Toronto Sun

The Raptors have lost their way, not knowing who to turn to when times get tough, when a play needs to be made at either end and no one seems capable of stepping up.

They’ve gotten whacked by the Thunder and Rockets because the Raptors are out of whack, completely out of sync and at a loss to explain their plunge.

They’ve been down this road before and recovered. The physical discomforts will heal, but it’s the team’s collective psyche that needs mending.

The Raptors arrived back in Toronto on Tuesday and will regroup on Wednesday in preparation for Friday’s visit by the New York Knicks.

“We need to get back on track,’’ Jose Calderon began in stating the obvious. “We just need to forget the last two losses and get ready for Friday.

“You go through ups and downs and right now we’re down.”

Toronto Star

And there’s no reason for one of those soul-cleansing team meetings that helped turn around the 7-13 start.

“If we have a meeting now, it’ll be with Scott,” Triano joked, referring to trainer Scott McCullough. “When we were 7-13, we had no injuries. Now we have three-quarters of our top four who can’t play. I don’t see any reason to panic right now.”

There does need to be some sense of urgency, though, because the Raptors are about to embark on a difficult month full of road games.

After facing the Knicks and Sixers at home this weekend, they take off for a stretch of four games in six nights on the west coast.

Before the end of March, they will play 15 more games including eight on the road and four sets of back-to-backs. And the home games are no walk in the park with Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Denver and Utah headed to the Air Canada Centre.

That led Triano to suggest he needs to see more “urgency” and less selfishness from his players.

“We’re going to be in a fight for a playoff spot right down to the very end,” he said. “Our schedule is no picnic now.”

National Post

Four spots, five teams. It is as simple as that. A week ago, the Toronto Raptors had some separation on the pack. But heading into last night’s action, 2½ games separated the Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat and Charlotte Bobcats. One of those teams will miss the playoffs. With marquee free agents, the Raptors and Heat have the most to lose by failing to play into late April.

Basketball Prospectus

Riding the league’s top offence (and its worst defence), Toronto looks likely to reach the postseason. Nonetheless, these numbers suggest that a .500-type record might be the Raptors’ high-water mark. Turkoglu figures to decline in a hurry (his statistical profile is similar to Joe Johnson’s, which troubles SCHOENE, and Turkoglu is more than two years older). DeRozan can pick up some of the slack, but it’s hard to see anyone else stepping up. In particular, Bargnani’s per-game stats have always been better than his advanced ratings because of his poor defense and rebounding. Toronto also won’t have a first-round pick unless it slips into the lottery and would likely have to go into the luxury tax to use its mid-level exception if Bosh re-signs.

Toronto Star

Reggie Evans picked up a rather dubious honour Tuesday. In an informal poll of 173 of the NBA’s almost 450 players conducted by Sports Illustrated, the Raptors power forward was named "the dirtiest player" by 21 per cent of the respondents. Evans hadn’t played a game this season when the poll was conducted because of injury but still beat out Ron Artest of the L.A. Lakers, who was second at 13 per cent.

RaptorTalk

That said, the Raptors need to finish the month of March with a 9-6 record if they want to be assured of holding on to the 5th seed. That will be a tough task, which is achievable – based on three keys:
1. Chris Bosh Remains Healthy 
    2. "Orlando" Hedo Turkuglo Steps Up
    3. The Raptor Team Regains a Defensive Focus

Numbers 1 and 3 are most important, but an improved Hedo would provide a massive boost to the team’s chances. If Hedo can play like he did with Orlando down the stretch last season, then Raptors have a good chance to go on a mini-run.

Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog

And whether David Stern wants to admit it or not, the NBA is refereed with an obvious “star” and team expectations bias.

The Raptors without Chris Bosh do not have an established star player to attract foul calls for them.  And the Raptors are not one of the “favored” teams when it comes to promoting the league.

One only has to watch NBA-TV to see where the league places the Raptors in terms of importance.  Sometimes it really looks like the league actually forgets about the team north of the border.  Okay, they seem to forget about a few other teams as well, but I’ll admit to not paying that much attention to them either.

Based on the NBA’s coverage, one might think the Grizzlies and Rockets were in the playoffs and Heat was still a dark horse contender.  The Raptors could be in 29th spot based on the NBA’s hi-light coverage.

Toronto Sun

“I’m not sure; I’m still in a little pain right now,” Bosh said. “We’re fortunate enough to have a few days in between games and we’re being really aggressive with the treatment and we’ll see how it is Wednesday.”

His practice yesterday, in his own words, consisted of “Walk around, sit down, shoot free throws. Yeah, I’m bored, man.”

Helping ease that boredom is the fact that his teammates have got the job done without him so far and the team as a whole has put itself in a good position heading into the final 27 games.

“This is a tough stretch for us going into March,” Bosh said. “March is a tough month for us and we did what we needed to do to build our confidence with the schedule that we had lately. Now we are playing better teams, have to focus a bit more.”

Bosh said he has been able to handle this absence from the court better than he has in the past.

“I don’t go crazy anymore,” Bosh said. “Usually on the bench (when he’s not playing) it’s a lot tougher and I go crazy sometimes. This year I’m a lot more calm. I can watch a game. I’m just trying not to make it too many.”

Toronto Sun

Since Oliver Miller left the Raptors for good back on Feb. 1, 1999, his name has been in the Raptors record books alongside the likes of, dare we say, more deserving Raptors such as Damon Stoudamire, Morris Peterson, Doug Christie, Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon to name a few.

Nesterovic took care of that Saturday when he went five-for-seven from the field to surpass the 1,000 field goal attempts as a Raptor and thereby qualify for standing in the all-time franchise leader in field goal percentage.

Nesterovic’s mark of .545 easily surpassed Miller’s mark of .509 knocking the Big O off the perch he has held for far too long.

“I’ve got no comment on that,” Nesterovic said laughing following practice on Monday.

“But I played with Oliver when I was in Minnesota.

