Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

Sloppy Raptors beat up by Bucks

I’m going to write this post the way the Raptors played this game – sloppy. Bargnani gets to play tonight because his flight got canceled because of the weather but he’ll miss the Cleveland game and fly home to Italy. This reminds of the time Vince Carter chose to graduate on the day of Game…

I’m going to write this post the way the Raptors played this game – sloppy. Bargnani gets to play tonight because his flight got canceled because of the weather but he’ll miss the Cleveland game and fly home to Italy. This reminds of the time Vince Carter chose to graduate on the day of Game 7, nah, not the same. Let’s get to the game, have you heard of Charlie Bell? I haven’t, but after the first half you’ll know all about him, he can shoot and score. Just ask the Raptors. Maybe it was the Rockets win that gave the Raptors the idea that they could just walk into this one and expect a win. It really looked that way as they played like they were expecting the Bucks to be impressed by their win in Houston – they weren’t. Milwaukee hadn’t won in almost a dozen road games and they come into our house and handily beat us. Yes, handily. It never felt like the Raptors were in control of this game. Even Chris Bosh couldn’t assert himself against Brian Skinner. Every time I hear his name, I remember the superintendent from the Simpsons yelling, Skinnneeeer!

I don’t know if I blame Bosh for not demanding the ball or TJ Ford for not giving it to him. It’s probably a bit of both but Bosh didn’t get many touches in this game and when he did, he chose to launch 19 footers instead of taking it to the rim. Even when the game demanded him to drive and set an example, he was too busy wondering whether to turn left or right on his fadeaway. Michael Redd helped us out by having a sub-par game but it didn’t matter because in the fourth when we really need to score, we couldn’t. After Bargnani and Calderon hit back-to-back threes in the fourth to cut a 12 point lead to 6, the Bucks failed to score on 4 straight possessions and the Raptors couldn’t score once in those 4 times. That was the game.

I caught the fourth quarter on radio which is always a pain, an extreme pain really. Listening to Paul Jones is torture, utter torture. And now he’s in the habit of pronouncing Bargnani’s name in what he thinks is the correct Italian way. So now we have to hear Bareignnani every time he does anything. Paul Jones even goes out of his way to say his name, he’ll even mention it when Bargnani isn’t even in the play. He’ll say something like “Charlie V rebounds it but Bareignnani was there if he had fumbled the ball” or something stupid like that. My point is that he compounds the misery.

The Raptors missed a lot of shots they usually make, especially Mo Pete from three, ever three he took was one that was make-able and one that he usually makes. Same for TJ Ford who missed all but a couple of his in-the-lane jumpers. Maybe if he focused more on following through on his shot instead of talking trash to the Bucks bench, he’d have more success. Calderon fared no better today.

Hey, does the lead official get paid more than the other officials? Lot of scrutiny over Bogut these days, whether he deserves more touches or not and whether he’s worth the #1 pick. After this game, nothing was resolved. He didn’t play all that bad and he didn’t get that many touches. I think that’s going to be the story of his career. How come people don’t let Ruben Patterson just shoot the ball instead of dealing with his drives? Note to the Raptors: HE CAN’T SHOOT, BACK OFF HIM. Random thoughts now, how many times have you heard Chuck Swirsky say “he’s on of the classiest people you’ll ever meet” or “he’s a total class act”. I think he was referring to Mo Pete today in those lofty words.

At halftime I got a glimpse of that 1 vs. 100 show where some chick was confused whether 913 Fahrenheit actually equalled 913 Celsius. It was a treat to watch. Best part of the game for me.

One thing I HAVE to mention is the technical foul on Bargnani. Him and Patterson are contesting for a rebound before the FT is taken, the FT is made and there is some very normal pushing and shoving going on. Patterson’s doing 85% of the shoving and Bargnani gets called for a TECHNICAL foul. If you have to call a foul, call a personal foul on Patterson, nothing else. That call came out of the refs ass. One more Bargnani note before we go, he played some excellent defense on Michael Redd on the baseline. The quicker Redd drove baseline on him and Andrea Bargnani used his feet to cut off Redd’s path to the baseline and drew the charge. Excellent quickness and smarts shown by the Italian.

Now I’ll finish this entry off like I’m writing a really bad high school paper: So in conclusion the Raptors lost because they turned the ball over, couldn’t make open shots that they usually make and also because Chris Bosh did not assert himself in the manner that he needed to. TJ Ford also preferred to go 1-on-1 instead of looking for his teammates – that’s always a recipe for disaster.