guys here who have established themselves on this basketball team and I want to be a part of that. So I came in here and created chemistry with these guys and created camaraderie so we're all one team."
Toronto Star
Raptors may not have thrived but they survived Opening Night just fine
Giving as good as getting
Sure, Kyle Korver got loose for a couple of three-pointers – that’s going to happen in every game he plays against every opponent – but he also hit some tough shots and, on the whole, I’d have to say it was an encouraging outing for Terrence Ross.
What I found interesting was that the HOTH were quite content to let Ross go right at Korver on the offensive end every once in a while, exposing Korver’s defensive liabilities by challenging him consistently.
Ross is going to be an interesting part of this team this year, I’d suggest. If he develops the consistency that’s been lacking he could very important. Privately, officials are lauding him for the work he did this summer on his game, now they sit back and see if it pays off every night.
This from Dwane:
“It wasn’t like we were slacking. A couple of times in transition we lost them but lot of times they just made shots, we were right there in their face. You have to tip your hat when a team’s shooting that well.
“He was on him like a cheap shirt, he just made shots.”
Yeah, Dwane gave us the buttered and salted popcorn line and dropped a “giddyup” on us ( they’re in here ) and that was one of the more promising things about the night.
Raptors put on show in winning home opener: Arthur
After nightfall, the CN Tower was lit in red and purple to note the occasion, and the Square was filled with a young, bellowing crowd on a breezy night, and Drake and general manager Masai Ujiri made them cheer before game time. Tim Leiweke, still hanging around and proclaiming he has no immediate intention to leave, grinned as his two biggest stars hugged and posed for pictures before going outside.
And the crowd remained the best crowd in town, as it has for many, many years. In a front row near a railing, Ujiri’s parents, Michael and Grace, watched their first NBA game in person, after years of following their son’s teams over television. Their son held their granddaughter for a while in the first quarter, a few feet away.
And the Raptors went out and delivered a show. Their two backcourt stars, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, struggled to make shots. Toronto played with pace, but forgot sharpshooter Kyle Korver existed several times, which is inadvisable.
But they hung a 60-point first half on the Hawks, and got big play in managed minutes from Amir Johnson, from Terrence Ross, from Jonas Valanciunas and Greivis Vasquez and newcomer Lou Williams. Their two best players shot 7-for-27, and the defence had some lapses, and the bottom nearly fell out in the final few minutes. The crowd was incredible.
National Post
Toronto Raptors reserves show they can be relied on in season-opener
Yet, next game, the minutes might be allotted completely differently.
“You’ve got a guy like [DeRozan], who is the franchise, and Kyle Lowry is the starting point guard: They have a little more leverage than anyone else,” said Greivis Vasquez, who had 12 points in just 17 minutes. “It’s harder for me. It’s harder for Lou [Williams]. It’s harder for the guys on the bench, and it’s just the way it is.
“Backing [Lowry] up is not easy. Sometimes you want to do more. But you’ve got to understand the situation. It takes a lot of cojones, I will say, to really understand [roles] and be a man.”
That is not the normal definition of cojones, of course. Usually we think gutsy players are the ones that are willing to take and make the big shots. Certainly, those moments are defining.
Toronto Raptors have built some hype, but need sustained success to grab a piece of hockey’s spotlight
On Wednesday, he begins his fourth season as the head coach in Toronto, the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe. Here, of course, fans live and die with the composition of the Maple Leafs’ fourth line.
With that in mind, on the morning of the Raptors’ opener against the Atlanta Hawks, Casey was asked which institution was more entrenched: football in Texas or hockey in southern Ontario.
“That’s a loaded question. That’s a very loaded question,” said Casey, remembering that the two telecom monoliths that combine to pay his salary have a lot of money tied up in hockey. “It’s close. It’s close to even. The Cowboys for years have been great in Texas. The Leafs have been the show here in Toronto for a long, long time. I don’t know if those two things are ever going to change completely. And they shouldn’t. Tradition is huge. Hockey is so beautiful for this country and this city. Football in Texas, high school football in Texas — I mean, they have hour shows on high school football Texas on Friday nights. I had to get used to that.”
