Lohensports

 Wow the Pelicans are terrible with all these injuries.  That game was not worth watching unless you're a die hard Raptors fan itching to see some wins, which is me. The Pelicans got some hope back today with the return of Dejounte Murray, little did they know he would also play terribly. Before I get into it I just need to point out, you don't need to shoot every single time Dejounte you're allowed to pass! As a Dejounte Murray holder on my fantasy team, that one was straight up concerning. That being said, despite playing a banged up Pelicans team the Raptors dominated and the performance was headlined by multiple rookies who I thought deserve some love today.  Ja'Kobe Walter In a surprise move this early in the season, Ja'Kobe Walter got the start last night with Gradey Dick still sidelined with a calf contusion. Walter was nothing short of awesome in this one showing the fanbase why the front office was so high on him. Walter finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds...

 With the Raptors taking on the Pelicans tonight, hopefully they come out and look good so I can have a nice jubilation post tomorrow. Besides that, I have no interest in talking about the Jaden Ivey buzzer beater, I was sad. Instead, today lets look at a few stats that jumped off the page to me to start the NBA season.  56% If you've watched any Celtics game at all this year you probably came out of it very annoyed. The Celtics this season are launching 56% of their field goal attempts from 3 point range, by far the highest percentage of shots taken from deep in the league. In fact, no other team attempts even half of their shots from 3. Every Celtics game I've seen has been just an endless effort of jacking up 3s. With Porzingis back in the lineup, they play a rotation with zero bad shooters and they take full advantage. At over 50 threes attempted per game, the Celtics are on pace to lead NBA history in most 3s launched. Even the peak math-ball Rockets only ever got up 45 p...

 Every time I think I am gonna start Raptors reaction posts the Raptors lose in an annoying or embarrassing way, last night being no different. Luckily I have my usual cadence to fall back on and I get to talk about some of the awesome football that took place this week! Here's some thoughts I have:  Crazy Commanders Cowboys Sequence  I turned on Redzone at about 3:30 on Sunday only to be met with some absolute lunacy at the end of the 1pm games. The first of which being the Commanders vs Cowboys, a must win game if you wanted to right the ship as a Commanders fan. After getting down 20-9 in the 4th quarter, the Commanders stormed back with a TD and 2 point conversion to make it a manageable 3 point game with only 3 min to go. On the ensuing kickoff, Cowboys return man KaVontae Turpin muffed the ball at the 1 yard line, recovered it, ran into a crowd, did a spin move with nobody within 3 feet of him, somehow managed to break free to run 99 yards to the house for a TD to g...

 What a fun weekend of sports as always. Some great football games on Sunday that I will be getting to without a doubt tomorrow (hoping I can make fun of Baltimore to ease my pain from the Steelers losing Thursday.) To hold us over, today I thought I'd talk about the Raptors and how they've looked with Scottie back in the lineup. Scottie came back for Thursday's game against the Timberwolves and has helped in all the ways you'd expect the team's star player to help. Going 1-1 in the 2 games since his return lets get into how the team looks:  How Scottie Helps RJ RJ Barrett getting reps as a first option was actually surprisingly fun and interesting. RJ emerged as an above average pick and roll ball handler with the team getting 0.94 points per possession when RJ ran P&R. This is good for 16th in the league among players with at least 5 P&R possessions per game. RJ's playmaking has improved significantly and it pairs well with his ability to get downhill ...

 Lol. The big night for Lohensports absolutely did not disappoint last night! Scottie Barnes' return has now launched me back into believe mode for the Raptors, not that I ever left. The Steelers lost to the Browns, which is disappointing. When the Raps win and Steelers lose on the same day, you can guess that I'm having less fun talking about the Steelers. That being said, the game had so much that I should talk about so buckle up for the second Steelers reaction post of the week, this one with a much more salty tone.  Illegal Attempt To Catch The Ball I have never seen this penalty called in my nearly 20 years of watching football, but it saved the game for the Browns. With the ball on the Steelers 30 and 2 minutes to go, the Browns had a 3rd and 2 down 1 point. It should be noted, and I will get into that later too, that at this point the field was covered in snow as an actual blizzard swept through Cleveland. Kicking a field goal in these conditions wasn't going to be e...

 I actually wasn't going to write one today and was going to instead wait until tomorrow to react to the Steelers game. But I am currently extremely bored at work and figured this is a great way to pass the time. Here at Lohensports, we try our hardest to watch every Steelers and Raptors game all season long. Tonight is a rare night where the two teams will be playing at the same time, meaning I will be flipping back and fourth like a maniac. That being said, here's what you can expect from each game:  7:30pm - Timberwolves vs Raptors Could tonight be the return of Scottie Barnes? For the first time since he took a forearm to the face from Jokic, breaking his orbital bone, Scottie Barnes is listed as questionable on the injury report. Going up against a Minnesota team with a stacked front court, having Scottie back will be a gigantic boost to their chances of taking this one. Either way there's a lot of intrigue in this matchup. RJ Barrett is coming off back to back great g...

Very obscure one today, yesterday I was defending a Canadian Raptor's legend in a group chat and I proclaimed that I'd be writing something about him today. That legend is of course Chris Boucher, the team's longest serving player and only remaining member of the 2019 championship run. I understand some people not loving Chris' game, he's not the smartest of players out there, but in the time he's spent on the team I've grown to appreciate what Chris can bring, especially in some of these seasons where the wins aren't rolling in like we're used to. Chris simply put just gives a shit every single game. You could DNP Boucher for 10 straight games then call his number in the 11th and he'll give you everything he's got. Chris isn't going to carry you to multiple victories in a season like Shai and he isn't going to lock up your best player like Dillon Brooks, but he is going to hustle harder than anyone else on the court and there's s...

