We were in a back-to-back situation and the Mavericks were playing on three days rest, but 62.4%? That’s like…a lot! Even if you consider the team still gelling and all that chemistry stuff, that’s still a very high percentage to give up, in fact, it’s the worst given up by any team this season and everybody’s played back-to-backs. The game did follow classic Raptors back-to-back pattern, start off with the energy you finished the night before with, cool off towards the second and sh*t bricks in the third. It’s almost like after the Raptors played well early somebody reminded them, Hey, remember, you’re supposed to suck in this game because you played last night and suddenly the team drops their energy, forgets about defense, hangs their heads and loses focus. That’s what the game-deciding third quarter was about, I don’t know what Triano said at the half, but he might want to take note and trash that speech.

Josh Howard made his season debut after ankle injury and the Mavs’ first few plays were all about trying to get him in rhythm. It was clear strategy on their part as he hoisted 7 shots for 7 points in the first. This meant that DeRozan had to do some defending which he did well enough but still managed to get replaced at 5:20 of the first. I don’t get it, I just don’t. While the red carpet was being laid out for Howard, Bosh went back to work in the manner we’ve become used to this season – determined attack against the slow-footed Dampier who couldn’t cope. The result was 10 points and 7 rebounds in the frame, he was hitting the offensive glass like Realizar hits the bottle – aggressively and with passion. Dirk was relatively quiet getting a couple hoops here and there and Bargnani, after missing two jumpers early, nailed two deep bombs right in his face.

Dirk looked pretty suspect on defense in their last game against New Orleans and actually fouled out against West and Okafor. I would’ve liked to have seen Bargnani test his lateral movement and nail him to the bench with a couple quick fouls, instead he opted for the jumpers which are great if they go in, but a guy like Dirk will always concede that in favor of actually playing some defense. When DeRozan was benched for Wright, Jack was brought in to face Jason Terry midway through the first. My thought at the time was to let DeRozan stay in the game and have Wright come in to guard Terry (taller and all), Jack’s not shown the ability to defend scoring SGs so far this season and he didn’t again tonight. In fact, he got lit up. More on that later, but for now let’s say he turned the ball over twice throwing lazy cross-court passes which even a TV viewer eating Cheetos and sipping on JD could foreshadow. This led to points and started to give Dallas momentum. It was 26-25 at the end of the first.

Terry, Barea, Howard and Kidd pushing the ball in transition against a back-tracking and late-reacting defense was the theme of the second and third quarters. The second was all about Dallas high screens and our defense leaving Nowitzki open in the 16-20 foot range (8 in the 2nd). With Jason Terry spreading the defense and Barea’s quickness against Jack proving to be too much, it resulted in the Raptors helping/collapsing on dribble penetration in the 7-12 foot area. Now, whereas another team might panic and turn the ball over when surrounded by defenders, Dallas is a club that thrives when “forced” to swing the ball to find the open shooter and are always looking to get easy baskets by dumping it inside to their bigs like Singleton and Dampier when the defense is too busy paying attention to the wing shooters.

The Raptors offense in the second quarter went cold. Hedo Turkoglu was being defended very well by Shawn Marion, he was up in his face, forcing him to drive into the paint which he shied away from doing. I thought the opportunity to be assertive was there (as Hedo had showed early in the first) but for whatever reason he didn’t feel motivated to do it. The Mavs were showing doubles against Bosh and Bargnani already which meant Hedo was seeing single coverage all night long. He was 1-5 midway through the third when this was still a game and finished 3-8, Marion got the better of him with 18/8/6, all high percentage shots in transition or deep post-ups, check out his short chart. It wasn’t pretty, Hedo looked old and slow and couldn’t deliver in that third quarter when we really needed our offense to match theirs.

The second unit had failed to deliver the spark they did against New Orleans and Detroit and it was 55-48 at the half. The warning signs for that third quarter were already here, Bosh cooling off, Hedo struggling, Bargnani only 3-8 and Calderon was the only one who seemed could get by his man (how’s that for a change?). There were also problems on the offensive end, the Raptors were swinging the ball around well and were getting clean perimeter looks, but the shots that went down in New Orleans, weren’t going down tonight (38% for the Raps, 52% for the Mavs in the half). That’s how jump-shooting works. You could also make out that Dallas had no issue conceding the jumper to Wright who went 1-9; I like his defense but if he’s shooting 9 shots in 18 minutes this team isn’t going anywhere.

