Warning: This is the worst thing I’ve ever written in my life. Much like Kleiza, I didn’t give it 100%.

It’s really getting hard to write these pre-games with any level of predictability. The Raptors roll-over to the Wizards, then two nights later, they fight tooth in nail against a better Hornets team. Could it be that these guys play up to their competition much like the Spurs play down to theirs? Also, we (I do anyways) keep saying that this team doesn’t have much talent, but when you just take a second look, there is a bit; it’s just that the team isn’t very well constructed. They are a bunch of athletic guys, who can ball, who’ve just been thrown together and told to play nice.

While I ate some of my words about the match-ups from the Hornets game, each of Paul, West and Okafor played crucial roles in the tight win. Okafor and West especially, who combined for 26 rebounds with both grabbing more offensive rebounds than the entire Raptors team – 16. Whatever…

I checked in with Andrew McNeill from the aptly named Spurs blog 48 Minutes of Hell about the team and the game tonight:

This Spurs are my gold-standard for how a franchise should be run. Unlike the Celtics/Lakers/Mavs, the Spurs compete while being fiscally responsible. This question is a bit lame, but what is it like to be a fan of this team?
A lot of times, you’re going through your head or discussing / arguing with someone about something in particular that you think the team should do. Whether it be trading for someone to defend the rim or play Tiago Splitter more, etc, nothing’s perfect so it’s natural to think that. But in the end, and oftentimes the discussions in the comments end this way too, you just shrug and say, “you know what, the front office knows what they’re doing.” I get that feeling that fans of a lot of other franchises don’t enjoy the same luxury.

International players sometimes take a bit longer to acclimate themselves to the NBA. After getting signed to a lot of fanfare, Splitter has seen a steady decline in minutes and production since the season started. Is this a matter of not enough minutes, others stepping up, or Tiago learning to play in Pops system?
Tiago is becoming one of my favorite things to write about, just because it’s coming kind of easy with his lack of playing time. Long story short, he played a full season last year in Spain and won the title, had a couple of weeks off and went on tour with Brazil ahead of the FIBA World Championships and then played in Turkey. He picked up an injury training for the World Championships and then another during the tournament. After a couple of weeks off he was in San Antonio for training camp and picked up yet another small injury. This one forced him to miss the vast majority of training camp and all of preseason. With so little practice time in the NBA, especially for veteran teams like the Spurs, he had very little opportunity to learn Pop’s system. And if we learned anything from Richard Jefferson last year — and, to a lesser extent, Antonio McDyess (an underrated story is how much improvement Dice has shown this season) — it’s that Pop’s system takes some time to learn. Basically, he’s a good sport and he’ll be a good rotation player, but it might not be until next season.

Career low in minutes played for Duncan, points and rebounds, yet the Spurs are the best team in the league. Do tell?
There are a number of factors for Duncan’s career lows. The Spurs always try to limit Duncan’s minutes and they’ve been able to do it this season by blowing teams out. Duncan has been able to sit out a significant chunk of the team’s fourth quarters this season while not missing a game. Offensively, the Spurs don’t run everything through Duncan in the post. The offense is predicated on ball movement and lots and lots of pick-and-rolls with Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. But if they need to, they can still go to Duncan in the post and get a basket. Defensively, he’s still a rock. And about a slow as one when it comes to defending the pick-and-roll. But he still knows the defense and communicates with the defenders in front of him as good as any player in the league.

The Spurs have dropped a few games to the Raptors over the years, splitting the last two season series (I just wanted to throw that in). How do the Spurs match-up with the Raptors, and what will they have to do to win the game?
I’ll be completely honest and tell you that I can’t remember if I’ve caught a Raptors game at all this season. The Spurs have a habit of playing down to their opponents, but that hasn’t been as much of a problem this season… other than that Clipper game. Although, with the way the Clippers have looked lately that doesn’t seem as bad, and it was the second night of a back-to-back. Anyway, I digress. If the Spurs show up with decent energy early in the game, not the way they started against the Nuggets on Sunday, and don’t go completely cold from 3-point range, I fully expect them to beat the Raptors comfortable and give Tim Duncan another fourth quarter off.