“We’re pretty much the same height and the same weight.”

Toronto Sun

A veteran of nine seasons in the NBA and coming off a run to the finals last season with Orlando, Turkoglu knows exactly what it takes at that time of year and if he’s going to build on his reputation as a post-season game-breaker, he’s going to have to get his game to another level than it has been thus far in Toronto.

Raptors head coach Jay Triano knows how much a fully engaged Turkoglu can alter his team’s fortunes, but he wasn’t prepared to make any declarations one way or the other on Monday about Turkoglu.

“I think he’s starting to get there,” Triano said sounding more optimistic than certain. “But he’s a 10-year vet. He knows how to play games, he knows how to finish games and he knows how to play the league.”

The inference being that when it’s time to get serious, Turkoglu will get serious. Whether that time is right now or closer to the playoffs, he wasn’t saying.

Second last off the practice floor Monday spoke volumes, however, about Turkoglu’s intentions.

Toronto Star

"Lots of energy and guys who do the right thing – set screens, roll hard," is what the coach sees. "Sometimes, they’re not going to be as polished as a Chris Bosh is with the ball or as Andrea (Bargnani is) in efficient scoring so we tend to go to more movement stuff and see if we can use their strengths, which is setting good screens, rolling hard, rebounding and battling at the defensive end."

Evans and Johnson, the former a bruiser and the latter more athletic, do change the tempo of the game when they’re out there together.

They got about five minutes as a tandem on Friday in New Jersey and about another 10 on Saturday against Washington.

"I think, energy-wise, they bring something that we don’t really have," said Jarrett Jack. "They create a lot of havoc defensively, being that both of them can pick up full court and give us a lift, maybe moreso on the defensive end, that can spawn some easier transition baskets."

National Post

"Quick and squirmy, two words," Triano said of Jack’s style. "He gets there quick and he squirms it up and in. That’s not a basketball term."

It works, though. The only time Jack finishes with a standard-issue layup is when it is uncontested. When he is in traffic, he bends, contorts, spins — pick your verb — to get the job done. It looks unnatural. Often, it looks awful.

It worked on Saturday night. Jack scored the first nine points of a defining 16-2 late-game run to clinch an in-doubt game. Without the injured Chris Bosh, the Raptors lacked their best crunch-time option. Jack’s strange assortment of moves took the reigns. And it is no accident that he can finish successfully while looking so primed for failure.

"That’s just something that I picked up when I was younger because when I played in the neighbourhood, I played with the older kids," Jack said. "All of them were bigger than me, so I kind of got a knack of finishing around bigger guys or taking contact from some stronger guys and still getting the ball up on the rim or on the backboard. I kind of have a number of ways of doing it. It’s something that just happens over time."

Toronto Sun

In just over a two-minute span beginning at the 4:03 mark of the fourth quarter and with the sellout crowd imploring the home side to get some stops, Bargnani’s contributions were as follows: Rebound, block, block, block, rebound.

We can’t say this for certain, but if that’s not the best couple of minutes of Bargnani’s NBA career from a defensive standpoint, it has got to be right up there.

In that time frame, the Raptors went from a four-point deficit to a five-point lead with the visiting Wizards barely getting a sniff of the Raptors basket.

Bargnani finished the game with four blocks, matching the entire output by the Wizards. He also had six rebounds and 18 points, all but two of them coming in the first half.

With those four blocks, Bargnani now has at least a block in 14 consecutive games. Over that span, he has 26.

“Andrea was huge,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano said. “He was there to help on drives. Our defence was excellent over that late stretch.”

And none of it would have been possible without Bargnani, a guy who spent the better part of his first three seasons hearing plenty about his shooting exploits but very little about his defence.

Toronto Sun

“I think we just know how desperately we need to win these games going down the stretch, making the final push to the end of the season,” point guard Jarrett Jack said. “Especially the ones at home because they are very crucial and very vital to who we play out the rest of the season. We can’t let these opportunities slip out of our fingers.”

And they didn’t.

Jack was the catalyst on the offensive end scoring 11 of his team-high 23 points in the final quarter. And with Andrea Bargnani holding his own personal block party, the Raptors made all the necessary stops for the comeback win.

Including three blocks in a two-minute span, the Raptors held the Wizards scoreless from the 5:40 mark for the next 4:13 as they turned a nine-point deficit into a five-point lead with a 14-0 run.

“Jack got really aggressive and was great with the pick-and-rolls,” Wizards head coach Flip Saunders said. “Hedo Turkoglu made some big shots and Bargnani was great. We had about three times where he protected the rim and we didn’t get shots up at the rim. We had opportunities, we played hard and put ourselves in position but couldn’t make that big shot to withstand their momentum.”

Toronto Star

"You watch the games that we’ve played well in this stretch and he’s always got his hand on a couple of shots and he saves it for the end," said Triano.

"He’s very, very attentive to where the ball is late in games."

The Raptors were without an injured Bosh for a second straight night and his absence was sorely felt on the offensive end.

Without the anchor – and the guy they could throw the ball to in late-clock situations – the Raptors seemed disoriented at times.

"I think it’s very important to get into our sets early so we can exercise just about every option we have on each play," said Jack. "Most NBA teams do a good job defending the first and maybe the second option but if you’re able to get to that third or fourth option, that’s where defences break down and open looks present themselves."

Associated Press

The Raptors trailed for much of the early going, and were down by as many as eight points, but when popular reserve Reggie Evans converted two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining in the first quarter, they took a 34-32 lead into the second quarter.

Turkoglu came out of the game after with 8:23 left in the first quarter after picking up his second foul. When he returned to start the second quarter he was without the mask he has been wearing since suffering an orbital-bone fracture below the right eye on Jan. 31.

With Bargnani leading all scorers with 16 first-half points, the Raptors took a 64-57 lead into the half-time interval. A couple of turnovers by Wizards guard Randy Foye helped the Raptors.

