Saw this game via a very intermittent stream which kept freezing more often than it kept playing so the end result was that I couldn’t get a front-row seat to how close we came to shooting ourselves in the foot again. Great big thanks to the officials for calling a loose ball foul on Grant Hill with 9 seconds left after Dwight Howard had hauled in the offensive rebound and was about to slam the rock home. We’ll take it if we can get it, God knows we’ve been robbed on more than a few occasions. Stat of the night? The Magic shooting an unbelievable 83% in the first quarter! From that point on, the Raptors shot better in all quarters and swept the season-series 4-0.
TJ Ford made partial amends for his Miami performance but catching the game on Raptors Nation I noticed that fans’ feelings towards him fluctuate by the minute. After every Ford turnover, Calderon is begged to be brought into the game and after every made shot, he’s praised for his quickness and mid-range game. The only problem with TJ is that at times he goes into a five minute spell where he just decides to make really risky decisions like throwing bullet passes to Rasho, dribbling through three people and hoisting up ill-advised jumpers. Something just comes over him and he can’t help it, there was only one such minor spell today and it didn’t cost the Raptors. TJ Ford is our starting point guard, it’s upto Sam Mitchell to keep him in check and measure his temperature during the game.
No point talking about Chris Bosh, he was his usual solid self despite being matched up with genetically engineered Dwight Howard who should leave the Magic as soon as possible and find himself a team which feeds him the ball on every other possession. Let’s look at Howard’s stats: 18 points, 15 rebounds on 7-12 FGs, why Brian Hill doesn’t run twice as many plays for him has got to piss off Magic fans, we literally have nobody who can really guard him down low and the Magic fail to take advantage. Hedo Turkoglu lit us up for 37 but you just knew he wasn’t going to tie the game on us with a three at the buzzer.
Caught a bit of the post-game on Raptors TV where poor Brian Heaney is being forced to sit next to Norma Wick and pretend that she’s actually saying anything of substance. Heaney’s one of the best analysts in the game and forcing him to work with Norma is like asking Einstein to compare physics notes with Paula Abdul. Norma still tries to chip in but most of her thoughts just sort of drift away into meaninglessness, like today she tried to pick on Jameer Nelson but all that came out was, “Yeah, Jameer Nelson, he’s uhh how do you say uhhhh, I just don’t get it”. Then she tried to praise TJ Ford for tonights game but all that came out was that TJ’s a good “floor player” or something to that effect. I totally don’t miss watching their post-game show, especially when you have Chasin.
Anthony Parker (20 points on 9 shots), I could write 50 posts praising that guy and still wouldn’t do justice to the credit he deserves. He’s the most in-control player that I have seen since…since…uhh…let’s see…uhh, I don’t really know. He missed two open threes today on the same possession which was the most shocking thing I’ve seen on television this year. He later drained two in a row to turn a four point deficit into a two point lead early in the second half which completed the Raptors’ comeback. One final note, Darko got ejected in the first half which really doesn’t matter but what was shocking was that he shrugged off Grant Hill when Hill was trying to intervene between him and the official. Darko dude, don’t you realize you suck and even if you play for twenty years in this league you still won’t accomplish as much as Grant Hill did in his few healthy years. Down with Darko.
Check out Chasin’s highlights, the man works harder than Calderon in practice. Here’s the NBA TV recap:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhiKW_8NBV0]
