The Week That Was: Players-Only Meeting!!

Shouts to Drake dropping “More Life” yesterday and making sure we’re all set for Instagram captions with his new lyrics for the next 18 months. I’m trying to write the most disjointed first paragraph in the history of first paragraphs so to transition the Raptors 905 clinched a playoff spot this week for the first time in franchise history and Cole Shelton has the details.

This week, the Raptors came home from a frustrating road trip and cruised to a 100-78 win over the Mavericks, then got destroyed at home by Russell Westbrook and the Thunder, had a players-only meeting afterwards, and bounced back the next night in Detroit with a 87-75 victory. It was another high variance week without Kyle Lowry, which I think is about how this team will be for the remainder of the time they’re without their point guard.

Our power rankings poll this week shows the Raptors are pretty much out of the top ten at most places. With Dirk Nowitzki having just topped 30,000 points with one team, Daniel Reynolds ponders: just how many points will DeMar DeRozan reach with the Raptors in his career? Also Russell Peddle points out DeRozan is doing things that are approaching what Vince Carter did here at his peak.

In Kyle Lowry recovery news: he’s making progress. This week’s standings watch tells us something we should probably concede: that we’re pretty much locked into the 4-5 matchup.

Favorite part of the week: Jonas Valanciunas thanking Masai Ujiri for not moving him to Detroit at the trade deadline. Also we have another fun (and not so fun) edition of Bringing Up Bebe. Finally, John Gaudes has a detailed look at Jonas Valanciunas’ new specialized role with the team.