National Post

It turns out Jarrett Jack, also from Georgia Tech, got the marquee spot. He also took over from his friend and teammate Chris Bosh, out with an ankle injury, as the team’s fourth quarter spark plug.

Jack scored the first seven points of a decisive 14-0 run, as the Raptors edged the Washington Wizards 109-104. Toronto is now at 31-24, a season-best seven games above .500.

Jack put on his pit-bull persona, going into the paint with abandon. He hit a three-pointer and then hit four free throws to get the Raptors within striking distance of the Wizards. Hedo Turkoglu scored five of the next seven points, as the Raptors took a lead they would not give back. Squeezed in the middle of two Turkoglu buckets, though, was a dunk from Antoine Wright off of a heady pass from Jack.

That is when a loud crowd – besides opening night and the Raptors January win over the Lakers, this was probably the most enthusiastic the Air Canada Centre has been – got louder.

"Jarrett carried us," Wright said of Jack, who finished with a team-high 23 points and eight assists. "He went over to coach and said he wanted the ball. He made good things happen. It’s one thing to request the ball. It’s another to actually make things happen."

Washington Post

Blatche was truly spectacular in the third quarter, when he brought the team back from a 10-point deficit. He scored 12 points during a 22-6 run. Blatche stole the ball from Jarrett Jack, sprinted up the court and dunked to bring the Wizards within one point, then gave his team the lead with a 15-foot jumper. The Wizards led 81-75 when Blatche rebounded a JaVale McGee miss and made a putback layup.

"I’m just approaching like I was taught by the veteran that left, play the game like it’s your job instead of a hobby and take full advantage of opportunities," Blatche said. "It’s more than just about me right now. I’m trying to help this organization get some wins and make my team better."

CSN Washington

The Wizards came out of halftime and dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Raptors 31 to 21. Andray Blatche played one of the best quarters of his young career, scoring 14 points. JaVale McGee added six points as the Wiz reversed a seven-point deficit after the second to go up by three at the end of the third. In the fourth quarter, Washington fell flat, letting slip a golden opportunity to steal one on the road. Late in the game the Raptors went on a 14-0 run as the Wizards missed seven shots in a row. The late-game run allowed Toronto to take a 105-100 lead with less than two minutes to go. They would go on to win by five points.

Washington Post

"We had this game," Blatche said afterward. "We just made a couple of mistakes down the stretch and they made us pay for it."

The first mistake was failing to contain Jack, a Maryland native who ignited the game-deciding run by taking advantage of the Wizards’ poor pick-and-roll defense and attacking the rim. Jack scored 11 of his team-high 23 points in the final 5:09 and went on a personal 7-0 run with a three pointer and four free throws.

Hedo Turkoglu then got fouled by Al Thornton while making a reverse layup to give the Raptors a 101-100 lead. And after a fast-break dunk by Antoine Wright (19 points), Turkoglu drove and hit a shot off the glass to put Toronto ahead by five points. During that run, the Wizards missed nine shots and committed three turnovers, with Mike Miller contributing two of his game-high eight.

Josh Howard (17 points) missed two tip shots, Blatche, Randy Foye (14 points) and Thornton had seemingly easy layups swatted by Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani (18 points, four blocks). Blatche finally ended the scoring drought with an up-and-under move for a layup that brought the Wizards within 105-102, but with a chance to bring the Wizards closer, his reverse layup attempt rolled off the rim. "I made a great move to get open to get the rim the ball just didn’t go in. I don’t know how, I thought it was good," Blatche said.

On the Raptors’ next possession, Jack missed a driving layup, but Turkoglu rebounded the miss and José Calderon made two free throws to secure the win.

"We should’ve had that game," Thornton said after scoring 10 points. "We couldn’t make layups. We couldn’t throw it in the ocean for some reason. It was a back-to-back, I guess, but that’s not an excuse."

CBC

Again without the services of resident all-star Chris Bosh, the Toronto Raptors kept the same game plan that worked so well in New Jersey on Friday.

Move the ball.

The Raptors forged ahead with six players in double figures to post a 109-104 come-from-behind win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre.

"The most important thing we did tonight and last night is we shared the basketball," said Raptors head coach Jay Triano. "Without Chris where you can give it and you can make cuts off of him, and you know that he’s going to create, we have to create without the basketball. We have to move and makes screens and roll hard."

The DCFan’s Blog

The Wizards played a great game tonight, hell the whole game till the last five minutes was good. Some questionable calls on both sides, but nothing extreme. The last 5 minutes, every call went for the Raptors, not one single foul was called in the Wizards favor, not even when Foye went up for the layup and basically had his head knocked off. They just called out of bounds. Now the Wizards at the end did give up pretty much, started taking stupid shots and didn’t even attempt at rebounding, but at the same time do you blame them? What’s the point of trying when you know the opposing team can punch you and they wont get called for a foul, but if you even breathe on them you are being called for fouls.

RaptorsHQ

The Wizards had made a couple of fatal errors.  First of all, they started going away from Andray Blatche, who was the hot hand in the second half.  He scored 14 points in the third quarter but had preciously few scoring opportunities in the fourth despite his proficiency.

The second error was that the Wizards made their comeback too soon. In the fourth, the Raptors figured things out and started to play some tougher defense.  Suddenly, rotations were better, Bargnani was registering some key blocks down the stretch, and the Raptors managed to keep rebounding the ball despite having a small lineup.  In an extremely surprising move, Jay Triano placed Bargnani up front with Turkoglu and Antoine Wright as forwards.  He then also placed Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack on the floor to create one of the weakest rebounding lineups possible.  However, Bargnani held his own on several key stops and Turkoglu grabbed an important rebound in the final minute to close out the game so Triano’s gamble worked for one night.

