Morning Coffee – Mar 6 - Raptors Republic

Calderon fills leadership void | Toronto Sun

Along comes Calderon, a victim of a bad break in Oklahoma City when his right elbow was cut courtesy, believe it or not, of a tooth by an unknown Thunder player. 
 
Calderon watched the horror show in Houston and admitted, without any provocation, following Toronto’s blowout loss that the Raptors had reached a low point. 
 
Leaders are supposed to rally their team in times of difficulty, provide a calming hand, reassure when players are unsure. 
 
Heading into the meeting Friday with the New York Knicks, a team that is dangerous only because it has nothing to play for, the Raptors had lost four in a row. 
 
In each setback, the Raptors began the game by trailing after the first quarter. 
 
The tone the Raptors were setting, in other words, was not conducive to winning. 
 
In the NBA, you don’t want to be playing catch-up, especially when a team’s franchise player is unavailable. 
 
On Friday, Calderon subbed in for Jarrett Jack with the game tied in the first period.

Raptors nick Knicks | Toronto Sun

Weems will never be mistaken for a shy player, but his decision to go right after Knicks veteran and one-time Raptor Tracy McGrady during a 10-point fourth quarter was brazen even for him. 
 
“He’s getting kind of old,” Weems said foregoing any tact. “I’m quicker than him so I just tried to take advantage of that.” 
 
Weems and Calderon were two of six Raptors to get into double figures in scoring. The only starter who didn’t get there was Bargnani and he was playing with three skin staples in his head to stitch up a cut he got from an errant elbow. 
 
Hedo Turkoglu wound up playing 25 minutes on a sprained ankle that is still bothering him. He fought through it to give the Raps a dozen points and nine rebounds. 
 
Bosh’s absence didn’t appear to hurt the Raptors scoring inside as they matched their season high with 60 points in the paint against the defensively challenged Knicks. 
 
Calderon exposed the Knicks time and again as he blew by defenders to the basket.

Perkins: Maple Knicks just right for Raptors – thestar.com

They’re a team now in the process of being blown up, struggling at 21-40 and holding its nose while playing, say, a mostly washed-up Tracy McGrady at point guard. They’ll try to start all over again with a renewed sense of commitment and a coach-GM combination supposedly on the same page with a plan in place, and they’ll be a factor again — once they start spending their $31 million (U.S.) in cap space this summer. 
 
The Raptors, meanwhile, have gone from being four games behind Boston a month ago, with Boston struggling and the faithful beginning to dream little dreams, based on a soft schedule immediately in front of Toronto. Now, the tail lights of the top four seeds in the East are visible only in the distance again and the Raps are only a few games ahead of ninth place, with another non-taxing (in theory) game at home Sunday against Philadelphia, then another of those West Coast trips, a four-gamer, lined up for next week. 
 
And we all know how well they tend to do out there.

Young Raptors beat Knicks without hospitalized Bosh – thestar.com

“Well, he’s been playing pretty well lately, but it’s just that their athleticism is at a bit higher level than ours,” lamented Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni. 
 
The Raptors need to exploit that advantage because they were once again without all-star power forward Chris Bosh. Despite being fully recovered from a sprained ankle, Bosh missed his seventh straight game after he came down with severe stomach pains. 
 
“He went to the hospital just prior to the game just to get checked,” coach Jay Triano said of Bosh. “We don’t anticipate it’s anything serious, they just wanted to do some tests and hopefully ….. he’ll be ready to go on Sunday.”

Raptors dump T-Mac and Knicks – The Globe and Mail

Toronto shot 50.5 per cent from the field and committed just eight turnovers. 
 
McGrady counted 13 points and four assists, but showed his rust, too, committing six turnovers. 
 
If the athleticism has departed, he still has a feel for the game – the Knicks play him at point guard in a tribute to the former scoring champ’s ability to make the right pass – but on a listless night, he largely fit right in. 
 
The Raptors led by a point after three quarters, and were able to pull away in the fourth, thanks to youngsters Weems and Johnson – players with just a shade of McGrady’s gifts in their legs, but more important, just a fraction of the miles. 
 
David Lee of the Knicks came into the game tied with Bosh with 39 double-doubles on the season, and left with his 40th, finishing with 23 points and 18 rebounds.

Raptors hang on to scrappy win over Knicks

"After that loss in Houston, we talked about that a great deal: everybody trying to do too much, everybody trying to be that one [guy] with Chris gone," Weems said of Monday's loss. "All we had to do was just play as a team, move the ball and help each other out." 
 
