I’ve always hated winning and losing in bunches; change needs to be balanced with consistency. Just like that, the team is 4-9 with 8 of the next 10 coming on the road. This team needs Bargnani and Bayless back at full capacity as soon as possible before it gets offensively ugly.

Bret Lagree from Hoopinion gave me his thoughts on a couple questions I had:

After that solid playoff run, and the hot start to the year, does losing Horford write-off the rest of the year; even if he gets back for the playoffs? Also, what’s the plan now, Zaza/trade?
Even without Horford, the Hawks should make the playoffs. His absence definitely diminishes the team’s chances of advancing in the post-season, but the team’s upside with Horford was the probably the second-round, yet again, anyway. His injury would have a had greater impact for a more ambitious, less risk-averse team.

I expect Zaza Pachulia will start (except when the Hawks play the Magic) and primarily split time at center with the undersized Ivan Johnson. Josh Smith might get some time as a nominal five in small lineups. It might work since Marvin Williams and Tracy McGrady (when healthy) are good rebounders for small forwards. If there’s a trade to be made, say Kirk Hinrich for a big man, the Hawks will surely consider it, but they might just as well off keeping Hinrich and doubling-down on perimeter defense.

McGrady’s renaissance has been a pleasant surprise after being brought in to replace some of the lost production from Crawford’s departure. He’s injured now, but can you see him being an important contributor to a team that can make deep playoff appearances?
McGrady was great for most of the first seven games but he’s already missed or been unable to contribute in six straight games since then. The Hawks can’t count on him every night, but he’s a difference-maker when healthy. They should do everything possible to have him available for the playoffs, regular season results be damned.

Are you guys regretting giving Joe Johnson that contract? Seems to me $20m should be able to buy you more than 18pts 4reb 4ast 16PER; is he an amnesty candidate if the Hawks aren’t contenders by next season?
Unfortunately, the only people who didn’t feel anticipatory regret for the Joe Johnson contract were those with the power to hand it to him. The organization has always overrated him on both ends of the floor and compounded that by assuming he’s not going to age. On the other hand, the amount the team has invested in Johnson ($75 million contract, $124 million contract, two first-round picks, Boris Diaw) has, at times, obscured that he’s been a pretty good player with the Hawks, even if he’ll do well to be an above-average player over the length of his current contract.

Injuries

Toronto
Aaron Gray
Jerryd Bayless
James Johnson
Andrea Bargnani

Atlanta
Al Horford
Tracy McGrady
Marvin Williams

Match-ups

Point Guard
You might be able to excuse Calderon’s performance against Rose all things considered. At least he somehow managed 8 assists. The Hawks don’t have the firepower at the point the Bulls do, but they are fairly deep; Kirk Hinrich is their 4th string quarterback. There is nothing about Jeff Teague, Jannero Pargo, some guy named Donald Sloan and Hinrich can do to scare me, but the Raptors are thin at the one. That said, the Hawks are great at sharing the ball, even with Josh Smith in the lineup, and that starts with the point.
Edge: Even

Shooting Guard
Joe Johnson is one of my man-crushes in the league, and even though he’s not producing anywhere close to what a $20m/year guy should be producing, he’s heads and shoulders better than DeRozan. He’s one of those guys who’s good at everything really. He defends, scores from all over the floor, rebounds, shares the ball and plays heavy minutes. To make matters worse for DeMar, who didn’t get to the foul line against the Bulls on Saturday, is that JJ wont be bailing him out with cheap fouls, since he has a low foul rate.
Edge: Atl

Small Forward
With Kleiza in the lineup, and if guys play within themselves, there’s no reason why the Raptors can’t be ok-to-good at the small forward. It all comes down to Butler and Johnson listening to me and not shooting the ball just because they have the room to let loose. The Hawks are great at the 3 either, but they are fairly deep with veteran savvy. Stackhouse is still alive and reasonably useful, while Radmanovic has found a home…doesn’t matter really…
Edge: Even

Power Forward
Looks like Bargnani is still out, which basically writes the game off. I find myself hoping the Raptors go small ball, and give Kleiza and Johnson (can’t believe I’m saying this) the bulk of the minutes at the four if Andrea can’t go. Davis needs Anthony Robbins or something…not sure, but what I do know is that Josh Smith will make him humble if he doesn’t come correct.
Edge: Atl

Center
The only exciting aspect of this match-up is being able to say Zaza with some flare. Amir/Magloire can probably keep their heads up in this one, but it doesn’t matter. The Raptors caught a break with Horford going down for 3-4 months with an injury, otherwise this would have gotten ugly, fast.
Edge: Even

Keys to the Game

• Get to the foul line; as a team on Saturday against the Bulls, the Raptors went to the foul line seven times (made 1 of them); no wonder they were only able to muster 64 points. The Hawks have a few good defenders, so you have to get as many easy/cheap points as possible
• Perimeter defense; the Hawks like to throw the ball around and stick jumpers. It kills them in the playoffs, but wins them games in the regular season. The Raptors have done a great job of giving teams nice looks from the perimeter; seems like a match made in heaven. need to tighten things up
• Let Josh Smith shoot as much as he wants

The Line

The Hawks are at home and haven’t lost to the Raptors in over two years; there’s a reason they are 11 point favourites.

A win against the Hawks would have been nice, but you have to believe that the game went a long way in helping this team mature. From what I saw, the Raptors played a great game until the final couple minutes where the Hawks experience and skill level was just too much to overcome. While the loss was a heart-breaker, the team shouldn’t hang their heads low and mope. They weathered a ridiculous 62 point outburst from Crawford and Johnson and were in it until the final seconds.

The one thing to take away from the game was that you have to always be playing for the win. Jose’s attempt to draw a foul on Horford on his last drive makes the point. From the moment he picked up his dribble, you knew nothing good was going to come of it. Horford did a great job of maintaining position and challenging the ball, while Calderon wasn’t able to draw enough contact to get the call. Would Kobe/LeBron/Wade got that call? Maybe, probably; but the Raptors don’t have that luxury. There was plenty of time from the inbound pass to run a play, and Calderon just lost his nerve and tried to force the issue.

