Amir Johnson, 7. The 2-10 is sticking out like a sore thumb, but his overall defense was good and his energy kept us ticking. He should know better to fall for Bosh’s jumper-fakes, I could’ve seen those coming. Missed a lot of close ones he usually makes.

Sonny Weems, 1. Zero awareness on defense, zero chance of coming back next year. The guy turns his back on his check too many times and always gets burned by it. Yeah, he’s guarding LeBron, that should serve as a motivation and pump you up, not make you shrivel and die. I hate him.

Andrea Bargnani, 7. He had 1 rebound for the majority of this game, and played the poorest help defense of all season. Still, you can’t ignore 38 points and offensively, he was the ONLY thing going along with DeMar’s improving jumper. Would like to see him defend, honestly, it’s getting old but he needs to defend because, you know, it’s part of the game. Not going to happen.

Jose Calderon, 5. 14 assists, good quarterbacking of the team, too bad we also needed his jumper – 2-9. Many of them wide open. Generally poor defense.

DeMar DeRozan, 6. The jumper is improving, so is the confidence. I’m waiting for him to start finishing better at the rim, no need to twist and turn, just throw it down. If you can. Development year…development year…development year…

Leandro Barbosa, 1. Ouch. 1-7 FG. Terrible D on House. Hurt his trade value.

Jerryd Bayless, 2. Double Ouch. Terrible D on House, bad shot selection. Needed him to provide a boost off the bench, he failed.

Alexis Ajinca, 5. Surprisingly active off the bench, as Jack Armstrong said, he’s playing for a contract (Weems should take note). Gave us a boost in the third quarter, good game.

Ed Davis, 8. 13 rebounds, good finishing around the rim, great effort as usual. Him and DeRozan might just make this terrible year worth it.

The Point: Calderon had his second solid game in a row, but needs to get the guys more involved. He did a great job of pushing the ball, then pulling back at the last moment until everyone else caught up. Jack needs to not shoot the ball as much, and just attack the rim. I didn’t even realize Kidd was playing,
Matchup: Raptors

The Skill: DeRozan had his worst game of the year. Belinelli did even less. Howard in his first game of the season looked like he didn’t skip a beat. Terry picked up where Josh left off, taking it up three notches, and scored every-time he wanted too.
Matchup: Mavericks

The Swingman: Turkoglu’s worst game as a Raptor. Hit an acrobatic shot to start the 1st, but nothing else for the rest of the game. Wright did a decent job of attacking the paint, but once he got there, he kept losing his dribble. Was much worse from the perimeter, needs to stop shooting threes. Marion ran the break, crashed the boards, gave Hedo fits on defense, and proved why the Raptors made the wrong choice during the summer.
Matchup: Mavericks

The Big: Bosh continued his new-found swagger. The key = his home, but there is only so much one man can do. Johnson held his own when he saw the floor, but the night belonged to Dirk. Zeh Jerman hit dagger after dagger pacing the Mavs early, and pulling away in the 3rd quarter.
Matchup: Mavericks

The Strong: Bargnani didn’t get enough looks in the 4th when he was feeling it, but didn’t really matter as it would have been padding during a loss. Still, our boy looks comfortable out there, and owned Dampier.
Matchup: Raptors

Player of the Game: Dirk Nowitzki – 29pts grebes 4ast 2stl +16

They started it…

Bosh: 8 Took him a while to figure out that Okafor can be had for cheap. Took care of the “robot” in the third by owning him on the boards and the block. The three in the face was nice but the part about hustling for boards and inspiring his teammates with his effort was better. I get a feeling Chandler would’ve done a better job, never understood that trade. 8-11 FT again, he’s not just getting calls, he’s earning them.

Bargnani: 7 Huge third quarter with three threes. Was invisible before that passing up good shots for bad ones. Went inside early but when he didn’t find success, drifted to the perimeter, good thing it paid off in the third. I suppose when a shooter’s misfiring, he should keep on shooting and he followed that rule tonight. Sometimes it blows in your face, sometimes you get a 7 in the RRR. 14/9 overall, his defense suffered early but picked it up as the game went long. Chased a few rebounds, so not everything fell in his lap, helped others as best he could.

