This is the first game since opening night that I’ve legitimately been excited to watch. While I’m not sure what Colangelo’s plans for this team are over the next 9 months or so, but he pulled off the best trade of his Raptor tenure. While Jack may have been the best player in the deal, he turned Jack/Banks/Andersen into an asset (Peja’s expiring) that was greater than the parts it was traded for, and Bayless who should be giving us a couple years of frustration. If nothing else, we have a couple months of trade machine until the deadline.

Tonight, the Raptors host the Sixers at the ACC, and hope to extend the winning streak to 4-games for the first time since January of last season. Without even getting into it, I expect a win tonight for a couple reasons:

1. Sixers suck
2. Sixers suck on the road
3. Sixers sucked last night in Washington (back-to-back)
4. We’ve already beaten them

This the second time these teams have played in a week (it was the Sixers who got the Raptors started on this mini-winning streak), where the Raptors were able to keep the game close, then pull it out in the 4th. Bargnani came out the games gangbusters, but did a solid job of maintaining his effectiveness for the game. Arsenalist described the game the best:

“This game was a war of attrition between a poor Philly offense and a bad Raptors defense. Something had to give and it ended up being the Philly defense as a very motivated Andrea Bargnani kept demanding the ball right up until the end and delivered when he got it.”

Injury Report

Toronto
Ed Davis – On the mend

Philadelphia
Andre Iguodala – Achilles, Played last night
Elton Brand – May be suspended

Match-ups

PG – Calderon vs Holiday
Holiday is coming off a rough game against the Wizards last night where he went 4-12 from the field, but grabbed 6 rebounds and dished out 5 dimes. I like this kid, but he’s too up and down, and considering he threw in a bad performance last night, and the three days rest Jose got, this could be a long night for the kid. I ugh…don’t have a whole lot for this one, other than the bench could have a big impact on this one. Lou Williams stunk last week, but had a big night last night, and Bayless is coming in pretty wet behind the ears. I expect Calderon to play 32+ minutes tonight, and with his ability to manage the offense, he should have a strong game if he keeps active on offense, and doesn’t give Holiday anything easy.
Edge: Calderon

SG – DeRozan vs Turner
Triano will be experimenting with minutes to get the right mix, but if DeRozan is having another bad game, you can expect to see Barbosa (and Weems in certain match-ups) play some here. Turner hasn’t been shooting well, and his offense has suffered, but he was able to pull down 12 rebounds last week against the Raps. I don’t expect to see that again, but the Raptors will need to stay alert and not let the Philly backcourt catch their second wind tonight and lead their offense since their front line players struggle to create shots for themselves. If Lou Williams gets going like he did last night against the Bucks, it could open up some cracks in the paint for folks to go to work. After a few pretty games, and a couple days off, DeRozan looks good to come correct tonight. He needs to stay active and get to the line, otherwise I don’t see it working out well for him-again.
Edge: DeRozan

SF – Weems vs Igoudala
After being out a few games with an injured Achilles, Andre played 50 minutes last night and had a solid game (23pts 11rebs 8ast). He’s going to be tired and is still injured (achilles injuries take a bit more time to heal). Nocioni is playing hurt, and Weems is playing well. That’s all there is to this. Expect Thaddeus Young to get some burn after posting a couple solid performances against the Bucks and Wizards, but he’s logged quite a few minutes the last two games, so he wont be 100%. I’m liking Weems a lot lately, seems like he’s ‘gotten’ it, and is doing the right things on the court. Either way, he will be playing folks who aren’t at their best, and should have a a good go of it. I’m excited to see what Peja brings to the table tonight. I expect he should play 20+ minutes as Carlesimo Triano figures things out; this should be a nice game for him to showcase what he has left in the tank.
Edge: Weems

PF – Evans vs Brand
Brand might be suspended for this game, after being ejected last night for a flagarant. Evans will need to do a better job defending him as he had his way last week (27pts 9reb) and was really the only reason the Sixers were in the game for as long as they were. If he’s suspended, then the offense will sputter, since no one else commands enough attention in the paint to give the perimeter players room to operate; hopefully we get to see Songaila airball a couple more shots. Either way, the Raptors have the horses to win this battle.
Edge: Evans

C – Bargnani vs Hawes
Greatest. Raptor. Player. Ever.
Edge: Bargnani

**NOTE** I think this is the first time I have the Raptors winning at all five positions, without the bench needing to pick up the slack. Could be a nice game for Amir to get at it without the pressure of being a focal point with so much going on with the new players and the fact that Philly sucks.

Keys to the Game

Show up
Philly is going to be tired after going to the wire agains the Wizards, and we’re a better/deeper team than they are. Yea…

Protect the perimeter
The Sixers don’t have the horses to hurt us in the key, or the glass, so our wings will need to pay attention to their shooting. If they get going, get the adrenaline pumping early, and hit their shots, it could be a long-frustrating night. I can live with that if they protect the paint and contest shots. Communication will be huge.

Give Bargnani the ball
Il Mago is hot, lets keep feeding him and let him go to work. Philly’s got nothing to stop him, or counter him. With Jack carrying CP3′s bags now, there’s no one to look away from him when he’s got it going.

The Line

The gamblers have the Raptors as 6.5 point favourites with an over/under of 205.5 points. I’m thinking bigger things tonight; Raptors by 11.

Sorry this pre-game isn’t as good as it should be, I was super rushed this morning.

Toronto Sun

As Antoine Wright correctly pointed out in the aftermath of Toronto’s 114-101 loss to the visiting Philadelphia 76ers, there’s a chance a team that once looked to be a lock for post-season play may no longer be a playoff player.

“If we don’t change this, we’ll be looking in from the outside,” Wright said. “We can’t afford to be losing games like this. Our margin for error is so slim.

“We have to figure it out. We just can’t expect to win games by just showing up. We have to somehow find a way to channel our energy in the right place.”

It was felt the return of Chris Bosh would help solve some of the issues that plagued the Raptors heading into their matinee tip against the 76ers.

Bosh, as expected, was rusty and passive.

For whatever reason, the Raptors approached the game as some Sunday stroll against an opponent that was vulnerable, having lost eight of its past 10 games and five in succession.

Instead of a walk in the proverbial park, the Raptors got spanked.

Toronto Sun

Bosh wasn’t demanding the ball and neither was he drawing defenders like he normally does when healthy.

For only the second time this season, he didn’t make a single trip to the charity stripe.

Bosh played nearly 33 minutes and recorded his 40th double-double of the season.

“It was a little rough,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano said of Bosh’s game. “But we’ve got to play him. We have to play him through this and get him back to 100%.