Which is to say, basketball has had to fight for any sliver of the spotlight in both places. In Dallas, the demonstrative, perpetually controversial Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has helped, along with a consistently excellent team led by Dirk Nowitzki, a future Hall of Famer. If you compete for and win titles, people tend to notice.
Globe and Mail
Raptors withstand late Hawks’ surge to earn opening-night win
It was a reunion of the starting five from last year. With just five new players on the 15-man roster, the squad has changed very little and leans on consistency for the first time in many seasons.
Wednesday night’s welcome-back atmosphere was reminiscent of the playoff fervour that overtook the Air Canada Centre last spring – the hollering crowd and booming thunder-sticks, every fan in the house decked in a white We The North t-shirt, creating that familiar whitewash.
The revelry continued outside the building too in what last May became affectionately tagged Jurassic Park, where they had signalled to the NBA Toronto’s passion for basketball. This time, toque-clad fans gathered in the late-October chill, as general manager Masai Ujiri addressed the crowd beforehand (no profanities this time), flanked by Drake.
“This is what we always deserved,” the Toronto hip-hop artist said, looking out on the energetic square.
Inside, the atmosphere was one of reunion and a celebration for a squad that had made its first playoff appearance since 2008. Kyle Lowry addressed the crowd. The point guard who had been courted in free agency by the likes of the Miami Heat and Houston Rockets before re-upping in Toronto could barely get a word out over the adoring, bellowing crowd. The pre-game ceremonies featured the debut of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment’s new $1.5-million animation system, which serves to turn the hardwood into a canvas for 3D video and special effects. The hardwood’s outer edge had been re-painted with “We The North”, the rally cry that has blanketed billboards and flags across the city and the nation, one that has come to embody the NBA’s only Canadian squad, one that feels like an outsider.
Raptors.com
Game Rap
That's A Rap...
"He used his length. He’s the biggest guy on the floor so he used his length to his advantage. That’s what he has to do. Again, he’s growing and allowing the game to come to him instead of force-feeding it like ‘I got to do this, I got to post up, I got to make a play.’ No. Let the game come to you, do your job. If the basketball Gods are with you, the ball will find you if you play the game the right way." - Head Coach Dwane Casey on a solid season debut for Jonas Valanciunas
By The Numbers
+6 - Rebounding differential favouring the Raptors, a concern for head coach Dwane Casey heading into the regular season.
19 - Biggest lead of the game for the Raptors with 9:10 to play in the fourth quarter.
7-27 - Combined shooting from the field from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Don't expect to see this very often.
59.1 - Sizzling 3-point shooting percentage or the Hawks. They connected on 13-of-22 from long distance.
27 - Made free throws for the Raptors on 33 trips to the line (81.8 per cent )
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hawks open season with road loss to Raptors
It can be frustrating to start the season on the road. Having to sit through the home team’s home-opener celebrations can be a drain before the game even begins. While the Atlanta Hawks lost their season opener against the Toronto Raptors 109-102 Wednesday night, center Al Horford was just thankful to be back in uniform. Playing in his first game since tearing his pectoral muscle last year, Horford had been sidelined since having surgery last December.
“I [felt] okay,” Horford said “I was a little winded at times and offensively I couldn’t really get into a rhythm, [but] then I started to feel better. That’s something I’ll just have to work through. On defense I was very pleased. I thought I played well. We just have to keep improving as a team.”
Horford played 31 minutes against the Raptors. He missed some open shots he normally makes, but finished with 12 points (on 6-for-15 shooting) and grabbed 13 rebounds to go with three assists, three blocks and a steal.
Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer knows it will take some time for Horford to shake off the rust and get into regular-season game shape, but is very happy to have his All-Star back. In addition to Horford’s numbers (he averaged 18.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game before his injury last year), the team welcomes back his leadership.
“He has such a presence and such poise at all times,” Budenholzer said. “When everybody’s excited, I think he can calm us. And when times are hard he can calm us. He’s a good balance for me, he’s a good balance for the whole group. When he speaks, people listen.”
