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The Official 2007/2008 Toronto Raptors and NBA Thread (pg. 19)
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| Invasionmix |
| but didn't the announcers say that TJ is the one telling them to stop bothering Lebron? I think it was D Martin |
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| MarkT |
hmmmm...I'm sure they'll be something about it later in the press.
I'd be surprised (and disappointed) if it was Martin...he should know better, lol. you expect trash talk from kids and from superstars. Martin is neither and on track to coach in the near future. |
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| Sly_Guy |
we aren't under 500, we are 500 with philly and the hapless knicks coming into town next. We're a decent team, better than our record, but we REALLY should have put this game away. Disgusting.
And I swear Andrea is killing me, every game I find myself screaming at his terrible play... Making shots is one thing, doing everything else wrong is another. |
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| Porky |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
...16 pts, 11 ast, 4 reb, 2 stl, 5/5 from the line and only 1 turnover. stellar. |
11:1 assist:TO ratio. that is solid, calderone is more of a true point than TJ will ever be. |
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| infinity HiGH |
| quote: | Originally posted by MarkT
hmmmm...I'm sure they'll be something about it later in the press.
I'd be surprised (and disappointed) if it was Martin...he should know better, lol. you expect trash talk from kids and from superstars. Martin is neither and on track to coach in the near future. |
You probably know by now but turns out it was Chris Bosh's cousin and girlfriend that were trash talking James.
Women... :rolleyes: |
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| Sly_Guy |
anyone see Golden State - San Antonio last night?
Unbelievable game, usually you don't see such a clash of styles outside of the national tourney in march. Baron Davis is a rediculous player. |
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| MarkT |
Marion was a monster and put up one of the best stat lines I've seen this season:
FG% .688, 27 pts, 14 reb, 4 ast, 5 treys, 6 blocks, zero turnovers
ridiculous!
| quote: | Originally posted by infinity HiGH
You probably know by now but turns out it was Chris Bosh's cousin and girlfriend that were trash talking James.
Women... :rolleyes: |
haha...it's actually pretty funny, although when "fun between friends" impacts a game, it might be fun for the players and their gf, family, etc., but not so fun for the rest of the team, the fans and the Raptor franchise, lol. Bosh needs to tell her to STFU next time :D
from Yahoo Sports:
| quote: | CLEVELAND (AP) -- Right up there with tugging on Superman's cape should be this perpetual no-no: Don't taunt LeBron James.
Fueled by some good-natured heckling from Toronto star Chris Bosh's girlfriend and others, James outscored the Raptors 24-20 in the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers' 93-90 win on Sunday.
It was the latest tour-de-fourth performance by the Cavaliers superstar who has become the NBA's foremost finisher.
"I love the fourth quarter," he said Monday. "The fourth quarter is my quarter."
LeBron time.
In his last four games, James is averaging 13.5 points and 3.0 assists in the fourth. And of his league-leading 29.2 points per game, 9.7 have come in the final 12 minutes -- against defenses designed to stop him.
On Sunday, James went 8-of-10 from the field in the fourth as the Cavs, who trailed by 20 in the first half, rallied to win. During his unforgettable finish, he made 4-of-5 3-pointers and added two rebounds and three assists.
The Raptors couldn't do anything to stop James as he drove by them, spun past them, twisted around them and flat out schooled them.
He found himself in a zone that he had trouble describing.
"I just feel like I'm out there by myself, everything is going right," he said. "It's just like you're shooting by yourself after practice."
James' 24 points set a Cavaliers franchise record, eclipsing Terry Furlow's 23-point fourth quarter on Dec. 5, 1978, in Washington and a 23-point first quarter by World B. Free on April 5, 1985, in Detroit.
"He's amazing," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "The tough part about it is he makes stuff look so easy that just to say it's amazing doesn't give it any justice. He didn't just score points for us. He set other guys up. He drove the ball at the right time. He made passes at the right time."
And during it all, James, who finished with 39 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, held a running conversation with Bosh's girlfriend, Alison. James met her during the summer when he and the Raptors' star were teammates on the U.S. national team.
So what did she say from her courtside seat that set him off?
"Nothing in particular," James said. "She was just rooting for her team, I guess."
But in the final seconds with the Cavaliers' win sealed, James looked over and got in the last word.
"I told her it was her fault why they lost," James said.
Bosh said there was nothing malicious about the trash talking, just some friends having fun.
"It was my girl, my cousin and her brothers and sisters," Bosh said at practice on Monday. "They know LeBron, we all know each other and it wasn't anything personal. They just like to have fun. I guess he just really had a big game so he was able to gloat a little bit.