“I think his timing is off a little bit. Being away for as long as he has, it’s going to take a couple of games for him to get back into a good smooth routine.”

The last time Bosh didn’t make a trip to the foul line was against the Lakers, the team the Raptors play next, in late January.

Toronto Star

"I don’t think I can fault the energy or the effort, but maybe the focus," coach Jay Triano said. "We just didn’t seem to be as locked in on this team as we should be."

Wright, who was an awful 2-for-10 from the floor in a five-point, four-rebound effort, couldn’t argue.

"I agree with him," he said. "Our energy wasn’t channelled in the right place. I guess we thought we had an easy game and we were going to catch a team in here early and just beat them.

"You can’t expect to win games just coming into them like that."

The Sixers, stumbling along at 23-39, took advantage of everything Toronto handed them. A group of fine individual talent that hasn’t yet coalesced into a good team, the Sixers took it to the Raptors one-on-one and won every battle.

Thaddeus Young, a tough matchup for Andrea Bargnani because of his quickness, went off for a career-high 32 points, Jrue Holiday had 16 and every Philadelphia starter was in double figures.

"You really have to be active help-side because they are such good one-on-one players; we got caught looking at our own guy instead of providing help," Triano said.

"It’s communication. When you don’t communicate and you’re not on the help side, I think that’s a lack of focus."

Globe and Mail

Health had been an issue all weekend. Amir Johnson, who started in Bosh’s place Friday night, was not feeling 100 per cent on Sunday, compounding Triano’s roster troubles.

Hedo Turkoglu played in Friday night’s win, but was clearly labouring on his ankle and was held out of Sunday’s matinee.

“It’s sore again today,” Triano said. “We’ve got yesterday, today and tomorrow to hopefully have him get better so that it’s something that is not going to linger for the rest of the year.”

DelcoTimes

Brand came out aggressively against Toronto’s long, gifted All-Star and set the tone by grabbing seven first-quarter rebounds.
Bosh finished with 12 points and 12 boards, but looked spaced-out at times and never really helped Toronto a great deal at either end of the court.
“Playing (center) was a little different, so I wanted to get some rebounds and push (Bosh) him out a little bit,” Brand said.
“I got in some foul trouble, but when I was out there it was fun to play with the guys who were running, rebounding and going.”
It was a lineup that, against the Raptors, who have no classic center and are the worst defensive team in the NBA, worked nicely — even if it wasn’t intentional.

Philadelphia Inquirer

"I think the team needs somebody else to step up," Holiday said. "And I’m out there, so why not me?"

The Sixers, who got a career-high 32 points from Thaddeus Young, improved to 23-39. The Raptors, paced by Jarrett Jack’s 20 points, dropped to 32-29.

Yesterday, for all of Holiday’s forehead-slapping turnovers – and there were four of them – he countered with at least three or four head-nodding plays.

Not a bad ratio.

The most noticeable of Holiday’s mistakes came with 6 minutes, 32 seconds left in the game and the Raptors trying desperately to cut into the Sixers’ double-digit lead. Holiday’s mistake was a backcourt faux pas: heroically attempting to be a one-man press breaker against three defenders. The ball, knocked loose from Holiday, was scooped up by Jack and immediately dished to teammate Jose Calderon, whose three-pointer made the score 94-87.

Gulp.

Sixers coach Eddie Jordan immediately called a time-out and looked at Holiday as if the rookie had crashed his car.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Toronto power forward Reggie Evans, traded last summer by the Sixers to the Raptors for forward Jason Kapono, offered a little perspective on his old team before yesterday’s game.

"From a friendship standpoint, knowing those are my homeboys and stuff, and knowing we had a good on-the-court, off-the-court there, it’s kind of like, ‘Damn, what the hell they got going there?’ " Evans said of the Sixers, who improved to 23-39 yesterday. "But it’s different: They have to learn a whole new system, a whole new coaching staff, and everything is different there now."

Evans scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Philadelphia Daily News

Former Sixer forward Reggie Evans was traded to the Raptors in the offseason for Jason Kapono but still keeps an eye on is former team.

"I think me and Andre Miller were a big help to the team," he said. "They’ve got a lot of new faces now – from the coaching staff to the players. Things just look different over there now. They’re really offensive-minded, they’re not really disciplined right now. There was a balance on defense and offense. We were poised. We knew at any time we could get things rolling. But now, everything is just different over there."

Evans has become a fan favorite among the Toronto base. Oftentimes during games, the crowd will bellow "We want Reggie,” although he missed the first 51 games of the season with a left midfoot sprain.

"It wasn’t surprising at all," Evans said of becoming so beloved. "I come out there real aggressive. It just shows that hard work pays off. A lot of these fans work 9-to-5. They work their jobs, get their salary and they’re working hard. They spend their extra dollars to get a ticket, they at least want to see some hard work out there. They appreciate hard work."

Philadelphia Daily News

The Sixers extended the lead to as much as 13 points in the first quarter, aided by their good shooting and some bad aim by the Raptors, who missed eight of their first 11 shots. But Toronto has made a living of performing huge comebacks, as they’ve won nine games this season after trailing by double figures. Sure enough, it was 24-24 after the first.

But in the middle two quarters, the Sixers shot 24-for-37 (65 percent) and outscored the Raptors by a 65-51 margin. And then they relied on Holiday and Young to close things out.

"I think he’s doing a good job of understanding his game within the NBA game," Iguodala said of Holiday. "He had a problem with coming down and taking a shot with his toes on the line a lot with 20 seconds on the shot clock. I think he has a great understanding about that, he’s really changed it up. Instead of shooting those shots he now shoots open shots after a few passes and getting the whole team within the offense. He’s grown tremendously throughout this year. Hopefully he continues to grow."

Iguodala finished with 16 points, 10 assists and six rebounds. Lou Williams also hit double figures with 12.

Globe and Mail

“I’m not talking about the west coast trip,” Wright said, when asked whether the Raptors non-competitive approach to a game at the Air Canada Centre bode ill for a four-game trip that begins tomorrow night against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Milwaukee’s playing great,” Wright continued. “Chicago’s playing great. There’s really not much room for error. You can find yourself going from fifth to seventh quick. You don’t want to be in a position where you have to fight your way in.” After missing six games with a sprained left ankle and another one due to dehydration, Chris Bosh played 32 minutes and 52 seconds and was 6-for-14 without making a trip to the line – although that latter statistic can be chalked up to post-injury lack of rhythm and some understandable tentativeness. Andrea Bargnani had another sleepy day in another one of those insipid noon starts and with Hedo Turkoglu (sore ankle) actually absent in body and not just in mind, the 76ers’ raw physical skills were too much for the Raptors.