Hoops Addict

When heading to the Air Canada Centre this afternoon the big story I wanted to chase was what it was like for Toronto’s coaching staff to scout a team that has five new faces since last weekend and three new starters. Clearly a couple other beat guys had similar thoughts because before the game Triano addressed what it was like to scout a team with so many new faces, Washington starting to show their potential after “cleansing” themselves at the trade deadline and the recent growth in Andray Blatche’s game.

Click play to listen to Triano address all of these topics:

Fan590

Smith Says:
- “There may have been some ugly points tonight – and last night too – but anytime you can get back to back wins without your best player in the line up, you’ll take it.  And how ’bout Jarrett Jack!  What a spark plug down the stretch.”

Jones Says:
- “It was a good ‘character win’ for Toronto tonight.  Although they gave up a 10-point lead, the Raps made hustle plays down the stretch to earn the victory.”

AM640

The Raps advantage tonight has come by the way of points in the paint (Raps 22, Wiz 8) and free throws. Toronto has been to the line 18 times, making good on 14 of their attempts, while Washington has only attempted nine free throws making only six.
Hedo Turkoglu has continued to struggle tonight. In 15 minutes of work, Hedo is one for four from the field scoring two points and dishing out three rebounds. At one point Jay Triano had to bench him because he had tallied two personal foul in four minutes. With Bosh out I would have expected Turk’s scoring to increase or at the least his shot attempts.
When Hedo was on the bench, Antoine Wright stepped in and was able to spread the offence shooting 4 for 4 from the field, three of which were three pointers. Wright ended the half with 13 points, two assists and one rebound.

Hoops Addict

Josh Howard started the game tonight on a tear as he went 3-3 from the field while scoring Washington’s first nine points of the game. While watching this unfold I couldn’t help but cringe as thoughts of a 40 plus point night danced in my head.

Cue the Antoine Wright show.

Sure, his 19 points on 7-10 shooting is impressive and will catch fans attention while skimming the stat sheet, but his real contribution came on the defensive end. After Wright was substituted into the game midway through the first quarter Howard went 2-14 from the field and struggled to score his remaining eight points.

“I Just tried to make it tough on him,” Wright told me after the game. “I tried to shield him to go to where the help was and tried to get into him a little bit. I just wanted to be physical with him.”

Zan Tabak Herald

The Raptors were looking a little lost offensively and wasted many offensive possessions.  Players were taking ill-advised shots early in the clock and were not looking for their teammates.  Washington took full advantge of these miscues and built up a comfortable lead.  When Jarrett Jack re-entred the game in the fouth quarter everything changed.  The Raptors were looking for their teammates, taking confident shots and their defensive intensity went through the roof.  Jack willed this team to victory tonight.  He made many smart plays and chose to drive the net instead of settling for jumpers in that crucial fourth.   Jack was the captain tonight and victory was his destination.

Hoops Addict

When asked to talk more about his strong play in the fourth quarter the humble point guard shrugged off the compliment and chalked it up to doing what the team needed to secure a win.

Not shocking since this kind of humble attitude has been prevalent all season while talking with him.

“I think we just know how desperately we need wins going down the stretch and making a final push to end the season,” a humble Jack told the media. “Especially games at home. They are crucial and vital to how we’re going to end up in the standings. We can’t let these opportunities slip through our fingers.”

Even if Jack brushed off his fourth quarter heroics after the game it’s clear this was a win that would have slipped through the Raptors claws if he hadn’t of stepped up.

Besides, who cares if Jack wasn’t willing to boast to the media after the game after his play did all the talking that was needed in the fourth quarter.

Toronto Sun

Looking like a guy who had been playing 30 minutes a night all season, Nesterovic finished with a season-high 16 points. You have to go back a little over 15 months to a game last November against Atlanta for a better scoring game by the 12-year veteran. He had 21 that night.

Nesterovic said his success, and that of the team, stemmed from the commitment to making the extra pass — something he said was necessary if the Raps hoped to win.

"That’s the only way you can play once your franchise guy is out," Nesterovic said referring to Bosh. "You don’t really have a go-to guy who will take the team on his shoulders. You have to share the ball and everyone has to be ready."

In addition to the 16 points, Nesterovic had four helpers of his own and seven rebounds to round out a pretty good evening.

Jarrett Jack, who led all scorers with 18, has been in Nesterovic’s shoes before where he’s been asked to come in cold and produce. He, better than most, can speak to how difficult that is.

"It’s actually pretty remarkable," Jack said. "In my opinion, basketball is a game of rhythm and he hasn’t been in the lineup for a while so for him to come in and contribute the way he did is really unbelievable. It’s just a testament to him always being ready when called upon and me giving him the ball."

Toronto Sun

Guard Jarrett Jack says the big thing everyone is going to have to get used to until Bosh returns is that they basically are playing without the safety net they have had all year.

"When we go some possessions without scoring or putting up some numbers, our normal mindset is let’s run something for Chris," Jack said. "We’ll get it inside and he’s either going to get fouled or score. (Now) we just don’t have that luxury."

Also absent will be the Raptors’ floor director when they are defending their own basket.

Anyone who has sat near the basket the Raptors defend can’t help but have heard Bosh directing his players into spots from his vantage point.

"If you watch the game, or listen, he’s talking a lot," Jack said. "He’s directing, and him being in the back he’s sees everything, so he tends to put a lot of people in the right places."

Toronto Sun

The game was barely three minutes old and Hedo Turkoglu had already had enough. On the fourth time down the floor, the cumbersome mask that he began the game with somehow msyteriously disappeared. Even after a time out, Turkoglu returned without it.

Toronto Star

"Some nights, you just feel it," Nesterovic said after scoring more points in a game than he has since November 2008.

If there were concerns about who would pick up the slack in the absence of Chris Bosh and the 24 points and 11 rebounds he averages on a nightly basis, they were quickly dashed.

Nesterovic had eight of his points in the first quarter as a perfectly running Raptors offence dominated the Nets. Toronto piled up 30 assists on 43 baskets over the course of the game and had an astonishing 21 on 24 first-half scores.

