Perhaps you hadn’t noticed, but the Raptors are the hottest team in the NBA. (Except when they play the Celtics, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) Having won eight of their last 10 games, one of the reasons for Toronto’s turnaround is their defense; historically soft but currently pretty solid. In the eight W’s during this stretch, the Raps have given up 93 points per night. But when they’ve come across the Celtics, the Raps still can’t get over the hump. Chris Bosh and crew’s only two losses since Dec. 16 have been to Boston, who gave them 114 points and another L yesterday. “They hit shots as soon as the game started,” Jarrett Jack said afterward. “It’s not as though we were just giving them layup after layup and it was like the Globetrotters.” … Rajon Rondo posted a triple-double (22 pts, 10 rebs, 13 asts), and early on you knew it was his day: In the first quarter he took a three with Jack draped all over him that went in off-glass, then did a great job selling it like he meant it … T-Dot had one glaring defensive lapse: Down six with under a minute to go, their biggest defensive possession of the game, and of course Paul Pierce is getting the ball. So who do you have guarding Pierce? Jay Triano went with Marco Belinelli, and guess the rest: Pierce took him to the elbow and dropped an easy pull-up for the dagger
So a lot of focus is spent on how bad Jose Calderon is on D and how he can't rebound, etc. and I totally agree with most of those statements but what about the defense at the other guard spot? DeRozan is a rookie so he gets a pass, for now, on his brain farts but what's Marco's excuse?
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