Injuries

Toronto
Reggie Evans – Angry Birds Steez: Finished each level with 3-stars
Leandro Barbosa – She’s keeping him company while he gets better
Peja Stojakovic – Favourite Drink: Lady Saffron from Black Hoof cafe
Sonny Weems – Most expensive tweet c/o EverythingBlaxx
Linas Kleiza – Hope he’s ok, but glad Wright’s getting his minutes

San Antonio
Matt Bonner – Day to day

Match-ups

Point Guard
For Jose, this is the week from hell; Chris Paul, Tony Parker and Nelson/Arenas in the span of five days. Each is a totally different kind of player that poses his own set of problems. Against Paul, Calderon turned in a pretty gutsy performance if you ask me. Keeping Chris to 6 points is an achievement onto it’s own; doing that while dropping 13 dimes and keeping the game within reach is damn good. What really hurt Jose was 7 turnovers on 13 assists; especially when you consider Paul had 0tos  on 11ast.

Parker is also a devastating player off the dribble. Containing him off the hi-screen may prove to be impossible since he’s such a triple-threat (shoot, pass and drive) once he turns that corner. Expect the Raptors to get pick-n-rolled to death, and Triano to call a zone every so often to counter. Maybe he wont, maybe he will jedi mind trick them into thinking a zone is coming, when it doesn’t, forcing them to execute some weird variation of their offense that sputters and fails. Maybe it wont matter.

Jose has proven that he can run with the elite point guards in the league, the question has always been how hard is he going to make them work on both ends of the floor. I don’t mind Parker doing 20pts 11ast if Jose produces his share on offense and contests on defense.
Edge: Spurs

Shooting Guard
Again, another solid kool-aid outing for DeRozan who seems to have reduced the number of bad games between the good ones. Consistency is the key with the young one, and he’s held up his end of the bargain for the most part. Listen, I like the kid, but it just feel that his game is a little too one-dimensional at the moment; a luxury we cant afford him considering Bargnani should be the only person on the Raptors with that that role.

Much like Parker, Ginobili is also a triple threat on offense, but is truly unlike anyone DeRozan’s played all season. He is a very crafty, unorthodox offensive player that attacks from every spot on the floor. Defensively, he is all over the place and will make DeRozan work on both ends of the floor. Would be nice if DeMar can return that favour.
Edge: Spurs

Small Forward
I held onto Richard Jefferson for far too long in my fantasy draft. It’s definitely cost me some points in my match-ups. With Kleiza out (or he could return as mysteriously as he got injured), Wright will get the chance to shine from the tip; hopefully. You never know with Triano, really, you don’t. With Julian on the prowl, we can rest assured that Jefferson wont be sticking any wide open shats from behind the arc, he’s going to have to work for his baskets. Neither will be breaking out to lead their team to a win, but both will provide key moments.
Edge: Even

Front Court
I’m lumping PF/C together because of all the cross-pollination of potential match-ups. The Spurs will field a rotation of Tim Duncan, Antonio McDyess, Matt Bonner, Dajuan Blair and Tiago Splitter. There is a little bit of absolutely everything you could want in a front court that is the 3rd best in the league after Boston and LA, IMHO of course.

The Raptors will need an encore from the performance Ed Davis and Amir Johnson had against the Hornets, but I think they deliver the goods. They both hit the ground running and are becoming quite a formidable duo. The two accounted for almost half the Raptors rebounding, and all the heart in the paint. Seriously, had they not pulled more than their weight, the game wouldn’t have been close.

After a very solid stretch, Bargnani was pretty brutal. How bad? Calderon out-rebounded the guy. For the Raptors to have any chance at winning tonight, he has to put up at least 24, and get the Spurs bigs in foul trouble; at least enough to make them think twice about defending a penetrating DeRozan/Calderon aggressively.
Edge: Even

Keys to the Game

Seriously, I don’t know where to start; the Spurs are 5th in the league in points scored, 7th in rebounding, 5th in assists and 12th in defense.  I guess the key will be to defend hard, crash the boards, challenge passing lanes and hit every single shot you take.