“Long and active,” as head coach Jay Triano described them, the 76ers had 30 fast-break points. As for his own team? “I can’t fault their energy and effort,” said Triano, “but maybe their focus.” Inexcusable, that.

Amy Clark’s Blog

Something about the Toronto Raptors attracts you to them, but once you see them play it might turn you off. Although they once had a good streak going at one time, now it’s as though something has changed inside them. Losing five games in a row is something big to happen; even when Bosh is back you still need to carry your own weight as well.

Each player needs to be able to contribute even if you may be benched you still need to have the faith and compassion to take home the win. You need to put everything you have into it all the time, or what is the point in trying to win. With not coming out on top for five games, you would think they would take this as a sign.

But instead they keep throwing in towel while walking into each game thinking they don’t need to try that they will just win. The team has to be able to pull together as one, and show that they are team not individual players. ¬

JoseManuelCalderon.com

We’re three-quarters of the way through the 2009-2010 schedule AND the Academy Awards were held last night. So, using the world-famous awards show as the premise for this blog, it’s time for another edition of "8 Questions for Number 8" .

The Score

Now in Los Angeles, the Raptors will face the Lakers, Sacramento, Golden State and Portland before heading back home to the ACC. That’s a tough road trip when you’re playing well and they’ll have to face the teams as they try to re-integrate Chris Bosh into the offence while Bosh himself tries to work himself back into shape.

- While he’s only missed seven games, the last date he had played before yesterday was February 17th. That’s a chunk of time to be out of game action. It’ll take him a couple of days/games to get his wind back and legs underneath him.

Toronto Sun

“I was hurting,’’ Bosh began to recall following Saturday’s practice. “I crunched over a few times.”

For purely precautionary reasons, Bosh was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was given an intravenous and later discharged.

Medically speaking, Bosh had a stomach virus and was suffering from dehydration.

Bosh means so much to the team and is asked to do so much that news of his admission to hospital spread like wildfire.

“E-mails, text messages, it seemed like they were coming from all over the world,’’ Bosh said.

The way some would have you believe, Bosh was on life support.

The good news is that Bosh did practise with the Raptors on Saturday and is expected to make his return to the court on Sunday afternoon.

The bad news is that Bosh looked tired and weak when he met with reporters, which is understandable in the wake of Friday’s ordeal.

Toronto Sun

The book on the Sixers isn’t very deep because they rely so much on creating tempo and scoring in transition. They can’t make perimeter shots and recently haven’t been able to make any stops. If you contain the Sixers from pushing the ball, teams will win. Philly should be contending for the playoffs, but instead it’s heading toward a lottery pick. The feel-good story of Allen Iverson’s return is now history, Andrea Iguodala can’t make a three-point shot and if Philly is forced into a half-court game, it can’t win. Prior to last month’s all-star break, the Sixers paid a visit to the ACC and tied the game with 2:06 left. The Raptors then ended the night by going on an 11-0 run. Lou Williams kept his team in it until crunch time by scoring 14 of his game-high 26 points in the final quarter.

Toronto Star

The whole saga began when Bosh woke up Friday feeling out of sorts. He couldn’t handle even looking at his breakfast of granola and when his brother broke out the bacon and eggs, "I just wanted to get him away from me," he said.

His plan was to "miss shootaround, take a nap, take some medicine and be fine for the night but it just never subsided."

That plan didn’t work out.

The discomfort didn’t go away.

He needed some fluids, got them at the hospital and was no worse for wear when he went though a light practice with his teammates Saturday afternoon.

He fully expects to be in uniform Sunday, returning from a seven-game absence to play against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Air Canada Centre.

"We’ll probably have to monitor his minutes and monitor his effort out there," said coach Jay Triano. "He’ll play and go hard for as long as he can. He’ll need a blow and then we’ll put him back in there."

Toronto Star

KEY MATCHUP

DeRozan vs. Williams

The Sixers guard went off against Toronto the last time the teams met, getting easy baskets in transition. DeRozan had a solid game Friday but will have to be at his best defensively to give his team a chance.

Khandors Sports Blog

If the Raptors can secure another W tomorrow afternoon, at home against the still struggling 76ers, it would ensure that Toronto [32-28] will be able to return to the cozy confines of the ACC [22-9] for Games 66 and 67 on their schedule, against Atlanta [40-21; Away/15-14] and Oklahoma [37-24; Away/17-13], respectively, no worse than 1 game above the .500 mark [i.e. if they somehow manage to go O-for on their road trip].

Loaded Orygun

Sidebarring with the East for a moment, there are three of them and all feature teams not much better than Sacto and the Warriors: Raptors, Wiz, Knicks. Bosh will probably be back for the Toronto game, but as long as Camby and Roy play the Blazers have the horses to win at the Garden. Washington and NYC should be gimmes, although both teams beat Portland in their place. The season is long over for them, and a West Coast swing is a drainer. The Raps will be on a back to back, and the Knicks in the 5th day of a killer 9 day swing.

So look–out of 18 games, fully eight of them could fairly be considered safe wins, as safely as any win can be predicted. That’s an enormous start. When you need 13 to get to 50, what can you expect from these eight? Seven? Six at worst? You’d hope so. Let’s say six. That leaves seven of 10 from the rest, a tall order given the competition…but doable. Let’s look.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Raptors all-star forward Chris Bosh is expected to play today. After missing six straight games with a sprained ankle, he missed Friday’s game against the New York Knicks with a stomach virus. Bosh, who is averaging 26 points, 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists against the Sixers, practiced yesterday.

Should Bosh play, the Sixers’ immediate goal will be stopping him. Their long-term goal, however, is maturing as a unit.

"We just have to go out there and try to get better," forward Elton Brand said. "That’s what it’s all about. We got a lot of young guys. You look around. There’s not a lot of guys over 25 on the team.

"So they need the minutes. They are going to get better. And the veteran guys need to go out and play their hearts out, also."

