Alabi: as valuable as a pebble in a diamond mine.

Barbosa: MIA

Bargnani: 27 field goal attempts! It was like he was hoping for a volume discount. I know having Gasol on you makes you want to get rid of the ball quickly, but man…

Bayless: no Jose meant this was his ship tonight. Some frustrating brain farts through the game, but his fire kept us in it. From jawing with the Grizz bench to getting into the face of his teammates, he was the face of the team.

Calderon: suck it up and get out there. Your team needs you.

Davis: 5 blocks and 3 of them were almost sexual. Thabeet has length, but Ed has length AND he plays. Not a game to write home about statistically, but he left his mark in the form of swats.

DeRozan: 25pts, 9 rebounds…meh, just another day at the office.  He hasn’t been given the crown of being Prince, but he has stepped up and grabbed it with both hands.  Proof that extra work gives you what you deserve.

Dorsey: gimpier than Arsenalist running an online chat between ManU and Chelsea fans.

Evans: running out of suits and dress shoes.

Gaines: held his own on an off night. I’m probably expecting too much, but I still think he has the ability to be an x-factor in some games for us. Teams play off him and he needs to capitalize.

Johnson: fouls haunted him, but his game was solid. I know Weems is “back” but I really really like the Young Onez as a duet.

Kleiza: Miami Vice.

Weems: his comeback is as welcomed in these parts as the news Halle Berry is really a guy.

Wright: just shy of a double double, but overshot the mark of what was expected. Great game but those missed free throws sure hurt.

Driving The Bus: DeMar DeRozan

Under The Bus: Julian Wright

Game Theme:

Alabi: when Joey Dorsey starts and you still get a DNP-CD, you have to re-evaluate your life.

Barbosa: there are off shooting nights, then there are Barbosa-In-Memphis type shooting nights. I’m pretty sure when he tossed his gum at the end of the night it ended up stuck to the wall.

Bargnani: back in Toronto probably at Real Sports watching MNF.

Bayless: at least he wasn’t throwing up this time, but the effort he did give was poorer than Tiny Tim’s family. He looked out of sorts and unsure of how to get his team involved and together. Not good when you are the backup quarterback.

Calderon: an average Jose-type game tonight. Turnovers are still a bit high for him (4) but he did try and stir the pot a bit and get his guys going. But with few hot hands to feed, it wasn’t in the cards.

Davis: I’m concerned he is pulling a DeMar. He’s blending into the background a bit too much. He has to realize he has the ability to change the game for the second unit and bring that to the surface. Become that intimidating factor in the lane. Right now he is no more than a sticky turnstile.

DeRozan: rest did him good and I guess the money from that commercial will buy him some groovy 3D glasses for his television. Give me this effort 3 out of every 5 games and I’ll be beside myself. Good game, strong presence and very alert.

Dorsey: no complaints here. Came in and Dwight Howard’d his ass off. A double double from a guy who rarely sees the floor and is playing with guys that should be embarrassed at their own efforts after seeing Joey play.

Dupree: Merry Christmas.

Evans: up walking around now, which is a positive sign. Need him back to the form he showed early this season and soon, otherwise the playoffs will be out of reach by the break.

Johnson: he’s hurting, but not as much as it hurts watching him play the game of basketball lately. Credit for going out there knowing the rest of the team is hurting, but he’s about as helpful as a tour guide with no sense of direction.

Kleiza: turnovers hurt but the man has never seen a shooting opportunity he doesn’t like. He must go nutso at Pop-A-Shot. Overall a good game from Linas who, unfortunately, has to be a leader right now. Save us.

Stojakovic: second opinion? How’s this: you don’t wear jeans well.

Weems: still a no-go. Shame, really. Okay, not really. He’s useless when healthy.

Wright: As the Grizzlies were running drills on us in the 2nd and 3rd, why not throw in Wright to see if he could stop the surge? It would make sense? Right. Got it.

Driving The Bus: Joey Dorsey

Under The Bus: Amir Johnson

Game Theme:

The advantage the Raptors had on opening night, quickness and conditioning, was a non-factor against the Grizzlies who have a young, athletic team. Bargnani was able to take Shaq/Big Z off the hop, but Gasol and Z-Bo were able to counter, and in some instances, nullify the Raptors front court. As big a night as Bosh had (37pts 12rebs), Randolph countered with a 30pt 7reb monster of his own.

