I’ve watched more Clippers games this seasons than the rest of my life combined; they almost play my perfect brand of basketball…Blake needs to take it to the rack more and they’d be perfect.

Had a few words with Jovan Buha from the Clippers Blog:

Knowing what you know now, did the Clippers pay too high a price for Paul?

No. I look at it this way — are the Clippers set up better now or in the future after the trade? I say both. There’s no way L.A. would be consistently beating elite teams with last year’s squad and simply the additions of Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups. In the future, with time to gel and additions through free agency and trades, they’re only going to get better. If the last four games have proven anything, Paul is the Clippers’ offensive maestro and the difference-maker from being a playoff team and being a contender.

Is it a big problem that Blake likes to shoot long jumpers more than he attacks the rim like a rabid animal off the high screen?

Yes, it’s a huge problem. Blake’s jumper, while improved, is far from a proven product. His outside shooting efficiency is actually down from 33 percent to 31 percent this year but that’s more of a reflection of his 4.8 attempts per game (too high and as a result, lowers his percentage out there). When he attacks the rim, he’s much, much better (71.0 percent shooting at the rim). A pick-and-roll with Paul is much more efficient if Griffin rolls towards rim destruction.

Is Neil Olshey executive of the year?

Yes, thus far it appears Neil Olshey should be the executive of the year. He turned a laughingstock franchise into a fringe contender with the Chris Paul trade and signings of Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups (for $2,000,032!). Who else made better moves this offseason?

Injuries

Toronto
Andrea Bargnani – Calf, should play
Jerryd Bayless – game-time decision, should play

Los Angeles
Chris Paul – Hamstring, game-time decision
Caron Butler – Knee, questionable

Match-ups

Point Guard
Paul is sick. Mo Williams is a solid back-up. Bledsoe is better than any back-up we got. And Chauncey can make it happen if he gets the call. That’s about all she wrote.
Edge: Clippers

Shooting Guard
At least DeMar showed up for the Blazers game on Friday; it took him 21 shots to get 22 points, but at least he got to the line 10 times. He hasn’t stepped up in Bargnani’s absence, but neither has anyone else really. While Billups wont break him down off the bounce, he will make him pay for every inch of open space DeRozan gives him and play tight defense on our boy.
Edge: Clippers

Small Forward
It’s going to be frustrating to watch a juicy, out of shape Caron Butler make things happen against our defense, but that’s exactly what’s going  down this afternoon. If Caron doesn’t go, the Raptors small forwards are actually better than anything the Clippers have.
Edge: Clippers

Power Forward
Bargnani’s supposed to play,  but he’s been sitting for over a week now and wont be crisp. There isn’t a whole he can do to control Griffin if he gets it in his head, but if he isn’t too much out of game shape, he can make things difficult on the phenom. Expect too see a lot of dunks and offensive rebound-put-backs tonight from the Clips, though.
Edge: Clippers

Center
Amir Johnson is a poor mans DeAndre Jordan. You could make the case that Amir has better offensive weapons, but what he does better on defense, Jordan more than makes up for on defense. The Raptors have more depth here, but Jordan is a work horse; it might even out since DeAndre doesn’t do enough outside of blocking shots and dunking (work with me here, I couldn’t give them a clean sweep).
Edge: Even

Keys to the Game

1. Let Blake shoot the ball every time he gets it; it’s frustrating to watch, but he loves the jumper, and shouldn’t be a go-to thing for him. Off the high pick-n-roll, let the guy roll and force Paul create some genius on every possession.
2. Control the boards; outside of Griffin and Paul, the rest of the team is pretty average to mediocre.
3. Make the Clippers work defensively; Chris Paul is injured and limping, Jordan can be bated with a pump-fake and Blake isn’t making all defensive team (although he can make highlight blocks). The Clippers are going to score, nothing the Raptors can do to stop that, but if we make them work a little, hopefully the early start time will mess with them

The Line

The Clippers are 9.5 point favourites at home with an over/under of 184.5; I’m setting the over/under of Blake and Jordan dunking at 10. The Clippers dropped a heart breaker against the Timberwolves on Friday, and should be plenty pissed off today. If Bargnani is playing, and isn’t too rusty, the Raptors should cover. It’s starting to get more serious than just covering games and looking at the bright-side of things, though. The Raptors have dropped 7 in a row, and could easily drop the next 5 on the road. Have to make a stand sometime, yea?

