Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry Video Bombs Amir Johnson.

Of course this has nothing on former Raptor, Chris Bosh, the King of Video Bombs nor is it anything remotely as good as what their teammate, Mickael Pietrus did earlier this week. But you know what they say, "no video bombs are bad video bombs." Shout out to Kyle Lowry for trying his best to get in the frame, we have all been there. Unless you are one of those freaks that went under drastic growth spurts during the summers, and returned to school with a whole foot on your friends, who were once the same height as you. If you are that guy and you happen to be reading this right now, I hate you. Just kidding. Nope, not really.

The Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors Rookies got new embarrassing bags.

The displeasure of Tyshawn Taylor's face must have broken Deron William's heart. I mean he went out and spent his some his money from his hard earned five year, $100 million dollar contract. And he got nothing back in return, those rookies need to learn their place. May I suggest you fill his car up with popcorn too?

Look at the Raptors rookies, not only did they embrace the gifts, they seem to love them. The smile on their faces say it all, no matter how ill matched the stuffed toys are to their respective bags, with the exception of Diego and Dora (No, I did not have to google it, I know my Dora the explorer, don't ask why, just accept it), they are appreciative of their new accessories.

The Feed: Toronto Raptors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder [11/06/12]

Recap:

The Oklahoma City Thunder electrocuted the Toronto Raptors repeatedly 108 to 88 in a offensive showcase at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Kevin Durant and company came out red hot in the first quarter scoring 30 points at 61% from the field to Raptors's 17 at 37%. With every possession, the lead grew and Toronto was out of it by the first half.

The Raptors were never able to find an offensive rhythm and it definitely didn't help when Kyle Lowry left the game in the second quarter after twisting his ankle. Rookie Jonas Valaciunas led all Raptors with 18 points and 6 rebounds, getting a some help from Andrea Bargnani who added 16 points and another 6 boards. The Italian continues to struggle shooting the ball, as the main option on offense, he could never find the basket, hitting only 5 of his 14 shot attempts.

Russell Westbrook stormed the Raptors defense, scoring 19 points, while dishing out 8 assists. Kevin Durant chipped in 16 points, 6 rebounds and Serge Ibaka with his own 17 points from 8 of 9 shooting. Needless to say, Toronto never found a way to slow down their opponents.

Offensive End:

It wasn't as if the Raptors were defended exceptionally well, they just couldn't hit anything but iron. Andrea Bargnani had a fair share of wide open threes, which he never took advantage of. And without Kyle Lowry, not only were they missing their best current scorer, they lost the only person that could create offense out of nothing.

OKC got whatever they wanted against Toronto tonight, as usual Westbrook will use a high pick and roll to get free and likely take the first shot, if that doesn't happen, he had Ibaka (the Screen Setter) open from 15 feet out all game long. Kevin Durant will get most of his points via post up, or isolations. The two superstars will draw attention as soon as they touch the ball and they will find the open man if given the double team.

The Thunder will make you pay in transition, there is probably 0.01% chance, they will not score against a unsettled defense.

Defensive End:

Toronto still has not improved their transition defense, giving lay ups/dunks after layups/dunks on the break. In this game, Toronto had a tendency to over help on the ball handler (had two guys on OKC guards for no good reason), some players will follow as deep into the restricted area. This opened up a lot of space for the Thunder shooters, who had a blast, thanks to the terrible rotations.

I couldn't really tell if the Oklahoma City played really good defense, because like I mentioned earlier, Toronto couldn't even buy a basket. OKC does a good job packing the paint, preventing a lot of interior points. They only had a few noted mishaps, when Andrea is on the floor, Perkins and Ibaka will still stay near the paint just to help out on drives, too bad he didn't knock them down.

The Moments:

Some woman or girl screamed at a decibel high enough to almost crack the screen of my TV when Jose Calderon was shooting the penalty for Ibaka's defensive three seconds in the key. You know what they say, girlies love the Spanish.

If you don't live in Canada, you missed out on the Raptor's commentators making fat jokes about an obese fan, who was wearing suspenders over his half naked body. Canada is sometimes not so nice.

Rookie Watch:
Jonas Valanciunas was aggressive all night attacking Kendrick Perkins in the post. He finished with 18 points from 6 of 8 shooting and 6 rebounds.

Terrence Ross scored 10 points in the second half, which was basically garbage time.

Perry Jone III was scoreless in the 18 minutes he played.

Jeremy Lamb knocked a three down in 6 minutes.

The Feed: Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Toronto Raptors [11/04/12].

Recap:

The Toronto Raptors capture their first win of the season, ripping the Wolves up 105 to 86. This was not the most interesting game, with Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio out, the Raptors took advantage of the Wolves crippled offense.

The starting back court of Toronto was back in action, producing the same monstrous results.  DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry dropped 22 points each, with Lowry passing out an additional 5 assists. The game remained close until third quarter where the Raps drowned Minnesota with a barrage of points in the blow out.

Andrei Kirilenko led all Wolves with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks, Nikola Pekovic helped with 15 points. Minnesota stayed in the game early despite turning the ball over 16 times in the first half, contributing to 27 Raptor points, eventually  their carelessness came back to haunt them, giving up the rock a total 24 times tonight.

