The “perhaps perimeter defense would be something to work on”edition:
Alabi: Hang on to your heart & passion, but Alabi saw the floor!! Okay, for a little over a minute to end the first half, but still…he made the scoresheet: –1.
Barbosa: shot well, but some bonehead fouls (2 of them brutal offensive fouls in the fourth) certainly took some shine off his game tonight. Played out of control when on the break for most of the game…guess he wanted to do a hat tip to Bayless who missed the game.
Bargnani: hitting half his shots from the floor, playing like a ballerina when around the hoop, the typical taste of a driving jam, and showing again why he deserves the Mr. Consistency title since the start of training camp. He was sucking wind late in the second and late in the third, but he still produced. Not sure why we went away from him in the fourth, but it cost us the game. That and the refs sucked.
Bayless: probably gone for a week. The refs probably called him for a foul at some point during the game.
Butler: this guy is the equivalent of being stood up on a fourth date when you’ve been promised some horizontal mambo from your other half. You wait longer than you want to, hoping to see them finally arrive and produce as promised. Unfortunately for Raptor fans, condoms have an expiry date.
Calderon: 3000 assists for our little bullfighter and it came during a game where he showed enough of what made us fall in love with the guy and what earned him that asinine contract. 18pts 13asts as he absolutely tore through anything the Magic flashed at him.
Carter: The Bayless replacement came in and did an admirable job for a 68 year old. He showed that he has some game in his legs and didn’t provide a spark, but did provide some gun powder off the bench.
Davis: remember waking up on Christmas as a kid and seeing a nice big present all wrapped nicely with a bow? You immediately thought you scored and envisioned something like a flying saucer…only to open it to find 2 sweaters, a pair of slippers and longjohns. To many in Raptor Nation this season, Davis is that present. We expected some great effort out of the gate, but we’ve seen little.
DeRozan: finally made it to the line more tonight, but some strange decisions during the game. It seemed like he was Leandro’s twin in that department all night. Still, I would say he played with more hustle than he has shown all season.
Forbes: that skidmark you saw on the back of his shorts was from his name being called in crunch time. Blows me away that you would throw him out there when you need a bucket, but keep him attached to the bench otherwise.
A. Johnson: I still think he and Jose play as a team on PS3 or just hang in the gym for hours. No other explanation on how Jose seems like he could find Amir in the middle of Yorkdale on Boxing Day with a pass from 30 feet. No surprise against Dwight that Amir’s game doesn’t look great in the box score.
J.Johnson: 21minutes of playing time tonight. A message from Casey? If Rasual is playing more minutes than you, you might consider putting some extra work in. James has the world at his feet here in Toronto with as much playing time available as he can handle, but so far he looks like Doug Ford at a budget meeting: useless.
Magloire: best game as a Raptor and deserves credit for keeping up with Superman. Problem is we need someone who does this every second game, not once in 5. It was a good feeling thinking that we had a centre that might get every board if given the opportunity, but that feeling was as fleeting as Lohan’s sobriety.
Driving the bus: Jose Calderon
Under the bus: Leandro Barbosa
Theme of the Game:
