The Raptors solved the Charlotte Bobcat riddle last night. And that, my friends, was the only story line of this night. That’s it.
You can say that Andrea Bargnani is starting to click offensively like he did to start the season, and that he played an almost perfect post game to seal the victory. You could even say that DeMar DeRozan looked like he could score at will.
But then you look closer.
Almost everyone looked bigger and better. That’s what happens when you a play an undersized and undertalented (not a real word) team that may have challenged for the worst in history had they not been given the mercy of an asterisk-worthy 66 game schedule.
It makes you wonder how they lost those other two games. But team speed does tend to give this team problems, more so in previous versions of the team, when guard penetration basically meant an open layup for the other team.
Byron Mullens, should be playing a lot more for such a god awful team. Dude is Bargnani without the ball-handling, but with the rebounding. Very polished offensively. Maybe it’s that haircut that’s holding him back. Money will fix that problem, I’m sure.
But let’s talk about another Charlotte big.
Bismack Biyombo or Jonas Valunciunas? Both are still question marks, although if Biyombo is his actual listed age, he just had an excellent season, with nothing to dispel his potential as a Ben Wallace-clone in a few years.
But, by all accounts, “Val” has been earning rave reviews since the draft and has met very new challenge with success. But the unworldy length and athleticism this kid has is undeniable. Check out his block against Dwight Howard earlier this year. It isn’t one of those “gotcha” blocks from out of nowhere. Dwight tried shooting over Boiyombo like he does every player in this league and Bismack simply went up and got it. That alone makes you wonder how good he could be.
We’ll see. It’s the theme of this season.
