Raptors at Spurs: Starring Tony Parker’s tailor

If NBA basketball was analogous to playing Street Fighter, the Raptors would be the dude who knows every combo, every chain, every special move in the entire game. Glaring achilles heel? Toronto is unaware there is such thing as “blocking”. Like, I’m not even talking about knowing when to block. The Raptors don’t know blocking exists. This becomes noticeable after taking 15 dragon punches to the face.

With this offensive (literally and figuratively) mentality,  The Raptors posted 124 points in regulation, shooting .592 per cent from the field and nailing 11 of 17 attempts from long distance against the Spurs on Monday. Toronto lost the game.

If you didn’t watch the game, or even if you did, read that last paragraph and try to just make sense of it with a rational basketball mind. That San Antonio — sans Tim Duncan and Tony Parker — managed to put up 131 points in regulation to walk away with a win is simply an unbelievable, untenable fact. I saw most of this crime against basketball (when I was not burying my head in my hands) and yet, my mind remains blown by what I witnessed.

Sadly, this is not an original screenplay. The Raptors again were felled by poor rebounding, poor late game execution and a porous, inexcusably awful defensive effort.

Final Fantasy: Waiver wire sleepers

For Regular 12-team H2H

Anthony Morrow is somehow only 22 per cent owned in Yahoo leagues right now, below injured players such as Francisco Garcia and Mike Dunleavy Jr. I know his early averages have been nothing to cheer about (12.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 0.7 apg) but for anybody in need of shooting percentage help from the wings (and buckets of treys while at it), Morrow is your man. He broke out against Memphis going for 24 points on 83.3 per cent (!) shooting, 4-4 from long range. Don’t expect that every game, but if he evan halves that production consistently he’s worth a pickup for those looking for speciality help in those cats.

DeJuan Blair again is worth a look for speciality needs. Particularly if your league counts offensive rebounds, his 3.3 per game would offset decidedly poor FT numbers. His .704 from the field is nice however, and overall 9.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 0.5 steals in only 20 minutes a game are gaudy numbers any way you slice it.