Toronto Sun

If you are Chris Bosh, it makes sense to leave the Raptors for a chance to play with LeBron James or Dwyane Wade in Miami or Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. But if he can’t manage any of those moves, he’s best to stay in Toronto and be the big fish in the small pond … Under the department of laughable: Career advice from Tracy McGrady, who may play his entire NBA life without winning a playoff round. Still have to wonder, after all these years, what would have happened if McGrady and Vince Carter had committed to playing together in Toronto: What would have been possible? … For the second year in a row, Bryan Colangelo’s big money off-season acquisition bombs. Last year, Jermaine O’Neal. This year, Hedo Turkoglu. The difference, though, is that Colangelo’s smaller moves, picking up Jarrett Jack, Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson, Antoine Wright, have worked out just fine … Almost one season in and I have no clue what to think of DeMar DeRozan. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect more from the Raptors’ first-round pick. Not sure if he’ll ever be more than just another NBA guy … Rumbling that won’t go away: The historically pitiful Los Angeles Clippers will not only go hard after LeBron in free agency, but will offer him a future piece of ownership of the club.

Beleaguered Sports Fan

McGrady chased the bigger money and the opportunity to be the number one guy on the team, something he couldn’t do with his cousin Vince in Toronto.  Bosh is already the number one guy in T.O. and can make $30 million more if he re-signs here than he can anywhere else.

The story bookends nicely saying that “McGrady, meanwhile, eventually decided the pull of his native Florida,” and “money he recognized” was “too much to ignore”.

McGrady was here for three years.  Bosh seven.  McGrady deceived then general manager Glen Grunwald into thinking he would re-sign here.  Chris Bosh has made it clear that he is undecided, and GM Bryan Colangelo knows the risks involved in not trading Bosh when he had a chance.

There is really nothing to compare here.  It’s just another slow news day.  Another chance to manufacture a story that unfortunately stokes the already growing fire of speculation about Bosh’s apparent desire to leave Toronto.

For fans, it’s just another day at the office.

Depressed Fan

Dalembert vs. Bargnani – Maybe the defining matchup of the game. Sammy is going to have to really do a good job on the high pick and roll, making sure not to leave Bargnani open for threes. He also needs to dominate the glass in his limited minutes.
Bench – Reggie Evans is all the rage in Toronto these days. Expect to see the crowd go nuts when he comes on the floor. They’ve also got Jose Calderon as their backup PG, and Calderon can really shoot the ball. I’m not sure exactly what to expect from the Sixers’ bench, other than 30+ minutes for Willie Green. I’ll give the edge to a depleted Toronto bench, I guess.

In this episode of LCN, our host Colin Alschotz hooks up with hardcore Raptors fan-addict at the final Raps game before the 2010 All-Star break and celebrates the official Raptors debut of Reggie Evans against his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

To honour Reggie “Ball Grabber” Evans’ first regular season game as a Raptor, we question whether he would play more minutes than former Raptor Jason Kapono. In preparation for the All-Star Dunk Contest, we find out whether Raps fan-addicts think Demar DeRozan is a better dunker than Andre Iguodala. We also ask fans to give us their rating of the job Raps President/GM Bryan Colangelo has done in building this team. Finally, our mystery question relates to the craziness that happens at the annual mid-season spectacle that is NBA All-Star weekend!

We want to give huge shout-outs to everyone that contributed to the making of this series, especially: Colin Alschotz for the on-screen presence; Birdman for the directing and editing; D&L Productions for the original music; LyNx for the graphics; BigMac (Rexdale) for the game footage, and MLSE for putting the product on the court.

Raps fans get ready cuz we’re making LOUD CROWD NOISE!!!

A 23 point lead evaporated while the arena was chanting for Reggie Evans to check back into the game; but the Raptors withstood a furious rally from the Sixers to win the last game of the ‘first’ half of the season. It was a game of runs; Toronto had two to take the lead, and Philly went on one to get back into the game. At the end, it was Bargnani who was involved on every big play down the stretch who brought it home.

Anyone else think that if Philly held on to Andre Miller that they would be right there with the Raptors this season? Lou Williams isn’t really a PG, Jrue Holiday is learning and Iverson is Iverson. Miller has always been a thorn in our side…always…but I digress.

Jrue really brought (and finally gave me something this season for one of my fantasy leagues) it to Jack early and hard, dropping 4 dimes in the 1st quarter, all of which resulted in a WIDE open look for a Philly player who knocked it down. These quick point guards still give us a lot of problems, and the only way to deal with it, is to deal with it . It’s easier on nights when you play the Holidays of the league, but when you get the Pauls, Harris’ and Parkers, things get interesting.

The Raptors paced Philly early until Calderon checked in at the 2:27 mark, and just unleashed alley-oop hell on earth. On four consecutive plays, the Raptors went back door, and Calderon found them with perfect passes for dunks or layups. It felt like a video game it was that good. He even finished a layup in traffic to end the quarter. I know I keep saying this, but this is the role for Calderon, and he SHOULDN’T be traded unless we get a game changing starting wing for him. Anything less is unacceptable.

Reggie Evans has attained cult like status without playing a minute of ball this season, and when he saw the floor to a roar from the crowd, he didn’t disappoint. God bless him-his offensive game is as ugly as sin, but he fights hard. In 5 minutes he gave us 2pts 3rebs 1ast 1stl and this…

Apparently grabbing a dudes nut-sac is a good defensive strategy to throw them off their game…

Where I perked up off my seat was the 3rd quarter, where Toronto went on two runs to take a commanding lead, and Philly finished on a run to set the stage for a 4th quarter Rally. For some reason Eddie Jordan opted for small ball and went with Royal Ivey over Elton Brand, and was too proud to change it up when things started to go from bad to worse. In fact, he wouldn’t even call a timeout, forcing them play through it – I use play loosely, they just ran around mostly.

The Raptors started the quarter on an 17-7 run. The offense was coming in the paint, or from drive-and-kicks to an open shooter. DeRozan and Weems anchored the defense, and were all over Ivey and Green; stealing the ball, getting a hand in the passing lanes, contesting shots and drawing fouls. They had the perimeter on lock down to the point where I had totally forgotten about Turkoglu.

This whole time, not one timeout was called by Jordan, and if that was Triano, my eye would have popped out of my head. At some point, you need settle things down and focus the guys. By the time he called a timeout, the Raptors were on a 26-12 run, with 1:47 left in the quarter. So all the Raptors had to do was to maintain for under 2 minutes, get to the 4th and put them away…but no, Eddie decided to coach.

Brand and Smith checked in the game, and Lou Williams was given the red light. The result of which was a 10-2 run to close out the quarter with the exclamation mark coming with Jason Smith blocking Belinelli at the rim with a second left in the quarter. That my friends is how you close out quarters.

The furious ralley continued in the 4th with a quick 6-2 run for the Sixers, and the lead dwindled to 11, bringing the run to 16-4 from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 4th. From there, it was chip and charge. The Raptors were out of any rhythm and just couldn’t knock down the looks they were getting. Things got worse when Jack entered the game, and any fluid offensivability (I just coined a new word) the Raptors displayed in the 3rd went to the crapper.