"If we just keep moving the ball, we’re okay," said Triano. "Guys came to the basketball (and) I didn’t see a selfish play tonight at all where someone tried to get their own. Everybody tried to help each other and that’s why you have that many assists."

Globe and Mail

The only other time that Nesterovic has scored more than 16 points in the last two seasons was a 21-point effort against Atlanta in November 2008, when he was playing for Indiana.

“He came in and didn’t miss a shot, go figure,” Nets guard Courtney Lee said.

“I should have tried to run him up wide or make him put the ball on the floor instead of giving him time to get a good look at the rim,” said Brook Lopez, who led the Nets with 22 points but didn’t guard Nesterovic very well.

Jose Calderon added 16 points as the Raptors dropped the Nets to 5-50. DeMar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu added 14 points apiece as Toronto shot nearly 60 per cent from the field in extending its franchise record for consecutive 100-point games to 19.

“Any time your opponent shoots 60 per cent for the game, you’re not going to have much of a chance to win,” Nets interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said.

New York Post

Tiger Woods spent 13 minutes saying "I’m sorry" yesterday.

Big whoop. The Nets said "we’re sorry" — in the other sense of the word — for most of 48 minutes last night.

Though Tiger was apologetic, the Nets were pathetic, falling to 5-50 after a 106-89 defeat against the Raptors at the Meadowlands.

"They capitalized on any mistake we made, any double-team," interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said.

So that was the defense. What about the offense?

"Unfortunately, we had three or four guys who couldn’t throw it in the ocean," Vandeweghe said.

Sporting News

The Toronto Raptors are opening a three-game homestand with Chris Bosh’s status uncertain. With or without the All-Star forward, they might want to try a different game plan against the Washington Wizards.

After overcoming Bosh’s absence to continue their torrid scoring run, the Raptors look to end a three-game home losing streak to the lowly Wizards on Saturday night.

Toronto (30-24) won 106-89 at New Jersey on Friday night, extending its franchise record for consecutive 100-point games to 19. The Raptors shot 59.7 percent, even with Bosh missing the game due to an ankle injury.

Bosh, who was hurt in a 109-102 overtime loss to Memphis on Wednesday night, wasn’t in New Jersey and is listed as day to day. He leads the Raptors with 24.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, both career highs.

Bosh has played in Toronto’s last two home games against Washington (19-33) after missing the previous matchup due to a knee injury. The Raptors came up short in each contest, though the Wizards have been one of the league’s worst teams during that span.

Bosh was one of three players to score at least 20 points for Toronto in a 106-102 home loss to Washington on Dec. 1. Since then, the Raptors have won 15 of 18 at the Air Canada Centre.

ESPN

Down by 20 early in the third quarter, Harris and the Nets played their best basketball of the night and put together a 30-16 spurt, closing to within 77-71 on a driving layup by the point guard with 1:29 left in the quarter.

New Jersey had a chance to get closer, but a 3-pointer by Jarvis Hayes went in and out.

After taking a timeout, the Raptors scored the final five points of the quarter with Calderon hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer for an 82-71 lead.

Nesterovic had his season high early in the third quarter when he hit a little hook in the lane for a 58-41 lead. When Turkoglu nailed a 3-pointer a minute later, the Raptors had a 61-41 lead.

After the Nets got close, Calderon and Jack put the game away down the stretch.

Raptors Rapture

For the first time all season the Toronto Raptors were without their leader and all-star power forward Chris Bosh.  The end result, a victory. Yes, the main factor leading into this was the fact that their opponent was the league’s worst team -the New Jersey Nets -but a large portion of the win can also be accredited to the play of one individual. This individual is a savvy veteran who can always be called upon without any notice, even if he has been riding the pine for the seven games prior to that call.

Yes, I am referring to Rasho Nesterovic. The Slovenian sensation poured in 16 points while pulling down 7 boards to help the Raptors grab their 30th win of the season 106-89 over the New Jersey Nets. Rasho was one of seven Raptors to score in double figures, once again re-iterating the amount of depth Bryan Colangelo built this Raptors team with this year. With the win, the Raptors are able to maintain their distance between the teams in 6th-8th, all of which also picked up a W on this Friday night.

Star-Ledger

“They tried to be more uptempo, obviously, because they have to make up those 24 points a game (that Bosh averages), so they have to go up and down the floor more,” said Nets center Brook Lopez, whose 22 points led all scorers.
“That’s tough to defend with the lineup they play. They’ve really got some bigs who can shoot the ball, stretch the floor. It’s just tough,” said Lopez, who hit 9-of-12 shots and grabbed eight rebounds. Devin Harris had 19 and 11 assists for the Nets and Courtney Lee had 17.
The Nets’ starting forwards, Yi Jianlian and Jarvis Hayes, were brutal. Yi shot 2-for-13 in the game, both his baskets coming on open dunks, and Hayes was 2-for-10. Both finished with five points, as current owner Bruce Ratner watched from the front row.

NBA.com

"We had seven guys in double figures and seven guys with five field goals each," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "We needed everyone to step up and we shared the basketball well.

"We were able to take advantage of the Nets’ switching. We thought their switching was going to hurt us – and it did – but we were patient and we found a way to move the ball."

RaptorsHQ

The game on a whole featured 27 turn overs and it’s clear why this New Jersey team is looking to challenge the NBA record for fewest wins in a season. Yi Jianlian simply isn’t a basketball player, Jarvis Hayes seems to think he is Steve Kerr despite shooting less than 28% from beyond the arc this season, and this Nets team simply doesn’t have any veterans who can show these young guys how to play. Sure there are some nice peices there but Kris Humpheries is one of the teams elder statesmen and we all know the only skill he has to pass on is how to be a ball hog. For those Nets fans out there…good luck the rest of the year.

In short it wasn’t pretty but the Raptors did what needed to be done. At the end of the season all that matters is the number of wins, not how you won.