Calderon: 8 And you thought Paul was going to burn him? He did, in the second Paul was unstoppable but after that Jose asserted himself, took some ballsy shots and made them. Demanded it for a deep three and knocked it down. Ran the pick ‘n roll with Bosh and made the right pass at the right time. Snuck to the wing when Hedo had the ball and made the clean look. Paul got the better of him early but Jose stuck it to him in the third, causing a key turnover which made the NO fans be like WTF. Easily his best game this season. My favorite was the drive to find Jack in the corner and then another fourth quarter drive to find Wright at the wing – both for threes. 16/8 with zero turnovers and 6-11FG. Questions have been answered.

DeRozan: 6 Started off strong with two made hoops but then got mysteriously benched for no good reason. We saw him again in the third where he made good passes when trapped, one of them leading to a Calderon three. Good, expected game by the rook. He’s predictably decent.

Turkoglu: 7 A shooter shoots, doesn’t matter how much he’s been missing which is what he was doing early. Was a huge part of the charge in the third where the Raptors outscored them 34-14. Ran some great PNRs with Bosh and had two step-back threes that reminded you of the Orlando days. Both our playmakers were on tonight and we were hitting our threes, there were the Raptors as dangerous as they could be. 16/4/4.

Da Bench

Jack: 5 Pardon the low rating but his defense in the second was atrocious. I think the Hornets got all their points off of him in some sort of way in that frame. Missed some shots he needs to make, we’re not seeing any sort of consistency with that mid-range game. For once the lineup with Jose worked, but that was mostly because of Jose’s hot shooting. He gets credit for spreading the floor in the third quarter and going turnover free in 25 minutes.

Belinelli: 4 Came in early to not do much, then reappeared in garbage time to score some inconsequential hoops. Meh.

Johnson: 6 6 rebounds in 21 minutes and a key steal in that third quarter leading to a dunk. Very active on the boards and in boxing out, the 4 fouls is a concern but at least he’s trying. Give him that. Appears to be slowly coming out of his funk by, you know, trying.

Wright: 5 I thought we should’ve asked him to cover Paul and see what he could bring, maybe play off of him to concede the jumper while contesting it. Did a decent job on Peja/Wright but his night was easy since the Hornets don’t have a three who can do any damage in 1v1 situations.

Nesterovic: 1 Came in, missed a layup. Got benched.

O’Bryant: N/A Came in, played 2 minutes, picked up 2 fouls. Playa.

Weems: N/A His line 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -2 0.

Collecting da cheque

Everybody came to work.

The Payout

Pimp: Chris Bosh.

Ho: Rasho Nesterovic.

What we learned: Calderon has a pulse. Live blogging is hard. I should make a living betting on games.

The Verdict: When the jumper’s falling, life is good.

Bosh: 7 Kept that offense chugging along with his 20 FT attempts. Hardly a fluid or dominant performance but got his nose dirty and didn’t let his head hang when he got beat on defense. His play slowed this game down and allowed the Raps to catch their breath.

Bargnani: 8 Caught wind of the A-Dub hate and showed the pussy up with 12 rebounds, that’s to go with 22 points. Hit 4 big fourth quarter FTs, had 2 huge blocks which easily saved 4 points, and faked Charlie V out of his pants for a big jumper late. Defensively solid all night long and that was hard to do because the backcourt was porous. Take a bow son, take a bow.

Calderon: 3 It’s good to have guaranteed minutes. Stuckey lit him up early, Bynum lit him up late. You have to wonder just what he was doing on the floor with Jack in that fourth quarter. The corner three he conceded to Bynum in the fourth said it all about the way he thinks on defense – he doesn’t. Even Jack Armstrong said it, “Jose’s not right”. Thanks for that late three, though. Had one assist which was good because it meant he wasn’t handling the rock.