There was no semblance of a post-presence for the Raptors and Bosh’s assault on the offensive glass was about as close to the rim as we got. Bargnani did demand the ball but the entry passes were poor, leading to turnovers; even the point-to-wing pass guards make to find a better post angle were being deflected. It was almost as if we wanted to post Bargnani up against Dirk but encountered some difficulty and were too lazy to try again. We’re pretty thin on options in the post and I would really like to see us give the ball to DeRozan a couple possessions a game in the block and see what he can do with it. He doesn’t have to back his man down, let him get an iso on the elbow and figure out where to go from there, it’ll go a long ways in helping him figure things out and we might even get a pleasant surprise.

It was a 25-12 run in the third that did the Raptors in, what I remember the most is Bosh guarding Nowitzki and giving him way too much space to shoot. Dirk was getting open by doing nothing, they weren’t even setting screens for him and he was finding space. In hindsight, Bargnani’s first half defense on Dirk was something we should’ve stuck with. No idea why the switch happened. He had 14 points in the quarter which the Mavs started on a 15-4 run to take an 18 point lead. The Raptors looked lethargic and had mentally conceded the game. Bosh looked exhausted and unwilling to step up to the challenge, he was hardly alone.

Jarrett Jack’s defense was god awful in the third and the combo with Jose failed again due to defensive reasons. He blew his assignment on Terry with a big fat F. Forget about shutting him down, how about staying within 8 feet of him. He was losing him in transition, leaving him open in the corner in the half-court, and not putting any pressure whatsoever on him on the live dribble. I was screaming to whoever would listen that Jack was costing us the game., Sometimes you need someone to lift the team spirit when its in doldrums and as one of the most vocal Raptors who’s supposed to be a good defender, I was expecting him to do just that. Not only was his defense terrible, he couldn’t get anything going on offense – 3 turnovers and 0 assists, a terrible PG game against a very average defense. Didn’t see any fire from him tonight. It’s in this area that I feel we miss Reggie Evans, I think a guy like him could’ve made a difference, at least would’ve given us a lift and maybe inspired some emotion and effort. He was the only one standing on the bench when things went from bad to worse.

The whole team’s energy was awful in the second half and it reflected in Dallas’ PINP and fast-break point advantage, 56-36 and 24-12, respectively. Singleton and Humphries went 8-10 for them which should not happen under Bosh, Bargnani and Johnson’s watch, you have to take some personal pride and stop scrubs from scoring against you, that too on layups and dunks. Of course it’s part dribble penetration, part strategy, part back-to-back but it’s also definitely part laziness.

“It was our first back-to-back, and they got off to a track meet,” Bosh said. “We kind of played into their game. We settled for too many jump shots. They got long rebounds and were off to the races.”

“They went past us, and they shot over us,” Toronto coach Jay Triano said. “They had more movement and energy and had confidence in their shooting. Our energy level was low.”

It’s a disappointing loss even though Dallas is a good team. You get the feeling that after a good enough first half, if we had only kept up our pace and intensity through the third, we would’ve been in the game in the fourth which is all you can ask. We were 2-8 from threes in the first half which cost us, they were all clean looks which could’ve given us a big boost going into the half, instead we went in feeling a bit sorry for ourselves and expecting a meltdown. I don’t know how much is chemistry, a new system, laziness or fatigue, but that defense we saw in the third was despicable. There was a genuine lack of effort which should be unacceptable. Our starters got a good rest in the fourth against New Orleans so you can’t blame it on fatigue, back-to-backs are a part of NBA life and they’re usually more competitive than this. Triano made no excuses later:

“We have 19 of them,” he said of back-to-backs. “What are we going to do? Just mail it in 19 times when we have a back-to-back? That can’t happen. We have to find a way to fight through it with mental toughness.”

The fourth quarter was a mere formality and to tell you how meaningless it was, let me just say that Patrick O’Bryant and Marcus Banks saw the floor.

