It’s the West coast Hump Day. No, nothing to do with Kris Humphries but after tonight the roadtrip will be more than half complete.
If there’s one thing that’s abundantly clear about the Raptors, it’s that they cannot survive without Bosh. This might sound like an obvious statement but given how well the Raptors played last year without Bosh in the middle, there were many who believe that we were better without him. Again, as ludicrous as that sounds there is some traction to that school of thought. His absence has shown just how desperately we need him to do the things he does on the court and how his influence is the difference between the lottery and a 4th spot in the East.
On the positive side, this stretch of games without Bosh has shed some light on what this team’s true weaknesses are. There’s not much surprise anywhere but it does give more direction and reason to any offseason moves we might have to make. Aside from missing the obvious scoring and rebounding from Bosh, we have lacked an interior defensive presence and a real shot-blocking threat. It’s no surprise that we’re getting clobbered at the points in the paint stat over the last little while.
We need to resolve the PG position: It’s better to have one very good starting PG and a good backup rather than two good ones who both are started quality. I don’t buy the “internal competition” argument, not when it comes to a position that is so critical to your team. There needs to be a uniformity and a level of consistency in our PG play so that the ball is distributed properly at all times. There’s no need for stories like this.
It’ll be very difficult to get a result in Denver tonight, needless to say the rebounding must be even for us to have a shot in the dark and one of our transition and/or perimeter defense must be solid. Asking for both to be above par is asking too much of this team, so here’s hoping we tighten up one of the two, hold our own on the boards and get some good scoring from the Bargnani/Calderon combo to keep this game close in the fourth.
If you haven’t heard, Caron Butler is back and the Wiz are looking very dangerous. I will be shocked if they don’t take over the fifth spot and drop us to sixth and into a playoff matchup with Orlando. As much as it hurts, all this losing might not be so bad.
Here’s how pathetic the East is: If the playoffs started today, the 27-38 NJ Nets make the playoffs while the 38-26 Denver Nuggets miss it. If the Top 16 teams in the NBA made the playoffs, only 3 Eastern Conference teams would be there: Boston, Detroit and Orlando with Orlando being the 16th seed.
I leave you with that infamous picture of Andris Biedrins’ wife (courtesy of Dinosty). But if a quick jerk isn’t in order there’s an absolutely great article on RaptorsTalk.com about Anthony Parker which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
Till after the game.