The Line

The gamblers have the Spurs comfortably taking this by 11, with an over/under of 203.5. Thankfully, it’s Wednesday, so you can flip back and forth between the game and Dragons Den to keep occupied.

Q. How did the Knicks do this off-season? Talk about drafts, trades and free agent signings as well as ownership/management changes.

Kevin McElroy: The answer to this question is necessarily relative to expectations. By any normal measure, this was the Knicks best summer since the mid-90’s. Their failed pursuit for LeWyane Bosh aside, the Knicks brought in Amare Stoudemire, a five-time all-star with three top-ten scoring seasons who also happens to be the active career leader in true shooting percentage. While concerns about the riskiness of the acquisition (especially those relating to Stoudemire’s injury history) are understandable, the rarity with which players of Stoudemire’s caliber can be had without forfeiting any tradeable assets makes the signing a worthwhile gamble. The David Lee trade — in which the Knicks gave up a player that they had already made redundant and received two valuable role players and a freakish athlete with world-class upside in return — was the best player for player(s) swap the Knicks have made since they brought in Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby; if Anthony Randolph develops, it will go down as even better than those trades.

I worry about Raymond Felton eating up valuable cap space, but I get the feeling that his signing was about keeping Amare happy enough to keep telling his buddies how great things were in New York — Felton’s contract should be moveable if he becomes the final obstacle to bringing in another star. I hated the Knicks’ play-it-safe strategy on draft night, but based upon the summers that Landry Fields and Lance Stephenson have had, my opinion on the matter has softened. Fields will hang around for 10 years and be a useful role player for the Knicks in the near term.

Q. Who came out the bigger winner AND loser in the Atlantic Division?

KM: I’ll exclude the Knicks from the conversation here since I’ve already discussed their offseason. I think the Celtics are the winners by default, mostly because they were the only Atlantic Division team good enough to focus their off-season on filling their remaining needs rather than blindly overhauling the team and hoping it would work out. I’m not crazy about their Shaquisition for the same reason I wasn’t crazy about it when he was Shaquired by Phoenix or Cleveland, but at the veteran minimum it’s a low risk move and they can always tell him to go away if he becomes a problem.

As for the biggest losers, the Nets’ mind-bendingly bizarre assortment of free agent signings gets the nod even in a division where Toronto lost their franchise leader in scoring and rebounding just as he was entering his prime. Better build that arena, Brooklyn, or Johan Petro will be plying his trade elsewhere!

Q. Last season we saw a dog fight from 5-9 in the East for a playoff appearance (the Raptors dropped from 5th to 9th rapidly at the tail-end of the season). What are your predictions for this upcoming season? Who are your dark horses to watch out for?

KM: Obviously the Heat jump out of that dog fight and into the top 3, arguably the top 1. I think this will be another season in which the Eastern Conference can be separated into pretty well-defined tiers. The Tier 1 teams — Miami, Orlando, Boston — seem fairly insurmountable at the top of the pyramid, although if the Celtics all get old at the same time, they could feasibly drop into Tier 2. For now, Tier 2 is Atlanta, Chicago, and probably Milwaukee, all of whom should qualify for the postseason comfortably and will be primarily concerned with finishing 5th or better and thus avoiding the Tier 1 teams in the first round. Tier 3 is where it gets a bit hairy: Charlotte has to be viewed as the 7th best team going into the year, but New York has much greater upside and is the only team outside of Tiers 1 and 2 with a chance to vault into the top 6 if everything goes right.

If things implode for the Knicks — and, let’s face it, why shouldn’t they — The Pacers, Sixers, and Cavs are all in the picture for one of the last two playoff spots. One more quick point that nobody is talking about: I will not be surprised if strength of schedule becomes a decisive factor in the Eastern Conference this year. The Bobcats have to play a whopping 15 games against the Heat, Magic, and Hawks, while the Knicks and Sixers will play each other five times and have 10 games each against the Nets and Raps. Could be enough to bump the Bobcats down to ninth in a tight East.