Liners:

• Our bench got outscored 58-30. Terry had 19 and Singleton had a hustling 10. We need more offense from Belinelli and Johnson.
• I expect players like Marco Belinelli and Amir Johnson to thrive in this open court style of ball but they’re both struggling with their offensive games, going a combined 2-7 for 8 points. Johnson’s effort has been better of late but you get the feeling he’s just not going to be able to provide much offense off the bench in a garbage-man capacity. His finishing is too weak and his footwork is terrible, his six rebounds were nice but we have Reggie who can do that job better.
• Bargnani: 22/5/4, Bosh 26/12/6. Good numbers but a great example of how the box score doesn’t tell the whole story, especially in the case of Bosh once you consider his third quarter. There was an offensive rebound Bargnani got in the second quarter for a put-back that made you wonder why he can’t do that more often. No complaints tonight though, rebounding isn’t the reason we lost.
• We lost because we let our defensive guard down, nay, our defensive guard was shattered in the third and you have to give credit to the Mavs for making us pay. Their ball-movement was brilliant, their guard play was impressive and Dirk got his points without having to work too hard for them – too many weapons.
• I cannot explain what DeRozan did to get benched early. He was doing an okay job on Howard who was forced into contested shots. I would’ve even liked to have seen DeRozan on Terry and see if he could bother the sharp-shooter with his size because Terry was simply shooting over Jack all night long.
• Did you know the NBA changed rim manufacturers this year? Could that have something to do with the increased scoring?
• 3-3 after 6. I think most us had them going 2-4 in this stretch so it’s not all terrible. Let’s give this team a little more time before we burn Triano at the stake for his team producing the defensive effort they did tonight.

I got me a new Twitter account for all things Raptors.

If we had just shot a higher percentage we would’ve lost this game in the fourth quarter instead of the third. I know, my standards for this team have gotten pretty low. It’s hard to beat anyone when you shoot 37% but what makes this one harder to swallow is that we shot 37% against the Dallas Mavericks who are far from a defensive juggernaut. In fact, they’ve been nice enough to allow opponents to shoot 45% all season. The reason we shot so poorly? Yup, you guessed it, too many jumpers. It’s an occurrence that’s so often become the reason for our losses that I almost feel like I’m cheating the readers by telling them the same stuff over and over again. But dear reader, understand that when the team’s top five offensive weapons are Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, a 76.7631% Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker and Jason Kapono, jumpers will always be the first option.

Let me elaborate on the title of this post before I continue. I haven’t seen anyone on this team be too upset about the losing. Not Bosh, not Parker, not Jose, not Triano, not anybody. For a team that’s supposedly got leadership and talent, losing this much should be driving the players and coaches insane yet it’s accepted and nothing is done about it. There are no player-only meetings, angry bust-ups in the locker-room, pent-up emotions overflowing on the court or even a pissed-off sound byte coming from the locker room. Charlie V got lit up by Lebron and he started choking Big Z and pulling Varejao’s eyes out. I’m not advocating violence, just saying that I haven’t seen a single reaction from the Raptors that might indicate anything is bothering them. We seem content to play the season out, spread the blame evenly enough so we’re all friends and just move along. Somebody needs to throw some chairs against the walls in that locker-room, its not going to do much in terms of a playoff run but at least it’ll wake this crew up from their season long slumber.

In order for the Raptors to beat a decent team they’ll need at least three players to have high-impact games and tonight we only got it from Chris Bosh, and even he was ineffective when it mattered. After starting the game by offering two jumpers that only added fuel to the naysayer’s fire he started with his defensive performance against Phoenix, Bosh corrected his course and realized that it was Erick Dampier guarding him, not Bill Russell. For a ten minute stretch in the first half Chris Bosh looked like a max-money player, he was grabbing offensive rebounds, leaning with his shoulder on his drives, finishing in the paint and when the defense was scared and confused, he took appropriate jumpers. He had 16 first half points and was making the Raptors look good.

It wasn’t just Bosh that got the party started for the Raptors. Shawn Marion had to leave the game in the first due to flu-like symptoms which gave Good Joey the call off the bench and he was feeling it. He was putting Dirk on his back on the offensive and defensive glass, sizing him up on the perimeter and knocking down jumpers, even had a dunk on the break and a drive for a finish. With Bosh and Joey both playing like we want them to play, it felt good until you looked at how Calderon, Bargnani and our defense was doing. Jose was giving us nothing on offense and neither his legs or heart were in his jumper which meant he was useless. So what do you do when your jumper isn’t working? Why, you take more jumpers of course!