Fan590

Smith Says:
- “GREAT roster / game management by Jay Triano tonight.  Andrea Bargnani was the only one to log more than 28 minutes (32 for Bargs) … so there should be a lot of rested bodies ready to roll on the 2nd half of the back to back on Saturday night in T.O.”

Jones Says:
- “A workman-like effort without Chris Bosh.  Nesterovic stepped in nicely without upsetting the apple cart.”

Hip Hoop Junkies

CB4 was out of last night’s lineup with the ankle injury but Toronto still managed to fend off the lowly New Jersey Nets 106-89.  Sure it was the 5-49 New Jersey Nets but it was a game that Toronto needed to take especially after their heartbreaking loss to Memphis on Wednesday.  Rasho Nesterovic got the call to the starting five and started in place of Bosh and he didn’t disappoint.  Rasho Neterovic finished with 16 pts, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and was one of seven Raps to score in double figures.
Toronto maintained control for most of the game until late in the third when Devin Harris scored a layup that got the Nets within six.  But Toronto capped off the Nets in the fourth, holding them to just 18 points in the final quarter.  The Jarret Jack-Jose Calderon combo continues to impress as Jack finished with 18 pts/10 assists and Calderon finished with 16 pts/3 dimes.

Zan Tabak Herald

Jay Triano rotated his team regularly, keeping his players fresh and active.  One of the great benefits of having Reggie Evans back is that he now gets to give his starting bigs a bit more time to rest.  Jose and Jack were solid running the point and neither one dominated the playing time.  Hedo got to control the ball a lot more and the bigs didn’t tire out.  This also keeps his starters fresh for another game tomorrow.  As we know, back-to-backs are not the Raptors strongest area.   Jay made the right choices and the Raptors were in total control.

Dino Nation Blog

So Bosh may just be in a suit helpless watching like all of us for tonight’s game vs the Wizards. The Raptors will need more of what they got from New Jersey game. The Wizards are a step up the ladder from the 5 win Nets. They are not a major step up but a step none the less. Raptors without Bosh have a much smaller margin of error and need to get production from guys like Bargnani and Turkoglu who combined for 27 in the Nets game. Not great but with the complete team effort it was good enough.

Toronto Sun

Zach Randolph, who finished up with 24, laid it in to force overtime and from that point on, it was pretty much a one-man show.

Unfortunately for the Raps, that man was Rudy Gay who scored eight of the Grizzlies’ 12 points in the extra period. He finished the night with a team-high 29.

Gay made four of the five jump shots he attempted in the overtime, three of them driving to the hoop and over the arms of multiple of Raptors defenders.

“He’s a big guy and I think people underestimate how long he is,” Antoine Wright said of Gay. “Once a guy like that, with the type of skills he has, gets going there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it. He can jump over everyone and he has a high release so it’s tough to affect his shot. But we just have to do a better job of not letting him catch the ball and forcing him out further away from the spot that he likes to get the ball.”

Gay actually made his way into the Raptors locker-room after the game to apologize to Wright. It was Gay’s errant elbow that cut Wright for three stitches forcing him to miss 21/2 minutes of the final 41/2 while he was stitched up.

“I’ve known Rudy for a long time,” Wright said. “He knows I was going to hunt him down if he didn’t come in here and apologize.”

Toronto Sun

Through three quarters, three individual members — Jose Calderon, Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems — of the Raptors reserves were single-handedly outscoring the entire Memphis bench.

Toronto Sun

It has been suggested in the past that Stoudamire regrets ever leaving Toronto, but if that was once the case, Stoudamire says it no longer is.

“The emotions were so high at the time and I wanted to get to a winner so bad and have a chance to win,” he said. “Going to Portland with all the young players they had, I just felt like that was a good fit for me.”

Were he given a do-over, Stoudamire suggests he would have handled things much the way Chris Bosh has handled his situation — not that Stoudamire is suggesting Bosh is leaving. Like the rest of the world, he has no idea. He just likes the way he has handled things to this point.

“I commend Chris Bosh on the way he has handled the situation,” Stoudamire said. “There has probably been plenty of times throughout that he could have went bad on the situation. I think he has handled himself well. I think he has spoken well and although he hasn’t given them the answer they wanted yet and signed on that dotted line, he hasn’t alienated (anyone) either.”

Toronto Star

Hedo Turkoglu, who missed last Wednesday’s game to make a trip to Turkey to deal with a family emergency and didn’t get here until late Monday, was particularly ineffective. He had just one point, one rebound, two assists and three turnovers in 30 minutes.

Still, Triano stuck with him for the duration of overtime.

"He’s a big part of this team and he will be going forward and it’s not like we can’t play him," said the coach. "We’re going to play him and he’s going to be on the floor when the games matter and he’s going through a little bit of a tough time lately personally and physically."

Turkoglu admitted to being a bit distracted. "My mind is still kind of back home worrying about the things I’ve been through the past few days," he said.

Globe and Mail

The Raptors started slow and dug themselves a deep hole late in the first quarter, before making a game of it. And they appeared to have it sewn up with less than three minutes left, when Bosh powered up from underneath the basket for a layup and a 93-86 lead.

Bosh howled with emotion as he headed back down the court and the crowd roared in kind. But Memphis weren’t through, as O.J. Mayo drained a three-point shot and Randolph made a game-saving drive with 1.7 seconds left to force overtime.

Point guard Jose Calderon provided a big lift off the Toronto bench, chipping in 12 points, six rebounds and a game-high nine assists in more than 22 minutes of court time.

He said it is not like the Raptors to allow games like this to slip away.

“We just have to keep working,” Calderon said. “It’s tough because we were playing well at home and these are the types of games we need to win. They have beaten us twice this year, so I don’t know.”

