From my earlier post it may seem like I think Sam Mitchell is the only reason this team has struggled so far this year, but I want to assure you, that’s not the case.

I think Bryan Colangelo needs to bear a chunk of the blame, and of course, the players do too.

Here’s how I break it down: Mitchell: 40%; Colangelo: 35%; Players: 25%.

I covered Mitchell’s part earlier: Team wasn’t prepared for games, no offensive creativity, bad/no playcalling down the stretch, odd substitution patterns, team appeared to be tuning him out.

The players deserve blame, of course, because clearly, they did not come to play every night. And you can lay some of that on Mitchell, for not preparing them, but at some point, as Mitchell said the other day, guys just need to come and play hard without being told to - that’s part of being a professional. And on top of that, you have players not answering their roles on offense (Calderon not turning the corner on screen and roll, Kapono not shooting threes, Moon not driving, O’Neal shooting too many fadeaways) and making dumb mistakes (Solomon leaving his feet to pass, Hump and his running one handers, etc.). They gotta accept responsibility too.

As for the rest, well, that’s gotta be on Colangelo. I talked about it a while ago, how this thin roster was not constructed with enough flexibility to make any moves, so if it stunk, we were essentially stuck with it. Also a problem that in today’s NBA, where the bigger bodies and advanced medical analysis mean more missed games, that it was considered a good idea to run with a 12-man roster.

And it’s been borne out, obviously, that there is a serious deficiency at the wing positions and that there is no one on the bench to help and no moves to be made to bring help in.

Here’s where I think BC’s biggest mistakes came:

1) First of all, letting Carlos Delfino walk away.

Now, I know they couldn’t re-sign him without going over the tax and you can absolutely argue that he’s not enough to go over the tax for. And of course hindsight is 20/20. But comparing him to the other wing players: He slashes more than Moon, Parker and Kapono combined, and although his overall shooting percentage was low (40%), he shot 38% from three and I guarantee that with regular, consistent minutes, he wouldn’t force as many shots.

Furthermore, he can play backup point guard. You could have brought in Roko, left Solomon to rot in Europe, and had Delfino as your third guard. And, he can rebound - 4.4 per game in 23 minutes is an excellent number.

Most important, he was a better defender than Kapono and equal to Moon and Parker last year. And since both of those guys have taken a step back on defense (which couldn’t be predicted, I know) Delfino surely would have been a better option right now.

Most important… he was the only guy on the team last year other than TJ Ford capable of his creating his own shot. Again, not always good shots, but again, with consistent playing time…

Either way, the Raptors now don’t have a single soul who can create, no one who can defend, a crappy backup PG, and a three point shooter who won’t shoot threes. Delfino could have helped out in every case. (The Raptors still hold Delfino’s rights, but by all accounts, his contract is 3 years/$12 million dollars without any out clauses. Meaning he’d have to negotiate a buyout to get out of his deal before 2011. Doesn’t seem likely.)

2) The other mistake, a much larger mistake, was buying out Jorge Garbajosa’s contract.

This was huge for two reasons. Number one, if - and I admit it was a big if - Garbajosa was able to get healthy and play, he could have provided the physical perimeter defender they sorely need. He’s also, as we all know, an incredibly smart basketball player, a good hustle and energy guy, who provides a lot of the “intangibles” the Raps are missing. Again, I don’t know if he’d ever be healthy enough to contribute (I note he’s averaging 9 points and 4 boards in Russia, but that’s a little different from NBA competition) but why not keep him around to see? And surely, another veteran presence around the locker room couldn’t hurt, could it?

But just as important (more important maybe?), he had a $4.3 million expiring contract. Even if he couldn’t play a minute, as we all know in today’s NBA, expiring contacts are like gold at the trading deadline, and having small contracts (relatively speaking) to trade gives you even more flexibility advantages. This is exactly the type of asset we don’t have to trade! Any team looking to dump salary would have looked right here, with $11 million in Garbo, Graham and Parker available, plus Hump and his two years. And you don’t think taking back an expiring or two would make a longer contract like Kapono’s more attractive in a package?

Why in the world Colangelo thought it’d be a good idea to buy out an expiring contract, instead of trying to trade it, is beyond me. Maybe it was outta respect for Garbo, but come on. This is a business. And this was a bad, bad GM move. I mean, seriously. This was like a Rob Babcock move. The Raptors got absolutely nothing out of this, except what, a savings of about a million dollars? Chump change. I’d rather have a trade asset.

So, those two mistakes were huge contributors to the problems the Raptors are having:

• They have no perimeter D - which both could have helped with;
• The bench is too thin - obviously, a couple of veterans never hurts;
• They have minimal trade assets - Garbo’s contract, if not Garbo himself, would be of value;
• The roster is at the minimum, so they can’t do a 2-for-1 trade - again, more bodies, more tradeable assets, means a trade is more likely.

Now, another factor was drafting Nathan Jawai in round 2; I know second round players are absolute crapshoots, but it might have been nice had they chosen a guy who could at least attempt to play. Sigh.

