Raptors have fared worse in Denver but can’t make that performance a habit; Let Norm dunk, NBA; SF situation dicey with Johnson injury

DENVER — It wasn’t a 39-point humiliation that greased the wheels for Sam Mitchell’s exit days later, but it was one of the worst Raptors performances ever in a city where the franchise tends to struggle.
It’s not the end of the world, though and Dwane Casey wasn’t losing any sleep about it afterward.
In an 82 game season, nights like this happen a handful of times, which is why Dwane Casey colourfully explained what the players should do with the stat-sheets from the contest – in more printable terms – put them out of sight and out of mind.
That doesn’t mean a repeat performance in Phoenix or Portland will be tolerated, just that one game with no energy, defence, or cohesion (DeMar DeRozan aside) gets a pass if you win 11 straight beforehand.
You couldn’t see it coming at shootaround. The Raptors looked fresh and engaged and said the right things about altitude and not letting the streak become a distraction.
“Nah, I know I don’t, I can’t speak for anybody else,” James Johnson had said about the winning streak. “All I think about is my matchup and the plays they are going to be running, normal scouting report stuff.”
Unfortunately for Johnson, who had 50 supporters in the stands, he was trying to do too much early, then got hurt and left the building on crutches.
If he has to miss some time, the Raptors will be in a tough spot. DeMarre Carroll is on this trip, but nowhere close to returning. He told me it’s difficult to stay patient, having never been through something like this before, and apparently he bugs his doctor three times a day trying to see if he can move things along. The hope is Carroll returns some time this month so he can have all of March and part of April to tune up for the playoffs.
NORM WANTS IN
Norman Powell wants to be in the dunkoff in Toronto, local fans definitely want to see him there, but will he be there? He says he hasn’t heard anything yet and I’m told the NBA will reveal the all-star Saturday field on Thursday night (likely during the TNT broadcast).
With Andrew Wiggins highly unlikely to participate, the NBA should put Powell in.
Lots of players that had not yet made an NBA mark have participated in the past, including Jeremy Evans, who did some nice dunks and finished runner-up to Terrence Ross in Houston.
Ross has no interest in coming back for a third time.
ON TO PHOENIX
“You just have to focus on tomorrow, which is Phoenix,” Lowry said.
“We know they are coming in with a new coach and they’ll come out and play extremely hard. We’ve just got to get back to what we normally do, playing hard, playing aggressive and playing defence.”
Casey weighed in on the winning streak messing with the Raptors:
“The winning streak had nothing to do with it. when you have no focus, no energy, when you miss the kind of free throws we shot, 27-39 from free throw line, missing layups, that’s focus,” he said.
“That was one of our stinkers, it’s on all of us. The good thing about the NBA, you’ve got tomorrow night. We’ve got another gun slinger in Phoenix, a team that’s going to be playing with a lot of energy. We’ve got to go out with guns ablazing.”
NUGGETS BUILDING SOMETHING
Denver is a ways away from contending for anything in the West, but is putting some nice pieces together.
That team drafts really well and is shrewd. They need Gallinari to stay healthy, a few quality veterans that can still play and some lottery luck this year. They also need some time, but have nice pieces.
Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic for Doug McDermott was very shrewed and Nikola Jokic looked like a star against Toronto’s centres and is multi-talented, able to do many things well, which is extremely useful in the new NBA.
Emmanuel Mudiay should get it together eventually and the cap sheet is pretty good, other than two mistakes given to Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler that get neutralized by the salary cap going up so much.