 I gotta say, after watching the Raptors deliver a signature victory last night, it's kind of hard to jump back into football. I kid, third win of the season it's been rough so far but as I've pointed out many times I think it's still been a fairly positive season despite the record. That's not why we're here, what a great week of football with some huge marquee matchups to digest! As usual, I have thought 5 things about it and here they are:  Josh Allen is our Hero I could watch that highlight of Josh Allen, a QB, rumbling down the field and dropping his shoulder into DBs for a long rushing TD to ice the game against the once undefeated Chiefs a million times and never get bored. That was obviously the highlight play, but Allen turned out a remarkably clutch performance to beat a team that hadn't been beaten since Christmas of 2023. With about 4 minutes to go, The Bills had the ball near mid field up 23-21 and were forced into a 3rd and 9. Josh Allen delive...

 Lets GOOOO! Ugly win but I've never known a Steelers Ravens game to go any different. I have to say, NFL broadcasters drive me crazy sometimes. Coming into this game I get that the Ravens offense was operating at a "historic pace" and that the Steelers offense showed some life the last few weeks with Russell Wilson, but they were harping all game like "we were expecting offense! Look at the defense wow!!" As if they've never seen a Steelers Ravens game in their life. This is it, this is how they go every single time no matter who is on either roster this matchup is going to be a rock fight for as long as I live. Anyway, in a week where every team a Steelers fan could want to lose lost, lets start off strong by recapping a great Steelers W! Exciting Finish I should probably start here, despite the fact that I want to make fun of Lamar Jackson, a man who for the record is a million times better at football than I ever will be at writing about it. ANYWAY, I fe...

 YIKES! So the Raptors went on a 4 game road trip out west facing the Nuggets, Kings, Lakers and Clippers. Lost all 4 of those. Sandwiching the west coast trip was a game on the road against the Hornets, L, and a game on the road against the Bucks, also an L. For those of you struggling to keep up that's 0-6 on the 6 game road trip, even for a tanking team that's tough to swallow. Despite the losses, I watched every game, destroying my sleep schedule in the process and because of that, you have to hear my thoughts:  Gradey Dick Exploring His Game The biggest positive to come out of the season so far has been Gradey Dick performing admirably in an expanded role. With the injuries to Scottie and IQ, Dick has been thrusted (sorry I can't help it) into the number 2 and sometimes number 1 scoring option on offense for most of these games. Coming into this season, if you told me Gradey would have to take on this kind of role, I would've expected it to be extremely ugly. So fa...

Another one in the books! We're now officially more than half way through the NFL season, it always goes by so fast. That means also that you're reading your tenth edition of an uninformed fan telling you 5 things he thought about the week in football that just took place. This edition will be no different from the others, great football and I think some things about it:  The Lions Win No Matter What I said last week that every time I look at the box score from a Lions game it makes absolutely no sense. This one was no different. Lions QB Jared Goff threw a total of 5 interceptions in this game, usually that means death to your hopes of winning the football game, but not if you're the 2024 Lions. After getting down 23-7, the Lions scored 19 unanswered points to come back and win the game on a field goal. Goff is the first QB to win a game while throwing 5 interceptions since Matt Ryan did it in 2012. As much as I want to give the Lions credit for their grit and determinatio...

 Oh boy! So most Sundays I like to go over to my parent's place for dinner and this Sunday was no different. When I walk in the door bragging about my Steelers winning again to go to 7-2 on the season, my dad tells me that they haven't exactly been convincing wins. I had to kindly let him know that Steelers wins haven't been convincing for the last 20 years, this is Steelers football baby!  Another big one as the Steelers show they can find a way to win like the best of them:  Hard Count How can you not start here? Inside of 2 minutes with all 3 timeouts, Washington had the ball on 4th and long, outside of field goal range. Being down a point, this was 4 down territory, the Commanders lined up to go for it. Daniels completed the pass to his tight end who was stamped literally right at the first down line. After much deliberation, the officials determined that the receiver did not obtain the first down by just a few inches, Steelers football. With all 3 timeouts left, Wash...

 Alright, I am an eternal optimist about the Raptors. I understand a grand majority of the fanbase does not want the Raptors to climb out of this hole, preferring instead to lose as many games as possible with the hopes of landing a Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey in the draft. I dislike this mindset for multiple reasons, the first one being, we have no idea how good Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey actually are at an NBA level. The second is, we have no control over the outcome of the games or the draft lottery process, so why worry about that? If the Raptors lose a bunch and end up with one of those guys, I'll be one of their biggest fans like I am for every Raptor, if not I am sure Masai will find the right guy later in the draft like he's proven he can do time and time again. For me, I'd rather see the team win and be fun, otherwise what's the point of watching the games? Anyway, the Raptors have started off this season with a myriad of injuries to important players. They'...

I love sports. The entire discourse today is going to be insanely political, I just want to escape into freak athletes putting a ball in a hoop. One guy putting a ball in a hoop at a high level this season is Gradey Dick. With the Raptors missing Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes for the majority of this season so far, Gradey has emerged as the reason to turn on games. He and RJ Barrett have been doing a great job keeping the Raptors watchable despite missing two of their best players. At only 20 years old, Gradey is having a breakout season. I remember last year Gradey struggled so much in the NBA that he was sent down to the G-League to work on his game. I was at the first Raptors 905 game that Gradey played and watched him shoot 2-12 with multiple turnovers while looking completely lost on the court. To see him go from that, to averaging nearly 22ppg on 61% true shooting is nothing short of incredible. In this post I wanted to put on my insane optimist goggles and compare Gradey ...