If he’d kept Delfino, kept Garbo, left Will Solomon under whatever rock he was under, drafted a raw 7-footer whose only job would need to be “hack Dwight Howard,” we’d have a 14-man roster with better perimeter defenders, more fouls to give, and some bargaining chips. And BC still could have brought on Hassan Adams to play cheerleader!

Instead we’ve got three good bigs plus Hump, five mediocre swingmen, a good PG backed up by a rookie and a guy who would struggle to make the D-league. Oh, and a 7-footer who hasn’t dressed once.

And next-to-no bargaining power to make a trade.

That, my friends, is all on Colangelo.

Should the roster be producing more wins? It looks like it - it looks like some playcalling and offensive creativity, combined with sustained effort, should have won at least two more games already this year (and avoided struggling in the close games they almost blew). So yes, I do believe - at this point - that a coaching will help.

But if this team continues to flounder under Jay Triano, if Triano puts in some new sets but they still struggle or appear listless, then it’ll be clear - it’s not the coaching, it’s the roster. And BC is going to have a hard time fixing it, because he’s left himself so few options.

Tags: Bryan Colangelo, Jay Triano, Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors

Well, yesterday was a big day. Big day for the Raptors. Sam Mitchell was fired after an 8-9 start - and let’s be honest, given the poor effort and blown leads, it’s a bad 8-9 start.

Was the timing right? From a PR standpoint, you can’t do much better than firing the coach after one of the worst losses in franchise history, on the west coast, to boot.

In addition, you have to figure that at 8-9, they’re still in the playoff chase - if they can survive this brutal stretch of the schedule - so if you’re going to make a coaching change, better to make it now then when you’re 12-20 and out of the race.

I simply can’t understand the people (Doug Smith, I’m looking at you) that keep saying “it’s too early.” It’s not - the season is slipping away. When does too early become “just right” and not “too late”? It’s a fine line, obviously, but I’d rather make the move too early than too late.

No, 8-9 isn’t bad on paper but look at the games - the blown leads, the poor effort, the lack of execution down the stretch.

Is it all on the coach? Of course not, but it starts there - the coach is the leader and if he can’t get the players to even play hard, then he’s gotta take some blame.

We all know Mitchell is not a great X’s and O’s guy, but it’s always been said that he’s a good motivator, the players respect him and play hard for him, etc.. But that no longer appeared to be the case, at least not this season, am I wrong? I count three zero-effort games: The first Hawks game, the second Celtics game, and Denver. I count two listless games where a few threes kept it respectable: The Lakers game and the second Sixers game. I count three blown leads where the team simply got lazy in the second half: Orlando, Boston, and New Jersey (which was at home, and featured the still-unbelievable twice-botched inbounds play). Then you’ve got the second Miami game that they very nearly blew after leading by 17, and the first Charlotte game that they slept through the entire first half and got down 16 before Bosh single-handedly brought them back to win. And in the second Atlanta game, they played great almost the entire game until the final two minutes when they almost blew a 9-point lead and it took the poor decision making of the Hawks to seal it.

So by my tally, that’s five games with entirely poor efforts, three games where they didn’t play hard for 48 and lost, and two games where they didn’t play hard for 48 and still managed to win, plus one they won despite not executing down the stretch. They’ve only won one game against a +.500 opponent (Atlanta) and aren’t putting even bad teams away with any authority. Also consider the 13-20 finish to last year and the 1-4 playoff run, and that’s a pretty bad stretch, no?

So I don’t think you can you say that Mitchell has them playing hard anymore. And if they’re not playing hard for him, and he’s not going to help them win with X’s and O’s… then what is he bringing to the table? Some fine suits and a lot of excuses, that’s what.

Now. I like Sam, don’t get me wrong, and I am going to miss him. A lot. He was entertaining, enjoyable, a good person and someone who never gave less than his best. He did improve as a coach, greatly, over the years, not just on the floor but also in his management of the team, changing the attitude of the team, dealing with the media, everything. And, up until recently, the Raptors always played hard. Always - just like Sam did.

But something obviously changed and they aren’t playing hard right now.

Going forward, do I really think getting rid of Sam is going to make a big difference? Probably not. As has been said many times many places, even a great coach like Phil Jackson would have trouble teaching Calderon how to stay in front of his man or Moon to stay on his feet on pump fakes. But I think we all feel Sam’s weak X’s and O’s meant the team struggled as much on offense as it did on defense.

If Jay Triano brings a few more plays to the playbook and manages to mix things up a little, the Raptors should, at the very least, manage to score a little more easily. And if you’re not using up all your energy on offense, maybe you’ve got a little more left for defense, no? That’s the hope that I have, at least.

Whether it’s more transition hoops, whether it’s plays that get Kapono, Parker or Calderon more open looks, whether it’s more post-ups for Bargnani when he’s playing smaller 3s… a team with Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal and so many shooters on it should not struggle to get open shots. I hope Triano has something up his sleeve to solve that.

I also hope he gives the guys consistent minutes on a consistent basis. Time to stop judging guys on one missed shot or turnover. Either let them play through a good chuck and determine if they can learn from these mistakes or if they’re just bad players.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of many, Sam was never Bryan Colangelo’s guy. The two never saw eye-to-eye; they have distinctly different styles and philosophies, and Bryan, well, I gather Bryan has a bit of an ego and a “I know more basketball than you” air about him, so he probably wanted to bring his own guy in from day one.