I think they just had a little bit better conditioning than the Cavaliers.They were coming up a lot harder, their fast-break. I don’t think Cleveland did a very good job at fastbreaking against us and that put a lot of pressure on us.

That doesn’t sit right with me. We beat an Eastern Elite, and fell asleep behind the wheel playing a young – up ‘n coming one? One that draftee Thabeet 2nd overall? We didn’t know that a young team with some of the best young wings (Gay, Mayo, Carroll) wasn’t going to push and attack?

Orlando has come out the gates like a team that belonged in the Finals; sans Rashard Lewis. They have convincingly won their first two against Philly and Jersey by an average of 12pts. Howard has been a monster, averaging 20.5pts 18.5rebs. Yea, he has grabbed 37 rebounds in the first two games of the year. That’s ridiculous.

I wandered over to Orlando Magic Daily to see what our TrueHoop brethren had to say about their recent game against the Nets:

It’s not a win the Magic will look back on — surely, it’s one of those wins where you forget about it on the plane ride home — but it’s the type of win an elite team is supposed to win. It was ugly, but it gives you confidence knowing the Magic can take care of a team when they didn’t shoot well and were missing two key starters.

The tone in the things being said is jarring for me. Against the Cavs, the Raptors were able to withstand a run by an elite team while they wore down. Against the Grizz, they couldn’t. Athleticism and conditioning seem to be an issue for our guys. The Magic on the other hand were able to win ugly while missing two starters. The Magic are an athletic team. With Carter expected to come off the bench, the starting 5 will be tough to deal with.

Match-ups

Calderon vs Nelson
All I can think about is Swirsky saying that Calderon will own Nelson in those playoffs, and that backfiring. Nelson straight up owns Calderon. He is a tough cover: strong, quick, a bulldog. He had an off-game against Harris, so I am sure he will rebound.
The Edge: Magic

DeRozan vs Reddick
With SVG saying he wont be surprised if JJ starts, chances are good VC is coming off the bench if at all. Reddick is Mr. Fundamental. Bit of a disappointment after a solid college career, but he is carving out a niche for himself. I can see it now: DeRozan will be sent to Howard in the low post; the ball gets kicked out to Reddick who nails an open trey or swing it around the perimeter for somebody to nail an open shot. Kid Dynamite has been playing great so far. He should give Reddick fits chasing him around the court, but I suspect being the one sent to double Howard wont bode well for the kid.
The Edge: Magic

Turkoglu vs Pietrus
It upsets me that the Magic got Pietrus so cheap (5yr/$25mill-ish). I was pleading for the Raptors to sign him, as he brought all the things we needed (at the time) need: defense, take his man off the bounce, slashes to the rim, rebounds and hit some shots, but alas, we got HO…Turkoglu has been playing pretty decently. Dropping 13 a game, grabbing 4.5, but not the playmaker we had hoped (2ast). I was ripped for saying his matchup with Gay would be even (a draw would be a generous assessment of what went down Friday), but I’m saying it will be a draw this time around. Pietrus will be the beneficiary of some open space created by Howard in the post, but will have a hard time covering Turk in the paint on offense. This will be an even match, book it.
The Edge: Even

Bosh vs Anderson
Bosh has been a beast the first couple games. You have to figure that having him score 37 is bad for the team. 20-25 is the perfect range, where he is producing, but not at the expense of a fluid offense. Anderson, whom our very own PHD Steve said was NOT to be slept on this season, has been proving just that. He was a throw in as part of the Carter trade, but the kid can play, and is starting ahead of Brandon Bass, who was looked at as the starting PF when they snatched him from the Mavs in the summer. Just don’t see Bosh slowing down against this team, not even after a night of partying with Jay-Z.
The Edge: Raptors

Bargnani vs Howard
LOL, doesn’t look good for Bargnani at all. Forget the playing defense on Howard, but keeping him off the boards. Howard should have zero problems cleaning up the boards given VL’s lack of rebounding/boxing out grit. Seeing the trouble Andrea had with Gasol, I cringe to think about the possible 40/20 Howard can drop on our boy.
The Edge: Magic

Injury Report

Raptors
Reggie Evans
Sonny Weems

Magic
Rashard Lewis
Vince Carter*
Adonal Foyle

Simulation

Our boy Jeremy Visser from That’s What I’m Saying, Guy… checked in with his simulation. You can hit him up on twitter @jeremy_visser. We’re keeping track of the simulations here.