Despite the Knicks' relative putridity, this win was earned, if aesthetically unpleasing. 
 
Bosh was holed up in a hospital room somewhere in the city hooked up to an intravenous tube, the result of a misbehaving stomach. Hedo Turkoglu was hobbling around on a weakened left ankle. Reggie Evans was using a heating pad on his back. Andrea Bargnani had three skin staples in the back of his head to close a cut. 
 
Wearing their throwback white-and-blue Toronto Huskies uniform, the Raptors were instead black and blue, with a bit of red from Bargnani thrown into the mix.

New York keeps pace with Toronto early, but Knicks fall to Raptors, 102-96

The Knicks seemingly had everything going in their favor, except the final score, of course. With Sonny Weems scoring a career-high 20points off the bench and the Knicks unable, yet again, to protect the basket, Toronto held on for a 102-96 victory. "As good as they are at home we should have won this game," David Lee said. "With Bosh not playing, this is a game we should have won." 
 
For the Knicks (21-40), things can get worse, dramatically worse, before they improve. The Nets make their final visit to the Garden tonight, and losing to New Jersey – which the Knicks have already done this season – could send Knicks fans over the edge.

The Associated Press: Weems scores career-high 20 as Raptors win 102-96

Jarrett Jack and Amir Johnson each scored 14 and Hedo Turkoglu had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Raptors, who won on a night when All-Star Chris Bosh was forced to go to hospital an hour before the tip. 
 
Johnson started in place of Bosh, whose plans to end a six-game absence caused by a sprained left ankle were ended when he left for tests about an hour before the game complaining of severe stomach cramps. A Raptors staffer said during the third quarter that Bosh was still in hospital, receiving intravenous fluids. 
 
Weems scored 10 of his points in the fourth and finished with nine rebounds, while Johnson had eight rebounds for the Raptors.

NorthJersey.com: Knicks’ leave ‘D’ at home in 102-96 loss in Toronto

Instead, surrendering 62 points in the paint to a team missing All-Star big man Chris Bosh, hospitalized before the game with cramps from a stomach virus, Mike D’Antoni’s team lost its 40th game of the season, 102-96, to the Raptors. 
 
Lacking the kind of size inside that Bosh could help cure if he signed with the Knicks this summer, D’Antoni said, “We don’t have a lot of resistance. That’s a little bit of our size. We’re a little size-challenged down there, but … you’ve got to take a challenge and I don’t think we took the challenge of stopping them.” 
 
The result was often a Raptors’ layup line illustrated in great part by David Lee’s mere two fouls, the first drawn near the end of the third quarter. Despite his 23 points and 18 boards (but no assists), he and his teammates often matadored Raptors who got inside, not exactly the old no-layup rule enforced by Charles Oakley and Co. back in the day.

3-5-2010 (Unoffical) Recap: Raptors 102, Knicks 96 "Sonny effing Weems?" – Posting and Toasting

13) When the Raptors were in their half-court offense they repeatedly broke down the Knicks defense with dribble penetration from Jose Calderon, Jarret Jack, and Hedo Turkoglu. The three of them combined for 12 of the Raptors 18 assists. Calderon had 6, Jack had 2, and Hedo had 4. Trust me when I say this, if the NBA kept track of assists like the NHL does, the Raptors would have had close to 40 assists. Fortunately for the Knicks, the NBA does not, thus the box score says the Knicks win the assist margin 20-18. 
 
14) On a related noted to the previous point, here is further proof of how well Toronto's offense played tonight. Toronto's point guard duo of Jarrett Jack and Jose Calderon combined for 30 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds and 4 turnovers. They outshined T-Mac and Sergio's 23 points, 11 assits, 9 rebounds, and 7 turnovers.

CBC News – Toronto – Weems scores career high in Raptors win

Turkoglu, knocked out of Monday's game at Houston by a sore left ankle, left briefly in the second to have the ankle re-taped and sat out the fourth quarter. 
 
"You could see he was laboring," coach Jay Triano said. "We tried to go as many minutes as we could with him." 
 
Weems scored 10 points in the fourth and finished with nine rebounds while Johnson had eight rebounds for the Raptors. 
 
"[Weems] played an outstanding game," Johnson said. "He was relentless, man. Sonny gave us a big lift." 
 
