Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

RR Ratings – Oct 28 vs CLE

They started it… Bosh: 7 Sometimes you don’t need to dominate, just don’t get dominated. Was overpowered early and started 0-3 but regained his confidence when Shaq went to the bench and grabbed some rebounds, 16 in total. Add a couple J’s against the slower bigs and you got a pretty good game from Bargnani’s…

They started it…

Bosh: 7 Sometimes you don’t need to dominate, just don’t get dominated. Was overpowered early and started 0-3 but regained his confidence when Shaq went to the bench and grabbed some rebounds, 16 in total. Add a couple J’s against the slower bigs and you got a pretty good game from Bargnani’s second fiddle.

Bargnani: 9 Throw it down big man, throw it down! Knocking trailer threes, coming off screens like a guard and knocking mid-range J’s, presenting himself to his PG, running the floor harder than a race horse. Is there anything he didn’t do? The refs tried to hold him back by calling BS fouls (two in the third that made me miss the replacements) but it didn’t matter, his conditioning let him play both ends and he didn’t lose sight of his offense. Now let’s do 11-15 FG 81 more times.

Calderon: 6 Nothing spectacular, not much burst in his step but kept his guy in front of him save a couple Boobie threes. Passed early off the high screen which was good since our advantage lay in the immobility of the Cleveland bigs, not his one-on-one ability. Solid floor-general game, maintained good spacing, didn’t hang on the rock for too long. His offense wasn’t called upon tonight but it will be. Clanked his first two FTs. What?

DeRozan: 6 The rook knows his role. A couple off-the-ball slash moves, a sweet spot-up jumper and constantly active on defense. Got caught ball-watching and lost track of the sneaky Parker a couple times but he’s a rookie. It’ll happen a 100 times again this year.

Turkoglu: 6 Mr. Sleepyhead didn’t have the stamp on the game offensively but the job on Lebron was more than adequate. By the looks of the two you’d think Lebron would eat him up but somehow the Grand Turk manages to get it done, don’t ask me how. Save a couple “crafty” decisions using screens, he was quiet but what does that say of this team? We don’t need Turkoglu to play big for us to win.

Da Bench

Jack: 5 Good fourth quarter energy and a key drive with a 1:24 left but not enough to let me look past the first three quarters. Got burned by Mo Williams and Boobie too many times for a guy we’re counting on defensively. Question is can he knock down a 20 footer with average consistency, his shot’s been brutal of late.

Belinelli: 7 Where did that come from? Step-back jumpers, drives for dunks and athleticism to rival Usain Bolt. Even made Don Nelson take notice. That’s life with him though, feast of famine, today was feast. He’s a pure no-conscience shooter.

Johnson: 3 Six minutes of nothingness. I’m telling you, there’s a reason he’s been let go by two NBA teams and we saw it tonight. Too light to stay with centers and too slow to defend the three. He’s a tweener, and not in a good way.

Nesterovic: 6 Came in and got a put-back over Shaq, threw his booty around and will sleep soundly tonight.

Wright: 6 Three charges, great positional defense, only jacked up one bad shot. Was hoping this game to come down the wire at the end so I could see him and Lebron battle it out.

Banks: 1 What the hell was he doing playing in the first quarter? Triano must’ve confused him for Jack, they do kinda look alike from far.

Collecting da cheque

Evans, Douby, O’Bryant, Weems

The Payout

Pimp: Andrea Bargnani.

Ho: Amir Johnson.

What we learned: Shaq/Big Z can’t defend the pick ‘n roll. Daniel Gibson’s tattoo is ridiculously stupid.

The Verdict: Cavs looked like they were playing a back-to-back, still a great W. Called it yesterday.