Injury Report

Toronto
Reggie Evans – Out
Linas Kleiza – Out

Dallas
Caron Butler – Out

Player Report

Jose Calderon
Friday was a low point for Jose since taking full control of the starting unit. 0pts 7ast in 24mins; much like the rest of the team (Bargnani/Barbosa/Davis excluded) he was pretty flat. 0-3 from the field, no trips to the line. Are you serious? This only serves to strengthen our draft position, but it’s out of his character to dog it on the court. Either he’s hurt, or he’s tired. Regardless, he wont need to worry about a fast point guard who can beat him off the dribble tonight. Jason Kidd turns 38 in a month, but he’s no Steve Nash, and is more reputation than production at this point.

The Mavs are 8th in the league in defense, and while they have guys like Chandler patrolling the key, you have to give Kidd some credit for being part of a team committed to D. The guy still rebounds the ball very well, is an exceptional passer and can hit open threes. Jose needs to attack the old man, make him work in transition and not leave him open at the top of arc for the long ball. I’m smelling a comeback game, even though I’ve been calling for it all it.
Box: 10pts 11ast 5rebs

DeMar DeRozan
I liked that technical he got on Friday, love seeing my guys fired up and pissed off. It was disappointing that he only got to the line twice against a weak (I’m be generous here) Suns defense. There were all kinds of lanes that he could have taken to the rim, but the offense was disjointed, and everything seemed like it was one-and-done. Hard to get going in those circumstances, but he still managed a pretty decent showing. Still, two trips to the line, that’s pretty brutal. Looking back on his year, when he shoots at least 6 free throws, he’s scored at least 20 points (note: there were three cases where he took a great deal of shots to get past 20 though). Getting to the line = being aggressive with the ball = attacking the defense = jumpers not the main course for the evening.

He’s got Beaubois tonight in a match-up he should own. The Mavs are very reluctant to trade the kid, and while he’s nice, I don’t know that he’s good enough to justify not making moves to bring in savior  vets who make better decisions with the ball. Much like the Cavs not wanting to part with JJ Hickson when Amar’e was on the table. Rodrigue will be a pest with his speed and quick hands, but he doesn’t have the size to really bother our boy. Heres to hoping for 8 trips to the line.
Box: 20pts 4rebs

James Johnson
I’m starting to like him a lot, more than Wright. I do have one question though: how did he jump the line so quickly when Wright is as good defensively, but better on the offensive end? Also, if his starting gig holds, how much do you think it will cost Weems as a free agent this summer? Personally, I don’t care if he scores if he keeps giving us that defense on the wing; it was how I felt with Wright, but I like this kid more, must be the Iverson arm sleeve he wears.

I love Peja, wish we held on to him if for no other reason than have him sit on the bench with the pimp suit and nicely combed part in his hair. Since being traded, he’s averaging 11pts 3rebs 1ast 1stl while sticking two treys a game. Granted he gives very little on defense, so there will be plenty of opportunities for JJ to get to the rim.
Box: 7pts 7rebs 1stl 2blk

Amir Johnson
Not sure what Friday was, but I expected much more from Amir against the Suns. He’s averaging 8.6pts 5.4rebs 1ast 1.4blk, nothing to write home about especially since we were getting used to him approaching double-double’s on a regular basis. Could be time to start thinking about using his energy off the bench and giving Davis some burn as a starter, I see no downside. He’s going to need all the energy he can muster against Chandler, who’s playing for another $10mil/year contract in the summer. I’m still pretty pissed we lost out on him in the summer, and have been meaning to write a post all year on what this team would look like had that Bobcats trade gone through (Jack/Bayless, DeRozan, Diaw, Bargnani, Chandler w/ Davis, Johnson, Barbosa, Kleiza off the bench – that’s good for 45 wins with a very manageable cap situation and young player development; sigh). You know he’s going to want to avenge that pathetic 3pt 6reb performance in the loss earlier in the season.
8pts 14rebs 2blk