For exactly three minutes, the Raptors offense was the worse I’ve seen it all season. The ball wasn’t being moved around, no one was moving, and every attempt was a desperation one with the shot clock winding down. Thaddeus Young ties the game up with a jumper, and my heart literally dropped into my stomach while I sunk into my couch until the amazing happened: Calderon draws a foul behind the arc, and the ball hops around a couple times until going through the hoop – 4 point play.

Bargnani closed out the game with a clutch three (what else is new), a couple free throws, a block on Iguadala at the 3 point line, some solid defense on Lou Williams on the perimeter and some boxing out in the paint to wrap it up. Done deal, the Raptors go into the All-Star break with a 29-23 record.

We’re heading into All-Star weekend, where Chris Bosh and DeMar DeRozan will be holding it down for Toronto. We have partnered with Dime Magazine to bring some exclusive interviews/images/videos from the game, skills competitions and after parties through the weekend. Make sure to check back regularly to stay updated. If you have a question for Bosh or DeRozan, ask them here, and we will do our best to get them answered. One love baby.

We’ve come this far without any significant production from our main off-season signing and banking on him to find his game and carry his weight could be too much to risk for Colangelo, especially if it threatens another first-round exit. The options at SF remain extremely thin with Antoine Wright second in the depth chart. Making a move for a high-caliber player such as Caron Butler or Josh Howard (although he has regressed) would involve parting with a strength, likely Jose Calderon. A move like that would be lateral at best because you’re giving up someone who has proven to work well within the offense for another X-Factor that’ll require time to gel. Do we really want to go that route again?

Unless a team is willing to take on Turkoglu in return, there’s no reason to add another expensive scorer at the position by giving up a great locker-room guy like Jose Calderon. There is one exception: Andre Iguodala. I consider him to be in a different tier than Howard or Butler who is a good scorer but a suspect defender. Iguodala is locked into a $13.5M deal till 2012-13 with a player option the following year. Giving up on Jose Calderon here is a no-brainer as we would’ve acquired the perfect complement to Bosh. Iguodala would take over starting SG duties with DeRozan backing him up and Belinelli sharing ball-handling duties. In fact, this trade works with or without Johnson and we could throw in a pick to sweeten the pot. With Evans coming back from injury, there is a contingency plan to fill the void left by Johnson and we get a ball-handler in Ivey.

Targeting Iguodala, 26, is more viable than going after Howard or Butler who are both 29. If we’re thinking of finally partnering Bosh up with an All-Star caliber player, having similar career-windows is a big bonus. However, making a play for Iguodala will be tough as the Suns have reportedly offered Stoudemire in exchange for him and Dalembert. There’s also Houston which is offering Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract for the same package. As a Raptor fan you have to wonder how great it would be right now to have Jermaine O’Neal and his $23M expiring contract around. Oh, to think about it.

Josh Howard is the type of player that’ll take this team nowhere. He’s a good scorer but he’s far from the impact player that we would need and I’d be reluctant to break up our PG-combo just for him. There’s also little reason for Dallas to be interested in Jose Calderon since they already have Jason Kidd locked in till the 2011-12 season. Kidd’s playing 36mpg which doesn’t leave much ball-handling for Jose to do. The Mavericks boast Jason Terry as their SG which makes me doubt they’ll play Calderon over him; with Jose Barea doing a good job of backing up Kidd, the Mavericks (5th best in the league in protecting the ball) have no incentive of altering their PG setup. Make no mistake, the Mavericks want Bosh and nothing else, that’s not going to happen. Howard does have a team-option for next year so trading for him could mean cap relief to sign a free-agent as early as this summer.

Caron Butler has had an off year. His scoring average has dipped by 4 points, his assists have been halved at 2.2 and his FG% and 3P% have taken a dive. This could be a case where Washington wants to clean the house up a little and would be willing to sell players at lower values. Butler’s play certainly hasn’t helped the sale and whoever acquires him will know that this year is an anomaly and not the norm. Butler’s on the hook for $10M till 2010-11 and is in desperate need for a change of scenery. How he might fit in with the Raptors is anybody’s guess, but I just don’t see it happening at the SG as that’s a position he just hasn’t played in Washington. As I already said, Hedo would need to go.

Kevin Martin’s name was being bounced around last month and that’s because Tyreke Evans and him can’t seem to play together and the Kings are 2-13 in games the two have started. Sacramento is doing a proper rebuild and is looking for financial relief (on the hook for $12M per till 2012/13) more than talent, and that’s something we can’t provide, nor would we want to because Kevin Martin is an overpaid one-dimensional player that will always start for a losing team.

Other than the big names, there are options like Mike Miller and Troy Murphy, both playing with teams well out of the playoff race. There’s an element of redundancy with acquiring Troy Murphy as we’ve already got Andrea Bargnani, but the rebounding and three-point shooting he would provide as part of the second unit is attractive. Miller’s a legitimate 40% shooter but we’ve already got an equally good but less consistent model in Belinelli. To bolster the second unit we could also look at Marcin Gortat in Orlando who isn’t happy with his playing time, not sure if we would offer more than 13 minutes but he would provide some good screens and consistent rebounding. The contract is a mess, though, approximately $7M till 2013-14. Here are a couple of creative ways of getting Biedrins without giving up part of our core.

Leaving talent and salary alone for a bit, the issue with this team continues to be lack of leadership, discipline and consistent effort. I don’t know how much of that Reggie Evans will solve, but a shrewd pickup would be someone who could keep this team in check. A verbal veteran that’s a bit of a psychopath, can’t really think of anyone. The need for defense is there but it would have to be an almost perfect move for one player to make a noticeable difference in that area (mind you that we are top 12 in defense for the last 25 games). Defensively, we are what we are. Other than effort there is no tweak that we can make which will fix our defensive woes, we have to overcome that problem by playing solid team defense instead of solely relying on man-coverage, something we’ve done a good job of late.

We’re 0-3 against the C**tics, 1-3 against the Magic and 0-2 against the Hawks. The team as it is would have trouble in a matchup against any of those teams and Colangelo will take that into account. If the goal is to rack up regular season wins, the current team can do that to the satisfaction of the fan base, if the goal is to excel in the playoffs, we will obviously fall short. That’s the reason I feel that a move is coming.