Q. Is what happened in Miami bad for the league? On the one hand, players are taking control of their own futures (as best as possible); but on the other, the rich just seem to get richer.

KM: I swore a lifelong oath of hatred against the Miami Heat the day that Pat Riley hopped the fence back in 1995, but the answer to this question is still “no.” In the long-term, this has to be viewed as good for the league, and not just because it will allow us to see something we’ve never seen before (which it will) and give other fan bases a unifying enemy (which it also will). The reason I’m glad it happened, and happened when it did, is that it has placed everything from cap rules to player tampering to the merits of “Superteams” at the forefront of the conversation, just before a watershed CBA renegotiation. This is the best way for basketball fans and writers to have any kind of a voice about the future of the league. Maybe I’m dreaming on that but, at a time when the NBA seems desperate to drum up demand for its product, it will have an unprecedented opportunity to gauge public opinion on nearly every issue that is likely to come up this summer. We may all be thanking LeWyane Bosh before this is over.

(Was that convincing? No? Darn it. I really hate the Heat.)

Q. Do you share the view that playing in Toronto is similar to playing in Europe, and not very appealing to American born players? What’s your take on the Raptors and Toronto as a destination for the NBA elite?

KM: I think there are five or six “destination cities” in the League right now — LA, Miami, New York, Chicago, maybe one or two of the Texas cities — and I don’t think Toronto is one of them. But I think it’s still a long way up from playing in Europe and doubt the Canadian border has much of a practical effect on players’ decisions. Most NBA cities become appealing destinations if and only if their resident teams employ players and executives that are appealing to NBA free agents, which the post-Bosh Raptors probably don’t. The problem is that Toronto’s previous attempts at building around a franchise player were based upon guys whose personalities were not conducive to being the first major building block on a team in a non-destination city. It only takes one super-talented, super-loyal star — think Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard — to attract top players to a place that once seemed to be on the NBA periphery. The problem, of course, is finding that guy. Clearly, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh didn’t fit the description.

Q. What’s your take on Bryan Colangelo and the job he’s done for the Raptors? Could he have held on to Bosh had he made other choices? Did he make a huge mistake by not trading him earlier? What about the type of team he is trying to build in Toronto?

KM: I think Bosh was always leaving — he’s a very good second option alongside an elite scoring wing with good court vision; now he gets to play with two of them. It’s interesting to think about how things would have played out for Toronto if Bosh and T-Mac had come along at about the same time — they would have complemented each other brilliantly, maybe well enough that they both would have wanted to stay. As for Colangelo, I think he was probably doomed from the start. His mandate was to focus singularly on the retention of a player who was 1) probably always going to leave and 2) probably not good enough to be the best player on a great team anyway. To the extent that this strategy has failed (in the departure of Bosh) or set the franchise back (due to the shortsightedness of some of Toronto’s acquisitions), that failure is more associated with the flaws of the mandate (which fall at the feet of ownership) than with any flaws in execution (which would fall at the feet of Colangelo). That said, Toronto clearly needs to dive head-first into overhaul mode and that necessarily involves a conversation regarding whether Colangelo remains the right man for what is now a very different job.

The Spurs are 2-3 so far this season, with both wins coming at home to lesser teams: New Orleans and Sacramento. The story tonight is that Tony Parker will be out with a sprained ankle. He is only expected to miss a week, but he is the cog that powers the Spurs engine. We talked about it in the podcast that should be going up at some point today, but looking at the next four games (Spurs, Bulls, Clippers and Suns) we could go 3-1. I realize this is seriously optimistic, but the one thing the Raptors have done very well this season is take advantage when their opponents have shown any weakness.

