Raptors 110 - Nuggest 113: Mile-High Shambles

Last night's game was almost an anti-omnishamble — miserable for much of the game, but coming together in the last quarter and putting up a fight. Kind of like Voltron. But, like Voltron, the Raptors can only assemble for a limited time before falling apart, and in the end they lost again.

Voltron, like the Raptors, could only assemble for a short time. The vehicle Voltron, not the lion Votron. The lion Voltron could stay a robot as long as its pilots wanted (and was much cooler than the vehicle Volton). There was also a gladiator Voltron, but that cartoon never aired in North America. Oh, never mind...

Anyhow, the Raptors presented a whole bunch of omnishamblistic fun last night, including:

• LuCal - the deadly, two-guard force of Calderon and John Lucas. For those times when LoCal, Lowry-Calderon, is just too effective and you want to dial things back.
• 23 points on 20 shots. Four rebounds. 2-8 from 3pt land. No assists. No steals. 2 FTAs. Any guesses who? DeRozan? Good guess, but no, it was Bargnani.
• The glorious site of the Raptors big men pinned under the basket as the small Nuggets grabbed rebound after rebound. 53-37 rebound edge for the Nuggets on the night.
• 3 points (on 1-5 shooting), 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks from Toronto's starting SF, Pietrus. 
• Tough night for Valanciunas - 7 points, 4 rebounds, 4 fouls in just 20 minutes. Although he did get 3 blocks. but Val was looking slow and gassed for much of the night. 
• Corey Brewer looking like an all-star in the first half, running the Raptors into the ground.
• Toronto outscored on the fast break 19-2.

'So, uh, when's tip off? Qu-est-ce que c'est? What's started already?'

Were there any positives? I'm glad you asked:

• Another good night for Ed Davis in limited minutes - 6 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block in 17 minutes, including a good chunk in the 4th when the Raptors made their comeback.
• Decent night for Terrence Ross - 12 points (on 4-8 shooting, 2-2 FTs and 2-5 from 3), 6 rebounds, and in general a lot of hustle.
• 11 points, including a 3-pointer, for Amir Johnson. Lots of energy in the 2nd half, too.

Where does that leave the Raptors? At 4-14, we are tied with Cleveland for 2nd-worst record in the league, so there is a decent chance we could keep our pick this year — although I'm sure the Raptors can shamble their way to a 6th-place finish or so by the end of the year, just to infuriate their fans some more. After all, by point differential, we are "just" the 6th-worst team in the league.

Fyi, Toronto's record for the seven years before Bryan Colangelo: 0.437.
Toronto's record in the seven years of Colangelo: 0.425

End the omnishambles! Fire Colangelo!