DeRozan: 3 Early baseline cut for a dunk but that was it. Couldn’t negotiate the screens set for his check (Gordon) and Triano once again didn’t bother using him for anything other than standing at the wing and waiting. For something. Got benched in favor of Wright after Gordon exploded early. There’ll be days like this…

Turkoglu: 8 Finally, we see what the Sultan of Turk can do when you give him the ball. 16/7/6. He should’ve had about 5 more assists if Belinelli or Jack could shoot as advertised. This guy should be our primary ball handler. No question about it, otherwise it’s a total waste. Move Calderon to off-guard on the condition that he doesn’t get burned and can knock down an open J. Hedo, find Bargnani and go take a bow..

Da Bench

Jack: 8 Led that second unit which gave this team the offensive spark it needed. Drove the ball every chance he got and made Gordon and Bynum defend. Earned the respect of Oak while doing so. He got torched later in the game by Bynum but overall, a solid performance which made a case for more minutes. If only he could knock that open jumper down, him and Turk could be deadly.

Belinelli: 3 Famine. Gordon’s hesitation shook him worse than an earthquake. Got beat one-on-one too often and didn’t knock down the open threes he was presented. Still finding his role on the team and it’s becoming more and more evident it’s not going to happen on the defensive end.

Johnson: 5 Easily his best game, still gave up too many offensive rebounds but the hustle and energy was there. Even scored a basket. 6/5 in 17 minutes while picking up 4 fouls. Yup, that’s considered a good game for him right now. Hopefully he can build on not screwing up.

Wright: 8 Slowed down Ben Gordon in that second or it was going to be a loooong night, hit two big threes set-up by Hedo which got the crowd and the Raptors back in it. If Jack was the offensive spark, he was the defensive one. He defended CV, Gordon, Bynum and Maxiell at different points in the game.

Collecting da cheque

Evans, Douby, O’Bryant, Weems, Banks, Nesterovic

The Payout

Pimp: Antoine Wright.

Ho: DeMar DeRozan

What we learned: Will Bynum can play.

The Verdict: We’re 2-0 when playing teams on a back-to-back.

Bosh: 7.5 Showed up, played hard. Did some damage. Actually, did a lot of damage 37/12 to be exact. Didn’t waste possessions, didn’t hesitate. BUT, Randolph had 30/7 too so I got to look at somebody for that and it’s Bosh. Still, the offensive game gets him a high grade, he shouldn’t have to do everything.

Bargnani: 4 The higher you are, the farther you fall. Scoreless first half, he gets points for not losing confidence and starting the second half on fire but how about netting some rebounds? He had 6 but tonight was about the rebounds he didn’t get. Couldn’t handle Gasol in the post and didn’t make him pay like he did Shaq, probably because Gasol can move laterally without breaking a hip bone. 36 minutes was way too many given his defensive performance.

Calderon: 5 Couldn’t create anything for anybody. 3 assists and got lit up by Conley and Mayo in the first half which gave Memphis belief. Jack Armstrong said it best, we need some offense from him and so far he’s firing blanks. Got a couple hoops late to make the line respectable but overall, a poor game.

DeRozan: 4 More anonymous than a Raptors fan in Memphis. Did he even play the first half? He did, he just didn’t do anything. The second was a bit better, got a tip-in, a block and showed some athleticism, tends to get lost in Triano’s excuse for an offense. See, you got to practice that in pre-season, can’t play everything by the ear.

Turkoglu: 5 Started off looking for his offense but then decided to take a break for something I can’t quite figure out. On a night where the offense struggled (44% shooting), we needed him to create something out of nothing and Triano’s offense right now is nothing. I expected him to have a big game after the start he had but drifted off to sleep like he had six pounds of Turkish delight at halftime.

Da Bench

Jack: 5 We can see what he can bring, it’s clear and obvious. So why doesn’t he do more of what we know he can do? It’s a mystery, I’m thinking he’s not talented enough to make reads on his own and needs some structure around him to succeed. Still, played some good defense in stretches and gave the choky offense some air in that third quarter but couldn’t stop Mayo’s penetration and impact which is what he was brought in for – defense.

Belinelli: 7 I’m giving him a high rating because he played with active hands, didn’t take bad shots and played sound defense. That’s all I ask.