The Raptors couldn’t handle an Orlando team that was missing Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis, falling 96-91 Sunday at the ACC. Chris Bosh had 29 points and a career-high 23 boards, but had trouble handling Dwight Howard, who had 28 and 13 of his own.

Aside from Bosh, the only Raptor in double digits was Hedo Turkoglu, who had 17 in his first game against his former team. Like Bosh, Andrea Bargnani had his hands full with Howard and was limited to just 17 minutes, picking up five fouls and scoring just five points in the process. Jose Calderon had eight points and six assists.

Howard was one of five Orlando players in double digits — Matt Barnes, starting in place of Carter, had 16, while Jameer Nelson had 15 and Michael Pietrus and Brandon Bass added 10 apiece.

Surprisingly, Toronto out-rebounded Orlando and had almost three times as many trips to the free throw line, but it wasn’t enough to come out with a win.

Keys to Winning

• Keep Howard off the boards, both of them
• Don’t double Howard in the low post, let him score 40, but keep everyone else in check
• Bargnani should never rotate on defense, stay with Howard at all times
• Let Jason Williams shoot as many transition-pull-up threes as he wants, seriously

Prediction

This has the makings of a solid game: The Raptors are reeling from a tough loss on the road to a team they shouldn’t have lost too; The Magic are 2-0 to start the season, and looking to secure home-court throughout the playoffs aka they will be coming hard and fast. As much as I would like to think that the Raptors will avenge their Friday loss, they wont (unless Bargnani duplicates his effort form the home opener, which you will excuse me if I don’t hold my breath for). Magic by 6.

Catch us for live chat at 1pm here.

Today’s recap:

Pistons

• Signed Ben Gordon to a 5r/$55mil contract.
• Signed Charlie Villanueva to a 5yr/$35-$40mil contract.

Dumars saved face with the whole Michael Curry situation by making a massive splash on Day 1 of free agency. Did he pay too much for Gordon? Probably, but he got himself a youngin who can score in buckets, is tough as nails, and clutch. Also, he scooped up our boy CV31, and signed him to a GREAT deal. Are the Pistons championship contenders? No, but they have a nice young core of Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiel, Aaron Afflalo, Amir Johnson with the likes of Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. Not too bad.

Grade: B+ – Retooling quick, but at a price.

Grizzlies/Clippers

• Clipps exile Zach Randolph to the Grizz for Quentin Richardson and calmer nerves.

Can’t believe they actually found someone who will take Zach and that nasty attitude/contract off their hands, but they did. Clipps get rid of a cancer, save some money, and clear space for Griffin to become the #1 guy on the right block, all in one move. Memphis on the other hand just made Thabeet’s life much tougher protecting the paint.

Clippers Grade: A – Franchise moving in the right direction…finally.
Grizzlies Grade: D – WTF????

Lakers

• Ariza wants more then mid-level, I’d give it to him.

Is he worth it? Maybe. Is he going to walk? Probably. The Lakers need to keep Odom before giving Ariza the big bucks. One of the guys I would target if I were BC, a younger Marion.

Grade: D – You keep this guy, no questions.

Blazers

• Flirting with Hedu, I like the guy, but not for $60mil.

Not a good move, could just be smoke/mirrors. Khandor breaks this move down better then I could. On the bright side, this whole thing has Fernandez pissed off, giving most of us something to talk about, even though some other GM will probably pluck him out of the air if he becomes available.

Grade: D – I’d rather keep Rudy and bring in a Richard Hamilton type, that’s just me.