Match-ups

The Point: With Calderon returning, albeit slowly, to form the last two games, and Jack leading the 2nd unit, we look good in this match-up. The combination of Roger Mason Jr. and George Hill doesn’t really strick fear into my heart. Mason has carved out a nice niche for himself, but he’s a spot up shooter, who doesn’t have the ability to break down defenses off the dribble. Don’t know much about Hill, but I am guessing there isn’t much there, not saying he sucks, but that Jack should be able to handle him.
The Edge: Raptors

The Skill: DeRozan is coming off his worst game as a Raptor, so is Belinelli. Big time gut check for our rook, as he comes face-to-face with one of the best in the game: Ginobili. For the last couple seasons, Manu has come off the bench, but plays starter minutes. Wright should split time at 2 and 3, helping on the defensive end, but since he wont be playing the whole game, Ginobili is primed to go off.
The Edge: Spurs

The Swingman: Turkoglu is also coming off his worst showing of the season, and should be good to make up for it. The pick-n-roll with Bosh will be crucial, as the Spurs always fight through them, and rarely switch, giving Hedo a bit of space to operate. This is where things start to get interesting. The Spurs went out and got Jefferson for close to nothing. Jefferson, as we all know, is a Raptor killer. Every-time he has played us over the last few years, he has come up big when it mattered. He has started the season slow, but dropped 19 in a losing effort to the Blazers on Friday, in fact, he had the most impact during the game (check the player impact chart).
The Edge: Even

The Big: This is where match-ups become interesting. The Spurs are rotating Duncan/Bonner/McDyess/Blair in at the 4/5. For the most part, Bonner is getting the nod at 4, which means Bosh is licking his chops. I like Bonner, always have, but he has a long night in store. Between covering Bosh in the paint, and Bargnani on the perimeter, my guess is that his minutes will be limited. If McDyess isn’t injured, he will be getting the bulk of the minutes at the other forward position. If he is, Bonner and Blair will be splitting time. Regardless, I like Chris in this match-up. Our boy is putting up MVP calibre numbers to start the year, with most of his damage coming in the paint.
The Edge: Raptors

The Strong: Bargnani is the reason that Duncan will not be covering Bosh, IMHO. Bonner/McDyess/Blair can’t be on the perimeter  chasing VL around. I mean, Bonner could, but he wont do a good job; McDyess plays better post defense; and Blair is a rookie who will make rookie mistakes. Bargnani hasn’t really played poorly so far this season. Our boy needs touches, and in an effort to keep Duncan on his heels, will have plenty this game. Duncan needs to be attacked from the opening tip, which is easier said then done.
The Edge: Raptors (sorry, I had put Spurs, but meant to put Raptors here)

Keys to Winning

• Attack Duncan off the dribble. His knee is suspect
• Calderon/Jack need to push the ball at all times, the Spurs point situation is more suspect then Duncan’s knees
• Don’t be afraid to play Wright more at the 2 if DeRozan is getting lit up by Manu
• Rebound the hell out of the ball. Portland grabbed 48 to the Spurs 37 on Friday, they are vulnerable here

Injury Report

Raptors
Reggie Evans
Spurs
Tony Parker
Antonio McDyess (playing hurt)

The Line

The Spurs are -6.5 favourites with an over/under of 202.5

Prediction

The Raptors need to take advantage of Parker’s injury, but it wont be easy. This is a veteran, battle tested team that wont let up. I said in the podcast that this is the type of game the Raptors can win, and they could easily be 3-1 this week, but I don’t think it will happen: Spurs by 8 (I’m 2-2 with predictions so far).

You really can’t expect much when you role into the Spurs house, and they are healthy. The road to championship in the West still leads through them, and the House that Popovich designed and Duncan built is still the standard of excellence in the NBA. Forgive me if my expectations are low non-existent. Actually, I expect my Bacon n Egg McMuffin to slow down the Spurs more then the Raptors (clog their arteries).

True to form, the Raptors came out, and played a pretty solid 1st quarter, holding on to a 5 point lead after 12 minutes. This was done on a combination of things, but mostly the Spurs poor perimeter shooting – 2/12 from behind the arc in the frame. Parker got into the lane whenever he wanted, and kicked to an open wing, who just couldn’t make them stick. You knew, I did anyways, that this wouldn’t last. Giving guys like Finley, Mason and Bonner open looks will end bad, as the Raptors found out int he 2nd quarter, when those shots began to fall.