Andrea Bargnani
Friday against the Suns was a bizzarro night where I tweeted this. Loved Andrea’s performance, even though he only grabbed 4 boards (the team as a whole was doing a sub-par rebounding job). Nowitzki is going to be a tough check for Bargnani, since he’s a better rebounding version of himself. Still, I’m looking forward to watching this match-up since both were absent during the Raptor win earlier this season.
23pts 6rebs 1blk

The Line

The gamblers have the Mavs as 5.5 point favourites with an over/under of 207.5. I just don’t see the Raptors getting that close. If you think we will see the same thing as the win earlier in the season, you have to realize a few things:

1. The Mavs without Nowitzki are a bunch of old guys who can’t score in the paint
2. Ed Davis put up the best game of his rookie season with 17pts 12rebs (made up for the lost Bargnani production)
3. The Mavs are currently on a streak of 15 wins in the their last 16 games as they gear up for the playoffs

This is going to be a totally different kind of game, and if the Raptors come out with the same energy as Friday, this game will be lost in the 2nd quarter.

1. Rid us of Turkoglu
2. Bring in a complimentary piece to Bosh

The fact of the matter is that Bosh wont be making a decision until he is allowed to talk to some teams, and see what they have to offer; at which point he will either sign on the dotted line, or give Colangelo his short list of teams he wants to play for.

Either way, unless we trade yet another lottery pick (and throw DeRozan in), I expect this trade to make the Raptors better in both the short/long run. Take that however you want, but we all have another week to go nuts on the ESPN trade machine.

I had a chance to talk to Rob Mahoney from The Two Man Game about the Mavericks, and what the f*ck happened.

Sam Holako: WTF happened???

Rob Mahoney: Well, that depends on who you ask. Talk to the Maverick faithful, and the team peaked too early; after riding a big winning streak following the Mavs’ acquisitions at the deadline, the team had faded going into the playoffs. Talk to the realists, and they’ll tell you of a Dallas team that never could quite get it together defensively, and lacked the offensive versatility to protect Dirk from aggressive coverage. Ask an extremist, and you’ll likely hear stories of how centuries-old prophecies as told by soothsayers around the globe foretold of Rodrigue Beaubois’ ascension, and Rick Carlisle’s stubborn denial of the rookie’s destiny led to an extended fourth quarter benching in the decisive Game 6 and a destruction of the natural order of the universe.

Needless to say, it’s all a bit complicated. Still, the easy part is that the team just wasn’t ready. They weren’t good enough on either side of the ball to get past San Antonio in the first round — much less a potential match-up with Phoenix or L.A. later in the playoffs — even if they fell just short in almost every loss.

SH: One thing I have admired about the Mavs/Cuban is that they have continually retooled via big moves in an effort to win a championship (Butler, Haywood, and Marion). However, I’m not so sure Carlisle was/is the right guy for the job (although I’m a big fan of his). You touched on his benching of Beausboise a little; while I’m not convinced he would have saved the season if played, I can’t help but think that specific event was symptomatic of a larger issue. Is it time to reduce Kids role on the Mavs and increase Patrices? Does Carlisle have what it takes to make this happen without things detiorating?

RM: I really do think he can make it happen. Carlisle has shown a lot of flexibility during his time in Dallas (his reluctance to play Beaubois was the exception, not the rule), and that’s crucial. I mean, he benched Caron Butler in a playoff game. It was the right move, but the real question is how many coaches would even be willing to do that? That was a lot of salary left sitting on the bench and a former All-Star, but Caron was hurting the offense and Carlisle knew it.