1. Sacramento
2. Washington
3. LA Clippers

I’m predicting Sacramento gets screwed, and the Knicks win the Lottery – taking take home Blake Griffin, stay tuned…

• BC representing, let’s hope he brings some luck (last time we got the #1 pick)
• Joel Litvin shouldn’t be allowed in front of a camera
• Hopefully Hoiberg isn’t there for Sota, he got screwed last year, that look on his face was priceless, lol.
• Reggie Jackson in the house…the Knicks win the draft, no doubt
• Kevin Love for Sota, they should be in better shape then last year
• C-Web reppin Sac? WTF?
• Raptors pick 9th, I’ve lost interest…
• Kings get F*CKED! So did the Wizards…
• Clippers get the #1 pick…hopefully Griffin is no Olowakandi

The NBA’s a game of matchups. If you can consistently exploit them you’ll come out on top, if you get exploited, then you’ll suffer. We’ve been doing a lot of the latter this season but tonight was one of those extremely rare nights, you know, like when the sun aligns with Jupiter, Mercury is eclipsing Venus and the third moon of Saturn is straddling Neptune. In other words, our best player had the rare pleasure of going up against two rookies that were about as outmatched as Jamario Moon when watching Hamlet. Marc Gasol’s a nice physical player that runs hard but he has a long way to go before he can defend anyone with the lateral quickness of Chris Bosh. When he was matched up with Bosh today, either straight-up or through persistent switching initiated by the Raptors, Iavaroni had decided to concede the jumper rather than encourage Bosh to drive. Smart strategy on most nights but Bosh had his jumper working from the get-go and went a ridiculous 11-13 on the night. Facing rookies is fun. Memphis’ plan wasn’t to all-out double and they tried to only send a man when Bosh put it on the floor which he rarely did and who can blame him, when the jumper’s working that well there’s no reason to do anything else.

The Grizzlies did stick around for the first half by going to Rudy Gay who scored 14 of his 22 in the half as neither Jamario Moon or Anthony Parker had any answer for him. A couple of his drives were exquisite sweeping moves finished off with the off-hand against a challenging defense. The first half was a saddening display of basketball by the Raptors, they lacked energy on offense and went through the motions half-heartedly. We got off to our usual hot start and built an 18-5 lead through jumpers but that got us hooked on the outside shot. The inside game was non-existent, Bosh could be excused because of his hot shooting but Parker, Moon, Solomon and Bargnani were strictly perimeter as the Raptors attempted only 5 first half shots inside the paint. There weren’t any hard cuts to the basket by Graham or Bargnani, Kyle Lowry’s defense wasn’t being tested and we were playing down to the level of the opposition. The only one being assertive was Bosh since rookies Darrell Arthur and Marc Gasol were just too tempting not to abuse. Despite being up only three at the half, you still got the feeling that no matter what Mayo, Gasol and Gay were doing all the Raptors needed to do was shift the intensity to the next notch and the game would be ours.

The crowd didn’t care to wait that long, they let out a smattering of boos after Memphis came back to take the lead in the second quarter, I thought it was a bit early. I’m all for booing overpaid, underperforming athletes but this was the second quarter and we only had an 8 minute stretch of bad play. It’s not like the team tanked two quarters like they did against Dallas, we’ve been playing better in 2009 and the team’s shown some heart and determination in rebounding from their disastrous December. So what if we blew a 13 point lead and were suddenly down 1, that’s where you’re supposed to rally your team and not get on their ass for missing a couple shots. If this would’ve happened in December it might’ve been okay to lash out but not last night.

47-44 at halftime and the instructions were pretty obvious. A three point lead at home isn’t good enough, pick up the effort against a team that’s 14 games under. 500 and has lost 10 of their last 12. The simple message was received and Bargnani was the difference maker. With the game tied midway through the fourth the Raptors ran two pick ‘n rolls, one with Parker/Bargnani and the other with Solomon/Bargnani and on both plays the Memphis defense was terribly late in rotating back to Bargnani who knocked down two huge threes to open up a 6 point gap. Mayo (sore ribs) and Rudy tried to respond with threes but both went cold after those two Bargnani threes leaving Memphis without any legitimate scoring threat. Rudy only scored 2 points from that point on and Mayo only had 1 field goal. After that the lead went to 8 and then to 10, 14 and then it became silly. There’s not much analyzing to do here, Memphis is a young team that’s prone to being rattled and they got rattled as soon as the Raptors showed some intent in the third quarter. They needed a massive game from one of their young guns to keep pace and Rudy Gay looked like he was going to provide the punch early but he faded as the second half went along. Game over. Triano pointed Jamario Moon on the back:

In the second quarter Rudy Gay got it going and at the beginning of the third quarter … Jamario did a real nice job stepping up. When they took Gay out at the start of the fourth, that’s when Jamario got his rest. I thought he did a real good individual effort on him which you had to do.