If you want to blame anyone, lob it towards Triano for scripting a brutal out-of-bounds play that was doomed from the moment they left the huddle. There was nothing creative in the set, the Hawks switched on everything and defended with relative ease…

The last time these guys played, I had the fortune of not witnessing a 22 point embarrassment on the Raptors home floor. McGrady and Hamilton combined for 52 (seems to be a reoccurring theme of the Raptors losing when the opposing teams shooting guards go off); 17 of which coming from McGrady who seemed to have found his mojo against the Raptors and has been pretty good since.

Had a great chat about the Pistons with Patrick Hayes from Piston Powered:

Lots of drama with Kuester since day 1. I know he needed to have a loud voice with this team, and not pander to players like the whole Iverson fiasco, but it seems to be coming at a cost. What’s your assessment of this situation and Kuesters abilities? Will Kuester last, or will both Prince and Hamilton need to get traded for this team to have any chance?
John Kuester waited as long as he possibly could to bench Rip Hamilton. Michael Curry was fired after one season as coach largely because he couldn’t fix his relationship with Hamilton, so Kuester trudged on last season and most of this season with Hamilton as his starter, even as it became painfully obvious to everyone who watched the team that Hamilton just isn’t the same player he used to be. He’s in the midst of his third straight poor season, and Kuester, understandably, tried to make things work because of Joe Dumars’ reputation as an executive who will side with the players over the coach when there are conflicts.

Kuester inherited a horribly imbalanced roster with too many rotation players in the back-court to get them all sufficient minutes, no depth in the front-court and a point guard in Rodney Stuckey who might not be a point guard. There are plenty of things that aren’t his fault in that regard. But still, the team looks poorly prepared at times, the Pistons routinely give up leads in the third quarter, suggesting that halftime adjustments are a major weakness of the coaching staff and Kuester hasn’t established any type of legitimate rotation his entire tenure as coach.

It’s hard to predict whether or not he’ll last. I’d be surprised if he’s back, based on Dumars’ belief that this was a playoff caliber team. The ownership situation further clouds things — the team is on the verge of (hopefully) being sold, and there’s no guarantee that anyone will be back right now.

Over the last 4 games Greg Monroe is averaging 13.5pts 11rebs, coinciding with his inclusion in the starting lineup. What’s changed for him and what do you think of the kid?
Monroe’s development has been the best part of the season, by far. He looked lost at the beginning of the year. He couldn’t finish in traffic (he was shooting below 40 percent his first month or so), he was not strong enough to hold position on defense and his passing, which was what he was known for in college, was rarely ever seen.

Now, he’s their best front-court player. He’s confident, he’s become craftier around the rim (a necessity since he’s not the most athletic guy) and, to everyone’s surprise, he’s consistently been the team’s best rebounder. Monroe wasn’t known for that in college, but it has been a pleasant surprise considering the Pistons are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league.

I don’t know exactly what has changed, other than he’s the one player Kuester has done a good job managing. The better Monroe has played, the more he’s been rewarded with increased minutes. Not everyone on the roster can say that.

If the Pistons/Nets/Nuggets trade goes through, and you guys land Murphy/Petro, how much will the Pistons improve?
A lot depends on how healthy Murphy is. He’s been terrible in New Jersey. But if he can return to the double-double caliber player he was in Indiana, the Pistons still have an outside shot at the eighth seed. Hamilton being gone would remove a big part of the locker room tension/chemistry issues, it would free up more playing time for Ben Gordon and Austin Daye, who are both better than Hamilton at this point even though Gordon also is having a poor season and lost his starting job just a couple weeks after being rewarded with it, and Murphy/Petro would certainly make the Pistons a bigger team.

Of course, I’m not sure getting that eighth seed will be a positive thing when it would cost a lottery pick to do it, but some team has to make the playoffs I guess, and the Pistons have as good a shot as any of the bottom feeders to string a few wins together and get in.

If Hamilton gets moved, can we expect Prince to be jettisoned as well? What is the market for him and what do you think the Pistons get back, and want, in a trade?
Again, a lot of this depends on the ownership situation. The Pistons have been in a position where they can’t add long-term salary with the team up for sale, so that’s severely limited Dumars’ trade options. I would suspect that if Hamilton is moved, they’d be more inclined to keep Prince, who also has an expiring contract, then use the money to pursue free agents in the off-season.

If Hamilton isn’t moved, then maybe they’d look at some options for Prince. He’d certainly help a contending team, and as an upcoming free agent, the investment in Prince wouldn’t be significant. He’s still a reliable fourth or fifth option-type player on a good team. He defends, he’s smart, he’s a good passer who can run an offense in a pinch, he hits shots from the perimeter and has a decent post-game. If they can’t trade Hamilton, Prince becomes basically the only chance to improve, since I can’t see any other team taking on Hamilton’s contract.

If Rip is traded, I’d be Prince stays while the Pistons pursue a smaller scale deal, possibly finding someone to take Jason Maxiell and the remaining years on his contract.

How do the Pistons match up with the Raptors, and what will be the gameplan heading into the game tonight?
In a word, poorly. The Pistons don’t defend the three particularly well. They struggle to defend athletic big men with high motors like Amir Johnson. They struggle with stretch fours like Andrea Bargnani. They struggle with athletic wings like DeMar DeRozan. And competent point guards like Jose Calderon often have their way picking apart the Pistonss’ defense. Detroit finally got some revenge with the 22-point win in Toronto in December, but before that, the Raptors had delivered three really embarrassing losses to the Pistons. And with their lineup changes — Tracy McGrady, Chris Wilcox and Greg Monroe are all starting — the team is far from a sound defensive bunch.