Coaches need to be willing to play whichever players give the team the best chance to win, regardless of standing or reputation. Carlisle has shown that he’s willing to do that (except with Beaubois, apparently, but again that’s more a fluke), and he’ll continue to alter the rotation until he’s satisfied.

For what it’s worth, the Mavs — from Rick Carlisle to Mark Cuban to Donnie Nelson — have made it clear that Beaubois will have a bigger role next season, both playing off the ball as he did this past season and with more time as the back-up point. That probably won’t indicate much of a drop-off for Kidd, but the team may be more conservative with Jason’s minutes in the regular season.

SH: What’s this kids upside? Not very often you hear people scream about benching a late first round pick in favour of Jason Kidd.

RM: It’s incredibly high. The physical tools are all there — the speed, the length, the athleticism, the body control — and once he finds ways to properly utilize all of his gifts, he’s going to be a force. In the meantime, he was only second on the team in points per minute, led all rookies in PER and true shooting percentage, and shot 50-40-80 from the field. He doesn’t have a ton of experience, but at the same time I wouldn’t call him “raw”; his instincts serve him well. He’s coming along at the defensive end as well, but he played defense like a rookie. I expect a little more nuance in his defensive performances in year two, with a better understanding of opposing players’ tendencies, how he fits into a team defensive concept, etc.

I see no reason why Beaubois can’t be a star in this league for a long time. All of the components are there, it just takes time and a little opportunity.

SH: An issue that has split Raptor fans into two groups is the notion of Chris Bosh as a max player. Some of us, myself included, feel that he is an elite level player in the league who is worthy of a max contract (in terms of his worth on a championship team, I feel he’s more a Pippen than a Jordan), while others violently disagree. I want to ask that question of you, can a championship team be built around Nowitzki at this stage of his career? Is he a max player? Would the Mavs be better off dealing him and rebuilding around Beaubois?

RM: For the record, I think Bosh is a max player and I’ll defend that notion to the grave. Similarly, Nowitzki is still a max player, even if he may take a lower-than-max deal to help out the team.

You can still build an offense around Dirk Nowitzki, it’s just not the easiest thing in the world. There is no template to follow, because Dirk isn’t a traditional low-post player or a super-quick point guard or an athletic swingman. The league has never seen anything quite like Dirk; there have been players with similar skills, but no one that combines Nowitzki’s unique versatility, talent, and efficiency. He just needs the right components around him on both ends of the court to secure a title, and he’s never really had that.

Even in 2006 when the Mavs went to the Finals, the thing that really put Dallas over the top was Devin Harris’ ability to penetrate. Harris is the only post-Nash point guard the Mavs have had that could really attract defensive attention. Jason Kidd, for all of his talents, doesn’t command coverage. He doesn’t penetrate particularly well, and he’s not forcing defenses to adapt to his movements. Similarly, Erick Dampier has been the most successful center of the Nowitzki era. I appreciate Damp more than anyone, but if the Mavs had a superior center in the last few seasons, Dirk could have a title to his name.

He still could, but it’s going to take some kind of adjustment. The guys currently on the roster — Jason Terry, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, et al — are talented, but probably not talented enough nor do they possess ideal skill sets. It doesn’t take a monumental change, but Dallas needs a few upgrades, and given that, Nowitzki could still be competitive for a title. There may be a day when the Mavs would be wise to build around Beaubois, but it’s not today. Or tomorrow. And probably not the day after that, either.

SH: Nowitzki isn’t getting any younger, but he still has a few years at an elite level in him. Cuban has shown the chops to make things happen, and has continually loaded up year after year with players that have put together great regular season teams, but failed in the playoffs. What players should he be targeting this offseason to compliment Dirk; or is trading Dirk the only answer?

RM: If I had my pick of any potential acquisition, I’d shoot for Dwyane Wade. Not exactly a great center that can anchor a defense, but he’s an elite scorer, a terrific playmaker, and an excellent defender that fills a positional need. That said, Wade won’t be giving the Mavs the time of day, which makes some of the other players that could be on the market this summer — guys like Joe Johnson and Andre Iguodala — far more reasonable targets.