Bosh had a nice game but it was against the two rookies, his stare-down into the camera at the end was perhaps the stupidest moment of the season. Let him come up big against Kevin Garnett in the next two games and then pull that kind of nonsense, I’ll even PVR it and play it back over and over again. Stupid. On that same note, we need to drop that Killer B’s nonsense right this moment, in fact, that’s the last time I’ll ever mention it in fear of encouraging it’s use. Hopefully Devlin and Co. can do the same. Bargnani. A solid offensive night against a team that lacks experience and doesn’t have an answer for his perimeter game, especially when they’re lazy in rotating. His confidence is somewhere between the stratosphere and the mesosphere which mean the jump shoot is flying in. He took every open shot he had and even got a friendly roll from the rim, and as we know that only happens to deserving folk. Perhaps the most telling of his threes was the one he took in transition in the fourth quarter, anyone who takes that shot is sure of himself and right now he’s playing with a plan in his mind which is completely different than how he was playing in 2008. He even took advantage of the couple post-up situations he had against Mayo by drawing the foul on one and dunking on the other. If 21 points on 8-14 shooting wasn’t good enough he threw in 8 rebounds and they weren’t Jamario Moon rebounds either, I remember a few contested ones where his feet needed to leave the ground. Chris Bosh dropped some simple but correct analysis:

We know one thing: Andrea will shoot it when he’s open. He made good shots, the defense didn’t rotate fast enough and he made them pay for it.

The Raptors are the second-worst rebounding team in the NBA, who’s the worst? Yup, the Grizzlies, so it’s no surprise that we won the boards 38-33 and the second-chance points 14-7. Our Achilles heel this season has been either rebounding or dribble-penetration and since rebounding got taken care of, the only thing left on the checklist was dribble penetration and once again we got to give credit to Will Solomon (4-8, 9 assists) for playing some good defense on Kyle Lowry and not allowing him to break us down and leave us scrambling. He did well against James in Washington and again tonight. Will’s grown on me the last few games and even though his ridiculous new haircut begs me to mock him further, his recent controlled play says otherwise. You can almost hear him thinking to himself while on the court: Don’t do something stupid, don’t do something stupid, no, no, no!! Don’t take this shot..pass it off..pass it off…eaasy..eaasy…aaaaah. I called up the Fan 590 again and dished out some praise for Will’s defense and pointed out how it’s better than Calderon’s as he’s not allowing penetration at the point-of-attack. Paul Jones became an apologist for Jose Calderon and gave me a lecture on how it’s really hard to contain dribble penetration and how only Rondo, Artest and a select few can do it. He never touched on Will’s play. Meh.

Parker came back down to earth with three points but that’s OK because he didn’t let his man have a career night, Mayo was 4-14 and Parker was his main checker. Up next for him is Ray Allen who’s going to be slightly tougher and more angrier as the Celtics continued their losing ways in Cleveland. A word on Mayo, Kevin McHale must be feeling like an idiot for letting this guy go, he had a couple of crossovers in this game which left Parker and Bargnani looking very ordinary. There’s talent on this Grizzlies team and if I’m a Memphis fan I’m thoroughly enjoying their exploits and growing pains. Memphis’ youth makes me a little jealous. Most well managed NBA teams are either contenders, on the cusp of contention or in the rebuilding phase, the Raptors are in none of those categories. We’re definitely not contenders, we don’t have the playoff history to say that we’re on the cusp of anything and we don’t have any certified young talent to develop.

