February 6th - Washington Wizards..... the most important game of the season.

[Joey]

This is exactly why I thought the Raptors would have no shot at the playoffs - they are too f'ing inconsistent.

I figured they wouldn't make it solely based off looking at the Roster. haha

But seriously, Talent-wise, Washington IS superior to the Raptors. There's no doubt in my mind about that.
Even with Bargs in the line-up I'd almost be inclined to make the same claim.

When these Washington Douchebags actually focus and play as a team, they're pretty damn good.

[RandomGuy]

Relax, they will catch up. They should.

[mcHAPPY]

Jack made a good point which sort of hints at what where my mind was coming in to the game.

Versus teams plus .500, the Raps are 1-14.
Versus teams under .500, the Raps are 7-3.

At this point in time, compete with the good teams and beat the shit teams. That is what I am looking for this year. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.......

[Joey]

7 point game ... Never know ...

[Joey]

BAYLESS!!! Dude is Clutch. This is why I love his conscious-less shooting. Once he hones it and brings it consistently, he will be DEADLY. PG or SG. Yes, granted, he needs to pass from time to time, but you can't tell this guy not to shoot when he's hot. When he's hot, he's HOT.

Jack is making some good points about his shooting.

ADD
And then he hits ANOTHER one. Geezus. 2 Point game!

[Joey]

Kleiza with the shot! BANK IS OPEN!

[Joey]

And thats why Bayless has value as a PG, in my opinion. His quick first step in the Pick and Roll is VERY tough to guard.

[Joey]

Oh MY! Johnson with the BLOCK?! This game has been ridiculous!

(I didn't get this Block in Fantasy! The Boxscore isn't reflecting it! WTF?!)

[Joey]

Well Matt, you wanted to see Heart and Pride and Toughness and Stick-to-it-iveness? Hows this game for ya?! haha Loving it! Too bad they weren't playing like this in the first half though!

[Joey]

I'm fine with that Loss. I was highly entertained for the evening, and we get one game closer to a better pick.

[mcHAPPY]

Well Matt, you wanted to see Heart and Pride and Toughness and Stick-to-it-iveness? Hows this game for ya?! haha Loving it! Too bad they weren't playing like this in the first half though!

I'd like the "Heart and Pride and Toughness and Stick-to-it-iveness" at a level relative to the NBA.

This was on par with a grade school girls basketball game - missed boxed out on free throw, unable to squeeze the ball on misses, poor point-to-wing passes, missed free throws, poor execution when it mattered.

The Raptors had no business being in this game but that just speaks to how dreadful the Wizards are. They might have talented prospects but all young players out of the league were a talented prospect not so long ago. The only person on the Wizards a keeper is Wall. Everyone else is expendable.


The only highlight of this game, for me, was Kleiza - despite his 4 missed free throws.

Jack Armstrong said it best, and I paraphrase:

"So you competed against the HEAT yesterday and you lost. You bring that same effort and intensity to the next game. You come in here tonight with a team that you should beat and you're down 15 at the half. Poor habits evident by Raptors players as a collective group and extremely unprofessional."


I'm glad the Raptors didn't quit like the first game in Washington. However, they never should have let themselves get in the position they were.


40 games left.

[Joey]

Or that. "Grade school girls", Matt? Really? They fought back from a deficit and made a game of it.

And why should we beat Washington? Why should we have expected a win tonight? I don't think theres any team in the league we as fans should expect this team to beat on any given night. Especially not without Bargs.
We should expect them to compete, and they did. On the fourth game in six nights, it took them a while to get going; but they brought it when it counted and made a game of it. I don't see why anyone would be disappointed by this game, unless they expected a win coming in.

And the only highlight was Kleiza? You REALLY don't like Bayless, eh? haha

[Jclaw]

how the f$&# do you read the tea leaves on that one? Bad enough to play that first half...good enough to play that second half? I guess that's why I birdie one hole and get a snowman on the next. Competitive games with Bargnani on the bench? I'll take that. This team has very much the vibe of the 2005 team that managed to compete but find a way to lose a ton of games (and convert the 5th worst record into the first pick). Bring it on.

[NoPropsneeded]

i really hate washington now. These are considered rivalry games for me, the way they play and try and act all tough just pisses me off. Their team is full of queers and dumb asses. If we had brought the intensity that we had from yesterdays game this would have been a blowout in our favor. I don't mind if we lose against a big time team but we should be talking these retards to school. Sorry for the course language I'm just really pissed

[mcHAPPY]

Or that. "Grade school girls", Matt? Really? They fought back from a deficit and made a game of it.

And why should we beat Washington? Why should we have expected a win tonight? I don't think theres any team in the league we as fans should expect this team to beat on any given night. Especially not without Bargs.
We should expect them to compete, and they did. On the fourth game in six nights, it took them a while to get going; but they brought it when it counted and made a game of it. I don't think anyone should be disappointed by this game. Sure there were some missed assignments, but those are things that GOOD teams do when it matters.

And the only highlight was Kleiza? You just REALLY don't like Bayless, eh?

Were the errors they made not the basics? DeMar and Amir let a rookie get a rebound off a missed free throw with the game on the line? The Raptors struggling to inbound the ball on the sideline - first one players didn't realize ball given to teammate, second poor execution. Bayless throws the ball to a white jersey trying to get it to Kleiza? Magloire unable to squeeze the ball with just under 7 seconds in OT off free throw miss? I could go on......


Why should Toronto beat Washington? Because, as a team, the Raps played like sh!t and still had a chance to win. They have 8 rookies or second year players. The Raptors, while young, have much more NBA experience, are older, and have (supposedly) many more brain cells. Also they were 7-3 against teams under .500 this season before this game. The Raptors aren't the worst of the worst so they shouldn't play like it as they did tonight.


A team that is in a rebuild and clearly lacking talent needs to play balls out night in and night out. The Raptors, had they done that, would have won by 25. For all the talk about rebuilding versus building, in my opinion, you see building when you show up to beat a shit team after losing a tough one versus tough competition and blowing the same team out 3 nights earlier.


Bayless: 9-23, 3 assists, 6 fouls. He hit big shots but he took a lot of shots. He took a number of shots, like the one with 2:57 remaining in the 4th quarter that he missed, that if they go in great but when you miss it was clearly a bad shot i.e. forced shots and not within the flow of the team. Considering Kleiza was 11-15 and he had the ball in his hands the majority down the stretch, I would have liked to have seen Kleiza get some more looks besides, "Oh shit, I have nothing. You take it Linas."