Johnson: 1 This guy’s a poser. It took Triano all of two minutes to realize he’s worthless. In a game where we needed rebounding and defense (45-36 reb loss and MEM shooting 51%), we needed him to slow down Zach Randolph, a similar make and model. Couldn’t do jack sh*t. And you thought Reggie was worse…

Nesterovic: 7 The only guy who could slow down Gasol. Somewhat. 4-8 and for 8 points, no mistakes. He showed that he’s got something left in him for situational matchups, he probably deserved 20 of Bargnani’s minutes.

Wright: 6 Explain me again why our defensive specialist wasn’t on the floor at the end of the game? He tightened on Rudy, played hard, even had a nice drive for a bucket. So why misuse him when you need him the most? I’m looking at you Jay.

Collecting da cheque

Evans, Douby, O’Bryant, Weems, Banks

The Payout

Pimp: Chris Bosh.

Ho: Amir Johnson.

What we learned: We haven’t practiced a single offensive set.

The Verdict: We fell to a team that played hard and wanted to atone for its miserable effort on opening night.

Bosh: 7 Sometimes you don’t need to dominate, just don’t get dominated. Was overpowered early and started 0-3 but regained his confidence when Shaq went to the bench and grabbed some rebounds, 16 in total. Add a couple J’s against the slower bigs and you got a pretty good game from Bargnani’s second fiddle.

Bargnani: 9 Throw it down big man, throw it down! Knocking trailer threes, coming off screens like a guard and knocking mid-range J’s, presenting himself to his PG, running the floor harder than a race horse. Is there anything he didn’t do? The refs tried to hold him back by calling BS fouls (two in the third that made me miss the replacements) but it didn’t matter, his conditioning let him play both ends and he didn’t lose sight of his offense. Now let’s do 11-15 FG 81 more times.

Calderon: 6 Nothing spectacular, not much burst in his step but kept his guy in front of him save a couple Boobie threes. Passed early off the high screen which was good since our advantage lay in the immobility of the Cleveland bigs, not his one-on-one ability. Solid floor-general game, maintained good spacing, didn’t hang on the rock for too long. His offense wasn’t called upon tonight but it will be. Clanked his first two FTs. What?

DeRozan: 6 The rook knows his role. A couple off-the-ball slash moves, a sweet spot-up jumper and constantly active on defense. Got caught ball-watching and lost track of the sneaky Parker a couple times but he’s a rookie. It’ll happen a 100 times again this year.

Turkoglu: 6 Mr. Sleepyhead didn’t have the stamp on the game offensively but the job on Lebron was more than adequate. By the looks of the two you’d think Lebron would eat him up but somehow the Grand Turk manages to get it done, don’t ask me how. Save a couple “crafty” decisions using screens, he was quiet but what does that say of this team? We don’t need Turkoglu to play big for us to win.

Da Bench

Jack: 5 Good fourth quarter energy and a key drive with a 1:24 left but not enough to let me look past the first three quarters. Got burned by Mo Williams and Boobie too many times for a guy we’re counting on defensively. Question is can he knock down a 20 footer with average consistency, his shot’s been brutal of late.

Belinelli: 7 Where did that come from? Step-back jumpers, drives for dunks and athleticism to rival Usain Bolt. Even made Don Nelson take notice. That’s life with him though, feast of famine, today was feast. He’s a pure no-conscience shooter.

Johnson: 3 Six minutes of nothingness. I’m telling you, there’s a reason he’s been let go by two NBA teams and we saw it tonight. Too light to stay with centers and too slow to defend the three. He’s a tweener, and not in a good way.

Nesterovic: 6 Came in and got a put-back over Shaq, threw his booty around and will sleep soundly tonight.

Wright: 6 Three charges, great positional defense, only jacked up one bad shot. Was hoping this game to come down the wire at the end so I could see him and Lebron battle it out.

Banks: 1 What the hell was he doing playing in the first quarter? Triano must’ve confused him for Jack, they do kinda look alike from far.

Collecting da cheque

Evans, Douby, O’Bryant, Weems

The Payout

Pimp: Andrea Bargnani.