I’m terribly confused about Bargnani. I see that his size and skill could give him an advantage over other players at his position but what’s the point if he’s not actually taking that advantage consistently? His jumper started going in for him in January and he shot 49% for the month, February hasn’t been so kind as he dropped to 41% but that’s to be expected. He’s a jump shooter and those happen to be the ebbs and flows of being one. So when he went 6-18 tonight after going 7-13 in Phoenix, should we be surprised? No, that’s just the mathematics of a jump shooter. In this game he was missing three-pointers, pull-up jumpers and layups. When he finally managed to knock a couple down in a row you hoped he’s find a groove and carry the team through a stretch where we couldn’t buy a stop but wouldn’t you know it, he went cold. To me Bargnani’s best moment in the game came in the second quarter when he drew back-to-back fouls on Erick Dampier and Dirk Nowitzki, the latter picking up his third at the 2:28 mark. I was looking forward to Bargnani and Bosh attacking Dirk in the third quarter and getting him out of the game for good, but just like we didn’t attack Shaq in Phoenix, we didn’t attack Dirk. He went the entire third without having to defend and worry about his fouls and scored 7 points in the frame, a quarter which we lost 30-22 and one which decided the game.

Dallas’s offense is dead simple – give the ball to Kidd, spread the floor and see what happens. If nothing much is going on, go to Dirk who has an advantage in most matchups and have him go one-on-one. Just in case he misses, crash the boards with reckless abandon through Dampier and Singleton. Its not an offense as specialized as Phoenix, as intricate as Utah, as diverse as Orlando and as predictable as Cleveland. They’re liable to go in funks just like us, the only difference is that they have enough talent on the wings and enough rebounders to compensate for the streaky nature of their offense. We on the other hand better be making our shots at a 50% clip if we want to stay in the game. Example: Jason Terry and Josh Howard were cold early but Antoine Wright and James Singleton stepped up for them in the first half to prevent the Raptors from building a lead. The Raptors on the other hand had nobody to turn to once Bosh went chokey in the second half and Jose continued his miserable evening. Jose Barea gave them a huge lift of the bench, especially on defense. He got a steal on Ukic, forced Calderon into an 8-second violation and got a couple drives which reignited his team. The Raptors on the other hand gave the ball to Roko and Banks who looked like D-League material. Singleton was crashing the boards, cutting hard on the pick ‘n roll, boxing out and D’ing up Bosh while we on the other hand got Jake Voskuhl and his headband off the bench. You get the picture, they’re just better than us at every position and it showed.

Jose Calderon had Dirk switched up on him a couple times in the first half and to any point guard in the league that’s an invitation to break him down. Not Jose, he softly passes it to Bosh on the top of the key rather than initiating something off the drive. Isn’t it sickening? It’s not just that though, his passiveness in transition really shows when you compare his play to Anthony Parker who is genuinely looking to push rather than only pretending to. I’m always harsh on Parker because he’s old and washed up but the guy’s effort and intent can never be questioned. For example, he makes that FT line to FT line pass that gives Bosh early position, he passes the ball as soon as he gets the rebound instead of dribbling it three times without reason. It’s those kinds of plays that fuel a run ‘n gun offense and I’m just not sure Jose gets it. He’s turned into a half-court PG that can make the pass as long as the coach diagrams the play but when asked to think on his feet, he stumbles and fumbles.

Anyway, first half ended with us only down seven thanks to Bosh’s big first half and Graham’s early spurt. All things considered it wasn’t a terrible deficit seeing how poorly the rest of the team was playing and how Dallas can let you back in a game. We just needed to come out in the third the same way we had started the game: aggressive. Instead, this happened. We didn’t attack through Bosh like we had done earlier, there was no sign of testing Dampier or Singleton’s man-defense, Bargnani didn’t force the issue against a foul-ridden Dirk, Jose didn’t test Jason Kidd’s legs, and instead of running a proper offense or gunning on the break we settled for first options which weren’t that great. Typical Raptors really.

Here’s something that bugged me to no end in the second half. There were too many possessions where Dirk was somehow matched up with Parker, Kapono and even Calderon. This of course was a result of a passive switch instead of an aggressive hedge/fight-through. You’re only supposed to switch in those situations when your 1/4 or 2/4 positions can guard the 1/4 or 2/4 positions. If you’re conceding an 18 footer to Dirk over a player who is six inches shorter than him, he’s going to make that jumper all night long. This switch happened so many times that I’m forced to infer that Triano just didn’t catch it. This is a defensive gaffe that warrants an immediate timeout, a brief but firm lecture in the huddle and a warning that any more of this nonsense will result in an extra 50 suicides. But hey, Triano can’t really say that kind of stuff because he’s an interim head coach that’s only doing what Colangelo tells him to do, that’s why I think its imperative that the Raptors hire a coach that has the authority and intelligence to point out the basic things we’re doing wrong.

