Golden State Warriors @ Toronto Raptors 02/27/2015

Seeking to redeem themselves after a demoralizing loss in Cleveland last evening, the Warriors flew north of the border. Tonight's contest would feature the Golden State Warriors (7-8 in their past 15 road games) against the elite, yet slumping, Toronto Raptors (recipients of three consecutive losses).
Undoubtedly, Stephen Curry would be ready to go on February 27th, 2015. Two years ago tonight, Steph lit up Madison Square Garden in New York with a historic 54-point performance, and he has often played his best basketball against Toronto. Prior to tonight, Curry had scored an average of 28.6 points per game against the Raptors. On this night, however, his services would be in lower demand.
Golden State was locked in from the beginning, opening the game on a 22-5 run and forming an impenetrable defensive wall. At the end of the first quarter, Toronto (the fifth highest scoring team in the NBA) had converted on only 1 of 19 field goal attempts, as the Warriors maintained a commanding double-digit advantage.
In the second quarter, the Warriors continued to capitalize on "Grade-A" scoring chances and played stellar defense, pushing their 16-point first quarter advantage to 23. Leading the charge was future MVP Stephen Curry, attempting to quiet any misconceptions that he is solely an offensive player (he leads the NBA with 2.2 steals per game). Heading into the break, Golden State led Toronto by a score of 54-31.
The third quarter brought more of the same, as Klay Thompson heated up to put the game out of the reach by tacking on 11 points in a span of two minutes. On the whole, the Warriors owned the third, pushing their lead to 41 on numerous occasions.
With Andre Iguodala resting, Golden State was searching for their role players to chip in tonight. Thankfully, their role players were quick to answer the bell, and by the end of the third quarter, the action had become comically academic.
The Warriors entered the fourth quarter with a dominant 98-57 lead and their starters sitting the bench. Although the fourth quarter was not as kind to Golden State, their bench did just enough to fend off a hungry Raptors squad, 113-89.
From Toronto's standpoint, the most intriguing action of the night occurred when a fistfight nearly broke out between Tyler Hansbrough and Festus Ezeli in the dying moments of the third, resulting in a double ejection.
Perhaps now we will begin to understand the comments of Raptor stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
"Me? I'm trash," Lowry told reporters, "I'm trying to figure it out right now, to be honest with you."
When DeRozan was asked where his personal game was at, he replied, "Right next to the trash can (that Lowry's) is. Both trash."
Judging by Toronto's horrendous team performance tonight, it's quite difficult to disagree.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 NBA Finals: Game Four

After being massacred at Quicken Loans Arena in Game Three of the NBA Finals on Wednesday evening, the Golden State Warriors strolled into enemy territory once more on Friday, seeking a confidence-renewing victory. With a win tonight, the Western Conference Champion Warriors could propel themselves to a nearly insurmountable 3-1 series advantage, while pushing the Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of elimination. As the game progressed, however, it became clear that Cleveland's aforementioned victory had done wonders for their confidence, whilst Golden State was poised to rebound and shut the door on a rather animated Cavalier rally. Game Four would quickly become the most tightly-contested game of the 2016 NBA Finals thus far. With tempers aflame and the stakes ever-increasing, both the Warriors and Cavaliers would come out firing, in relentless pursuit of a momentum-shifting victory. At the conclusion of the first quarter, Golden State would hold
Read more

A's Win First Postseason Series Since 2006, Will Face Astros in ALDS

Image
Despite falling to the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series, the Oakland Athletics rebounded with consecutive wins in Games 2 and 3 to snag their first postseason series victory in 14 years, advancing to the ALDS for the first time since 2013. After digging a 3-0 hole in Thursday's decisive Game 3, Oakland rallied with four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead. However, their biggest hit of the afternoon came in the bottom of the fifth, with the score tied 4-4. In perhaps the most crucial plate appearance of his life, Chad Pinder stepped to the plate with an opportunity to defy history. Prior to this at-bat, Pinder had posted a 2-for-35 career mark with the bases loaded. However, on Thursday, he came up with a massive two-run single to propel the A's to a 6-4 advantage. And they didn't look back. Oakland now looks forward to a best-of-5 series with the Houston Astros to be played on neutral ground at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Needless to say, th
Read more

Why Quidditch Is Totally Ridiculous (Yet We Still Love It)

Image
On June 26, 1997,  Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling introduced the world to a remarkable new sport called Quidditch. In theory, Rowling's invention is fairly simple. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, I will provide a brief description of its rules.  Quidditch is played in a 7-on-7 format on flying broomsticks. Each team features three "Chasers" who attempt to throw a large ball (called the Quaffle) past the opposing team's "Keeper" into one of three circular hoops.  Every time the Chasers succeed in beating the Keeper, their team is awarded 10 points. Meanwhile, there are a pair of bat-wielding "Beaters" on each team who add to the chaos by clubbing two smaller balls (called Bludgers) at their opposition. However, the most important position on the field is that of the "Seeker", which is Harry Potter's position on Gryffindor's Quidditch team during his time at Hogwarts.  Each team has one Seeker who scours t
Read more