Bosh is a bit of an odd fit in Dallas. Offensively, he’d be a dream, but I’m skeptical of Bosh and Dirk’s ability to coexist on defense. That said, he’s a hell of a player, and if the Mavs had a shot of nabbing him, they’d do their best to take that shot.

That shot would be something like Erick Dampier (or really, his instantly expiring contract that wouldn’t cost Toronto a penny), Rodrigue Beaubois, and DeShawn Stevenson’s expiring contract. If the Mavs were particularly desperate, they could agree to take on Hedo Turkoglu in exchange for Caron Butler, but that would sour the deal rather substantially in my opinion. It’s not a knockout for the Raps, but I honestly don’t see Toronto getting any return value better than Beaubois; he’s young, talented, and inexpensive, and would really only come with the additional cost of Stevenson’s one-year $4.15 million deal. Beaubois may not be Chris Bosh, but he’d be an excellent young piece that when paired with DeMar DeRozan, could give Toronto the most athletic (and one of the most exciting) backcourts in the league.

–

Damn interesting proposal if you ask me. Have to say, if Bosh said he didn’t want to play for the Raptors anymore, and the Mavs agreed to take Turkoglu in a S&T, gotta say this deal gives us lots of options in the short and long term.

I’m on Twitter.

The Raptors are in a the middle of a dire 5 game losing streak and things are approaching crisis level. Effort on the defensive end has been garbage (any defense that has been played is incidental/accidental). They aren’t doing anything that speaks of any desire to win. Sure, we can score, but when most of your guys need the ball to be effective, and the coach can’t find the right recipe, things go from bad to worse. Welcome to the 2nd team in a row that Colangelo has sold to this city, yay for us.

So that Hawks game was killer. I regret not being able to muster anything after that one, but I had nothing. Literally sat in front of my computer and stared at my screen saver then gave up. What could I say? That effort shouldn’t have to be asked for? That being a professional athlete means you are being payed to compete at a high level every single time you step on the floor? That you can’t make excuses when you have actually gone through a training camp? That when you look at yourself in the mirror, you need to be proud of the guy staring back at you? That when you get backed into a corner, you should scratch/kick/claw your way out and not crouch into the fetal position and hope it stops burning?

Triano needs to figure out a formula that works. If that means putting the ball in Hedo’s hands, so be it. If that means cursing out Bargnani till he cries, do it. If that means bringing Calderon off the bench, jam on. Maybe we sit DeRozan. Maybe we start Amir. At this point, everything is an option since the current plan doesn’t work.

Tonight the Raptors head into Washington to play the Wizards for the second time in three games. The last time these guys played, the Raptors suffered a 4th quarter collapse that ultimately was lost on three very bad decisions by Jack. Sure he had a great game, but he Ben Gordoned us (he shot the team into a hole, then tried to shoot us out).

The Match-up

The Point: Calderon/Jack need to attack Arenas constantly and aggressively. The guy is a poor defender who seemingly doesn’t have the foot speed he used to have.  Jose started the last game 5-6 from the field, but then the ball was taken out of his hands for most of the rest of the game – can’t have that again. If the guy is hot, keeping feeding him, makes sense, no? Jack needs to do more driving and less shooting. It’s not like he’s shooting that well, 42% from the field isn’t stellar. Last game, Arenas was able to work himself into the game, after a slow start. Can’t let that happen either. Intensity and focus on the guy. He was scoring 29 a game and calling 40 point outbursts just a couple seasons ago.

The Skill: DeRozan and Young were not a factor in the last game at all. In fact, none of the 2-guards on either side contributed much of anything, not that they needed too. It would be good to see DeRozan follow up a career game against Atlanta with a solid performance tonight, same with Belinelli who was playing terribly until dropping 19 on the Hawks. These guys should really have no problem taking it to Young/Foye.