Beating the Raptors is nothing more then a recipe at this point of the season:

1. Add one part dribble penetration
2. Add two parts double team
3. Add a zest of kick out to the open shooter
4. Let simmer at medium intensity
5. And you get an easy basket that no one in the organization can do anything about

“It’s tough to beat a team like that,” Raptors coach Jay Triano said. “We forced the ball to the perimeter and they made the shots. Pretty awesome display of shooting.”

Seriously? That was the strategy tonight? Make the Spurs hit shots from the perimeter? Have you not been watching what the Spurs having been doing for the last decade? You really want guys like Finley/Bonner/Mason/Ginobli getting open looks at the rim? Although he may be old, Bowen can still knock a fair number of looks down, especially if they aren’t contested. Would it not been better to try to get the ball out of Parker’s hands, and make Duncan score 50? OR, if you want to make them beat you with shooting, why not leave only certain people open…say….Tolliver, rather then leaving guys like Roger Mason Jr., who was specifically targeted and signed by the Spurs for this very reason.

I must be taking crazy pills, because O’Neal seemed surprised by the Spurs ability to make shots too:

“Those guys just really seemed to make a lot of 3s.” O’Neal said. “Every time we would stop them it seemed like they would come back on the next possession with a 3. When we didn’t score, they did, and it mostly was 3s.”

This is the result of a well made team, the balance they have is incredible:

• You have guys who can knock down jumpers/3s
• You have guys who can create their own shots
• You have guys who can penetrate at will
• and You have Duncan, who hasn’t made a mistake in 10 years

It’s actually beautiful watching them play, Parker penetrates then either takes it to the rack, or kicks it out for an open jumper after everyone collapses The Raptors force perimeter plays, when their franchise player has a mismatch on the offensive end with almost every team/player in the league. It upsets me when Bosh has a player on his hip, is battling in the paint, calling for the ball, only to see Moon launch a three after hesitating with whether to shoot it or not. And you guys are wondering why Bosh doesn’t look very happy recently.

‘Dribble-Penetrations’ ugly sister reared her head too – the slut ‘rebounding’ was again another issue. I don’t have much to say about it really, other then to question why Humphries doesn’t get more burn. Actually, in general, why doesn’t Humphries get more burn? He is an energy guy, hustles, battles on the boards, sure he forces it on offense a few times too many, but he competes. Which is more you can say for this team that seemingly isn’t playing for Triano is in a funk at the moment.

What the Raptors do a terrible job of, IMHO, is getting Bosh the ball at the right time. How often have we watched him with with a mismatch on his hip, only to watch the ball get swung to someone say…Moon, who clanks a J off the back of the rim. Recently, I have been noticing the Raptors get the ball to Bosh late int he shot clock, and while he is out of position. Khandor always says this is a game of matchups, well, part of any matchup is timing. And if your timing is off, then you’re in big trouble.

Is it safe to say the Bosh/O’Neal experiment has failed? We are a third of the way into the season and…nothing, I got nothing. I wont get too dramatic, it’s not like teaming Randolph and Curry together, but it’s not much better. One excels while the other is stuck in pergatory. In fact, aside from interior defense, this O’Neal thing hasn’t quite worked out how BC planned. The Raptors are still need of a legit second scorer (sorry, but Kapono isn’t the answer, really, he isn’t; rebounding hasn’t improve dramatically, in fact, it hasn’t improved very much at all. Going from 37rebs a game, to 39rebs a game, and winning less games isn’t an improvement.

I’m just putting it out there, but do you think Bosh likes this new system? It seems as though he was much happier under Smitch. Before, Bosh was the centerpiece of the offense, he was charged with help defense, and was leading the fight on the boards. Now, seems like Kapono and Graham are getting a chunk of his shots. At least he isn’t being played for 42 minutes a game, thats good right?

Am I alone when I think the Raptors were better off with Smitch on the bench?