I’m not mad/upset/disgusted/disappointed/etc at the loss tonight. Sure Vegas had the Raptors as 8 point underdogs, but anyone with any sense wouldn’t bet on the Raptors unless they are playing the bottom of the barrel teams in the league. The fact of the matter is that the Blazers are a top echelon team, and the Raptors can’t beat anyone when only Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal (and VL to a lesser extent) show up.

Am I the only person who hates watching Blazer games? “What could have been” seems to be a recurring theme with the Raptors:

• Pass on Iguodala
• Pass on Bynum
• Pass on Granger, twice
• Pass on Roy
• Pass on Alrdidge
• Pass on Gay

Portland is especially upsetting for me, since they have TWO of the young studs the Raptors passed on when they took VL with the # 1 pick. Sorry to tangent, but that was the only thing I could think about during the game. It wasn’t so much Aldridge being a handful on the glass and on the offensive end, but what Roy was doing in the 3rd and 4th quarter, wow. How many clutch shots did the guy hit inside 18ft? 5? 6? How many of the same looks are you gonna give the guy? Can’t really blame the players on this one, there really isn’t anyone who can give Roy, or any solid 2/3 in the league, any problems on the defensive end.

“Obviously, a player like Brandon Roy, when he gets going, he’s pretty hard to stop”

Yea, you are right Kapono, but it is hard to stop the dude when you keep doing the same thing over and over and over; when he takes the same shot, off the same looks over and over and over.

“We tried different guys, we tried double-teaming him, and he threw it out,” Triano said. “We ran and we blitzed him. We had two different guys on him any time there was a screen.”

I personally didn’t see any of that. Maybe they talked about doing it, but it never materialized. Sure Roy has the ball in his hands a lot, but how about trying to DENY him the ball, just one time, force him baseline, make him pass the ball, clothesline him, trash talk him, a mama joke;  see how it works out. We know we can’t stop the guy when he has the ball, try not letting have the ball. The result can’t be any worse.

True to form, the Raptors come out of the corner swining, taking an 8 point lead into the half. Would have been 11, but Outlaw willed a 70 footer at the buzzer. It sucked the life out of the Raptors. Whatever fatigue they were feeling from being on the second game of a back-to-back, it was amplified with that hail-mary. A play like that shouldn’t determine the outcome of a game, but it did, and the writing was on the wall at the point.

“Nope, no, no, I don’t think so…maybe it did something to them, but it didn’t hurt us.”

Was Triano’s response when asked about  Outlaw’s miracle heave. I totally disagree, that hail-mary WAS the game changer. The Raptors should have finished the 2nd quarter on an run to push the lead to 11, but divine intervention cut it to a single digit lead. The Raptors shot 20% from the field and managed only 10 points int he 3rd quarter in what was possibly the worse quarter in the franchise history.The frail Raptors psyche can’t take hits like that.

On a positive note, Bosh (29pts 9rebs) and O’Neal (17pts 4rebs) had good showings on the same night. I’m still concerned that good offensive nights from O’Neal come at Bosh’s expense, but on nights when they are the only two to bother showing up, there are lots of shots for both. O’Neal carried the load in the 1st quarter, and Bosh for the second half. But how innefective is the Raptors interior/dribble penetration game? Let’s just say against a team that isn’t known as a defensive force, the Raptors managed 12 foul shots the entire game, 11 were taken by Bosh. Jumper after jumper after jumper…you get the picture. Macmillan said:

“Great shooting team, you know, they can put the ball in the basket, they have an inside presence and they can shoot the ball on the perimeter”

I’m convinced the league just ignores the Raptors on a daily basis. Why is this all they say about the Raptors? ‘Great shooting team’, to me, means that every game, you see high-quality shots being taken and made. Every game. What we see every game, is a high-number of shots being taken, some get made, the others just clanked off the back of the rim.

Shots by Quarter:

1st Quarter – 10-19
2nd Quarter – 9-18
3rd Quarter – 2-13
4th Quarter – 4-7

6 made field goals in the second half? 11 shots in the 4th quarter when you are trying to compete and steal one on the road? Are you seriously kidding me? Roy made more field goals on his own in the last 6 minutes of the game then the Raptors mustered in entire second half. It wasn’t like the Blazers were playing suffocating defense either, Raptors just couldn’t step up and do anything. I sound like a broken record, but aren’t moments like this when Bosh should  take over? Isn’t he the franchise? Can’t he make a couple shots in the 2nd half, do something? Anything? Is he tired? Checked-out? Misses Smitch? What? What is wrong with him? Sure he had a statistically solid game, but how is that everytime when push comes-to-shove, the ‘other’ teams franchise almost always steps up and makes things happen that puts his team in a position to win, and Bosh does that far too regularly for a guy to be mentioned in the same breath as Lebron, Wade and Kobe (even Carmelo, dude is clutch).

Again, I’m not mad/upset/disgusted/disappointed/etc at the loss tonight. Sure Vegas had the Raptors as 8 point underdogs, but anyone with any sense wouldn’t bet on the Raptors unless they are playing the bottom of the barrel teams in the league.

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Free Ukic!

1. Bosh/O’Neal/Bargnani to outplay Brand/Dalembert/Evans
2. How many times Rautins mentions Dalembert, and what he says when he does mention him
3. The Raptor wings play tough defense on Iguadala, Speights and Young
4. Calderon to turn Miller into a jump shooter
5. Moon TO toke it to the rack more then he pops jumpers
6. For Kapono to be used correctly
7. Bosh to set the offensive tone by driving and not shooting his jumper
8. If Joey Graham sees the floor, I want to him to pretend he’s a professional basketball player
9. Mitchell to call a timeout to squash a potential run, not when the run has already been made
10. See more from the raptors then what I saw in the pre-season

Tune in next time when I list my Top 10 things I want to see Colangelo dress up as for Halloween.

As you finished watching this game the taste in your mouth was probably the Raptors’ fightback falling just short, but it shouldn’t be. It should be the miserable third quarter where we got outscored 34-16 and didn’t play a lick of defense or showed any intensity. Philly on the other end couldn’t do any wrong, maybe the prospect of getting swept by their division mates was motivation enough to step things up – I sure hope the Raptors feel the same way coming up in Boston. After the Hawks game I was relieved that the third quarter bug didn’t finish us off but last night it took us out in cold blood.

One of the problems with the Raptors is that if things come easy for them early, they turn their level of play down and almost feel that their early success will be extrapolated over the entire game. It didn’t matter that we played well in spurts in the first half and the fourth quarter, the game was decided in the third where we couldn’t buy a rebound or a stop, and I don’t remember anybody fighting through a screen or rotating properly which resulted in open lanes to the rim for Dalembert and Iguodala. This is the quarter where it felt like Philly got an offensive rebound every time they missed a shot and converted on their second chance. Kris Humphries or Andrea Bargnani couldn’t keep Philly of the boards and even the reliable Bosh fell asleep on box outs. We went ice cold from the field and made bad passes that were picked off, here’s the offensive stretch to finish off the third quarter. It was like we got hit by a train.

