The best Toronto Raptors game in recent memory – no exaggerations. A hard fought and tightly contested game with third place in the Eastern conference on the line along with the tie-breaking season series. Raptors down four late in the game and ex-Wizard Juan Dixon drains a trey to cut it to one, Washington hits both free throws and foul – Calderon drains two. With seconds on the clock and the Raptors down three, this happens:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Oyk7ZF3uM]
Michael “I can’t throw it high enough” Ruffin gives Mo Pete a chance and Caron Butler gives him an inch too much. BAM! A buzzer-beater to end all buzzer-beaters! After being on the bench the entire game, Mo Pete, that crazy old out-of-shape Raptor who might walk at the end of the season gives Raptor fans a memory they’ll remember till they die. Only the Vince Carter Boston fadeaway and Clipper killing three on the road come close. Mo, tell us how you did it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9lyyHukWik]
The Washington announcers couldn’t believe it. Overtime was a mere formality – no way the Raptors were going to lose and Chris Bosh scored 8 taking his total to a ridiculously efficient 37 points and giving the Raptors a 1.5 game cushion for the third spot in the East. His block on Gilbert Arenas – who chose to go for two with 5 seconds left instead of kicking it out for a game-tying three – sealed the deal and as Bosh said after the game, “just like Bill Russell said, keep it in play”.
One point to note, late in regulation with the Raptors down two, what did they do? They went to TJ Ford and he tries the same old tear drop like he did against Seattle but this time there was no offensive rebound to bail him out. Luckily for the Raps, they pulled the game through other means. I hate that play. It’s failed a bunch of times in clutch situations and it’s clearly not utilizing our offensive arsenal to its potential. Scrap that out of the playbook.