Calderon tried to give it a go before the game but failed a fitness test and Jermaine O’Neal remains sidelined with a knee-flu which has shattered the surgically repaired part into a thousand pieces and they’re just not telling us. It’s a conspiracy. It’ll happen sooner or later and O’Neal will return and at that point asking Bargnani to go back to the bench would be ridiculous because we’ve finally managed to get this guy off his schnide and doing anything that might disrupt his flow would not be smart. Now, that leaves us with two options. Either we we bench O’Neal or shift Bargnani back to the SF, we know how well that worked out. Problem is that Jermaine O’Neal doesn’t strike me as a chap who’s willing to come off the bench, call it pride, ego, vanity or simply stupidity but he won’t. Maybe (and I’m speculating here) there’s even been discussion between him and Triano/Colangelo about his possible new role and he’s politely declined the offer and the club is trying to move him to avoid awkwardness. I mean, six games for a knee-brush? Either he’s made of glass or they’re not telling us something.

Here’s something new we might do every game:

Best 5-man unit: Bosh, Parker, Moon, Bargnani, Solomon. +7 to start the game
Worst 5-man unit: Kapono, Ukic Voskhuhl, Bosh, Moon. -3 to end the first quater.
Stat of the Game: Raptors shoot a season-high 55.6%

Some randomness: Last night Indiana took the Lakers down to the wire and down three with three seconds left had a complete malfunction where they couldn’t even get a shot off. That’s not the bad part, the sixth foul called on Danny Granger with less than a minute left had to be the weakest call an NBA official has made this year and it basically decided the outcome of the game since Granger wasn’t even there to attempt the final shot. I would’ve loved to see Granger pull a repeat of his Phoenix performance in LA but the official completely and unnecessarily ruined the drama. Sad.

The next two games will tell more about this team than what the last three have. Raps Fan was pinch-hitting for AltRaps in a Roll Call with an entirely new element.

I went to this game and had some pretty good seats courtesy of some friends. Memphis had beaten NJ last night at the swamp and had apparently spent most of their energy and motivation because today they had nothing. It’s a normal mindset really, on the back end of a back-to-back when you’ve won the first game a sense of complacency is almost natural. If you offer any NBA team a .500 roadtrip, they’ll gladly take it and Memphis was in that kind of mood.

Bosh went down early with a groin injury after playing well which triggered a Raptor run which opened up a lead that Memphis wouldn’t dare challenge. This lead caused a friend of mine to state his long-standing argument that the Raptors can be a better team without Bosh. I’ve always opposed this viewpoint because although Bosh might not be a franchise player, he’s still a damn good NBA player that can carry a team through stretches. The argument that I’m presented with is that that Bosh demands the ball too much and his teammates and fans expect too much out of him than what he can deliver. Again, I’m in agreement here. Where I differ is the argument that the Raptors play as more of a team without him. An NBA team without a low-post presence isn’t an NBA team at all and Bosh gives us that. Last year the Raps gathered themselves and went on a tear without Bosh but that does not mean we can actually be more successful without him. Let’s just hope he’s back for Cleveland on Friday.

Kapono and Parker’s sweet strokes led the Raptors today; when a jump shot shooting team’s jump shot is falling, they’re unstoppable. So it follows that the Raptors were unstoppable today. Kapono is the best shooter we’ve had since Dell Curry and Jamario Moon is the best perimeter defender the Raptors have ever had. Yes, ever. Joey Graham and Rasho came back with Graham eager to prove that he still deserves a roster spot, Joey was eager to launch quick jumpers after doing his only perimeter juke move, I think one fell and one missed. Check the box score for the details. I don’t really see a use for Joey Graham anymore, not with Jamario Moon doing everything Joey does and doing it better. Same goes for Garbo, love the heart but let’s not waste a roster spot.

I’ve been impressed by the play of Kyle Lowry over the last few weeks, I think he’s a pretty underrated PG who could potentially be a starter in this league. No, I’m not crazy. Overall it was pretty hard to evaluate the Memphis Grizzlies tonight because there were clearly exhausted and content after beating NJ last night (thanks for that) and just showed up tonight as a formality. It was Spanish night tonight and Calderon didn’t disappoint racking up at least 10 assists (that’s the last time I glanced at the scoreboard) but Gasol and Navarro didn’t. Navarro’s a great perimeter shooter and the Raps did an awesome job of closing him out, you could tell that there was a special effort being made to ensure that he doesn’t get any open looks. Give Mitchell some credit here.