4:46 Jamario Moon misses layup
4:43 Jamario Moon makes tip shot
4:13 Jose Calderon misses layup
3:13 Chris Bosh misses 16-foot jumper
2:33 Rasho Nesterovic misses 13-foot jumper
2:06 Chris Bosh bad pass (Andre Iguodala steals)
1:50 Jason Smith blocks Juan Dixon's layup
1:28 Joey Graham misses 15-foot jumper
0:51 Jamario Moon misses 23-foot three point jumper

If you notice more than a 24 second difference between offensive possessions it’s probably because Philly was owning us on the offensive boards on the other end. When the third finally ended, we were down by 20 and the game was practically over. Juan Dixon and CB4 led a fourth quarter fight back which would’ve been almost complete had Anthony Parker drained a left-wing three but God was smiling on Philly and it rimmed out. Bosh explained why the comeback fell short:

“It was just way too big of a deficit. Being the team we are, we’re going to try to force the issue and come back until the end, but you can’t dig a hole that big and expect to climb out.”

Game over, week wasted. Let me tell you why.

This was supposed to be an easier week for us and good judgment told us that we should go 3-1 and go 2 more games over .500. Instead we finish 2-2 and completely waste the golder opportunity to climb in the standings, it’s like we took zero advantage of the schedule, something that we must do in order to secure a reasonable playoff seeding. The Sacramento and Atlanta wins went all for naught and the week as a whole was a disappointment because when it came down to it, we couldn’t take advantage of the schedule.

I saw this game on a raptorsnation.net stream (props to aRapsFan4Eva) on mute because I was at a party and the only one stuck to a computer, needless to say I looked like a loser. Anyway, point being that I probably missed a lot of stuff here and there that one absorbs when watching on a big TV so I’m not sure how to read things. But despite my limited viewing resources it did appear that Bargnani sucked ass yet again. The box score backs me up on this by reading 12 minutes, 3 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals and 3 personal fouls. Fuckin ‘eh. You don’t have to be an analyst to realize that a line like that can only mean that you had zero impact on the game and judging by the personal fouls, likely had a negative one. Bargnani’s fondness of rebounding has never been that great but how can a 7 footer not grab a single rebound?!? From what I saw of him in the third quarter, Reggie Evans and Dalembert were going around him (and Bosh) to grab offensive boards with seeming ease. There’s nothing much to say about Bargnani except that I should probably expect zilch out of him and shouldn’t be pissed off, but something about him being the #1 pick tells me otherwise. Anybody see that foul he picked up bumping Miller, does this man even know the rules?? Imagine how solid we’d be if he gave us 18 and 8 every night like he was expected to coming into this year. I can even convince myself to look past the horrendous play but what frustrates me even more is that I don’t see the needed effort or intensity from him. Based on his demeanor and play, it almost looks like he’s not even bothered by his struggles.

On the bright side (and you really have to look hard) Jamario Moon had a great game on both ends, 17 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and a block from the D-League scrub (contrast this to Il Mago) drove the Raptors in the first half where they allowed a Philly team to hang around. Lapses in their defense allowed Philly way too many easy baskets and instead of probably being up by 8 or 9, we were down 2. If you watched the first half you’ll know that Philly was right there for the taking. They weren’t playing defense and were spotty on offense, unfortunately the Raptors matched them on both ends. I thought CB4 should’ve gotten Dalembert out of the game early by drawing some fouls but chose to stay passive. Dalembert didn’t pick up his third foul until 10 seconds left in the game. If you allow him to stay in the game, he will kill you. And he did.

On another note, Joey Graham and Juan Dixon had strong offensive games which is great news because they’re both probably being showcased for a trade. I have a question, how bad is Maceo Baston in practice? Let’s put this guy on the floor and see what he can do for us. Let’s match him up against Evans or even Dalembert and at least see what he can do, let’s see just exactly how bad he is or whether he’s actually deserving of one of the 450 best jobs in the world.

The Raptors should return home with a DVD of the third quarter and watch it over and over and over again until they get so angry at themselves that they’ll never dare to repeat that performance.

One-Liners:

* Nobody talk about fatigue being an excuse, just like the Raptors, Philly’s starters played extended minutes last night in Boston.

* An inexcusable loss which falls entirely on lackadaisical play, lack of intensity and horrible defense. I don’t think there’s any reason to point the finger at the coach, this game was lost on the floor, in the third quarter.

* We lost by 4 and missed 5 FTs. I know it’s unfair to point to this as the reason we lost but we’ve been missing some FTs lately and today it came back to haunt us. Having 16 turnovers (4 by Calderon) didn’t help much either.

* Delfino + Kapono + Humphries = 2 points. Carlos needs to stop flopping and play some defense, this disease is carrying over to Joey Graham who instead of playing defense and challenging a shot opts to draw a charge. The NBA needs to fix this because a) it’s stopping potent offensive players and giving advantage to scrubs and b) it’s encouraging flopping.

* Check our Rasho’s statline. He literally didn’t do anything. Iguodala and Evans dominated us on the boards when it mattered (3rd quarter) and in that crucial stretch our bigs fell short.

* Calderon and Parker’s defense on Andre Miller and Willie Green was atrocious. Parker is the king of running back to put a hand up in vain while Calderon allowed Miller to blow by him simply too many times. Make the man shoot the J and see how far he gets before you start showing him respect. No?

* Yes, Anthony Parker struggled but let’s not start saying that his career is over and he’s a washed up flash-in-the-pan. He had a bad game but so did Calderon, Bargnani, Nesterovic, Delfino, Kapono and Humphries.

* I’ll be posting more often (not just on gamedays).

* If you missed the Podcast #3 where I touched on how easy the schedule is (shows what I know) check the podcast page.

Pissed off tonight.

That was a mandatory win against a Philadelphia team that had just finished a grueling road trip and was coming off a tough home result the night before. Of course a loss here might have raised blood pressures to unrecoverable levels and prompted the bipolars to bombard the RealGM Trade Checker with so many variations of Rasho + Graham for Dalembert + Evans that it would’ve brought down the web server to it’s knees. Luckily for us Philly was a bit tired and Delfino/Kapono/Parker produced enough offense to keep the resilient Sixers at bay while Bosh had a sensible night where the oh so important drives to the rim where abundant. In short, the Raptors swingmen hit their outside shots, Bosh played well and we played just enough defense to beat a fairly poor team at home. Nothing to get excited about.