Injury Report

Toronto
Reggie Evans – Out
Peja Stojakovic – Out
Sonny Weems – No idea
Jose Calderon – Day to day
Jerryd Bayless – Day to day

Detroit
Ben Wallace – Day to day
Chris Wilcox – Day to day

Match-ups

Point Guard
While Bibby stuck that game winning 3 like a champ, Calderon did a solid job of disrupting his flow from the perimeter up until that point; you can’t even blame him for losing Bibby through the screen, there was more than enough of that to go around. Tonight against Stuckey he has himself a different kind of beast to deal with. Rodney is more a combo guard than a traditional PG, so he’s not a natural floor leader and does very little to get people involved and execute plays; assisting on just 1 in 5 of his possessions. He does very well at getting his shot off in the short to mid-range, but struggles to get to the rim and hit long jumpers/treys.

Expect Jose to be back-pedalling most of the game. The danger will be when Rodney posts Jose/Bayless; his size and strength give him a huge advantage. Defensively, he’s going to give Jose/Bayless a tough time with his size and agility in one-on-one situations.

Offensively, off the high-screen, Calderon will pick apart the Pistons all night. I’m actually worried about Will Bynum, who’s torched us in the past with his speed, shooting and play-making. He hasn’t played a great deal over the last couple games, 4 DNP-CD, but could be a match-up that Kuester would want to roll.

McGrady could start at the point as he did against Memphis, which could be bad if his shot is on. While he sees the floor well, he’s not a playmaker off the dribble. He’ll probably get whatever shot he wants, but as long as Jose doesn’t give him too much space, and doesn’t give up a lot of good looks, I can live with McGrady trying to take matters into his own hands.
Edge: Raptors

Shooting Guard
Sadly, there’s nothing satisfying about seeing a broken down T-Mac end up on a dysfunctional Pistons team; the guy had his run. At this stage in his career, Tracy should be providing spot up shooting and play-making for a contender off the bench, but dems da breaks yea? What’s hurting the Pistons is some really brutal play by Ben Gordon, and Kuester’s inability, up until recently, to manage Rip Hamilton. Don’t get it twisted, all these guys have hurt the Raptors in the past, and can go off if left unchecked.

After that beating that DeMar took at the hands of Crawford/Johnson on Wednesday, he should be looking to exact some revenge, and can get off early by taking it to a broken down McGrady, who will have to rely on his veteran savvy to deal. Off the bench, Barbosa should have no problems taking Gordon off the bounce, and has shown enough defensive resiliency to not give Ben the space needed to find his rhythm. If DeRozan rebounds from the a bad game against the Hawks, he can really put pressure on Detroit.

A quick note on Hamilton: the guy seems to have checked out, and with the trade rumours going around, his recent benching might have sucked all the drive out of him. Still, doesn’t mean that the Raptors should let up, since their defense has been known to rejuvenate guys and give them career nights.
Edge: Detroit

Small Forward
Prince has also had friction with Kuester, but unlike Hamilton, he’s hasn’t checked out and has been able to produce when he’s playing. I’m calling a big game from him since Kleiza sucks. Not only does he suck, Triano is indulging him for reasons unknown. I’d love to see Wright get 30 minutes tonight, but he won’t. My hope is that BryCo will turn Peja into a starting small forward who’s athletic and comes to play, a Wesley Matthew’s type…to dream…
Edge: Detroit

Power Forward
I don’t know a great deal about Monroe, but the Georgetown product has flipped the switch and is one of the few bright spots for this team. He’s a big boy who plays exclusively in the paint and on the glass. He has the ability to step out and hit a mid-range jumper, but if he lives out there, it will be to the Raptors advantage. Defensively, he doesn’t have the speed to keep up with Amir or Bargnani in transition, and will probably lose his fair share of 50/50 balls off the rim against Amir/Ed. However, he has had some nice games against solid front courts in the last few, so he needs to be accounted for.

Off the bench, Villanueva brings a totally different dynamic to this, and will force Amir/Bargnani to the perimeter and out of the paint. He’s averaging 17.5pts in 24min against the Raptors this season; so he’s been scoring at will and making a mess of the Raptor defense.
Edge: Even

Center
It’s getting hard to say the same thing about the majority of Bargnani’s match-ups: he can score at will, poses match-up problems, doesn’t rebound. I’m not even going to try…Bargnani for 27/8 tonight.
Edge: Toronto

Keys to the Game

Crash the Boards
The Pistons are the second worst rebounding team in the league, and with Ben Wallace injured, will have trouble dealing with the Raptors size in the front court. Both Stuckey and Prince rebound well at their positions, and with Monroe coming into his own, it wont be a cake-walk. However, the Pistons just don’t have horses to battle the Raptors for a full 48.

Post Play
Another benefit of Wallace’s injury is the lack of defense in the paint against the Raptors bigs, and hopefully, a slashing DeRozan.  While the Pistons have a couple big boys to plant in the key, none of them has the defensive chops to challenge and change shots. Bargnani could have a field day backing Wilcox into the paint, turning and shooting; leaving Amir/Ed to clean up the boards and do the dirty work.

Triano
After the loss to the Hawks, there is potential for the Raptors to come into this game deflated.  Here’s hoping that the coaching staff can keep morale up and remind the team about the 22 point loss the last time out. Also, calling some proper out-of-bound plays would be nice, whatever…

The Line

The gamblers have the Raps as 5.5 point favourites with an over/under of 207. I may not have painted a real rosy picture for the Raptors, but they definitely have what it takes to win this game. You can bet your ass that they remember that embarrassing loss and will want to exact some revenge.

Check out Raptors Fan Fridays at the Sports Center Cafe if you’re in the area and want to hang, otherwise, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook and Live Chat.

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.

Toronto Sun

“I was hurting,’’ Bosh began to recall following Saturday’s practice. “I crunched over a few times.”

For purely precautionary reasons, Bosh was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was given an intravenous and later discharged.

Medically speaking, Bosh had a stomach virus and was suffering from dehydration.

Bosh means so much to the team and is asked to do so much that news of his admission to hospital spread like wildfire.

“E-mails, text messages, it seemed like they were coming from all over the world,’’ Bosh said.