The Wing: Had Turkoglu not shot so poorly the last game, things may have been different. He got good looks on Butler, just couldn’t knock them down. This was an even match-up for most of the game with neither player really going off. As long as Butler is under control (I considered 19pts 7rebs under control), then I’m happy. Just shoot better ok? Antoine Wright as we came to learn yesterday has the worst PER in the league (3.1). Morris Peterson is 2nd worse, but 60% better. This should tell us all something in regards to what kind of shots he should be taking – none.

The Big: Bosh showed up for the 2nd quarter, and took the rest of the game off against the Wizzers. Still, he had 22pts 14rebs, but when you go 7-22 from the field, you aren’t helping anyone. After scoring 2 on Wednesday against the Hawks (yes, I said 2), you know he will be fierce from the tip. That fire needs to be directed at Jamison who played like he always does against the Ratpors: really freaking good – 30pts 12rebs. Granted, some of that was against Bargnani, but the majority of it came against our franchise. Jamison needs to be kept under control, not sure how, but that’s not my job, it’s Triano’s…oh wait… Amir gets spot duty, and I really have nothing to say but that I hope he gets more minutes, and keeps doing what he has done so far this season.

The Strong: I really-really hate Brendan Haywood. The guy has owned us for years, and always puts up huge numbers: 15pts 9rebs 3blks last game. For a guy who has a limited offensive arsenal, I wonder why Bargnani doesn’t do a better job of staying between him and the rim? That’s all he needs to do. Seriously, if he can box out, and put his arms up when Haywood is going up strong, good things will happen since most of the damage Haywood inflicts was on the offensive boards (he had 7 offensive rebounds last game, and probably 7 dunks/layups right afterwards). I shudder to think what Haywood would have done had Bargs not grabbed 7 defensive boards of his own. All Bargnani should be doing is standing between Haywood with an elbow in his chest, at all times. Do it.

Injuries

Raptors
Reggie Evans

Wizards
Mike Miller
Javaris Crittenton

The Line

The Wizards are 4 point favourites with an over/under of 216.

Simulation

Visser’s sims are 14-6 this year and this time the crystal ball is predicting a 105-102 Raptors loss.

Prediction

My goodness am I defeated. I’d like to say a Raptor win, but I can’t. I don’t see how one day, and some tape-watching is going to help anything. This team needs to be read the riot act. 103-94 Wizards.

Come swing by the RR Forums and check out our game thread. You want Twitter? Live Chat? ESPN Daily Dime (will post link as soon as it goes up)? We got you son!

Also, if you’re local a 416/905er, come hang in person with us tonight at the Sports Centre Cafe for Raptor Fans Friday.

We talked about Triano’s system in Monday’s podcast, and how it wasn’t really working, and what he is going to do about it. Well we got our answer yesterday during practice when he was asked about it:

The stuff that we’re doing is basic. Do we think about tweaking things a little bit? Yes, but at the same time we were committed to this at training camp and want to give it a chance. If we need to tweak it at some point that’s what we’ll do.

I worry that we wont make any changes until it is too late for the Raptors this season. Triano doesn’t seem to be a change-on-the-fly kind of guy, which is ok because not many coaches are fluid in what they do. The good ones are on the good teams already I suppose. Bosh doesn’t seem to be worried, which is great, and he echoed what AltRaps said in our podcast yesterday that it is about that few minutes of horrible play in the 3rd that needs to be fixed:

Those five or six minutes, that is kind of what dictates the game. Even if we lose a game by 20 points, the five points the other team might go on a 10-run and not look back, and next thing you know they have confidence and they’re hitting everything. I think we just have to pay attention to detail the whole, entire game.

This is the first of two games against Washington this week, with the Raptors hosting them tonight at the ACC. The Wizards got pounded by Charlotte on Saturday and are having the same sorts of woes the Raptors do, namely energy and flatness in stretches.

