Another post, another day...
Just when you thought it couldn't possibly become any worse for the Toronto Raptors, another stumbling block slammed onto the NBA path for the team on Friday. After losing one of the season's most frustrating and stupefying games this year at the hands of the powerful Utah Jazz, the team had to battle against an even tougher Denver Nuggets who hold the 2nd seed in the Western Conference, while the Jazz hold 4th. To the team's credit, they played the Nuggets tough, staying close with these brutes all throughout the game. Toronto even led for most of the second half, leading 81-72 going into the 4th quarter. What led to that were two massive back-to-back dunks by All-Star forward Chris Bosh. Marco Belinelli helped push the lead to 12 in the final quarter before Denver put up a 9-0 run, led mostly by team star Carmello Anthony who nailed absolutely CLUTCH baskets for the Nuggets. He even evened the game score at 92 with 1:39 left to go before the Raptors trusty starting centre Andrea Bargnani converted a huge layup plus the ensuing free throw to give the Raptors a 95-92 lead. It all seemed good for the team at this point but then the WORST happened: Carmello was fouled. He missed both of the free throws (which is extremely unusual for him), but Denver snagged the offensive rebound and starting point guard Chauncey Billups sank a critical three-point basket to tie the game back up at 95-95. On Toronto's next possession, their star was fouled which was a very unwise move for Denver to make, but unfortunately CB4 could only make the 2nd of the two foul shots. This gave the Raptors a 96-95 lead, setting up the final play and a dramatic finish. Anthony missed the first attempt at the winner, but solid big man Nene kept the ball alive and threw the ball to Billups, who of course fed it to Anthony. This time, he did not disappoint his Nuggets, as the 2nd attempt hit nothing but net to the dismay of the Raptors and their faithful sellout crowd. After the shot, at least two of the Raptors players (Antoine Wright and Sonny Weems) could be seen with tears on their eyes, with Wright laying on the court floor on his back in disbelief. Frankly, I don't blame them; they both helped the Raptors to stay in the game, especially Weems who shot 5-8 from the floor and was a positive burst of energy all night long. All of this came DESPITE the Raptors ability to outrebound Denver by 20 (Toronto grabbed 58 to Denver's 38) and hold their opponents to a below-average 41% shooting clip for the game. What prevented Toronto from winning was: the turnovers (they committed 18 as opposed to just 7 for the Nuggets), and their inability to grab the game-ending offensive rebounds. Key players were missing for the Raptors however: starting forward Hedo Turkoglu sat out with a stomach virus and so could not participate, and rookie guard Demar DeRozan has been struggling lately; this led head coach Jay Triano to slip Sonny Weems and Antoine Wright in the starting lineup, and they rewarded Triano's shrewd thinking with pleasant performances. Did I mention DeRozan? He gave the team a huge lift, scoring 15 points on 7-8 shooting and was unquestionably aggressive, driving to the basket for easy buckets on opportunity after opportunity. Overall, I was pleased with the effort of the team, even though they did not defeat Denver. If they play this way every night however, they will be fine in the playoffs (if they succeed in making it there).
Here is the recap for Toronto's loss to Denver: Raptors vs Nuggets
Finally, for the London Knights fine play...
After the Knight's shocking loss to the Guelph Storm in Game 3, the team knew it had to show up in Guelph for Game 4 on Thursday, and show up they did. The team won 8-2 on the strength of 4 1st-period goals that took any fight away from the Storm that they may have possessed and rode on to victory. In that 1st period the outshot the Storm by a count of 16-4...truly remarkable! For the game, the shots were 37-24 in favour of the Knights. Goal scoring in the 1st for the Knights was from: Seth Griffith, Nazem Kadri, Justin Taylor, and Chris DeSouza. In the second, Kalle Ekelund, Leigh Salters, and Daniel Erlich all scored for London. Storm goals in the game were both from Sisca. That made it 7-2 for London going into the 2nd period before Tyler Brown scored late in the 3rd to give the game its final score 8-2. This game gave the Knights a 3-1 series lead before playing back home at the JLC in Game 5.
Game 5 took place on Friday, and the Knights handled the Storm very solidly, winning 5-2. Case in point: the Storm were so frustrated that their star defender Adam Comrie broke his stick into 3 pieces against the glass after Daniel Erlich scored a dagger goal in the 3rd period. Comrie was promptly given a game misconduct and was ejected out of the game (that means the player has to be in the locker room for the rest of the game as punishment). Knights scoring for the game was from: Seth Griffith, Daniel Erlich (2 goals), Nazem Kadri, and Jared Knight. Guelph goals were scored by Michael Latta and Peter Holland. The shots on goals were won by London with a 31-25 edge. All in all, London should be very pleased with their effort and now wait to see who their second-round opponent will be. If the Kitchener Rangers defeat the Saginaw Spirit in their series, they will be the Knights next opponent. If not, it will most likely be the Plymouth Whalers.
Here are the recaps for the Knights wins:
Knights vs Storm: Game 4
Knights vs Storm: Game 5
Thank you for reading, and I will be back later with more from the sports world. Until then, keep cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment