Game #38: Los Angeles Lakers 112 - Toronto Raptors 106

[white men can't jump]

Amir and Val AGAIN getting outplayed by opposing frontcourt. What is wrong with them lately?

Well Val getting outplayed by Gasol is not a huge deal in the sense that it's probably the matchup you expect to lose. Had early foul trouble, and that one boneheaded pass that saw him nailed to the bench. Still a really shit game by him, but you kind of expected it after the early foul trouble.

Amir getting totally outplayed by Ryan Kelly is inexcusable. Because it's not like he was having a mistake-free game otherwise. Several lazy plays on O. Several lazy plays on D.

And Patterson finished with a nice line, but basically disappeared for the last quarter and a half or so.

I'm just really unimpressed by the Raps today. Fully looked like a mediocre team that is undeserving of a 3rd seed.

[lilmamba_]

Ross and DeMar we're so damn frustrated
the game ended and you could still here demar yelling

[MACK11]

Ross and DeMar we're so damn frustrated
the game ended and you could still here demar yelling

Maybe if demar could stop these long 2's all game long they wouldnt have lost

[Mack North]

The call on Chuck Hayes was ridiculous. He clearly got his hand above the face without fouling and the Ref was 3 feet away...

The Offensive call on Lowry was the most ridiculous call I have ever seen.

Demar gets hit and slapped going up for a bad 2, but when nick young comes down the play after and gets a hand in the face he gets a foul.

Amir trapped in the corner, the double team had their hands ALL OVER Amir.

Nick Young had a reach in on Demar 3 times on the same play and it wasn't called.

Val was given 3 fouls immediately.

The state of reffing in the NBA is abysmal

I didn't care for the reffing in this game either, as it was pretty abysmal. But the Raps played into the Lakers game and took way too many 3 point attempts, which led to TWO massive comebacks by the Lakers. There was also a few bone-headed fouls that are inexcusable. Two of which were the Amir clear path foul on Kelly(C'MON MAN!) and also the Amir foul on Kelly on that 3 pointer late.

[white men can't jump]

This exactly is why we lost plus the refs weren't that great for us

To be fair, a lot of our giving them FTs was dumb play. Ross maybe had a case for the 3pt foul he gave to Young (definitely some questionable leg action)...but we gave them another 2 (at least?) fouls on 3 pters. Amir had that awful clear path foul. DeMar had at least a couple of lazy fouls.

LA shot 28 free throws, but I'd say a good 10+ of those were from horribly bad D, or lazy frustration fouls by the Raps. Can't blame the officials for anything that much, other than the absolutely awful foul call against Lowry for getting run over by Kelly....The ref who called that should not be allowed to referee basketball at any level.

*And on the flip side, it's not like the Raps were taking the ball hard inside. There were tons of plays where our perimeter guys caught the ball in motion, stopped, pumpfaked and trapped themselves into a bad shot/pass rather than continuing their motion straight into an open lane to either finish with a layup/dunk or pull their big away to free up ours for a duck-in or offensive rebound. Raps didn't deserve foul calls because they didn't initiate any contact.

[MACK11]

R.Kelly pissed on Amir Johnson

[MACK11]

To be fair, a lot of our giving them FTs was dumb play. Ross maybe had a case for the 3pt foul he gave to Young (definitely some questionable leg action)...but we gave them another 2 (at least?) fouls on 3 pters. Amir had that awful clear path foul. DeMar had at least a couple of lazy fouls.

LA shot 28 free throws, but I'd say a good 10+ of those were from horribly bad D, or lazy frustration fouls by the Raps. Can't blame the officials for anything that much, other than the absolutely awful foul call against Lowry for getting run over by Kelly....The ref who called that should not be allowed to referee basketball at any level.

Well now its off to charlotte........

[rocwell]

Kemba out for at least 10 days.