Ho: Amir Johnson.

What we learned: Shaq/Big Z can’t defend the pick ‘n roll. Daniel Gibson’s tattoo is ridiculously stupid.

The Verdict: Cavs looked like they were playing a back-to-back, still a great W. Called it yesterday.

Banks – N/A Had the flu, test for the swine kind came back negative. Only person that cared either way was his mother.

Bargnani – 7 Defended hard, cut hard, fouled hard, played hard. Accepted Perkins’ challenge in the post and made him eat Spalding a couple times. Demanded the ball like no other Raptor and executed the roll part of the PNR to tee, even made some great passes from the top of the key. When 7-footers net only 3 rebounds criticisms will follow but those 3 rebounds aren’t the reason we lost.

Belinelli – 1 Flash in the pan. It looks real sexy when you go coast-to-coast against Minny when there’s no defense being played, another to come in off the bench against a tight D like the C**tics’ and show you belong as a rotation guy in the league. If he ever throws an over-the-back pass again I’ll boycott Italian food. For life.

Bosh – 4 kevingarnettandrasheedwallaceownme.com is still available. 31+ minutes and zero impact. Hoisted four shots, got the calls on his fades from the generous refs which makes the stat line respectable. Those of you who saw the game know he got burned on D by KG (alley-oop in the third was pathetic) and was a defensive no-show in that decisive third quarter. Even Sherman Hamilton called for him to be more assertive. No sweat though, it’s only pre-season. Come Shaq on Oct 28, all will be roses.

Calderon – 6 People think I hate him, I don’t, I just have high expectations. 2-8FG 4/4/3 isn’t impressive but he showed some chemistry with Bargnani out there. Was mentally into the game, stepped up to Rondo and held his ground. Looked for his shot and if he continues to do that with consistency he’s going to knock them down. Physically, he’s looking better and better with each game.

DeRozan – 6 Got a lesson in screen usage from Allen to start off the game but then realized he gets to play offense too. Some nice legit drives that drew legit fouls – went to the line 7 times and showed he can slash against a good set half-court defense. Too much standing around though, don’t know if that’s Triano’s plan or just him drifting. The jumper is there but so is the tendency to rely on it.

Douby – 2 6 minutes, 6 shots. Think somebody’s trying too hard to get noticed? Don’t worry Q, the way Belinelli’s playing you might just get bumped up by doing nothing.

Evans – N/A Is “baffled” by his injury.

Jack – 3 Game worst -18, not a good stat for a PG. We saw his defense at the SG today and it wasn’t pretty, what happened to the lock-down guy that was advertised? I understand Ray Allen shooting over you but did you even read the scouting report on Eddie House?

Johnson – 1 Played sh*t scared. First big off the bench, didn’t track KG on the break and got yanked. Came back later, got benched again. Rinse and repeat. It’s much harder to be “active” and showcase athleticism in a half-court game and it’s something he obviously hasn’t learned to do yet. The footwork looked terrible and his shots were short-armed. This is basketball, not shot-put.

Nesterovic – 1 This is his boxscore line: 0-5 0-0 0-2 -4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0. Sucks.

Turkoglu – 7 Looked polished and started the second half very aggressive. 17 points while staying in control of his shot-selection. Hit a couple step-back threes after using the high screen, had some nice drives and gave Raptors fans a glimpse of the Turkoglu we expect. He’s coming along, not bad for a guy who’s missed training camp. Battier obviously woke him up.

O’Bryant – 5 Why save him for garbage time when Rasho is playing this bad? Much rather see him take a shot at defending KG than Johnson.

Weems – 4 Got burned by Allen and House a number of times but it didn’t stop him from running the lanes hard and trying to sneak away for free points. The C**tics are too good, though. They don’t let scrubs get off on them. A couple more 4 ratings and he’ll get an extension from Colangelo.

Wright – N/A Was dressed in his warmups.

–

Pimp: Andrea Bargnani

Ho: Amir Johnson

What we learned: Shelden Williams is still in the league.

The Verdict: Pre-season looks like it was a waste.