The way some would have you believe, Bosh was on life support.

The good news is that Bosh did practise with the Raptors on Saturday and is expected to make his return to the court on Sunday afternoon.

The bad news is that Bosh looked tired and weak when he met with reporters, which is understandable in the wake of Friday’s ordeal.

Toronto Sun

The book on the Sixers isn’t very deep because they rely so much on creating tempo and scoring in transition. They can’t make perimeter shots and recently haven’t been able to make any stops. If you contain the Sixers from pushing the ball, teams will win. Philly should be contending for the playoffs, but instead it’s heading toward a lottery pick. The feel-good story of Allen Iverson’s return is now history, Andrea Iguodala can’t make a three-point shot and if Philly is forced into a half-court game, it can’t win. Prior to last month’s all-star break, the Sixers paid a visit to the ACC and tied the game with 2:06 left. The Raptors then ended the night by going on an 11-0 run. Lou Williams kept his team in it until crunch time by scoring 14 of his game-high 26 points in the final quarter.

Toronto Star

The whole saga began when Bosh woke up Friday feeling out of sorts. He couldn’t handle even looking at his breakfast of granola and when his brother broke out the bacon and eggs, "I just wanted to get him away from me," he said.

His plan was to "miss shootaround, take a nap, take some medicine and be fine for the night but it just never subsided."

That plan didn’t work out.

The discomfort didn’t go away.

He needed some fluids, got them at the hospital and was no worse for wear when he went though a light practice with his teammates Saturday afternoon.

He fully expects to be in uniform Sunday, returning from a seven-game absence to play against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Air Canada Centre.

"We’ll probably have to monitor his minutes and monitor his effort out there," said coach Jay Triano. "He’ll play and go hard for as long as he can. He’ll need a blow and then we’ll put him back in there."

Toronto Star

KEY MATCHUP

DeRozan vs. Williams

The Sixers guard went off against Toronto the last time the teams met, getting easy baskets in transition. DeRozan had a solid game Friday but will have to be at his best defensively to give his team a chance.

Khandors Sports Blog

If the Raptors can secure another W tomorrow afternoon, at home against the still struggling 76ers, it would ensure that Toronto [32-28] will be able to return to the cozy confines of the ACC [22-9] for Games 66 and 67 on their schedule, against Atlanta [40-21; Away/15-14] and Oklahoma [37-24; Away/17-13], respectively, no worse than 1 game above the .500 mark [i.e. if they somehow manage to go O-for on their road trip].

Loaded Orygun

Sidebarring with the East for a moment, there are three of them and all feature teams not much better than Sacto and the Warriors: Raptors, Wiz, Knicks. Bosh will probably be back for the Toronto game, but as long as Camby and Roy play the Blazers have the horses to win at the Garden. Washington and NYC should be gimmes, although both teams beat Portland in their place. The season is long over for them, and a West Coast swing is a drainer. The Raps will be on a back to back, and the Knicks in the 5th day of a killer 9 day swing.

So look–out of 18 games, fully eight of them could fairly be considered safe wins, as safely as any win can be predicted. That’s an enormous start. When you need 13 to get to 50, what can you expect from these eight? Seven? Six at worst? You’d hope so. Let’s say six. That leaves seven of 10 from the rest, a tall order given the competition…but doable. Let’s look.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Raptors all-star forward Chris Bosh is expected to play today. After missing six straight games with a sprained ankle, he missed Friday’s game against the New York Knicks with a stomach virus. Bosh, who is averaging 26 points, 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists against the Sixers, practiced yesterday.

Should Bosh play, the Sixers’ immediate goal will be stopping him. Their long-term goal, however, is maturing as a unit.

"We just have to go out there and try to get better," forward Elton Brand said. "That’s what it’s all about. We got a lot of young guys. You look around. There’s not a lot of guys over 25 on the team.

"So they need the minutes. They are going to get better. And the veteran guys need to go out and play their hearts out, also."

Toronto Sun

If you are Chris Bosh, it makes sense to leave the Raptors for a chance to play with LeBron James or Dwyane Wade in Miami or Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles. But if he can’t manage any of those moves, he’s best to stay in Toronto and be the big fish in the small pond … Under the department of laughable: Career advice from Tracy McGrady, who may play his entire NBA life without winning a playoff round. Still have to wonder, after all these years, what would have happened if McGrady and Vince Carter had committed to playing together in Toronto: What would have been possible? … For the second year in a row, Bryan Colangelo’s big money off-season acquisition bombs. Last year, Jermaine O’Neal. This year, Hedo Turkoglu. The difference, though, is that Colangelo’s smaller moves, picking up Jarrett Jack, Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson, Antoine Wright, have worked out just fine … Almost one season in and I have no clue what to think of DeMar DeRozan. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect more from the Raptors’ first-round pick. Not sure if he’ll ever be more than just another NBA guy … Rumbling that won’t go away: The historically pitiful Los Angeles Clippers will not only go hard after LeBron in free agency, but will offer him a future piece of ownership of the club.

Beleaguered Sports Fan

McGrady chased the bigger money and the opportunity to be the number one guy on the team, something he couldn’t do with his cousin Vince in Toronto.  Bosh is already the number one guy in T.O. and can make $30 million more if he re-signs here than he can anywhere else.

The story bookends nicely saying that “McGrady, meanwhile, eventually decided the pull of his native Florida,” and “money he recognized” was “too much to ignore”.

McGrady was here for three years.  Bosh seven.  McGrady deceived then general manager Glen Grunwald into thinking he would re-sign here.  Chris Bosh has made it clear that he is undecided, and GM Bryan Colangelo knows the risks involved in not trading Bosh when he had a chance.

There is really nothing to compare here.  It’s just another slow news day.  Another chance to manufacture a story that unfortunately stokes the already growing fire of speculation about Bosh’s apparent desire to leave Toronto.

For fans, it’s just another day at the office.