Anyways, sorry for the late post, I planned to do it this morning, but fate conspired. Follow us on Twitter, and grab our Feed. Free Ukic!!

“Let’s just say the language was PG.” That was the phrase used to describe Bosh’s demeanor in the third quarter by Rod Black who hasn’t figured out the motion picture rating scale just yet. When this was reported out of the huddle by the extraordinary journalist, the Raptors were getting spanked soundly by the Spurs at home and CB4 was in the midst of a miserable 3-11 FG performance where he looked exactly like the second-tier star that he is. Apparently Bosh was angry and agitated with his mates about the teams performance, the funny part about that is that the team wasn’t doing all that bad, it was Bosh that stunk the joint up by being a no-show in a statement game.

Pretend you didn’t watch the game and somebody told you the Raptors lost, what two reasons would you guess for the loss? Think about it, take a few seconds while I type a few ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . if you picked rebounding and perimeter defense you’d be spot on. See, it’s come the point where you don’t even have to watch the game to know why they’ll lose. We got outmanned 46-34 on the glass and got burned by the Spurs’ perimeter ball movement which continuously carved us out with lot of the effects being felt in the paint. You’d figure that we’d defend Manu Ginobili a slightly different way after he’s already dropped 25 but no such luck, and there’s not even Sam to blame. The loss drags our record against the quality teams even further lending a significant hollowness to our overall record which stands at a seemingly constant 4 games over .500. Now when the month began, most of us had already circled this one as a L but to see it happen this way is disheartening. The loss isn’t bugging me as much as the way we lost it.

There were two plays that epitomized Chris Bosh’s performance, one of them was in the first half when he had Damon Stoudamire guarding him one-on-one at the top of the key and Bosh chose to uncork a fadeway jumper from 17 feet instead of getting the two easy point. The other play was a replica of the first one except it was Jacque Vaughan who was guarding Bosh when he launched another ungodly fadeaway. We needed him to go at Oberto and Elson with a vengeance but he chose to lay back, neither of the Spurs PF/C combo has the quickness to stay with Bosh but once again, he let them off the hook. With Bosh being a non-factor, it was left upto Jose Calderon to be the primary offensive threat and he tried his level-best to keep the Raptors in it but never got the help he needed from Parker, Bargnani or Kapono. Icy hot Carlos Delfino was the only other player who was ready to take on the challenge of the Spurs and his Argentinian pals. Not enough contributors on a night where we needed everybody to play at their level or better.

Let’s talk about Andrea Bargnani for a bit, he’s been playing a lot better of late even though his shooting percentage nor his rebounding is where we’d like it to be. But when you compare how awful he’s been for most of the year, you look at a 3-11 FG, 2 board performance and go, “Eh, he could be worse”. Or you try to justify it by saying that he at least tried to do some things right by attacking the rim and playing sound but ultimately ineffective defense on Duncan. Bluntly put, we need more output from him and I don’t even care about the boards. Although his size might suggest otherwise, most of us are starting to live with the fact that he’ll never be a great rebounder and are coming to grips with the reality that 80% of his contributions will come on offense. So on a night like this when Bosh may as well be on the bench, it makes his contribution even more important and when he comes up short, we don’t stand a chance. It’s only because of Calderon that this game was even close.

I was officially sick of it last week but now I am disgusted by Jamario Moon shooting jumpers like they were part of the game-plan. Leo’s lone good (and obvious) point in this game was that the jumper should be a supplement to Jamario’s game, not his primary offensive weapon. It’s when he starts thinking that his perimeter shot is the endpoint in the offensive set is when he needs to be benched, taken aside and given a lecture. The fact that one of the first shots of the game was a Moon deep jumper should tell you that the Raptors are a little unprepared. The Raps are one of those teams that need the first 15 plays of the game scripted, exactly what they do in important football games. It’ll get them off to a good start and help them avoid digging a 9 point hole which you struggle to get out of for the remaining 45 minutes. My point from yesterday about the Raptors coming out without any intensity at home was in clear view today as the Raps came out ball-watching instead of trying to kick-start the game.