Jack said Johnson's contributions were just as important. 
 
"He did a good job of sparking us early, being on the glass, being a good interior presence for us," Jack said.

Chris Bosh has chance to leave Toronto Raptors this summer, New York Knicks may lure forward

Bosh, who is from Dallas, remains noncommittal about his future. If the Raptors fail to reach the second round of the playoffs, there is a strong possibility that Bosh will leave. 
 
In Bosh's two previous trips to the playoffs, Toronto lost in the first round. 
 
McGrady's one and only postseason appearance with Toronto came in 2000, when the Knicks beat the Raptors in four games. At times, McGrady was the best player on the court, which helped him in the free agent market. Three months after that playoff series, McGrady signed with Orlando. 
 
"This is where I got drafted," McGrady said, talking about his time in Canada. "This is where my teenage years of playing in the NBA started. I enjoyed my three years here. It was awesome. I learned a lot ."

T-Mac makes case for Bosh’s escape – NYPOST.com

T-Mac's remarks made the rounds of the Canadian blogosphere yesterday, and he got booed more than usual last night, especially during introductions and the first time he touched the ball. 
 
"Get over it," McGrady said. "Get over it. What? It's 11 years, something like that? Get over it." 
 
Before the game, Colangelo sounded comfortable in his ability to keep Bosh in Toronto. 
 
"A handful of teams have the ability to sign him outright," Colangelo said. "We still remain the most viable option for him to get him the most money and most years. That's not changing." 
 
The Raptors can offer their own free agents the maximum salary for six years. The Knicks can offer five years. However, Bosh could force a sign-and-trade to the Knicks and in that scenario still get a six-year contract. 
 
Colangelo said the Raptors' desire to keep him was evidenced by their lack of conversations with other teams about trading Bosh at the deadline.

Johnson And Weems Step Up | Hoops Addict

“I had Tracy (McGrady) on me most of the fourth quarter and I just tried to attack them every time I got the chance,” Weems boasted to Hoops Addict while smirking. “Jarrett (Jack) and Jose (Calderon) did a great job of penetrating and kicking to me and I tried to attack the paint and get some easy buckets. I think with Tracy getting a little bit older I just tried to exploit that.” 
 
A couple of lockers down Johnson was searching for some cough medicine to help with the cold he is fighting through. Tonight he battled through some cold symptoms but “coughed it out” during the game. 
 
While talking with the media Johnson was sitting in a chair at his locker and his voice was strained as he attempted to talk through his cold but he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face while talking about how big this win was for Toronto.

Toronto Raptors After 60 Games « Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog

While Jay Triano is right to say it will be a fight to stay in the playoff race until the final day of the season, the Toronto Raptors can still finish as high as fifth. And they will be fighting for fifth as long as Chris Bosh returns to the line-up by the weekend. 
 
This year, the Raptors have played well enough so far to put their playoff fate in their own hands over the final six weeks of the season. 
 
So Raptors fans should be anticipating an exciting drive to the playoffs.

Post Game: New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors « New Leisure Blog

62 points in the paint. The Knicks do not have anyone who can block shots. Very soft interior defense, so the Raptors take full advantage. They didn’t take too many jump shots, instead they remain aggressive for the game. 
 
– Amir/Weems. They provide energy and athleticism sorely needed. They combined for 34 points and 17 rebounds. The trade with the Bucks is looking better each day. 
 
Hopefully Bosh is ok and will be back on Sunday. We do need our full lineup before going to the west coast trip. Things are getting tighter in the Eastern Conference, each game means a little more between now and to the end of the season.

Raptors Outlast Knicks to End Drought | Raptors Rapture

Luckily for Raptors fans, the result was positive, a 102-96 win over the lowly New York Knicks -ending the recent Raptors slide. The Raps were lead by high-flyer Sonny Weems who poured in 20 points while pulling down 9 boards which earned him critical fourth quarter minutes. In a losing cause, the Knicks were led by David Lee who put up 23 while grabbing an astounding 18 rebounds.

FAN590 – Blogs – The Rap » Blog Archive » Raptors Snap The Skid

Smith Says: 
– “A balanced attack … and a BIG win considering the victories for Charlotte and Milwaukee tonight as well.” 
 
Jones Says: 
– “Nice effort by Sonny Weems. His play earned him some key 4th quarter minutes … which we may see more of against athletic teams – especially down the stretch.”

Raptors Game Recap – The FAN 590 Toronto