Depressed Fan

Dalembert vs. Bargnani – Maybe the defining matchup of the game. Sammy is going to have to really do a good job on the high pick and roll, making sure not to leave Bargnani open for threes. He also needs to dominate the glass in his limited minutes.
Bench – Reggie Evans is all the rage in Toronto these days. Expect to see the crowd go nuts when he comes on the floor. They’ve also got Jose Calderon as their backup PG, and Calderon can really shoot the ball. I’m not sure exactly what to expect from the Sixers’ bench, other than 30+ minutes for Willie Green. I’ll give the edge to a depleted Toronto bench, I guess.

From here on out, every game is a must win. Triano talked about not panicking recently, and I agree to a certain point. When your franchise player is out of the lineup, and you lose 4-in-a-row because the rest of the team isn’t that good, you just hope Bosh gets better quick and gets back fast enough to assure us of a playoff spot.  Now that he’s back, and we’re in the stretch run, these girls need to pull up their skirts and get down to business.

With the resurgent Milwaukee Bucks a half game behind us for 5th, things are tighter in the East than you might expect. The difference between the 5th spot (where the Raptors currently are) and the 9th spot (where the Bobcats are trying not to fall apart from) is only three games. Considering we just dropped 4 in a row, whatever cushion we had just evaporated and the certainty of a playoff spot we had a week ago has been reduced to a dog fight.

Over the last four games, the Raptors have just been terrible, they:

• have lost by an average margin of 16.2 points
• have given up an average of 115.5 ppg
• allowed their opponents to shoot 47.1% from the field
• turned the ball over 61 times, which has lead to 80 points

Oh…and no one has stepped up to fill in for Bosh. I mean, Jack has done a pretty good job of steadying the ship, but Turkoglu is playing just a bit better than usual, and Bargnani doesn’t seem to have what it takes to be #1; and you can’t really expect much from the rest.

What we have got a glimpse of the last 6 games is what life will be like if Bosh walks this summer (not a sign and trade). If the franchise ups-and-leaves, we will have almost enough cap space to replace him with anyone other than the likes of a Drew Gooden or someone along those lines. I get nauseous just thinking about it.

The Knicks are just all kinds of awful. They are  3-10 since February (including a 9 game losing streak) with 2 of their 3 wins coming against the Wizards. It’s a sadder sight than Arsenalist at a Justin Bieber concert hopping, clapping and swooning. However, they are coming off a hard fought win against the Pistons where D’Antoni used a tight 7-man rotation.

If the same lineup is used tonight against the Raptors, things will get interesting.

Starters
G, Tracy McGrady [6-8, 223]
OG, Bill Walker [6-6, 230]
SF, Danilo Gallinari [6-10, 225]
PF, Al Harrington [6-9, 250]
C, David Lee [6-9, 250]

Bench
PG, Sergio Rodriguez [6-3, 176]
OG/PG, Eddie House [6-1, 180]

I don’t know a whole lot about Bill Walker, but the rest of this lineup is very athletic and matches up very well with an injury plagued Raptors (Calderon and Turkoglu are listed as day-to-day). The only thing that worries me is McGrady at the point, who has been playing pretty good in the 7 games he’s been a Knick (four of which he has scored more than 15 points). Jack will have his hands full, as McGrady can shoot over him at will and post him up.

I like Banks/Weems off the bench against Rodriguez and House, but I suspect Wilson Chandler will get plenty of burn since he likes to light the Raptors up. Poor Eddie, guy got shafted large with this exile.

While I hope Turkoglu and Calderon are fine and will be ready for the playoffs, I like that Wright and Banks will be getting plenty of burn in their stead. Banks has don’e nothing but ball when given the opportunity, but Wright especially, given how it is expected for his minutes to increase heading into the playoffs.

I’m mostly hoping Al Harrington treats us to cocky moments like this in a Raptor win:

After getting the shaft during the Olympic semi-finals, Raptor Fan Fridays is back tonight at the Sport Centre Cafe.

Chris Denker: The Toronto Raptors have the #9 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft and the passionate Raps Fans have some strong feelings about who they would take. Which I think is great! Bryan Colangelo and his group have a big decision to make, do they have their sites set on one guy? Will they trade up? Take my earlier recommendation and trade down? Who knows, we do know that in recent years the #9 pick has produced some great players and some flops.

Dirk Nowitzki, Tracy McGrady, Shawn Marion (Colangelo), Amare Stoudemire (Colangelo), are stars and even Joakim Noah has performed well for Chicago. Others are Patrick O’Bryant, Ike Diogu, Rodney White, and who knows how D.J. Augustin will pan out from last years draft. But that is just the point here isn’t it? Do the Raps want to get a guy to help them win now or get an Augustin who is an unknown talent and wait for his development over time?

Some of the names that pop up most on the Raptors Republic are listed below and if you’ve been following our Position Rankings over at NetScouts Basketball you’ll see some similarities.

A quick look at some of the kids that could be available at 9, and some of the kids that can fill the gaps for the Raptors:

James Harden – 6?5 215 SG – Arizona St.: Lefty, can score in a variety of ways. Strong guard with good size, can play through contact. Winner – led Arizona St. from predicted 9th place finish to top half of Pac-10 and the post-season NIT. Was all league as frosh when Pac-10 was tougher with Kevin Love, OJ Mayo, et al. Good guard rebounder.

DeMar DeRozan- 6’6 211 SF/SG – USC: Good looking stroke although streaky throughout freshman season. Decent footwork as well and really improved, playing best games at the end of the year in Trojans tourney run. Disappeared at times. Great max vertical leap, weak physically, but for a guy who’s touted as an elite level athlete why did test out slower than 11 of 12 SF’s in Chicago Draft Camp? Not to mention slower than all 16 SG’s!

Stephen Curry – 6’3 180 CG – Davidson: Best shooter at the position and in the draft. Great range. Ever heard “it’s a shot makers league”? He’s a combo guard who can flat out stroke it with range. Good handle & passer, enough to play either G spot. Uses picks & creates space well, crafty finishes off bounce. Good hoops IQ, poised, & sneaky quick. If all else fails, he has a career as a spot up 3-pt. shooter. Dad had lengthy NBA career, brother at Duke. His ability to shoot will keep him in league for a long time.