StackMack article in AJC? We made it.
How the game was won: The Raptors weathered 13 threes (on 22 attempts) and a late-game scare from the Hawks thanks to big nights from their starters and making their free throws down the stretch. Amir Johnson had 16 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots for Toronto. Kyle Korver led Atlanta with 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting, including 6-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Turning point: The Raptors used a 10-2 run spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to take a 90-71 lead. Despite a late 11-1 run to trim Toronto’s lead to four with less than two minutes remaining, Atlanta was unable to recover.
Number: 27 The number of free throws made by the Raptors. Toronto made 27-of-33 attempts in comparison to just nine makes on 17 attempts for Atlanta.
Yahoo
Boxscore
Game Pictures
Toronto Sun, top of article.
NBA.com
The Star
OT Stuff
Toronto Raptors all-stars, Kyle Lowry’s contract and the Drake boom: The Post Panel breaks down the season
In their 20th season in the NBA, the Toronto Raptors have arrived at a place where their fans and the rest of the NBA can expect more from them than successfully completing the 82-game schedule. Last season’s franchise record 48 wins and a decision to keep the core of the roster intact makes Toronto the easy favourite in the Atlantic Division and a home playoff series in the first round is expected. Fans may even dare to dream about more than that with Miami and Indiana weakened, Brooklyn aging and most of the rest either spinning their wheels or taking the wheels off in an effort to collect lottery ping-ping balls. Here, then, are 10 questions concerning the outlook for the 20th season of Raptors basketball.
The Post Panel
Eric Koreen (@ekoreen) is the National Post’s basketball reporter.
Holly MacKenzie (@stackmack) is a writer for Raptors.com and chronicles the NBA for various sites and publications.
Blake Murphy (@blakemurphyodc) is a writer for ESPN-affiliated Raptors Republic, and is an NBA news editor at theScore.
Alex Wong (@steven_lebron) is co-editor of SB Nation-affiliated Raptors HQ and writes about the NBA for various sites and publications.
1. Do you believe in the merits of chemistry as much as Masai Ujiri, who barely altered last year’s team?
2. How do you feel about the contract extension Ujiri gave to head coach Dwane Casey?
3. What do you expect from Jonas Valanciunas in his third year, the last season before the Raptors can offer him an extension?
4. Will Kyle Lowry be the same player that he was last year before he got his big pay day?
5. Will any Raptors make the All-Star Game this year? How about any of the all-NBA teams?
6. Will Tim Leiweke’s departure from MLSE make any tangible difference to the team?
7. Who will be the most pleasant surprise on this year’s team?
8. Who will be the biggest disappointment?
9. Drake Night 2: Boom or bust?
10. What will the Raptors’ record be, where will they finish in the Eastern Conference standings and how far will they advance in the playoffs (if you think they will make it)?
Andrew Wiggins and the Ghost of Canadian Basketball Past
At his brightest, Andrew Wiggins isn’t much of a talker. On the biggest day of his young career, he arrived functionally mute.
There were 13 media questions lobbed up at him ahead of his NBA debut. His answers comprised a total of 21 sentences.
Sample: “What’s your day been like so far?”
“I slept, woke up and now I’m at shootaround.”
Then a pointless staring contest, because Wiggins is staring at a spot four inches over your head.
Let’s be honest. Wiggins has no idea what’s going on right now. This is all too big to get your arms around, and especially for a 19-year-old. He won’t look back on this for another decade, and then do so ruefully.
He did seem purposeful, or what passes for it in athletic facial-expression terms. Shoulders squared, eyes on the horizon, channelling Sparta. That was the first bad sign.
Minnesota coach Flip Saunders – a man so relaxed, it feels like all your conversations happen while you’re lying beside him on a very plush couch – advised his golden rookie to “assert” himself. When Flip is telling you to get serious – yeah, that’s the second sign.
Sunshine Girl
*Thanks Veez for the help. Great game last night, glad to have Raps ball back, not much more I have to say
