If the Raps can’t hang on to their two game lead over Miami for third and Cleveland does win the Central Division, the result would be a Raptors/Bulls first round playoff series. This thought would have been dreadful earlier in the season when the Bulls owned a 15 game winning streak over us but now I’d welcome the matchup. There’s no reason to be scared of Ben Wallace who’s playing like a shell of his former self grabbing only five rebounds in 23 minutes of play while scoring nothing. Ben Gordon can score on us but he can’t defend anybody either, in the end the Bosh factor looms way too large for the Bulls to contend with.
The 103-89 result can be misleading, the Bulls built an 11 point lead in the early third quarter but the lead proved to be fragile. As soon as Bosh started going to the rim and drawing fouls, it opened things up for the Graham and Parker who drained long jumpers and finished on the break to help turn an 11 point deficit to a 10 point lead by the start of the fourth. The great part about the Raptors is their mentality when falling behind, before if we fell back by a dozen points at any point in the game, you knew the game was over and the chance of a comeback slim to none. Now there’s a different approach, as long as you can cut the lead to 6-8 and make the deficit somewhat manageable in crunch time, anything can happen down the stretch.
The officials completely blew the Mo Pete ejection. It was a simple foul and nothing more, at worst if the official is unreasonably harsh, it could be a flagrant one. To eject a guy for challenging a shot on a player who slowed down to initiate contact is crazy. The flagrant one is given 80% more than it needs to be in the league. In most cases it’s given because of the way the fouled player lands on the ground or reacts after the play rather than the actual harm that was done. Hopefully the NBA reviews this draconian policy and loosens up a little.
Juan Dixon is a God-send. It’s still hard to believe that Portland gave him up for garbage, er, Fred Jones. Apparently if you ask the Portland people, they’re happy with the way the trade worked out. Juan Dixon would’ve been a great off-season signing but to acquire him out-of-the-blue for Jones is just too much of a bonus to not talk about. He has given the bench a new offensive swagger, today he chipped in with 17 to complement the 27 scored by the most fundamentally sound Raptors player ever, Anthony Parker (who knows all about resurrection Sunday).
Joey Graham played a big part in the third quarter surge, over the last few games he’s kicked up his consistency level to an acceptable measure but I’ll believe the hype once he does it for a month straight. I’ve seen too many Morris Peterson seasons where the word consistent was used to describe him way too prematurely. Joey Graham, good player but lets not hand him the job just yet. I don’t know if this is Sam’s doing but he seems to have motivated Graham to be a tough player who has shown a strong resolve to attack the rim, sometimes even when he should just take the jumper. Joey Graham has the ability to become THE defensive stopper on this team and I hope come playoff team, he can partially deliver on that potential.
So we got a 2 game lead on Miami (could’ve been three, damn Sam/TJ) after they lost to, get this, THE BOBCATS despite Wade’s return. Check out Chasin’s highlights, here’s the Game in a Flash:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgwnmba-DHA]