Although he is from Duke, kid is b*d*sssssssss….

Gerald Henderson- 6’5 215 SG – Duke: Very athletic. Runs floor & good leaper, finishes break well. Gets to the rim. Much prefers to shoot of dribble & good mid-range game but needs some work from NBA 3. Has size & strength to be a solid individual defender as well. Father played in league.

Sam Young- 6’6 223 SF/SG – Pitt: I’m a huge fan, let’s make that clear now. Got hurt working out for Raptors – impaled his arm on a testing device, literally had to have it surgically removed yet appeared in Chicago ready to play shortly after. Tough & competitive, defends & rebounds, good scorer & finisher on the break, improved as a shooter over career. Won a lot of games against Big East competition which I think translates. Solid shooter, very good lift fake move to set up drive. Strong & athletic although not as big as some.

Jonny Flynn- 6’0 194 PG – Syracuse: Strong, quick, & explosive PG, best off the bounce. Good in Pick & Roll, needs to become consistent from distance. Smart kid, good personality, solid leadership skills. Has climbed in my view after Big East tourney, NCAA’s, and recent work.

Dajuan Blair- 6’7 262 PF – Pitt: You don’t look at him and think long but he is (7’2 wingspan)! Very strong, physical, great hands. Bangs boards & regularly hammered bigger guys (Thabeet). Smart & crafty post moves, uses R/L, & draws fouls. Co-MVP of Big East. Needs improved stroke.

Dante Cunningham – 6’8 230 PF/SF – Villanova: Steady, smart. Strong guy, good defender and position rebounder. Good medium range shooter who could develop into valuable spot up shooter.

Taj Gibson – 6’9 210 PF – USC: Very long arms which is why he’s a shot blocker because he’s not a leaper. Narrow frame could get bounced around & not skilled enough to play SF. 2nd Round, needs NBADL work.

Marcus Thornton – 6’3 195 SG – LSU: One of the top shooters in the draft, especially in catch & shoot situations. Not going to create too much off the bounce in the NBA. Tested pretty well in Chicago athletic testing but not as big as some other SG’s in this draft. Has worked out well for several teams so far.

Danny Green – 6’6 208 SF/SG – North Carolina: Very good defender. Versatile guy who played 4 positions for Heels. Good leader & winner, competitive. Could find a home on a quality team as a role-player/defender off the bench.

Nando De Colo – 6’5 185 PG/SG – Cholet (France): Lanky thin guard, decent athlete. Very good offensive skills, good off the dribble & pull-up jump shooter. Pretty creative passer in Pick/Roll situations. Has become good scorer in France. Plays with Rodrique Beaubois in France.

Rodrique Beaubois – 6’2 182 PG – Cholet (France): Freakishly long arms (6’10 wingspan) and tremendous athleticism. Max vertical jump (39″) second to Flynn (40″). Also boasted some of the best speed & quickness measures of those tested. Plays with Nando De Colo 6’5 G on Cholet.

Jrue Holiday – 6’4 199 CG – UCLA: Up, down, up, down. Crazy talent coming out of HS but inconsistency isn’t good. Has size and athletic ability but not a pure PG & would be a smallish average shooting SG. Needs a position & time.

Brandon Jennings- 6’1 170 PG – Lottomatica Roma: Based entirely off potential, basically did nothing in Europe. Not a reliable shooter at the moment, everything is off the dribble. Lanky & very athletic but you may need to wait a bit for development & maturity (strength). Definitely has flash & a flair for the game.

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Adams – possessed the characteristics you look for as a general manager of an NBA franchise: a fire hydrant with a headband. Hassan brought as much value to our team as would rap lessons from 50 Cent given to Jake Voskuhl.

Banks – at least Hassan isn’t costing us as much as, say, cable in Dubai. Equivalent to the poison pill we had to take to get someone to take HO off our hands, Marcus played in 6 games with the result of which being reflective of Arsenalist’s chances with the local women in Jamaica.

Bargnani – his second half was a huge surprise (and relief) to Raptors fans. He started to show signs of one day being worthy of being chosen #1. Not there yet, but he is showing why he should have been top 10, as opposed to earlier in his career. Great to know that heading into next season we will be anticipating his appearance on the court with real anticipation as opposed to waning hope.

Bosh – had an up and down season in all aspects of his life, but most importantly for us, he ended the season a 20/10 guy. He has to be wondering what he has to do to win the respect of this fanbase and I agree with him. Young kid, 20/10, great in the community. Yeah, trade his ass for 50cents on the dollar. His handlers are questionable and he really needs to look at the people around him as they continue to alienate his fans and the fans of this team. Just a recommendation Chris. All in all, the leader of this team from start to finish.

Calderon – worrisome question: was he indeed playing hurt most of the year or was that final stretch showing him play at a higher than average level for him? Either way, his free throw consistency was off the charts and deserves merit alone. Still, many expected him to be at least mentioned as a possible back up in the all star game, but he ended up disappointing more than chocolate tofu.

Douby – what do you offer a guy that plays 10 minutes in 7 meaningless games and gives you 4pts, 1 assist and 1 board?  A contract!!! That’s right, Quincy, thank you for playing the Colangelo Is Always Right!!!

Graham – if I’m his agent, I’m calling Jerry and asking what his son likes and shipping him 2 of everything. If Joey stays in Toronto, he has a shot at some court time. He leaves, and he is like his brother playing spotty minutes against primarily bad teams or being shipped from city to city the rest of his career. Coming into the season, he knew he had to impress. He did so in the middle months, but the rest of the way he was as average as a cheerleaders math scores.

Humphries – played in only 29 games this year, but has the work ethic the blue collar fans of the Raptors desire. Next season will be as important to him as this past one was to Joey. You want to continue living the life of a nightclub hustler, Kris, you need to bring the pain next year.       