I’m not a fan of the quick yank which Sam feels free to use at whim but I agree with him benching Bargnani for his reprehensible rebounding positioning and complete unawareness of where his man is. It was nice to see Leo Rautins loosen up the MLSE employee straight jacket and actually point out Bargnani being the “biggest culprit” when it comes to boxing out his man and going as far as saying that the reason Bosh picked up two quick fouls was because of Bargnani’s positioning. But Bargnani’s wasn’t alone tonight, even the reliable Bosh was giving up position to Reggie Evans and Samuel Dalembert, who both make it a point to clean up the boards regardless of quarter or score, an area where under-fire head coach Maurice Cheeks deserves full credit. You can tell that defense, intensity and aggressiveness is being heavily preached in the Philadelphia locker room just by observing Philadelphia’s points in the paint numbers, rebounding figures and determination to not simply settle for jumpers. The Raptors can learn a lot from this team.

As mentioned countless times on this blog, the Raptors are a jump shooting team and when they make their jumpers, they give themselves a great chance to win. The hero tonight was Anthony Parker who kept us even with Philly in the first quarter when we were getting killed on the glass and then stepped up in the fourth to put the game away with some key threes. Delfino’s slashing and outside shooting kept Philly at bay in the third and made me wonder what this thread starter would have to say after this game. The good thing about Delfino’s game today was that he went inside a few times before testing his jumper which is all any fan can ask. Delfino’s a key piece to the Raptors puzzle on both ends of the floor, we need either him or Kapono to have good games almost every night out just so we can sustain our offense.

Jamario Moon was given all the space in the world to shoot jumpers and to his credit he resisted the temptation unless absolutely necessary opting to attack the rim or pass the ball off in those situations. His defense on Willie Green (18 points, 19 shots) was superb and although he got burned playing help a couple times, his overall play was as close to perfect as it has been. It’s of course unfair to expect performances like this from him on a consistent basis simply because he’s a rookie and the level of competition is usually better, but what can be fairly expected of him is to make good logical offensive decisions and play good fundamental defense using his length and quickness.

I’ve already mentioned the rebounding but there’s one other area that really concerned me today. The Raptors seem to forget some very basic principles of basketball such as staying between your man and the basket, I noticed that Bosh, Parker, Bargnani and Calderon allowed their man great positioning by losing track of them without even a screen being set. Philly was burning us early on these plays and stayed in the game because of Raptors turnovers, bad defense and offensive rebounding. We were better in the second half but I’m not sure whether it was more of Philly’s legs or our defense. I’d like to see the Raptors play with more intensity on defense and communicate a little better because against a better team tonight we give up 115 points easy.

People always wonder why Chris Bosh doesn’t drive to the rim all the time. I don’t really know the answer but I can draw a conjecture. It makes sense not to. When the defense is giving you space to shoot, the most logical thing to do is “take what the defense gives you” which is probably what Chris is thinking when he’s launching the jumper. Maybe we should be more concerned with Chris making the 15 footer more consistently than driving to the rim at every opportunity. His drive will naturally open up if he starts making that jumper consistently. The defense generally plays Chris to shoot the ball and when CB4 wants to attack, he’ll try a blow-by move which is hard to finish just because the defense has a head start. He needs to either a) make the jumper more consistently or b) develop some real post-moves which start with him backing the defense down, NOT attempting blow-bys. Am I making sense?

Back to the game, I thought Jose Calderon had a perfect game, he held his own against Miller which is no easy task and ended up with 17/9/6. He looked for break opportunities, got into our offensive sets (insert joke here) early, shot the ball when he was open and helped out on the glass. The TJ situation is getting a little worrying, it appears to me that he just wants a doctor to say something really reassuring which will probably not happen. There will always be a risk when he plays and let’s face it, as harsh as it sounds, he is damaged goods. Nonetheless, he should remain the starting PG of this team as long as he’s healthy simply because it allows our second unit to be that much better with Calderon in there.

I’d like to end with some offensive suggestions for the Raptors. Post-up Joey Graham. He has shown a desire to score and although he’s not exactly talented, he should be able to muscle home some points if he’s posted and re-posted a few times. A low off-the-ball screen for Andrea Bargnani. We’re completely wasting his height and maybe if we force the defense to switch or react quickly on a screen near the hoop, he’ll get some easy points through short jumpers. Right now all the screens that he’s setting or are being set for him are too far away from the basket. Anthony Parker dump-offs. I’ve noticed that when he’s about to shoot his little fade in the paint coming off a screen, one of our bigs often has a clear path to the rim because his defender is paying attention to Parker’s possible drive. We should develop a goto play where the first option is a Parker fade and the second option is a dump-off to a big (maybe set a screen for the big too). Just thinking out loud.

We got the Knicks in MSG up next which always seems like an important game although it rarely is. Losing to the Knicks is a sign of shame that is best dealt using the ancient Japanse ritual of Seppuku. This should be a win unless Eddy Curry is made to somehow dominate and we let Crawford and Marbury go off, something which isn’t likely but could happen given how we play defense.

One-Liners:

* Don’t you just wish Reggie Evans played for the Raptors?

* How about Leo saying that Iggy makes a wide open dunk “9 out of 10 times”. No Leo, he makes that 9,999 out of 10,000 times.

* Chuck Swirsky is going to become a Canadian citizen. You know what this means, we’ll never be able to fire him. Ever. It’s like getting tenure at a university, you’re there for life.

* Any time we play the 76ers the first thing that pops into my mind was that we could’ve had Iguodala and that we’d be set at the 3 spot for the next decade.

* I’d like to see Kapono attempt 20FG in a game just so he can stretch his arms and get back in his shooting rhythm, right now he’s a bit rusty.

* We got out-manned 41-34 but shot 55.1% to compensate for it.

* NBA should adopt a points system and rank teams and players by points. Somewhat like a QB rating in football. It’d be awfully hard to come up with though.

* I was hoping to see more of Kris Humphries today but he bobbled the ball once and gave up an offensive rebound which was enough to invoke Sam’s deadly yank. He was never to be seen or heard from again.

* Notice that I don’t bash Bargnani too much. We’re all in this together folks, baby steps from here on out.

* Not really game related but Jamario Moon showed up at my condo’s gym on Monday.

* There will be a Podcast soon. I’m just working out the technical aspects of it.

Later. Feed.