National Post

The last 37 seconds were particularly brutal: O.J. Mayo hit an uncontested three-pointer, and after Andrea Bargnani missed a jumper late in the shot clock, Zach Randolph recorded a layup in transition to tie the game with 1.7 seconds remaining in regulation. Chris Bosh, who was sensational with 32 points, missed a tough jumper as time expired.

"We kind of screwed up on the coverage," Triano said of the defence on Mayo’s three-pointer.

With the Raptors trailing by one point in overtime, Turkoglu missed another quick three-pointer with two minutes remaining. Memphis scored the final eight points of the extra five minutes.

"It’s not like we can’t play him," Triano said of Turkoglu. "We’re going to play him. He’s going to be on the floor when the games matter. He’s gone through a little bit of a tough time lately personally and physically by not being involved."

ESPN

Video – Gay steps up in OT to lead Grizz past Raptors

Commercial Appeal

Chris Bosh gave Toronto a 97-92 lead with 37.9 seconds left in regulation, but the Griz stormed back.

Hollins called a timeout and then Mayo calmly sank a 3-pointer.

“It was drawn up for me to make a shot or make a play,” Mayo said. “I thought if they switched I was definitely putting it up.”

When the Raptors’ defense shifted to Randolph floating toward the basket, Mayo was left with a clean look for the long-range dagger. Andrea Bargnani then missed a 21-footer that Griz point guard Mike Conley rebounded.

“We knew what we had to do,” said Conley, who had 13 points and eight assists.

Hoops Addict

Kayla Harris and Ryan McNeill talk about Toronto having their eight-game winning streak at home snapped, the Raptors clawing their way back into the game when Jose Calderon entered the game, the crowd at the Air Canada Centre getting behind Chris Bosh as an MVP candidate and the spark Amir Johnson provided the team.

3 Shades of Blue

Item third: Good Lord, the Grizzlies’ bench is just abysmal. Is there a more pejorative term than "abysmal" (that’s PG at worst) that I can use to describe said bench? DA, at least, appeared marginally conscious tonight. Another bench note-am I seeing things, or has Hamed Haddadi been entirely absent from the bench the last two nights? Does this mean something? I doubt it, since the only NBA exec who wants to give him a contract already has,and that was Gordon "Methuselah was my grandchild" Chiesa. The bench, even with a starter or two always present, just struggles so mightily to hit spots during execution, and as the shot clock dwindles, the "chickens  without heads"  theme becomes ever more prominent. DeMarre Carroll, in particular, really seems to have lost his footing (pun only slightly intended) during his rookie season.

Canadian Press

"I think they were kind of relaxed and thought the game was over," Mayo said.

It certainly wasn’t. Mayo made a quick three and, after Bargnani missed a jumper, Randolph tied it on a driving layup with 1.7 seconds left.

"We could have called timeout and set something up but I felt like we had a break so I wanted to get it up the court real quick," Conley said. "I heard Zach calling my name from behind. I just wanted to bounce him the ball, get it to him where he could score, and he finished it."

Toronto had a chance to win but Bosh missed a jumper from the corner, sending it to overtime.

"These are tough games because we haven’t played in a week," Bosh said. "They played last night and they were able to shake their rust off."

NBA.com

While Gay took over the game down the stretch, without Mayo’s 3-pointer there would not have been an overtime.

"We knew that they were going to go for a three and we had our coverages. We just didn’t react the way we were supposed to," Jay Triano said. "It was a tough break, but we kind of screwed up on the coverage."

Mayo said he didn’t expect to be so wide open, but that he was ready for whatever the defense gave and that the shot felt good the moment it left his hands. Snapping a five-game losing streak, he was proud of the fight his team showed when the game was on the line.

"We easily could have quit," Mayo said. "But we kept believing, kept fighting and we did a great job once we got into overtime. We felt like it was a breath of fresh air and 0-0 and a new ball game. We had them working all game. They finally took the lead under five minutes in the fourth quarter and I think they were kind of relaxed and thought the game was over. We kept fighting. We wanted to win really badly. It worked out for us."

New Leisure Blog

I usually hate switches, it will work for some teams like Atlanta because they have good athletes in most positions. But here, you can’t ask Jose to guard Gay, and expect to come out fine. Lots of people in my section blame Jose for this, but this is really a coaching decision, they want to switch to prevent Conley turning the corner on Jose.

The Raptors lose the game not because of the switches in overtime, but other stuff like the our 53 million dollar man went missing again. Mr 4th quarter has 0 points in the 4th quarter, just awesome.

Zan Tabak Herald

Calderon did not play great defense on Rudy Gay at the end of the game and let Conely walk right in for the game tying points at the end of the fourth, but are you sure you want to hand the keys to this team to Jarrett Jack?  No offense to Jack, he has had a great year thus far, but he is far from consistent.  Jack was a non-factor tonight and it was Calderon that brought the team back in the second and fourth quarters.  Without his effort off the bench this game would be a write-off.  Calderon and Jack compliment each other well.  When Jack is having an off night, Jose is there to take the lions’ share of minutes and vice versa.  Not to mention Jose has made the second unit a force to reckoned with. If you subtract Jose from the equation; nights like tonight will be much, much worse.  Hold on to the depth that has gotten you this far.  You’re welcome, Mr. Colangelo.

The Picket Fence

Triano, of course, didn’t escape their vitriol. One of the main complaints was that he subbed Turkoglu back in despite him playing poorly. Yes, he subbed a relative rookie out for the ten year veteran with the history of coming up big in the clutch and lots of big game experience. If Phil Jackson had done it, it would have been called an intelligent gamble. Triano does it and he’s an awful coach. And you know what? I’ve seen Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly and Jerry Sloan do the EXACT same thing. And I’ve seen it backfire. Sometimes that happens.

The other complaint against Triano was that he allowed Calderon to switch off to Gay, which obviously caused a mismatch Memphis exploited. The last time I saw this short a memory, I was swimming around my fishbowl in a former life! Apparently none of these complainers remember that the switching on defense strategy was one of the reasons the Raptors started turning things around in December. It’s worked well enough for them to go 22-11 since then, but an overtime loss against an offensively talented team, and suddenly it’s the worst strategy in the world.