Jawai – a man with a bad heart who doesn’t perform as well when he is working outside of his native land. Now I know why Bryan drafted him: he saw himself in Nathan!

Kapono – and the carousel of disappointment continues to spin. After whetting our appetite during the playoffs last year, JKillah comes out and, for the most part, lays a jurassic egg. Run plays for him, don’t run plays for him, hit him in transition, hand him a golf club…nothing seemed to keep him in a rhythm from game to game. That is not a good character trait in a high priced assassin.

Marion – the only thing he probably couldn’t bring across the border was his white horse. Replacing the boil that was HO, Shawn quickly showed us what we were missing: a capable slasher that can take the heat away from at least one of our main guys, and still be considered a main guy himself. A rental? Maybe. In his short time here, though, he has shown Bryan what this team needs to move forward.

Mensah-Bonsu – a shame that his injury hampered his game in the last few contests since it would have been nice to see if he could pick himself back up after a few down games. We will never know now and will rely on his summer league play to see if he can provide us with something. I’m guessing his return hinges on what happens with Marion. Personally, I think we already have enough projects under contract.

Moon – his goofy grin and one-dimensional defense has found a new home in Miami. The +/- stat is a useless one, but one that is more applicable to Jamario is games won because of and games lost because of. He may have been fighting for the league lead in that one. If you felt your right arm go numb and your heart felt like it was going to explode while watching the Raptors games early in the season, you were suffering a Jamario. No recent cases have been reported.

O’Bryant – what he lacks in ability, he has in physical attributes and desire. He’d be a great 10th-11th man to try and motivate to get better and fight for a higher seed on the bench and a guy with slightly more upside than Pops. Also, what better individual to fit into Toronto’s fabric than an African-American Irishman who probably likes women’s hockey and beer?

O’Neal – like trying to fit a lions head on the body of Jessica Alba, an experiment that went horribly wrong. The new Twin Towers turned out to be the Giant and the Toad with one guy playing with effort and heart and the other playing like he wanted to be back in Vegas drinking tequila and hitting on the chorus girls. HO brought next to nothing on most nights and had the type of attitude this team did not need in the slightest.

Parker – his season with us was like going to 80 different wing joints……you consistently knew what you were getting, but sometimes you were blown away and other times you felt disappointed. He stepped up and played well as a back up point guard, his tenacious D was something we desperately needed on most nights, and there is no doubt he is a solid locker room guy. If I’m BC, my decision on Parker is just as difficult as my decision on Marion.

Solomon – when you leave the aforementioned wing joints and you find yourself squeezing one out on the can at home, that last little squirt that comes out and sort of dangles there for a split second or four can now be referred to as a Solomon.

Ukic – you know when you were in grade nine and you went to your first high school dance with all your cool buddies thinking you’d impress the chicks and end up taking a Grade 12er back to your parents house and losing your virginity in the garage as your puppy Spalding looked on? Then, in reality, you showed up and the first thing you saw was your older sister doing the humpty hump with the stoner guy and that was the last thing you remember as the football team took you and your pals out to the football field and tied you to the goalposts, took your clothes and then turned the lights on? That shriveling feeling is probably what Roko felt as he took the court in most games this season because he out and out sucked. He should be stamped “not as advertised” and sent back to Serbia to continue working on his passing game with 4 pigs and a zebra.

Voskuhl – every 7 seconds a child dies and Jake commits a foul. Nobody expected anything from Jake and he lived up to that expectation. Plus, Bryan can check another name off his “reunion of past loves” list. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jake back in the league next year. In a just world, he will surface in San Antonio and he will get a ring, while leaving a Raptors organization with nothing but a headband and a cheering towel. JYD would be proud.

Driving The Bus:   Chris Bosh

Under The Bus:    Jason Kapono

@altraps @raptorsrepublic

Game Theme:

Normally, RuPaul would respond to being called Bosh “sashay shante“, but he’s in Bush country and you can’t blame him for looking over his shoulder. We know how dem rednecks like dem der colored transvestites…they don’t. The Mavs rolled out the welcome wagon with a 109-98 spanking. Bosh put up a lady-like 28pts and 10rebs, all from the out-side, best part – he didn’t break a nail.

Normally, when a cornerstone of your franchise goes down for the year, the team packs it up. This season, we have seen the Bucks and Rockets play arguably better. I have watched a few Rockets games over the last couple seasons, and always found that they play a better brand of ball with T-Mac out of the lineup. Call it Iverson-syndrome, or the fact that karma is a b*tch, but since McGrady shafted the Raptors, his career has been nothing but cashing pay-checks ever two weeks.

This Rockets team is loads better without McGrady IMHO. If I were Daryl Morey, I would be trying to move McGrady for a couple pieces that would solidify the bench. Over the last 10 games, the Rockets are 8-2, with their two losses coming against the Bucks (what I tell you?) and the Bulls (a furious rally in the 4th). Their most recent game came at the hands of the Timberwolves, which doesn’t really count seeing as Jefferson is out for the season.

Backshot girl.

The Raptors on the other hand is 4-6, in the  middle of a 2 game losing streak that could stretch to 7. Marion is out with a flu, Bosh is the laughing stock of the league and each day we realize that this team is damned if they do, and damned if they don’t with their current management team in place. The last time these guys met earlier in the season, the Raptors managed to spank these guys 94-73.You might remember that game, the Rockets played some of the ugliest basketball, going 7-27 from the 3pt line.

They aren’t as well endowed as the Mavs cheerleaders, but we have ourselves a winner (and not by default). Her name is Julie, she takes pride in how far she has cum, and lists ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ as the greatest movie ever. There’s no accounting for taste, but she’s damn hot.