I didn’t get a Garbo or Calderon bobblehead doll although I could’ve easily stolen one from the person sitting next to me. Too tired to write but I’d like to say that the Dance Pak looked much better in the red Spanish type dresses than what they had on for most of the game: track suits. Goodbye.

A much needed win delivered home by Chris Bosh’s 22 points and 19 rebounds along with a late Bargnani triple which gave the good guys a one point lead with 2:14 left. Carlos Delfino added another three late on to seal the win in a game which was there to be won all along, much like the Boston, Orlando and Utah games **shudder**. For once the Raptors worked inside-out the entire game with Chris Bosh enforcing himself and providing the inside presence on both ends. Jason Kapono’s outside shooting helped out early in the fourth and when Memphis made their run and opened up a five point lead, we played good collapsing defense on Gasol and forced outside shooting from Warrick, Lowry and Gay which played into our hands. A day after the Dallas debacle, the Raptors climb back to .500 and head into Cleveland to face the struggling Cavaliers, another game which on paper we should win.

As Leo alluded to in the game, Bosh picking up his fourth foul in the third quarter was a blessing in disguise as it allowed him to rest until the fourth quarter on the back end of a back-to-back, that might’ve been what enabled us to win this game. Bargnani started off this game missing everything prompting many of us to sing here-we-go-again but to his credit kept on shooting and played very good man-defense on Swift and Gasol. The jumper eventually started falling and that’s what people will see in the box score but we should really talk about his excellent one-on-one defense. He keeps his arms straight up, doesn’t bite on fakes and uses his length wisely in post-defense situations. There were a couple instances where he picked up fouls trying to beat his driving defender to the spot but besides that his defensive positioning was excellent today which allowed him to grab 11 rebounds. An excellent game by Bargnani who’s proven that he’s much more effective when starting, I don’t know if this is a psychological thing but benching him earlier in the season was obviously a mistake.

Jamario Moon is like our Scottie Pippen. Just hear me out on this, an excellent defender with great recoverability and a streaky jump shooter. Moon has shown that he can anticipate what’s going to happen on defense and react before the play actually happens, his block on Mike Miller was an ultimate example of that. The athletic swingman can do no wrong on defense and anything you get out of him on offense will always be considered a bonus. Moon’s keeping the game dead simple and not trying anything that he knows he can’t do, you don’t see ill-advised jumpers, far-fetched passes or low-percentage drives coming from him, any points he scores are coming completely through assists and broken plays. What a great addition by BC, props to him.

Jose Calderon got the start instead of the “stinged” TJ Ford and had a subpar game based on his own backup-PG standards – 10 points and 8 assists for Calderon who had to deal with the ultra-pesky Kyle Lowry and the crafty Damon Stoudamire all game long. Calderon wasn’t able to penetrate as well as TJ usually does but distributed the ball well on the perimeter allowing Parker and Bargnani to nail some of their threes. A low-key game from Calderon which made me wonder if that isn’t how a PG’s game is supposed to be. Zero offense to TJ Ford.

One-Liners:

Rudy Gay’s Verticality: Leo Rautins was going off about how Gay stays too vertical which takes away from his athleticism. Hearing Leo talk I got the impression he wants Gay to play like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Couldn’t quite catch his drift.

Maco Baston Cameo: Maceo Baston needs to read the one-line scouting report on Stromile Swift – Make him shoot. Having Swift fake you out with his jumper deserves an automatic 5-game benching.

MDG Smooth Play of The Game: How come they show this play with 3 minutes to go in a tight game? Are they saying there can’t be a smoother play later than this?

Darrick Martin shot-jacking: On the first possession he’s in he takes two bad shots. Why again should Jose listen to him on the bench? Seriously though, besides his one good pass to Kapono on the break, I’d classify Martin’s performance as poor and I’m not even expecting much from him.

Carlos Delfino: This guy gels his hair for at least 20 minutes before each game, there’s no way it can stay in the same shape after 25 minutes of PT. I don’t really care as long as he keep hitting the glass like a demon and making those step-back jumpers.

Me Golfing: YouTube

New Blog: There weren’t enough already, here’s another one: Raptors Guy.

I shall sleep well tonight, latch on the feed.