I was hoping to see more of Joey in the third quarter, Dallas didn’t have an answer for his aggressiveness and I was looking for Triano to run a few post-ups for Joey but instead we got one-on-one jumpers for Bargnani and Calderon. After scoring at the 6:48 mark of the second Joey didn’t get his next points till the 5:26 mark of the fourth, a span in which he took only two shots. Does that make any sense? Chris Bosh started the third quarter scoring the Raptors’ first 6 points and finished with 8 in the quarter but people generally tend to remember the fourth quarter much more clearly and it wasn’t pretty for Bosh – 0-4 for 4 points. Still, a 28 point 10 rebound night is nothing to be scoffed at, I’d say if he had any kind of support from Calderon or Bargnani things might’ve been different.

We cut the lead to 1 on an 8-2 run to start the third but the defense that needed to be played to keep Dallas in check wasn’t to be seen after that. Josh Howard started to make the jumpers he was missing in the first half and had 8 in the quarter. James Singleton was out to make a name for himself against Bosh by playing high-energy basketball had 6 points and 9 rebounds in the third alone. Calderon didn’t pick up Jason Kidd in transition allowing him to run at us and set up open shots for his shooters which meant our rebounding position wasn’t there resulting in crucial second chance points for the Mavericks. Parker and Bargnani hit sporadic jumpers to keep us somewhat close but the lead was almost touching double digits and it was only a matter of time before the hammer came. Said hammer came at the end of the third as the Mavericks went on a 7-0 run punctuated by Roko getting blocked, losing Jason Terry in the process who knocked down a killer three to push the lead to 15 heading into the fourth. At this point I wouldn’t blame you for turning your TV off because you’ve got a better chance of bumping into AltRaps at church than seeing a fourth quarter comeback from an anemic offense such as ours.

Liners:

• Bargnani had a poor shooting night but you have to give him credit for showing something that resembled toughness. He boxed out well enough, grabbed 7 boards and had 4 blocks and looked emotionally into the game which is more than you can say about most of the team.
• Jason Kapono: His face pisses me off. It’s hard to explain but every time I look at his face all I can think of his how crappy he is and how much money we pay him. Just like the rest of this bunch he’s only watchable if his jumper is falling and tonight it wasn’t. All you needed to evaluate his defensive prowess is how he hacked Antoine Wright on the break instead of stepping in for the charge.
• Jose Calderon: 4-12, 3 assists and a turnover. Sorry to say but all signs are pointing to Colangelo overpaying him. Maybe he’s hurting, maybe he’s not used to playing run ‘n gun, maybe he’s in a shooting slump, or maybe he’s just a backup. Considering how much of the 24 seconds are spent with him dribbling we’re not getting nearly enough vision or scoring out of him. He’s going to be a Raptor for a long time as I don’t see any team wanting him and I don’t see Colangelo falling out of love with him, I just hope he gets better.
• Dallas outrebounded us 57-45 and we have James Singleton’s 16 rebounds in 30 minutes to thank for that. That is a career-high for him which makes sense since basically every scrub in the league has something on us. What did our hustle guy off the bench do? Voskuhl played two minute and had more zeroes in his line than JO’s salary. Patrick O’Bryant didn’t come off the bench.
• Dallas got the better of us in the paint 42-30 even though their primary big man is Dirk who stays on the perimeter and Dampier who’s not that good. I was expecting/hoping Bosh and Bargnani to kill Dirk/Dampier off the dribble and win this number for us but it wasn’t to be. At least we didn’t give up 90.
• Best Lineup: Graham, Kapono, Ukic, Parker and Bargnani going +6 in the first when the going was good for Bosh. Worst Lineup: Banks, Parker, Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon slumping in that second quarter once Joey was done with his scoring. Source.
• Drew Gooden anyone?
• Marcus Banks had the best drive and finish of the season for us, he needs to do that more if he can.
• Shaq called Bosh RuPaul. I’m disappointed with the lack of respect shown to Bosh by his peers.