"I saw a lot of people were trying to make a big deal out of it but they probably don't know that we all know each other. We all talked after the game and it was cool."
James laughed when asked about the well-publicized exchange with Bosh's belle.
"She got more TV time than me or him last night," he said.
The Raptors aren't the only ones to succumb to James' late-game heroics.
Earlier last week, he scored 19 points in the fourth quarter during a win over Atlanta. More impressively, James scored or assisted on 26 of Cleveland's final 27 points and scored his final 12 points in the closing 1:50.
In Cleveland's next game, James scored only two in the fourth but picked up five assists down the stretch in a win over Sacramento.
The Cavaliers (17-17) have won five of six and are back at .500 for the first time since Dec. 4. The defending Eastern Conference champions remain a work in progress, but they seem to be getting it together -- thanks to James.
They know they can't count on James to carry them every game.
"If he gets it going like that," center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said, "what are you going to do? Not give him the ball? That would be stupidity."
Maybe as foolish as heckling him.
A lesson the Raptors and their fans had to learn the hard way.
"I say probably leave him alone next time," Bosh said.
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| Invasionmix |
| Oh those two girls LeBron pretend to hand the ball to were Bosh's cousin and girl friend. Oh man, Bosh should take Tom Brady's advice to Tony Romo lol |
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| SuperJimbo |
An excerpt from the article....
ESPN.com
East All-Stars: Slim pickings when selecting subs
January 8, 2008
By John Hollinger
.....Backup guard No. 1: Jose Calderon, Raptors
This is probably going to shock some people, so I'll just go ahead and say it: Calderon, right now, is the third-best guard in the East.
Go ahead and laugh. Get it out of your system.
Done? Good. Now let's look at the numbers. Calderon ranks fourth among Eastern Conference guards in PER; he's a millimeter behind T.J. Ford, who is out indefinitely, and of course trails Wade and Billups.
But he's way ahead of the others. Vince Carter, Richard Hamilton and Michael Redd are eating his dust, and no other point guard in the East rates in the top 50 in PER. (If you're looking for Jason Kidd, by the way, there's more on him below.)
You might think Calderon's numbers are so good because he's been beating up on second-teamers for half the season. Actually, no: His PER has gone up since Ford went out and now is as high as it's been all season. In his 20 games as a starter, he's averaging 13.5 points, 9.9 assists, and shooting 50.0 percent from the field. The other overlooked part is that he's making only 1.5 turnovers per game.
Let me repeat that for emphasis: 9.9 assists. 1.5 turnovers.
That's amazing. To show you how amazing, let's look at a stat I keep called "pure point rating." I created it to replace assist-turnover ratio, which tends to reward point guards who never penetrate. Pure point rating produces more valid ratings of a player's ability as a distributor by rewarding production instead of just making a ratio. (If you're curious, the formula is: Pure Point = (100* ((Assists * 2/3) - Turnovers))/Minutes.)
So … care to guess who's first in pure point ratio this season? Hint: it's not Steve Nash or Chris Paul. It's Calderon, by a fair amount.
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Pure Point Rating leaders
Player Ast/40 min TO/40 min Pure Point Rating
Jose Calderon 11.2 1.8 14.11
Steve Nash 14.3 4.2 13.25
Chris Paul 11.0 2.7 11.47
Brevin Knight 7.9 1.7 8.96
Jason Kidd 11.3 4.0 8.94
*Through Sunday's games
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No, he's not the scoring threat that Nash or Paul are, but Calderon is insanely efficient at running the offense and makes his shots, and that makes him a far more valuable player than people realize.
As for my arguments about preferring players who have established this level of performance, Calderon has a far better case than you might think. He played fantastic last season too and had the biggest PER jump in the league, though the voters chose to pretend he didn't exist in the Most Improved Player voting.
In fact, Calderon's 2006-07 PER ranked eighth among NBA point guards, and sixth among all guards in the East. To use one All-Star competitor as an example, his mark last season was not only better than Richard Hamilton's, it would have been the best mark of Hamilton's career.
So Calderon has been better than anyone else at his position except Billups, and his performance history suggests it's either not a fluke or a very small one. He's on a team with only one other viable scorer and, thanks to his skillful playmaking, has them in the top half of the league in offensive efficiency.
So if, after all this, you think he isn't an All-Star, I have only one question. Other than saying, "He's just not what I think of when I think of an All-Star," what case is there for Jose Calderon not to be an All-Star this year?...... |
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| jon jon |
| and he's not even on the ing allstar ballot. |
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| SuperJimbo |
| I knew we should have traded TJ this past offseason. Now, with this latest unfortunate injury, there is no hope. Maybe ever. :whip: |
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