The Match-up

The Point: Arenas is finally back after missing two seasons, and he is looking good early. He seems a step slow from the two games I’ve caught so far, but he seems to be playing a more mature game (in control). I, ughh, don’t know what to say about Calderon. 2pts 7ast against Nash on Sunday in some of the most uninspired ball I have seen – but in his defense, he had to switch onto Stoudemire off of every single screen which couldn’t have helped. Jack has been a little better, but only because he attacks the rim more. Otherwise his jumper sucks and he isn’t doing much to win the starting role. Even though I expect both of these guys to turn it around tonight, the Wizards back-court has quick reserves in Boykins and Foye who will be a handful when Arenas is resting during posting season highs in everything.
The Edge: Washington

The Talent: I would like to see plays run for DeRozan. Triano needs to utilize his athleticism (Jose has been tossing him perfect oops lately) more. I actually look forward to watching DeRozan and Young chase each other around the court tonight. Not expecting big things from either, but young athletic kids kids are always fun to watch. Belinelli is due a break-out game after three horrible ones in a row, and should be getting some good looks against the Wizards bench who are the type of folk that haven’t been doing much lately, but have the ability to light up the Raptors. I can see Foye going off today, he has done well against us in the past (who hasn’t though right?).
The Edge: Toronto

The  Wing: Turk, we hardly know you, but we want to see more. Tonight though, you have your hands full with Butler. Less shooting and more driving/dishing off the pick-n-roll, I think that’s your style for the rest of your time in Toronto. The jumper; take it when you’re open, but don’t look for it unless you’re inside 15ft. Just remember, Butler is good, really good, and you can’t be floating off him, or he will make you pay. Wright should never shoot the ball, ever. I hate him shooting more then I hate Jack shooting.
The Edge: Washington

The Big: Bosh’s match-up with Jamison is going to dictate who wins this game. I hate to say it, but Bosh needs to pay careful attention to this ‘old’ man, he still has lots of life in his legs. After missing the first few weeks of the season, Jamison is putting up all-star numbers again (21pts 9rebs), and will be looking to atone for his wretched game against the Bobcats on Saturday. Bad news for us, but the good news is that he has to deal with Bosh on the defensive end of the court. Jamison has made a living of rebounding the hell out of the ball against the Raptors, but I like Bosh to keep him under control off the glass. Our boy has been great at boxing out and rising above everyone to rip those bad boys down. Johnson will need to keep doing what he’s been doing so far this season. He holds it down, and will have his hands full with Blatche off the bench. Blatche will probably get Johnson into foul trouble, which will give Triano a tougher time managing minutes for his forwards.
The Edge: Toronto

The Strong: I hate Brendan Haywood…the guy is the poster child for Raptor killer. He has probably had his best games of his career against us. Unfortunately, he is also rebounding the hell out of the ball, which Bargnani will need to deal with. This needs to be a big area of concentration for Bargnani tonight since Haywood is a league leader in boards, and McGee is a long-athletic freak who also has a nose for the ball. Pops will probably see some minutes because of his athleticism, but who knows, and frankly who cares if Bargnani doesn’t make a commitment to rebound tonight. Yes yes, he will get his on offense, but if we don’t limit Washington’s offensive rebounding, we can kiss this one goodbye.
The Edge: Toronto

Injury Report

Toronto
Reggie Evans

Washington
Nobody

The Line

The Raptors are a 7 point favourite with an over/under of 212

Simulation

Visser’s sims are 13-5 this year and this time the crystal ball is predicting a 114-92 Raptor win:

Andrea Bargnani had the best game of his NBA career, scoring 36 points (12-of-17 from the field, 5-of-5 from deep) and adding 11 rebounds to lead Toronto to a 114-92 win over the Wizards.

Bargnani picked up the slack for Chris Bosh, who struggled from the field but still managed 14 points and 15 boards in the win. Hedo Turkoglu had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists and Jose Calderon had 10 points and seven assists. Jarrett Jack added 15 off the bench for the Raptors.

Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler carried the scoring load for Washington, scoring 24 and 20, respectively. Gilbert Arenas struggled from the field, finishing with 11 on 5-of-17.

Prediction

Who am I to dispute a career night by Bargs? Raptors take it 108-89.