I’ve decided not to do the playoff mathematics anymore. Thanks for reading, follow us on Twitter for the latest Raptors stories throughout the day.

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Live Blog

96-86 Final – Mavs win: That’s all she wrote! Raptor slump to another defeat, same old story: Start off hot, give most of the lead back by the end of the 2nd quarter, give all of it back and then some by the 3rd and then show your toothless offense in the fourth. -10 on the glass but that’s not a big story even though it was a shame to watch Barea get that rebound around two Raptors. Dirk Nowitzki struggled and his club kept him in the game in the first half, same for Bosh, the reserves did the job in the first. In the second half Dirk stepped up and Bosh didn’t. Neither did Jose or anyone else for that matter. Roll Call will follow later but I got JO driving the bus and Bosh under it. Box.

94-81 Mavs 1:25 I can honestly say Barea has had a bigger impact on this game than Calderon. That was a nice drive ‘n kick to find Terry on the wing. Why can’t Jose do that? Nowitzki wants the ball and hits two more jumpers, on fire! What a player! Bosh misses two FTs but then has back-to-back scores, one on a jumper and one on a drive, Dallas doesn’t seem to care anymore, they know they got this one already.

87-77 Mavs 4:22 4Q: Nowitzki is heating up (6 of his last 8), two more face-up jumpers against Bargnani, he’s killing our bigs in the second half. Jason Terry uses the screen well to get himself open for a jumper and knocks it down, we need to force him to drive, I think he’s proven he can hit an 18-footer. Calderon then needlessly helps somebody who doesn’t need help leaving JKidd open for a left-wing three. Bad defense, Calderon’s been terrible tonight, he’s created nothing for nobody. Triano calls timeout.

79-74 Mavs 6:20 4Q: Jermaine O’Neal’s going hard in the post and finishes a nice 3-pt play, he’s the best Raptor of the night so far. Roko goes under the switch and Barea knocks down a three, after Parker’s turnover, Barea finds Terry for a trailing three. Roko is left open and dared to shoot a three – he misses and gets benched. Bass scores on Bosh and Bosh counters with another missed jumper. Bargani knocks one down, meh.

69-67 Mavs 10:30 4Q: Brandon Bass bites on AP’s baseline fake, good job by AP getting the Raps some easy points. Josh Howard misses a perimeter J (contested) and Bosh misses another jumper but sorta makes up for it by contesting Dirk’s layup attempt on the other end and finally makes what looks like a hook for 2 points. Raps playing better defense, four straight stops. Dallas timeout.

69-63 Mavs End 3Q: Things go from bad to worse as Dirk Nowitzki’s heating up against Bosh. Nothing complicated, simple face-ups followed by jumpers in your face. He scores 7 in this stretch on three patented jumpers. Parker re-posts JO three times as the double comes each time and Parker ends up getting a clean look for a jumper. We end the quarter on a nice Moon cut and Calderon delivers the pinpoint pass. We’re shooting 26% since the end of the 1st quarter. Up-hill battle here.

62-59 Mavs 2:56 3Q: The timeout didn’t fix anything. Bosh was back but missed a wide open dunk and then turned the ball over on a 3-second call. He’s 2-13 FG. Calderon’s one-on-one jumper is the only positive to report here. We also leave JKidd open for a three in the corner, Calderon’s got to stick to him. Dallas running pick ‘n rolls on the perimeter which are getting them clean looks and they’re starting to knock them down, Terry heating up again.

58-55 Mavs 6:07 3Q: The offense is in a big time funk, Jason Kapono’s missing jumpers, Chris Bosh misses on a drive, misses on a fadeaway jumper and then tries to drive but turns the ball over. Jay Triano sits him down and has a long chat on the bench with him. O’Neal’s our best player on the court right now, picking up a couple charges and gettings two FGs inside. On the other end Bargnani picked up his fourth foul by trying to seal the baseline on Dirk. Once that happened Dirk then faced him up for two more. Josh Howard and Jason Kidd hit because of plain bad defense that lost track of them. Kidd’s three was somewhat tolerable because it came out of nowhere, but there’s no reason to double Erick Dampier for any reason whatsoever, he kicked it out to Howard for his three. The Raptors offense in is such a funk that Jose’s resorted to one-on-one contested threes for airballs. Here we go again….BTW, where the hell is Joey?