[lilmamba_]

Maybe if demar could stop these long 2's all game long they wouldnt have lost

maybe if amir and the other half of the team woke up and decided to play some D they wouldn't have lost

[Withnail]

You made three comments during the game. Two were endorsing the reffing and one was saying that we're basically going to enter a free fall.
A) You're absurdly wrong about the officiating because beyond the ridiculous disparity of free throws (which is telling enough) you had four or five occasions during that game where both Jack and Matt went off on obviously bad calls...none worse than the guy who tackled Lowry.
B) Two losses don't mean we all of a sudden suck, which we would have to do if we were to lose the lions share of games the rest of the way. So either you're a ridiculous masochist and your thing is antagonizing yourself and others or your actually a fan of another team masquerading as a local a**hole.

Just wondering which it is.

Thank you for counting my comments. I find it hard to keep track sometimes. Look I'm not saying some of the calls weren't questionable I just find it really pathetic when fans blame the refs for the team playing crappy. Go read a game thread on a Lakers forum and guess what you'll find? Yep, post after post of idiots saying the Raptors are getting all the calls, the refs are paid off etc. You can never put a loss solely on the refs but they are the easiest scapegoat so that's where people point their fingers.

Perhaps my other statement was overly pessimistic but after losses to LA and Boston it's hard to be optimistic. Maybe we'll get back on track in the next couple games or maybe this team is falling back down to earth after the boost from the Gay trade.

I'm shooting for 4-5 posts in the next game-thread. Please hit me up after the game to confirm the count. Thanks!

[JimiCliff]

You had to see the effort Raps were giving though. They handed this game to the Lakers. They twice had 15+ point leads and let the Lakers back in. They played with no passion, no focus and no smarts.

Settled for far too many jumpshots against a team with absolutely no interior D...drives were available to the wings so many times. Ross, DeMar and Lowry must've taken jumpers or trapped themselves by picking up their dribble a good 10-15 times at least where every time could've easily resulted in penetration and a high quality attempt (even possibly on the offensive glass).

For the entire 1st half, they were playing the p'n'r going above the screener....which totally allowed the Lakers to get some O going for their 1st half runs. As soon as they adjusted that in the beginning of the 2nd half, Lakers basically got nothing going there, because Marshall is not a confident shooter and they cut off the passing lanes . But then they decided to play lazy man-D for the rest of the game.

The Raps only had 13 turnovers, but I'm not sure a single one was forced. They just kept shooting themselves in the feet with one totally stupid play after another.

People will point to FT disparity, but still, Raptors gave them this game. They could've easily won it with some basic fundamentally sound basketball, but they just fell in love with chucking jumpers and playing half-assed D.

I guess my point is, a combination of the Raps playing like garbage (which happens to all but the very best teams at least semi-regularly) and probably one of LA's best shooting games of the year (man I hate Nick Young) and a questionable whistle,,,,, and they still barely lost.

My guess: the team's been playing so well lately that they felt they'd be good enough to win hungover, so everyone got wasted last night.

NOW THEY KNOW.

[Mack North]

Thank you for counting my comments. I find it hard to keep track sometimes. Look I'm not saying some of the calls weren't questionable I just find it really pathetic when fans blame the refs for the team playing crappy. Go read a game thread on a Lakers forum and guess what you'll find? Yep, post after post of idiots saying the Raptors are getting all the calls, the refs are paid off etc. You can never put a loss solely on the refs but they are the easiest scapegoat so that's where people point their fingers.

Perhaps my other statement was overly pessimistic but after losses to LA and Boston it's hard to be optimistic. Maybe we'll get back on track in the next couple games or maybe this team is falling back down to earth after the boost from the Gay trade.

I'm shooting for 4-5 posts in the next game-thread. Please hit me up after the game to confirm the count. Thanks!

Texted my buddy that second paragraph just after the game. My sentiments exactly.

[Uncle_Si]

This season is going to be a roller coaster ride lol.

Also, how does Casey let DD turn into such a chucker in the 4q. And given how much DD watches film how does he not realize he's a bad 4th Q chucker?

[enlightenment]

As long as the Raps balance a loss to a bad team with a win to a good team (that they werent supposed to be), the Raptors are still on track.

I want the Raptors to start another 10-3 streak so bad.... )':

[Uncle_Si]

And I just got a new nickname for DD...'Woody' because he's chucker, how much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood