Injury Report

Toronto
Reggie Evans – Out
Linas Kleiza – Out

Charlotte
Tyrus Thomas – Out

Player Report

Jose Calderon
Heading into the all-star break, Jose’s was mightily struggling with his shooting. Over the last five games, he has gone 12-45 from the field (1-103FG); the Raptors went 1-4 in that stretch. He has been exceptional at getting people involved on offense with his passing, avering 10.6 over the stretch. Of his 8.9ast/game on the year, 4.2 of them result in a dunk or layup, I like that a lot. Tonight against Augustin, I just worry about the open looks DJ will get from behind the arc; he’s averaging 14pts 7ast in the two games played against the Raptors.

Truth be told, I’m more concerned about the drop-off when Bayless gets in the game. He’s going to have to deal with a hottish Shaun Livingston, who has turned it up a notch over the last few games. I have no real data to support this, just what I’ve witnessed and inferred, but Jerryd hasn’t been pulling his weight consistently enough.
Box: 9pts 13ast 4rebs

DeMar DeRozan
Should DeMar have won his 1st round match-up with Griffin? Probably, but when you’re in the Griffin’s house, and there’s buzz that he’s gonna jump over a car, you have to execute perfectly; DeRozan didn’t. Much like Bargnani, I’m running out of things to say about DeRozan. All I’m hoping is that if he wants to shoot the ball so much, that he does a better job of getting better looks at the rim from 16+ feet. Run around a few low screens, curl towards the basket once-in-a-while, mix it up. If you’re going to carve your niche out as a scorer, than you need to be damn good at it. Defenses tighten in the post-season, and nothing is easier than stopping a shooting guard who shoots more than half his shots from 16-18ft without having to get himself open (someone finds him standing around). Look, I like the kid a lot (he’s been my Twitter background since last year), and I know it’s only his 2nd season in the league, but all I’m saying is that it isn’t too early to start to develop good habits, and hone the tricks of your trade.

Stephen Jackson makes me nervous. He does a lot of things out on the court; so when that shot isn’t falling, he’s giving you rebounds, assists, steals and playing solid defense. Not saying anything other than he is someone to look too at the 2-guard spot, for the breadth of his contribution on the court.
Box:  16pts 4rebs 2stl

Sonny Weems
It’s never easy checking kamikaze wings like Wallace, but if Sonny’s size/strength is of any use at all, it’s in these situations. Not saying that Sonny has what it takes to shut Wallace down, he doesn’t (Wallace is averaging 17.5pts 9rebs 4ast 4blk this season against the Raptors), but he can make it him hard on both ends of the floor IF HE DOESN’T BAIL HIM OUT BY SHOOTING  CONTESTED JUMPER, AND ALWAYS MAKES AN EFFORT TO ATTACK THE RIM. That’s Sonny style; tight but aggressive. Get out in the open court and lay it up; get the ball on the wing, fake the shot and go baseline for a dunk. Attack the paint, spin right and lay it up with your left hand. You have great physical gifts man; please jah, show him the way!
Box: 10pts 6rebs

Amir Johnson
It was hard watching him try to make that pass off the backboard, but it wasn’t his fault. If DeMar wanted someone who could make that play, he should have brought Calderon with him. Hell, even Weems would have done a better job after that perfect pass he threw off the side of the back-board last season at the dunk-off for DeMar.

No Raptor benefited more from the all-star layoff than Amir, who has been an absolute warrior playing through injury. He’s going to get a lot of different looks against Diaw, Jackson and Wallace (the latter two from time to time), but our boy is up to it. I have no worries here.
Box: 10pts 13rebs 4ast 1blk

Andrea Bargnani
If Bargnani just did one other thing well to go alongside his scoring, I’d have no problem with him. Frankly, if he blocked 2+ shots a game, I’d be his biggest cheerleader since it would mean his defensive rotations were solid and he was aggressively challenging shots in the paint. 2+ blocks a game also means he would be affecting countless other shot attempts, which makes him a more agile, and offensively more efficient version of Andrew Bogut.

Nothing feeds my rage like Nazr Mohammed having season defining games against the Raptors front court. The guy is averaging 12pts 6.5rebs in 18.5min against the Raptors this season, well above his season/career averages. Just need to put a body on him, and box him out until he folds; there’s no secret in playing the guy. As for Kwame Brown…lol!
Box: 22pts 6rebs 1blk

Keys to the Game

Score in the Paint
It’s safe to say that with Diop injured, the Bobcats don’t have the size/strength to battle Andrea, Amir and Ed in the paint. Their perimeter defense is a different story. With both games these teams have played this season being determined by 6-points or less, getting easier baskets in the key is the way to go. I just don’t want to see Stephen Jackson stripping Bargnani at the top of arc again.

Rebounding
With the potential for the pace of the game to slow considerably, making each possession that much more critical, grabbing as many rebounds against one of the best rebounding teams is paramount. A lot of the rebounding burden will have to fall to DeRozan, Weems and Wright who have to deal with tremendous rebounders on the wing in Jax and Wallace. If these two approach double-digits in rebounds, it will spell trouble for the Raptors.

No Easy Buckets
The Bobcats are the 3rd worse scoring team in the association; with a lot of that having to do with the questionable shots Stephen Jackson takes. Defensive rotations need to be tight, and the ball needs to be protected at all times to minimize the Bobcats quality looks at the rim.

The Line

The gamblers have the Cats down as 7.5 point favourites with an over/under of 195.5. This line sounds a bit absurd with the shuffling of coaches mid-season, and the trade rumours surrounding Jackson and Wallace, but the game is in Charlotte, and the Bobcats will the luxury of drawing some inspiration from one of their Lady Cats. Raptors beat the line, but lose by 4.

I’m not sure wtf happened on Saturday, but that was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time (had to fire it up on NBA League Pass Broad Band). Never-mind that the Raptors allowed the Pistons to go up by 25 points or so somehow; but the trust, chemistry and teamwork needed to come back 25 in the last 5 minutes of the game was out outstanding, and makes me excited for tonights game against the Bobcats.

The Bobcats are coming off two brutal losses in a row; the last one so bad that an RR commentator put it this way:

It was so bad, that if Boston never scored any points in the 4th quarter they would have still won.

Ouch…

After getting ripped by Michael Jordan (a 47 year old who could still probably kick most of their asses at the game) for their lackluster play, you can expect a different bunch of guys to be waiting for the Raptors in North Carolina.

The last time these guys played, the Raptors took a 5 point lead into the 4th and fell apart. The game came down to the wire, when some sketchy play calling ended with Bargnani at the top of the arc getting stripped by Jackson.

Injuries

Toronto
Jose Calderon
Reggie Evans
Peja Stojakovic

Charlotte
Gerald Henderson
Tyrus Thomas, GTD

Match-ups

Point Guards
What a bargain Baylesss has turned out to be. It’s not that he’s set the world on fire, it’s that he is starting to get some burn, and is showing Indiana, Portland and New Orleans that they gave up on him too quickly. Saturday against the Pistons, our boy put up 31pts 5rebs 7ast on 12 shots (12 attempts from the charity stripe to boot). That my friends is called being efficient. Without Calderon, it’s going to be difficult to take full advantage of this match-up, but the different look that Barbosa will bring in relief will be huge to winning this match-up. Augustin isn’t the best of shooters, but he still takes about 4 treys a game (40% shooter), last game against the Raptors he went 3-5 from beyond the arc, and did his part to open up the court a bit for Wallace to go all kamikaze. Since he laid a big fat donut against the Celtics on Saturday, you can expect him to come out guns blazing. Without Calderon in the mix, the point guard situation is a little worrisome for me since Bayless is still learning his craft. It’s going to be hit or misss tonight with Bayless.
Edge: Charlotte

Shooting Guard
I hate playing the Bobcats for two reasons, one being Jackson. The guy is 32, but shows no signs of slowing down (unlike me….fml). This is an ideal match-up for DeRozan to get up and down the court and use the athleticism to his advantage; the question is whether or not he’s going too. Since I ripped DeRozan, the kid has turned in a couple pretty solid performances, highlighted with 16pt 4reb performance in the win on Saturday. He still needs to get to the line, averaging under four (didn’t even attempt one against the Nuggets) over the last 5 games. DeRozan turned in a brutalr performance the last time they played, so he should be extra motivated to get at it this time around. I’m concerned about the wing battle tonight, since the Raptors don’t match-up well at all at the 2/3. It will take a solid showing by committee to get the job done.
Edge: Charlotte

Small Forward
19pts 14rebs 5ast 4blks; if you guessed Gerald Wallace’s production against the Raptors the last time out, you are correct. He almost single handedly out-blocked the entire Raptor team. I don’t expect anything different tonight; my only hope is he keeps the jawing on his mouth guard to a minimum. I’m trying to temper myself here a bit, but the small forward position is the most suspect on the Raptors. Between Weems, Kleiza and Stojakovic (if/when he gets back), you’d figure this lot has the tools to be an effective trio. Sadly it hasn’t worked out as such. Both Sonny and Kleiza have shown sparks of something, but neither has been able to maintain any level of consistency in effort/production/predictability.

Tonight against Wallace, Sonny has the athleticism, but not the strength; Kleiza has the strength, but not the athleticism; and Peja will be rocking Armani on the bench. Where does that leave us? Another 20/15 type effort from Gerald.
Edge: Charlotte

Power Forward
If the Raptors are to have a shot at winning tonight, it will come at the 4/5. Last time around, it was Toronto’s offensive rebounding (recurring theme) that kept them in the game to the tune of 14 leading to 12 more possession. Amir was a beast off the bench, putting up 16pts 9rebs in 28 minutes of fairly foul-free play. The Raptors will miss Reggie Evans’ rebounding and interior play, but Ed Davis has been picking up some steam, and should be good to battle with Thomas off the bench.

My real concern is with Amir and Boris Diaw though. Boris is a crafty player who has a lot of moves and a high basketball IQ. If there was a text book player to get Amir into trouble, it would be him. Diaw is a crafty guy, who seems to have a hard time getting to the line, it’s actually interesting. Amir’s been doing a good job of not leaving the ground and trying to swat everything. I actually really appreciate it as he’s showing some marked improvement since the start of the season in this regard.
Edge: Toronto

Center
I’m predicting a long night for Bobcats front court. Still don’t understand why Jordan would trade Chandler for Dampier, then wave Dampier, and still expect to make the playoffs without a big guy who LIKES to play defense and rebound. 30/10 for Bargnani tonight, book it.
Edge: Toronto

Keys to the Game

Pace
Bayless likes to run; DeRozan/Weems/Barbosa like to run. Amir and Bargnani run the break as well as big man in the league…you can see where I’m going right? The Bobcats are the 7th slowest team in terms of pace in the league. If this gets into a defensive match, the Bobcats will have the upper hand, but if the Raptors can get Charlotte to trip over their own feet running backwards on defense, things can happen.

Production on the Wings
DeMar, Weems and Kleiza will all need to turn in a solid performance tonight. Both Jackson and Wallace play heavy minutes, so it’s not like there will be much of an opportunity to catch a second wind when the replacements get into the game. Weems and Kleiza need to be active participants tonight; the solid game against the Nuggets aside, they are averaging a paltry 8.3pts and 7.2pts in the month of December.

Rebounding
While the Bobcats have improved from second worst to 16 in the association in rebounding, they still have a ways to go. The Raptors have been able to weather the storm on the boards left by Evans’ injury with a full-team commitment to crashing the glass, but with the Bobcats solid rebounding on the wings, they can be dangerous. Bargnani will need to carry a bit more of the burden than he normally does, and Weems/Kleiza will have to work a bit harder at keeping a body between Wallace and the glass. It’s definitely doable…

The Line

The gamblers have the Bobcats as 5 point favourites with an over/under of 202;I’m going against the grain, and picking Toronto to take this one by 4.

You joke about a team starting the year winless, or 2-18 after a quarter of the way in, but you never think it will actually happen. A lot is at stake tonight against the Bobcats, namely the tag of worse team in the East. It’s been a few years since we’ve had to worry about that tag, but it’s quickly approaching.

The good news is the Bobcats are right there with us, and we have a chance to stop the bleeding, yea…

I had a chance to speak to Brett Hainline of Queen City Hoops about the Bobcats:

The trading of Chandler (along with the cutting of Dampiers non-guaranteed contract), then signing Kwame Brown to fill the void seems contrary to Michael Jordan’s stated goal of making the playoffs. I was almost waiting for the other shoe to where Adam Morrison gets an invite to camp. What’s going on?
With the re-signing of Tyrus Thomas, the Bobcats payroll for this coming season was beyond what MJ was willing to pay for a borderline playoff team. If Tyson was still in Charlotte (and stayed healthy most of the year), the Bobcats ceiling is still, what, 48 wins? That’s based off the 44 last year, and Tyrus Thomas and Stephen Jackson being in Charlotte for the full season (and ignoring going from Raymond to D.J. at the point). Apparently, MJ and the front office think that the core of Jax, Crash, Boris, and Tyrus are still a borderline playoff team, and now a little cheaper (but just a little).

The Bobcats seem really thin at the point. Letting Felton walk was real suspect considering Livingston is the backup at point. The Bobcats have the luxury of Stephen Jackson at the point-forward, but this isn’t an ideal situation. Brown and Augustin seemingly haven’t been on the same page, but to his credit, he has played pretty well to start the season all things considered. How do you see this playing out?
D.J. had a really strong rookie season, providing some instant scoring off the bench. Based on his size, and skill set, that seemed like a great role for him. Cost considerations have forced him into a bigger role – and so far he has handled it well – at least offensively. In fact, despite some concerns that D.J. was too much of a shoot-first point for Larry’s taste, LB has been chiding D.J. to shoot more early this season. However, defensively, concerns still exist – D.J. is only an inch or so shorter than Raymond, but Raymond had a bit more heft to him that helped him defend and get through screens a bit better than D.J. has been able to. That is going to be the greatest concern – can D.J. defend well enough to justify starter’s minutes.

1-6 to start the season, but the Indiana and Detroit games were very winnable. Looking at the schedule, The rest of November isn’t horrible in terms of quality of opponents, can we expect to see an improvement, or are you guys bound to the same fate as Raptor fans?
The Cats started slow last year as well – and turnovers were a big part of the problem then as well. Early in the season, this is a team that is going to struggle to score, as switching point guards from last year is a significant change from last season. The roster turnover was somewhat low for a Bobcats team – but just for a Bobcats team, as the team has 2 different starters, 2 new players in the rotation (Livingston and Kwame Brown expected to garner minutes when he gets healthy), and 5 new players overall. That unfamiliarity (and Larry Brown’s general complex/detailed playbook) takes a while to gel.

Additionally, the Bobcats are still figuring out how to defend with this different group of players – last year, they relied on Tyson Chandler and Theo Ratliff to lock down the post, and Nazr played with a focus on scoring. WIth Nazr starting this year, the Cats defensive strength is missing so far. DeSagana Diop and Kwame Brown are going to be counted on to provide those minutes – Diop’s been solid so far and we’ve yet to see what Kwame will provide.

Anything else you want to add about this squad?
It’s been a slow start – but rather than the some of the older squads of the past, there is some reason to be excited about this one, even in losses. Watching them run out a long, athletic group with Livingston, Gerald Henderson, Derrick Brown, Tyrus Thomas, and Boris Diaw – it’s fun basketball to watch. Boris may seem like an odd fit with these lanky athletes -but his skill set and versatility on defense are a good complement.

Injury Report

Toronto
Ed Davis – Out

Charlotte
Kwame Brown – Out
Boris Diaw – Day-to-day

Match-ups

PG – Jack vs Augustin
Must be my curse, but as soon as I picked up Augustin for my fantasy league, he had two pretty games in a row, and I was forced to drop him. Overall he’s had a pretty good start to the season considering he’s essentially the load at point on his own. I suspect he breaks out from that funk tonight because he is a quick guard who has 3-point range: a recipe for playing well against the Raptors. Jack bounced back from a couple pretty brutal games with a solid outing against the Warriors, all things considered of course. I mean, when Curry puts up 34pts 5rebs 4ast 3stl on a bum ankle, his 24pts 8ast is put into perspective. Jack can give Augustin some problems with size and strength, and with Calderon on the second unit, they can really take it to the Augustin and Livingston and Collins all night. We have the horses here, just have to go at them and want to put a thin point guard situation to a test. One thing that has me concerned is Augustin’s passing ability that comes off his quickness…whatever….
Edge: Augustin wins the individual dual, but the Raptors win at point overall

SG – DeRozan vs Jackson
The league is filled with quality shooting guards, so DeRozan wont be walking into many match-ups where he has an edge. Jackson is a world champion, wiley vet, and destructive force all wrapped into a nice bull-dog of a package. If he’s on, this is going to get messy. He does so much, so well, that DeMar will be tested in all facets of the game. What DeMar has in his pocket is his athleticism and quickness, as does Weems. Running the floor and making Jackson run around screens is the only chance they have at slowing him down. Get him frustrated, and hopefully he implodes.
Edge: Jackson

SF – Kleiza vs Wallace
Kleiza hasn’t had to deal with a kamikaze forward who crashes the boards and plays off the ball very well. This is a key match-up for the game, and I would be totally down on this one, except that Kleiza is coming off a strong performance against the Warriors that should carry over. I’d like to see Kleiza go to the post, and try to get Gerald into foul trouble. On the offensive glass, Wallace is one of the best, and if it comes down to a hustle match-up, will grab everything Evans doesn’t. It’s really going to be a long night for Linas, I don’t see any two ways about it.
Edge: Wallace

PF – Evans vs Diaw
Diaw was a nose hair away from being the Raptor, so it would only be fitting if he killed us tonight. Evans should own on the boards, and it’s a draw defensively, but Diaw is crafty and can contribute in all fronts on offense: passing, shooting, in the post. He has been playing big minutes, and with his conditioning (as far as I remember), it might take a toll on him. It should be noted that Tyrus Thomas could potentially move into the starting lineup as a result of his solid play in limited play off the bench. If this is the case, he will give Evans a hell of a time since he’s longer, faster and more athletic. I’d expect to see a lot more of Amir Johnson tonight since he can negate what Thomas can bring to the table.
Edge: Even

C – Bargnani vs Mohammed
The Raptors have given Nazr a career over the years, affording him opportunities to put up big games (by his standards anyways). If Bargnani can’t win this match-up, I’m putting ‘Vegetable Lasagna’ back on the table; I think that’s fair.
Edge: Bargnani

Keys to the Game

Protect the Ball
Even without Chandler, the Bobcats are 8th in the league in points allowed, giving up 95.6 a contest. They put pressure on the ball, rotate well, and play solid man defense. With Jackson and Wallace playing big minutes anchoring the perimeter, crisp passes and ball movement will be crucial to peck at the brick wall.

Play Big
This is one of those games where Amir has to keep his head in it. The Bobcats are the second worse rebounding team in the league. Control the glass, get more possessions and run it down their throat. The Raptors offense can put a lot of pressure on the Bobcats if they get out and run, which all comes down to grabbing the rebound on starting the break. The Bobcats are also the worst offensive team in the league, so there should be plenty rebounds to grab, especially with the questionable shots Jackson takes. No excuses for Bargnani either; saying he scores and doesn’t need to grab rebounds is simply ignoring the fact that scoring is only one dimension of playing ball. Bargnani will never become a wicked defender, but he at 7 feet, can grab rebounds. Stop pussyfooting, take off your panties and do something already.

Sense of Urgency
1-6 to start the season with a winnable game against an equally inept team. The Bobcats have starish type players who can take over a game, but the Raptors just can’t let them. Enough’s-enough boys, it’s time to put the women and children to sleep and perform.

The Line

The gamblers have the Raptors as 2 point favourites, with an over/under of 194.5. This game is prime to be ground out. The Bobcats have the personell to win these sorts of games since they are so defensively efficient. Still doesn’t mean the Raptors can’t impose their style of play against a team that isn’t playing very well right now.

You can support the team by following the #RTZ (Raptors Twitter Zone) hashtag. Regardless of how bad this team is playing, we’re all fans and want to see them find their way. Respect to Nat from Heels on Hardwood for putting this initiative together.

We got Twitter, Facebook and Live Chat; what say you?

Sorry there aren’t any shot charts, if you’re so inclined, you can check out their last game against the Spurs here.

It had all the makings for a disappointing game, but the Raptor killer known as Nazr Mohammed was injured so there was hope. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve come to expect that when a team has been dogging it for 20 games (the Raptors were 6-14 heading into last nights game) that you can’t just flip the switch on a whim and compete. Last night against the Bobcats, it was more like a leaky faucet that slowly got turned on. Like the Atlanta game, the Raptors kept it close, took advantage of every opportunity that reared its head, and pulled out a gritty win in spite of some very poor officiating at that.

Before getting into it, with 9 games left before the playoffs, me thinks Triano has stumbled on a rotation of:

PG – Calderon
SG – Weems
SF – Wright
PF – Bosh
C – Bargnani

BN – Turkoglu
BN – DeRozan
BN – Jack
BN – Johnson

This lineup serves a few things: better balance on the starting 5 (Weems and Wright don’t need the ball in their hands to be effective); better defense at the wing to start the game; a much stronger second unit (Turkoglu should be beating up on opposing benches); and it just seems to flow better.

It’s go time now, so Bosh and Bargnani should be playing 38-41 minutes a night from here on out, giving Amir between 14-20 minutes of burn; a nice tight rotation. As you can see, there shouldn’t be any more than 2-3 minutes a night for Evans (all of which should come at the end of the 1st and 2nd quarters to give the front line some rest)

So back to the game, it started with Calderon attacking the rim early. He was able to blow by Felton and get to the rim for a layup (he missed it, but he got there) and assisting on the first three buckets by Bosh and Bargnani. Penetrate, draw the defender, find the open man. Calderon is really a triple threat (shoot, drive, pass), and needs to attack the defense every chance he gets. The court will open up and give him more options on offense, but when he just throws the ball around the perimeter, or plays the high pick-n-roll, he is doing himself a disservice. Raymond Felton still abused him on offense, but that’s expected, probably not even worth mentioning.

Like Scott said, Bosh played harder in the first 4 minutes than he has since the All-Star break. When the franchise is motivated, his production isn’t hollow and it actually leads to results. Up until last night, he would be around his season average, but he did it invisibly. I know you’re frustrated dude, and I realize you like to lead by example, but not many folks are as naturally gifted as you, so when you dog your way to big numbers, others will follow suit without the same result. Something to think about for the rest of the year fam.

The second quarter saw more of the same from both squads. The Bobcats would penetrate, kick the ball and swing it till they got an open three, and the Raptors were led by an energized DeRozan who attacked the basket every chance he got. I really don’t want to gloss over the 3rd quarter, but it was more of the same: the Bobcats got open three after open three, but the Raptors kept it close with Calderon and Bosh attacking from the outside-in.

Calderon especially had a good quarter, going 3-3 from the field while dropping 2 dimes. I’m singling this out because Triano came out in the fourth with Jack instead of Jose, who was having a terrible game up until that point.

At first I thought it was just to give Calderon a rest so he can finish the game strong, but Jack really picked it up, scoring all 12 of his points in the frame, including 7 of the last 8 Raptor points (all at the line). Then I started to get nervous that as the game was coming down to the wire, Triano would snap and play Jack and Jose together, but he didn’t, and Jay rode the hot hand down the stretch.

Have to hand it to Triano who made some great decisions (sitting Hedo to start the game and gambling on Jack in the 4th). You know I don’t think highly of his coaching abilities, but he threw down the gauntlet and always had the right group on the court.

How about that Hedo? Think Triano got through to him? I know I do. Even though he wasn’t happy to start the game on the bench, Turkoglu was stone cold last night, and made some big plays. I know he was brought on as the #2 option, but if he can be the 6th man and hit daggers like that, including the eventual game winner, this team could be a handful in the playoffs (I won’t be holding my breath though).

With a few seconds left in the game, Felton blew by Jack, but turned it over. Part of it had to do with some decent defensive rotations and folks talking, and part of it had to do with Felton just throwing a bad pass. Either way, the Raptors played hard the whole game, and gave themselves an opportunity to win the game, and they took advantage.

The Raptors stayed in the game by protecting the ball, and crashing the offensive glass. They had 10 more shot attempts than the Bobcats, who were able to keep the game close by going 12-24 from beyond the arc (most were open looks) and solid shooting from the free throw line. The difference was Jack though, who went 7-8 from the line, all at the end of the 4th, validating Triano’s decision to play him over Calderon.

Had Carmelo not hit that game winner, and the Raptors held on just a bit longer against the Heat, the Raptors would be 7th in the East (ahead of the Bobcats because they now own the tiebreaker). So as bad as they have been recently, what is keeping this team back is as simple as one possession, or a couple minutes of unfocused play from being a better team. Had Triano laid down the law a bit alot earlier in the season, things may have been different for this team, just something to think about.

That’s how you play basketball. That’s how you bounce back from getting your salad tossed the last time around. That’s how your two best players mesh together and carry this team with Jose and Hedo out. It was electric, it was intense, it was exciting and it was gritty, it was the type of game you wish you spent your lunch money on to go.

We can be happy with the 5th win in a row, it’s actually at a level where it doesn’t matter who we beat to get here, we won games we should have, plain and simple. Last night against the Bobcats was no cake-walk, they were motivated to get out of their recent funk, and with the taste of that beating they laid down the last time, they hit the ground running from the tip. Nazr Mohammed was like Olajuwon in the post, Jackson/Wallace/Felton all got into the paint at will and finished at the rim. It’s no surprise that they shot 73.3% from the field. Everything to start was in the paint, then when the Raptors collapsed to help at the rim, the Bobcats kicked out for open jumpers that they nailed (shot chart).

Had it not been for the copious amount of turnovers, the Bobcats may have put this bad boy away early. They committed 9 sloppy ones in the 1st quarter that paced 17 fast break points (13 were off of turnovers) for the Raptors – the Raps ran back every Bobcat turnover down their throats. It was the classic case of taking what was available. We couldn’t stop them from scoring, but we made them pay for not protecting the ball. DeMar was a beast early. He attacked the rim, slashed to the rim, took aggressive cuts, and made himself available. 8pts in the first, all in rhythm, and all in the natural flow of the offense. It’s all about being complimentary with this team. If you can get yours without disrupting Bosh and Bargnani on offense, you’re a keeper.

I don’t know about y’all, but Weems was killing me in the first half. He took too many jumpers (2-7 from the field) and wasn’t attacking the rim. I lost a slice of pizza because I was cursing him out after his 4th bad one. I don’t mind folks taking J’s, but when they come at the expense of Bosh or Bargnani shooting the rock, it irks me something fierce. At least when Belinelli was missing his shots, he was getting to the line, and being a spark-plug off the bench. I would have personally threw Weems under the bus, but I got death threats last time I did Roll-Call, so I’ll leave it to the experts.

Why didn’t DeMar get much burn after the 1st quarter given how well he was playing? He left a bit to be desired defensively, but so did the rest of the Raptors. 11mins in the 1st quarter, and 9mins for the rest of the game. It was almost like Triano forgot about him, he didn’t even do anything to warrant it, unless I missed that, anyone? It didn’t come back to haunt the Raptors, however, the kid is playing well, so why give his minutes to Wright in the 4th?

The play of Bosh and Bargnani deserves some ink since it was the best I’ve seen to date. Bosh lived inside 10 feet, and Bargnani did most of his damage outside of it. There was some overlap where Bargnani would take his man off the dribble, or post-up on a mismatch, but you could almost see where one would pick up where the other left off. It didn’t even hurt that Andrea only grabbed 4 rebounds because of the clutch shooting down the stretch. On three occasions, Bosh drew the double-team, and kicked out to Andrea for an open shot. Their play was so good, it left us (I assume I speak for everyone here) all asking why this doesn’t happen more? Forget trying to get Turkoglu integrated, spend more time trying to recreate the chemistry from last night.

I’m still pissed I wasn’t at the ACC for this one. The Bobcats shot the crap out of the ball, but the Raptors won this by protecting the ball, big post play that led to second chance points and open shots on the perimeter, getting to the foul line and hitting free throws. This was the most impressive win of this stretch because of how hard the Raptors were tested from start to finish. The Bobcats took a 1 point lead with 1:43 to go in the game, but the Raptors buckled down. They forced a miss on a Jackson jumper, then Jack steals the ball from Felton on the next possession. Defensive stops down the stretch won this game, when’s the last time we have ever said that?

Quick Thoughts:

• While the bench provided a spark, they were brutal from the field shooting a combined 7-27 (27pts 13rebs 8ast)
• Turkoglu dished out 5 dimes in the first half before shutting it down in the 2nd with a knee contusion
• Calderon is clearly reading RR, he was sporting a fitted suit last night, looked good
• Glad to see O’Bryant got to the game on time
• Can’t stop gushing about the complimentary play of Bosh/Bargnani, Triano needs to bottle that, analyze it and duplicate it for the rest of the year
• Amir with a second game weak game in a row, hopefully it’s all that Christmas food he’s been putting down
• I’d make that trade from Steve’s podcast yesterday (Caldeorn for Farmar, Morrison and a 1st rounder)

On behalf of us all here at RR, I wish each and everyone one of you a happy new year. The TTC is free till 4am so be safe and enjoy your night. Go Raptors (Free Amir).