The “what’s that? You are down 3 players? Well we will take it easy on you” edition.
Adams – stumpy kept his rightful place nice and warm. You think he even puts his jersey on or do you think he keeps his street clothes on underneath so he can beat the line at Timmy’s?
Bargnani – you know when you make coffee and you want it so badly you take that first sip and it’s so hot it sears the top of your mouth? Then you forget about it and it gets luke warm, if not cold. Next time that happens, tell people you have been Barg’d. Buddy comes out like a house on fire in the first half. Block, rebound, rainbow…then he picked up his fouls and folded like a pasta shell. 12pts in 21 minutes, but had he kept up the intensity, the home crowd would have continued to forgive the past.
Bosh – there is no other way to describe his season so far: spectacular. He looked frustrated and irritated. Last year that may have taken him out of the game mentally. This year he has sucked it up, re-focused and thrown his heart into it. An insane amount of minutes (44) but it produced another double double of 26 and 13. Definitely the stirstick in the coffee that is the Raptors.
Calderon – Devlin is all over Calderon being an allstar this year. Could happen, but tonight was the first night that I saw something worthy of that. As good as Bosh and AB played in the first half, Jose shined offensively while giving up some blow-bys on the defensive end. Did a great job of getting to the line (perfect 9 of 9) to help him to 24 points. A manageable 35 minutes as well. Didn’t get a double double, but did pick up a regular.
Graham – 5 minutes of playing like a quickly melting Iced Capp. If anybody is looking for a place in Toronto starting in, oh, May 2009, maybe give Joey G a shout.
Humphries – he played 27 minutes less than Jermaine and scored 5 less points. He played one minute, took it to the hole and got fouled. A workman like effort. His court time may have been short (espresso like, really) but he did what we expect…outplayed some of his overpriced teammates.
Jawai – drink too much coffee and you might get heartburn.
Kapono – his game was as fulfilling as a coffee poured into a bottomless cup. 0 for 6, but he did fight for 5 boards (more than Jermaine). Could have used his deadly shooting, but he was a huge defensive liability in this one. 22 minutes was probably 4 too many.
Moon – as frustrating as ordering a double shot in your coffee and being handed a decaffeinated. So much anticipation and you get slapped in the face. The epitome of Moon: a 2 on 1 fast break and he passes it off and they re-set…..ON A FAST BREAK. They elected a black guy president in the US….now maybe we can witness another first: Moon dunking in traffic.
O’Neal – it’s like at the end of the year, for shits and giggles you figure out how much you have spent on coffee…..then you wonder what you are getting for it. It felt like he missed 300 gimmies tonight and I still think he jumped twice defensively all night. Great D on one (1!) possession, cost us points by misses, goaltending, a technical and, once again, racked up early fouls to earn him a seat and wasn’t on the floor at the end of the game. What’s that old adage? It’s not who starts but who finishes? Exactly. 8 points and 3 boards. The stats of a bench player.
Parker – hit a clutch 3 in the last minute to still give us hope. Like Kapono he had a poor night scoring the ball, but managed fairly well defensively. Also like Kapono, he is exactly the type of guy we need to shine in these types of games in order for us to win. He needs to play like a latte amongst a bunch of hospital vending machine coffees. 9 pts in 36 minutes doesn’t cut it.
Solomon – seeing his first action of the season, he held his own. His length and quickness matched up well against the Pistons, and he played double the time of Roko’s burn in the earlier games. 3 dishes in 12 minutes is nice to see from a guy that looks to shoot first. Compared to the other pickups BC made this offseason, Will could be the one worthy of a refill.
Ukic – if he has done so well in practice and is such a great listener and learner, why only play 5 min a game previous to tonight and none tonight? Is that why he is so long in the face? Did he use milk that was a week old and it came back to bite him in the ass? Some say he will be a 14/7 type guy. I don’t see it. I see Raptors-era Roger Mason……and that ain’t good for much.
Driving The Bus: Chris Bosh
Under The Bus: Jason Kapono
Game Theme: Indeed