Getting to the numbers, we shot 44% and allowed the Spurs to shoot 49% and grab 10 offensive rebounds including the most critical one when Manu Ginobili rebounded his own miss (for what seemed the 16th time) with 10 seconds left. A player who wasn’t boxed out ends up costing us a chance to tie the game. The defense on Ginobili was extremely suspect all game long, when you have a player that’s “in the zone”, you put a guy on him and tell him to not worry about anything but his man. I mean he shouldn’t look at anything but his opponent’s face and force him away from the things that he’s doing well. The Raptors simply didn’t do that, when Moon was guarding him, he was inexplicably offering help on Jacque Vaughan and Finley drives! WTF man? Just worry about Ginobili and make him put the ball on the floor and at least make him think about driving. Every time he did drive, he either didn’t finish or passed the ball off. If you’re a big Manu fan, check out this article which gives him the fellatio he deserves, apparently Greg Popovich’s PG interview consisted of two words:

“Manu Ginobili”

Deep, fucking deep. A word on the Spurs though, they were awesome to watch. The perimeter ball movement was crisp, the speed at which they recognized perimeter doubles was unbelievable and their inside-outside and outside-inside ball movement was timed perfectly enough to elude any Raptor defender hoping to make a rotation. Despite their efficient offense and our typically bad rebounding and defense, we were right there in the game and if we had just gotten a little push from Bosh, maybe if he had just canceled out Duncan’s 22, we would’ve been singing a different song. As it is, the Raptors lose to another top-tier team.

TJ Ford was ineffective, while he was on the floor he canceled out Damon Stoudamire but ended up spraining his wrist and was never heard from in the second half. I thought this was one of those games where he could’ve exploited Stoudamire or Vaughan off the dribble but watching him play you realize that although John Lucas has done a great job of keeping him in shape, he’s not ready for primetime minutes just yet. The rust is surely wearing off but his jumper is a little flat, just like it would be if your legs aren’t in your shot. It’ll come back, give it some time.

Up next for Jay Triano and the Raptors are the revenge-seeking Nets at home. I can guarantee you that Jersey will actually be up for this one and won’t have forgotten the 37 point drubbing. Let’s hope San Antonio’s the only team who’ll end up getting the payback they so desperately seek.

Liners:

* This was one of the most perimeter oriented games the Raptors have played and the offense never looked more stagnant. Aside from the high screen ‘n roll, there was zero movement.

* Bosh’s aggressiveness dictates the Raptors’ aggressiveness and when he’s not playing with fire and energy, we tend to lay back a little. Either his love with the jumper needs to stop or he needs to become a better shooter, status quo is not cool.

* Manu Ginobili had 15 boards, he knew where the ball was going before anybody else.

* Fabricio Oberto’s defense on Chris Bosh was suffocating. It’s one thing to shut a player down by forcing the jumper, Oberto played great ball denial, tight post defense, never allowed Bosh to catch the ball in an advantageous spot, used the baseline effectively and simply outsmarted Bosh.

* Andrea Bargnani didn’t have a good game but as I said before, I’m finding it really hard to criticize him because relatively speaking, he played fucking great!

* Anthony Parker’s perimeter defense needs to get better, I sound like a broken record but he needs to stick to his man and stop relying on playing recovery defense – he’s just not quick enough to be cheating and then trying to close-out a shooter like Ginobili or Finley.

* TJ and Jose played at the same time at the end of the first half. This tells me Mike Evans wants to experiment playing both PGs at the same time and it’s Mitchell that has some unwritten rule against this phenomenon.

* It’s a pity to see Jose Calderon’s awesome performance go to waste, I wish Chuck and Leo would just STFU about Calderon being more “selfish”. To top it off, as soon as he missed an open jumper, they point out how the move wasn’t “aggressive”.

* Tim Duncan’s line: 11-19 FG, 22 points, 13 rebounds.

* If you’re sick of Chuck Swirsky and want to listen to the game on the equally bad but less annoying Fan 590, check out this piece of software, it gets rid of the TV delay by syncing your radio.

Till tomorrow.