Hoops Addict

Kayla Harris chats with Amir Johnson about how he spent All-Star weekend, what is was like watching his teammates in the dunk contest and All-Star game, what music he plays on his iPod before games and the teams desire to leap frog the teams currently ahead of them in the standings.

Fan590

Smith Says:
- “Toronto’s defence – especially in overtime – was suspect when you consider how Calderon and Turkoglu continued to switch off on Mike Conley and Gay.  A number of times there was no reason to switch – Turk could have easily stayed on Gay.  But Gay just stared down Calderon and put him in the torture chamber time and time again.”

Jones Says:
- “There has to be better situational awareness.  Up 5 with :37 seconds to go … you can’t give up an open 3-ball.  And then transition defence on the tying basket was not good … You’ve got to get back.”

The fact that teams are cutting costs these days is nothing new ? the fact just about every corporation in the world is cutting costs these days is not new, in fact – and the Raptors point was hammered home a little bit yesterday. Counting heads when we got into practice ? it’s something we do every day – there was one guy missing: Assistant coach Micah Nori. Figured he hadn’t gone off to help the Evil Empire Yankees hit with men in scoring position (he was a Mighty Yankees hitting consultant this summer) but where in the world could he be? Then it him me: He had to be off scouting the Cavs before opening night.

Raptors? Johnson back on familiar turf

Johnson, a reserve forward with the Toronto Raptors, spent 22 games, or the better part of three months, in South Dakota three years ago, playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the National Basketball Development League. He’ll be back there Friday, when the Raptors close out their NBA pre-season schedule against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was pretty good, Sioux Falls. It kind of grows on you, Johnson said. ‘there’s not too much to do. The fans are great. The food was great, actually. Johnson might not know everything about Sioux Falls – population: almost 155,000, as of last year; area code 605 – but the Raptors might learn a little bit about themselves there Friday.

In Raptors’ final pre-season tuneup, Johnson knows role – thestar.com

Johnson's had a solid pre-season and, with an injury to Reggie Evans taking one Toronto big man out of the rotation, seems poised to play significant minutes once the regular season begins Wednesday.

Toronto Raptors-roster analysis 2009-2010 NBA preview – NBA – SI.com

DeMar DeRozan is going to be a premier rookie, Hedo Turkoglu was a good get and they have better backups up front and at point guard. I like this team now. They're going to be back in the playoffs. The big story is going to be whether they can keep Chris Bosh as a free agent this summer. It's important for them to have a good year because if they don't make the playoffs, it will be devastating.

Quincy Douby loves Toronto, despite the trade that wasn’t – Posted Sports

The situation was this: Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo had signed free agent Hedo Turkoglu, but he was in the midst of turning that signing into a four-team sign-and-trade to ensure the Raptors could keep some of their salary cap exceptions that they would otherwise have had to forfeit.

Raptors just what Toronto needs

But for the Raptors, who open the NBA regular season against Cleveland next Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre, things might just be getting good. Toronto is craving a winner, and winning creates bandwagons crammed with casual fans that, once upon a time, helped the Jays set those attendance records.

Can Toronto Build a Winner Around Bosh? – The Wages of Wins Journal

The Toronto Raptors appear to be on a mission. Somehow, someway, this team needs to convince Chris Bosh to stay in Canada. The issue for the Raptors isn’t money. To convince Bosh to stay, Toronto must convince Bosh that he will someday play for a winner. So far, though, the facts presented to Bosh haven’t been too convincing.

HIP HOOP JUNKIES – The blog highlighting the Canadian flavour of the NBA: The Throwback: Where in the World is Bryant “Big Country” Reeves?

Not Raptor related, but I always wondered what happened to Bryant Reeves: After six seasons as a Grizzly, "Big Country" retired from the NBA in 2001 at the ripe old age of 28, with chronic back pain. The big man from Gans, Oklahoma (population 208) was a big scorer at Oklahoma State University and also a great rebounder.

What Makes A Great Scorer? : The Picket Fence

Bargnani's big enough to score over smaller defenders inside, which makes him a bit of a matchup nightmare. It’s no wonder many Raptor fans foresee stardom in Bargnani’s future. The problem, however, is that despite Bargnani being a great shooter, he’ll simply never become a great scorer. Why? The answer lies with his inability to get to the line.

Match Ups – Toronto Raptors v/s Indiana Pacers – Heels on Hardwood

A lot of the hopes for moderate success in Indianapolis hinge on the health of Mike Dunleavy, Jr. The offseason loss of Jarrett Jack means that TJ Ford, Danny Granger and the recently acquired Earl Watson are really the team’s only capable perimeter ball-handlers other than MDJ, who was essentially the Pacers de facto “point forward” much of the time he was on the floor the last time he was, you know, actually on the floor. So if he can’t suit up and be 100% for more than, say, 60 games, that doesn’t bode well at all for Indiana.

Is 2010 Jose Calderon’s All-Star Year? | Bleacher Report

But this year, Jose Calderon has slipped below the radar of many NBA analysts and, sadly, many Toronto Raptors fans. Sometimes we need to be reminded that each season Toronto fans have witnessed the development of one of the better point guards in the NBA.

Toronto Raptors Starting Shooting Guard Dilemma – Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog

The contrarian view says DeRozan just isn’t ready to start. He is too young and too inexperienced to be asked to guard a NBA starting shooting guard on a nightly basis. A bad experience could hurt his confidence and retard his development. This is definitely a decision best left up to the coaches. If Jay Triano believes DeRozan’s development is best served by starting, he is in the best position to make this determination.

RAPTORS: Raptors Video Player

Devlin And The Czar: Part 1 – Oct. 22, 2009
Check out part one of Matt Devlin's audio interview with Mike Fratello!