Halftime Entertainment

49-45 Raps Halftime: Triano takes a 20 second timeout and comes back with a nice play to get JK a good look but he misses. Bargnani with the over the back foul gets Dirk two more FTs. This is Bargnani’s third foul, he’s a total non-factor again, 0-4 FG but he does have 3 rebounds so there’s still hope he can turn out to be the next Larry Bird. Sad part is that we’ve controlled this game but only have a five point lead to show for it, the bench and role players did their part, its time for Bosh to do his, he’s 2-8. We needed him to carry us through this late second quarter stretch and he decides to take threes. Dirk hasn’t even gotten started yet, only 3-9.

49-42 Raps 0:45 2Q: You know what aggravates me? Telemarketers. You know what else? Chris Bosh taking threes. Bargnani misses a wiiiddeee open jumper, Dirk comes back to get two FTs and Terry knocks down a three after we help the paint off of him, dumb move.

49-36 Raps 2:06 2Q: Barea was guarding O’Neal and Jose couldn’t make the entry-pass. That is a little embarrassing, we had to settle for Jose jacking it and O’Neal getting the rebound, loose ball foul for two FTs. O’Neal looks great on one possession (backing Bass down for 2) and absolutely horrible on the next (fadeaway airball), he’s probably somewhere in between. This Brandon Bass fellas is pretty good, can knock the J down nicely, he’s a matchup nigtmare for us. He’s scoring against our guards and bigs. JMoon knocks down a three on a broken play and then Jose finds him on the perimeter with the defense sagging. Another three, I can live with this. Everything for Dallas is on the perimeter, they were missing all of them until Jason Terry knocked one down. Dallas is 2-10 3FG and only a +1 on the glass. They’re shooting 42% and the Raptors have sort of cooled down 54%, can we sustain this? We’ve gotten 19 points off the bench.

39-29 Raps 8:11 2Q: Roko Ukic makes his third FG of the half, another running jumper. AP then slices in against Terry for two. Moon and Bargnani lose Jason Terry at the wing and he knocks down a jumper, a little confusion there. Juan Barea’s drive is rejected by Moon which starts the break and O’Neal finishes with a dunk. Not the great break, but hey, it’s easy points. Barea’s down with an injury, get up you wimp!

33-27 Raps 10:19 2Q: Jason Terry’s going straight at Anthony Parker off the dribble, gets a couple hoops. The Raptors respond by posting up Parker against Terry who finds Hump for an open baseline jumper but he misses. Brandon Bass also needs to be dealt with, he’s getting his shot off against Graham or Kapono. Jay Triano doesn’t like what he sees here and calls timeout after the Mavs’ 6-0 run.

33-21 Raps End 1Q: Bargnani comes in the game and gets faced-up and scored on by Dirk. Parker makes amends by hitting a 17-footer, it seems like the first one in ages. Dallas looking to exploit our wings and post-up Bass against Parker and get the score. No worries though, Roko scores one off the drive and then comes back again to get the three-point play on a runner. Raps up 12 at the end of the first, it don’t mean a thing. We’re taking a lot of jumpers and are shooting 67%, that’s going to even out over the game. Raps getting some production from the bench: Ukic and Graham with a power punch.

26-17 Raps 2:24 1Q: AP is really old, Josh Howard beats him on a cut for a layup, safe to say this play won’t be part of AP’s highlight pack. Bosh makes a jumper but then tries to do it again but its an airball, one which sparks the Dallas break and Nowitzki finishes.

22-11 Raps 4:31 1Q: Dallas calls another timeout after Dallas defends the pick ‘n roll by going under on Jose who drains the shot. Then JO contests a Howard miss and Joey G faces up and drains one on Dirk. We make a living by blowing leads so let’s not get too excited. All jumpers so far for the Raps.

14-9 Raps 6:50 1Q: Dallas comes out trying to exploit the Howard v Kapono/Mono matchup and gets 9 (4-7) points out of it. Moon gets the hook in favor of Joey, maybe try a different look to slow him down. Calderon and JO are 2-2 and 3-3, respectively. JO’s jumper is looking pretty good, he’s got a little energy on offense today, more like the JO of old and less like the Ben Wallace of today. All jumpers though, Joey G gets a jam on the break after we force a turnover which propts Dallas to call timeout. Raps 9-12 FG to start the game.