The Slow and the Scurrilous: Bargnani Drift

An great outing by Kyle Lowry — along with impressive performances by Ed Davis and Mickael Pietrus — was wasted last night in Sacramento, as Toronto lost to the Kings 107-100. But what stinks for them is great for the Omnishambles, as the latest season of suck rolls on.

The 2nd and 3rd quarters had some of the best/worst omnishambles of the game, featuring plenty of one-and-done non-offense, weak interior defense, and general ineptitude. Among the highlights:

• LoCal getting early burn, starting just a couple of minutes into the 2nd quarter. And not just LoCal, but LoCal with Bargnani. 
• Speaking of a clueless one, 3-14 and 3 rebounds was another classic performance. There's nothing like seeing bodies on the floor, diving and scrapping after the ball, and there's Andrea, bending over at the waist, poking vaguely at the ball. Throughout the game, plenty of Bargnani drifting about on defense, vaguely around but rarely engaged. 
• DeRozan driving (slowly) into traffic and complaining about not getting calls. 
• A classic omnishamble ending. Tied with 2 minutes left, Tyreke Evans (shooting 0.308 from the 3 this season) sinks two long bombs, while DeRozan misses a 2, then a 3, and Bargnani misses a 3, too.   
• Jonas Valanciunas getting beaten up badly. Now, I love Valanciunas: I love the enthusiasm with which he plays and I love the potential he exudes. However, I have not been loving his results of late. Honestly, he looks out of gas much of the time. He gets pushed around and out-hustled to way too many balls. Val is wonderful and should mature into a special player, but he's not there yet. And for now, he is a big part of the Raptors' omnishambles. It might be time to demote him and restrict his minutes for a while, let him build up his game and his confidence. 

On the other hand, a few tantalizing positives: 

• Amir Johnson and Ed Davis played some solid defense. Johnson did not have a good game on offense, but he was active
• Davis was wonderful, throughout his limited playing time. 
• Lowry was amazing, with 34 points (on 20 shots), 11 assists, and 5 rebounds. Just a scrappy, great performance.
• I think DeRozan plays better defense when he's on the floor with good defenders. I could be imagining things, but I swear when he is with Lowry, Davis, and Amir, he tries a lot harder. Hopefully I can find some evidence proving this in the future.

Ten games out of first now. Yeah! Nice going, Colangelo.

A different sort of "10". 

UPDATE: Wonderful words from Ryan Wolstat at the Toronto Sun. Welcome to the Operation Clambake for Raptor fans. Preach it, brother:

Bargnani is by no means the only problem but he is by far the biggest problem. He is killing the team when he is out there. When he hits shots at a good clip he makes up for most of his failings. When he is mediocre, or worse, he handicaps the Raptors.