Injury Report

Raptors
Kris Humphries
Shawn Marion – questionable

Rockets
Tracy McGrady

Match-ups

Calderon vs Brooks
The Edge: Brooks - Calderon sucks. Brooks was a non-factor the first time they played this season, but with Rafers exile to Orlando, and Head being waved, he has been thrust into the starting role: 22pts 10asts? Raise of hands, who thought Calderon would put those numbers up this year? LOL

Parker vs Artest
The Edge: Artest - Ron-Ron will be having a big night for the Rockets, unless Marion is healthy enough to go, which wont change the outcome, but could keep Artest in check…to a degree. There is a possibility that Parker will cover Battier and Graham on Artest, that would a better match-up for the Raptors, still don’t like for either of them though.

Graham vs Battier
The Edge: Battier - How big a contract will Joey Graham get this off-season? I suspect a 3yr/$10mill type deal. I say this because we really don’t know what we have in this guy. Is he playing for a contract, or did Smitch really have it in for the guy? I’m leaning to the former, but who knows. Battier is easily the best player in the match-up, and easily will win this match-up for one reason: he does what he needs too. If he needs to play defense for the Rockets to win, he will and they will. If he needs to hit treys for the Rockets to win, he will and they will. The guy is a pro, he can play for my team any day.

Bosh vs Scola
The Edge: Scola - Does dropping 28pts 10rebs while losing mean you won the match-up? Statistically yes, but not where it matters, in the W column. I suspect RuPaul will put up solid numbers, but Scola will do 15pts 10rebs and the Rockets will win. He gets the nod.

Bargnani vs Yao
The Edge: Yao - It’s a sweep. Yao will dominate in the block, Bargnani should dominate on the perimeter. Yao will win the battle on the boards, Bargnani will hit more treys. Yao will win the game, Bargnani wont.

Note - Von Wafer is someone to watch out for. He lit us up for 18pts the last time around, and is averaging 17 a game over the last 5 games (since McGrady has gone down I believe, I wonder how he feels that every time he goes down, the team plays better?).

The Line

VegasInsider.com has the line at Rockets -8.5

Prediction

Go with the line, Raptor suck and the Rockets are jockeying for 2nd round home court advantage.

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Free Ukic .

And resign Bosh to a max deal or this team is in dire straits (or just ship RuPaul out for a few young QUALITY pieces).

A solid win triggered by the defense and headlined by Chris Bosh’s gritty return. When we were down 16-2 to start the game it felt like the Boston game hadn’t ended with Shane Battier draining open threes after mild penetration. Houston’s domination didn’t last long as the Raptors stepped it up on the defensive end congested the area around Yao Ming forcing him to take hook shots and jumpers that we could take our chances with. Anthony Parker’s defense on the perimeter has been poor of late and was the same early on but Parker, Delfino and Moon kept McGrady on the perimeter and forced a bad shooting night out of him. We never let the likes of Mike James, Stevie Francis or Chuck Hayes get off and that was the key to success.

Every win has a spark and in this one it was undoubtedly the play of Carlos Delfino who ignited a third quarter rally where we converted an 11 point deficit into a 6 point lead. After the ineffective and surprisingly shot-happy Jamario Moon was pulled, Delfino came in to score two key baskets to start the run and the Raps never looked back. Tracy McGrady did not have a good game and could’ve done a lot more for his team through rebounding and shot-creation for others but chose to take a back-seat. With Yao already struggling it signaled the end of the Rockets resistance. Every time I look at him, I go back 7 years and start thinking what could’ve been if Darrell Walker and Isaiah Thomas has shown a little respect and appreciation for him early on, it still hurts.

Chris Bosh’s (21/10/4 blocks) presence was felt in this game. Bosh struggled early in this game but continued doing what he does best: drive to the rim and get fouled or take a relatively high percentage shot. As long as he keeps doing that and doesn’t force his game towards the perimeter, he will be the core reason why the Raptors will win games. He made T-Mac play defense in the critical third quarter and had a few huge blocks which either ended Houston fast breaks or started ours. This was a typical hard-nosed performance by Bosh where he wasn’t seduced by that slutty jumper and kept going into the paint and getting what he can there. I love it when he plays like this. I’m critical of Bosh when he plays bad and doesn’t apply himself as best as he can and all that is well deserved but it’s game like these where someone watching the game thinks, “Man this guy really knows how to help this team”. Let’s hope it continues, CB4 led by example today and then reflected on his time out.

“I want everybody to play with confidence, that’s the major thing that I saw was missing when I was out. It’s not about what I bring to the table, it’s about us feeding off of each other and making each other play hard.”

Sam Mitchell’s halftime interview where he mentioned “shats” at least five times was a little aggravating, he cited the reason for us being down 11 to entirely “not making shots” but that was hardly the case. We significantly tightened up our defense, made a considerable effort to run the ball and hit the offensive glass hard. And yeah, we also made our shots. Although our offense is predictable as can be, it’s still sweet when the individual brilliance of some of our offensive players pulls us through. Give The Sam credit for doing whatever he did at halftime. Kris “The Hustler” Humphries has one great game every week, he gets his jumper going, the offensive rebounding is there, he’s out on the break finishing and playing excellent help defense. Today was that game prompting Chuck Swirsky to exaggerate the trade of Hoffa for him as “one of the best steals in the NBA”. Riiight.

The one thing that I just don’t understand is why we can’t replicate our defensive intensity on a nightly basis, I can see the shots not falling every night but I just don’t understand how our rotation and perimeter defense can be so bad in one game and be brilliant (for three quarters at least) in the next. This was our first really good win of the season. Up until now we’ve only been beating teams we’re supposed to beat and losing to better teams or teams that are on par with us. Tuesday in Atlanta will be tough and we expect Bargnani to be back, should be a great game. A winnable won too.

One-Liners:

* Delfino’s rebounds are always in-traffic and contested, not of the cheap kind that just roll out to you.

* Bring back the ’95 jerseys for a few games this year.

* Chuck: Why is it called a “backdoor” Leo?

* Jerry Colangelo is really an Assistant GM for the Raptors.

* The over/under on the next Juan Dixon sighting is mid-January. Same for Maceo Baston.

* Does T-Mac look a little overweight?

* Yao Ming is an 87% FT shooter? When did this happen?

* At one point during this game I felt sorry for Steve Francis.

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