Offensive End:

The Raptors ran a lot of isolations, taking advantage of the mismatch and getting easy points. Ball movement was definitely not as good as it was in the Brooklyn game. The focal point of the Raptor's offense is still DeMar and Andrea, they like to get them going early. Besides Jose Calderon, the rest of the guys that ran a pick and roll usually used the screen to get an open shot or path to the basket.

Minnesota looks into the post early, using Pekovic's beast of a body to bully Jonas Valaciunas. If they don't look for the post up, they run a basic pick and roll with cutter coming across.

Defensive End:

Toronto needs to fix their transition defense. It has been the biggest concern over the last 3, they just can't seem to set themselves fast enough to neutralize the quick oncoming attack. Their rotations were decent tonight, but they didn't have a real challenge to defend against.

The Wolves' defense at the back court is especially weak, allowing an above average shooting guard (DeMar DeRozan) to do whatever he wanted on the floor is unacceptable. Their front court with Pekovic and Kirilenko did a great job against the Toronto big men.

The Moments:

• Alexey Shved has the girliest hair in the NBA period, no discussion.
• HOT CHEETOS AND TAKIS played at the Air Canada Center, and according to twitter, the Raptors Children dance team used it as part of their performance. Although this is greatest thing to ever happen, it is ironic to be played in Canada because unfortunately we don't carry those hand-dyeing snacks. It is fitting to be played against the Wolves, since the song was sang by kids in Minnesota.
• Dante Cunningham heel kicked J.J. Barea in the forehead and gave his own teammate a concussion.

Rookie Watch:

Jonas Valaciunas always bring a lot of energy, he might not play well, but he will play hard. He got 4 point sand 4 rebounds at the end of the night.

Terrence Ross shows confidence, he has a lot of work to do on the defensive end and nee to bulk up to keep up with the rest of the NBA. He got in foul trouble early, 3 fouls in 5 minutes, and knocked down a jumper in the garbage time.

Alexey Shved played pretty well, he needs to do what I prescribed for Ross as well. He has a lot of potential, great court vision, dished 4 assists and scored 8 point in 22 minutes.

The Feed: Toronto Raptors vs. Brooklyn Nets [11/03/12].

 Recap:

The Brooklyn Nets defeated the Toronto Raptors 107 to 100 in their first regular season game in the brand new Barclays Center. The Raptors came out to a blazing hot start scoring 35 points in the first quarter at 62.5%. But the Nets manage to fight back into the game, scoring 33 points in the second quarter to take the lead at halftime, a lead that Toronto never managed to comeback from.

On a night, the supporting Raptors struggled, Kyle Lowry (28 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds) and Demar DeRozan (25 points) put the team on their backs and carried 53% of the offense. The 8 turnovers in the second quarter killed Toronto and destroyed the beautiful ball movement they had in the first quarter.

Brooklyn outscored Raptors in paint 52 to 34, much thanks to Brook Lopez who led all Nets with 27 points, Deron William added 19 points and 9 assists. Raptor's early reliance on the jumper, which did hit early came back to haunt them and only resorted to attack the basket late in the game.

Offensive End:
The Raptors like to look for Andrea Bargnani and Demar Derozan early. Andrea usually set a a pick early and instead of rolling hard like the other big men on the Raps, he flares out for a jumper. Demar Derozan get freed by off ball screens (2 of them and allows him to get the ball at the other wing).

Kyle Lowry likes to push the ball off a missed shot, in this game, he took the first shot available. If the defense is set, he will run a pick and roll to attack the basket and will kick out to the open man if given the opportunity.

Jose Calderon is a lot different, he likes to slowly dissect the defense and often (basically all the time) use the pick and roll to create offense.

From what I can remember Brooklyn didn't have specific offensive tactic, the only thing was the deep baseline screen, used to free the player that will likely shoot the ball upon catching it. Otherwise, it is just Deron William's dribble penetration to create chaos within the defense. They did start sloppy early, especially Joe Johnson, who did struggle tonight shooting 5 for 13, with 14 points. He forced a lot of shots, but did not revert back to ISO-JOE, which is a good sign for the Nets.


Defensive End:

Toronto looked great in the 1st quarter, rotating in symphony, reading the offense well and timed the help perfectly, but it ended there. There was a period of good defense in the fourth quarter comeback, it was just too late.

As you would have predicted, the Net's defense was not great either. They do hedge the pick and roll surprsingly well, other than that, they need to work on their rotation, they were slow to recover and the Raptors bailed them out by taking jumpers. When Reggie Evans is on, the defense turns to another level, he really bothers the bigs.



The Moments:

• Brook Lopez has a serious T-Shirt tan, distracted and bothered me the entire game.
• The Betty White temporary tattoo promised, did not happen. Which makes Deron Williams the worst person ever.
• Not once did Jay Z and Beyonce looked excited when the camera was on them. It is no Knicks vs. Net, but it was still a tight game.

Rookie Watch:

Jonas Valanciunas didn't get much action today, got in foul trouble early, finished with 2 points and 3 rebounds.