Why we love Reggie Evans...
Reason number one. At the 2:45 mark, the Raptors are spread out around the perimeter, Weems is out at the right wing, Jack is up at the top of the key while DeRozan is spotted up in the right corner behind the three point line. Bargs is at the left baseline side with the ball. He jab steps twice, and then shoots it over Dalembert. When the shot goes up, the only Raptor in the key is Evans and he’s surrounded by Udrih at the top, Garcia, Landry and Antoine Wright. The thing is, Evans sees the first jab step by Bargs and he immediately goes into rebound mode rudely introducing himself for the fifteenth time already to Carl Landry, who is undersized to begin with. There’s no real way he should have the rebound, and he doesn’t get it, but he does jump, get his fingertips on it and make Wright miss it. Ball goes out of bounds on Wright, Raptors’ ball. Where the stat for that? It gets the team an extra possession, but it can’t be quantified by the limitations of our current statistical systems. It’s not a rebound, though it’s just as good as an offensive board, and it’s not a steal. In the boxscore, it doesn’t exist.
Reason number two. At the 1:40 mark, still in the first, Evans is given the ball in the post. I’m not entirely sure why Calderon delivers the ball into him with 14 seconds left on the shotclock. Reg doesn’t really have anything resembling a postgame. But, regardless, in the ball goes to Evans. Garcia dives in from the right corner and knocks the ball loose. Reggie is after itand it takes him out to just within the three point arc. Garcia, a physical player, is leaning into Evans with his arm stretched out. So, naturally, Evans pulls a Kobe/Durant and earns two freethrows sinking both. While he did find his way into the boxscore on this play, the entirety of it does not truly get accredited to him because he drew a foul on Garcia and gifted him with an elbow to the jaw for his trouble.
Reason number three. Dude pulled in 19 rebounds—10 of those on the offensive end. Is he the reincarnation of Dennis Rodman?
Reason number four. The beard. Along the same line of thinking as reason number three, since Evans doesn’t sport hair up top, he should start dying his beard different colors.
Dalembert sure did look overweight and out of shape, not that I hold that against him in the slightest seeing all the work he did for Haiti earthquake victims this past summer. Of course, I’m not paying him $13,428,129.
An aside. Evan’s replacement is Amir Johnson. This guy grabs my attention not because he can’t get away from fouling (at 16 minutes per he’s averaging 4 fouls), AJ looks like a giant Andre from Outkast. In honor of this observation, I now christen Amir Johnson—
Andre the Giant.
A side note: can’t tell for certain, but Kleiza could probably get away with some of his traveling if he didn’t make it look so much like traveling. If he made it look better, (for example Kobe, Wade, and Roy are masters), mainly, he needs to stay more grounded and stop shuffling his feet.
And finally, what a crazy couple of plays to end the game. Ty Evans sets up Casspi for a layup that Casspi makes harder by reversing it. He misses, but Ty gets the O board and briefly sets up before attacking again and finding Casspi in the corner for what seems like a backbreaking three.
Then there was DeMarcus Cousins spinning through the lane and and flipping it up and in (he looked so excited after he made it, pumping both fists. Gotta love that energy). Followed immediately by Bargs hitting a three to put the Raps within three points.
And then, of course, DeRozan seeming to gather himself in the air and then dunk it to pull the score within one, 108-109.
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