But, it didn’t make sense to fire Sam right off the bat, in the last year of his contract, and have to swallow the cash - after all, no one expected the team to be any good in Bryan’s first year. But, it was - good enough to win 47 games and give Sam the Coach of the year Award.

And that, folks, was the worst possible thing that could have happened.

I think Bryan was expected maybe 38 wins and was simply going to let Sam walk at the end of the 2006-2007 season. Thanks for a good year, you did good enough to land another job, we’re going a different route, blah blah blah.. But he simply had to bring Sam back - you can’t let the coach of the year walk away.

And that set Bryan’s plan back. I think he was hoping to bring someone in that offseason - maybe Iavaroni, maybe Messina - but he’d lose face letting the coach of the year walk away. And maybe, like me, he thought Sam would continue to improve and that there was value in the continuity of having one voice.

But, obviously, that improvement never came and it looks like the voice was getting tuned out. The timing, unfortunately for Sam, is right. I applaud this move at this time - it was, I believe, 100 per cent necessary.

I wish Sam the best of luck. I really will miss him. It’s been four years plus a couple months we’ve had Sam as our coach. That’s a long time - longest tenure, and winningest, in Raptors history. He and Chris Bosh were the only remnants from the “old days” - the only people left on the team that coached/played with Vince Carter. And I won’t forget the 47 wins and the division title or the playoff series against the Nets, and I won’t forget being there to see him win coach of the year, and the way he brought all the players out to the court with him. Great moment. All the best to you, Sam, really.

And Jay, well, best of luck to you too! I hope you succeed because it will be great for Canada, but mostly, I hope you succeed so that we can see our beloved Raptors get back on the winning track.

Tags: Bryan Colangelo, Jay Triano, Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors

Since the Raptors expended the minimal amount of effort required last night - in other words, they put their uniforms on - I’m going to honor their commitment to suckiness by expending minimal efforts in my recap.

No transition D… Standing around under the glass, waiting for rebounds… Settling for jumpers… Complaining about calls… going to rusty O’Neal way too often… giving Bosh the ball too far on the perimeter… not bothering to get Kapono involved, when you clearly need threes to stay in the game… not bothering to read a scouting report on Billups (if you’ve ever actually watched a single game in which he’s played, you might notice the pull-up three in transition is his favourite shot. So you might wanna, you know, think about picking him up OUTSIDE the three point line? Sigh).

What a joke. If, when Sam Mitchell gets fired, you need to show someone a reason why, show them last night’s game. I have never seen a “playoff team” come out so woefully unprepared to play as that. I just don’t understand how a team of “professionals” can lose by 40 points.

It was an embarassment - so much so that I couldn’t even wear my Raptors toque to work today and now my ears are cold and yeah, I blame Sam Mitchell and Bryan Colangelo for that too. Thanks guys.

Tags: Toronto Raptors embarassing loss

Raptors in Denver for the kickoff of what I’m prepared to call “The December Death March.” Not only did they just play the Lakers, but now it’s Denver (12-6, 11-3 since the trade), then Utah (11-7 and getting healthy), Portland at home (12-6), and the LeBrons (14-3, undefeated at home) in Cleveland.

You’d think it’d let up after that, but then it’s the TJ Ford reunion show, and two games against Vince and Little Larry Frank - with a game against New Orleans Sandwiched in between.

At least it quiets down after that, right? Oh, wait. It’s a Dallas at home, followed by a six-game Western trip. And then Denver at home on New Year’s Eve.

Given the Raptors’ inability to beat good teams, well, let’s see… they can beat Seattle, I know that much, and probably the Clippers… they should beat Indy and split with New Jersey, right? Right. Well, so that’s four wins, which makes it a 4-12 month.

Um… yeah… that, um, well, that’s not very good, is it?

Now, obviously, the Raptors can and likely will beat some of those “better” opponents. But since you can say that about any team, you know they can lose to some of those “lesser” opponents. I’d lay money on a 7-9 month which, after the 8-8 December, leaves the Raptors at 15-17 entering the New Year.

Is that good enough? Well, given how many other teams in the east are also “middling” - The Raptors are one of nine teams within 4 games of .500 - that’s probably good enough to leave them in the top eight of the conference.

Of course, January won’t be much easier for the Raps - they play Houston, Orlando, Boston twice, Chicago twice, Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix before the 23rd.

And there’s the problem. The Raptors struggle so much to get wins, that there simply isn’t any easy stretch in which they can make up any ground until the end of March - when they play their only homestand longer than three games, hosting Charlotte, the Clips, the Bucks, Seattle, and Chicago - and it may be too late by then. They also struggle so much to score that the team never gets to rest anyone and by that time, the starters might be dead on their feet. And of course, as I’ve mentioned before, the Sam Mitchell Raptors have proven themselves incapable of going on winning streaks, so add it all up and, well, as I’ve said before, I don’t think the playoffs are a certainty with this team. Winning a round certainly isn’t going to happen.

I just don’t have a lot of confidence in this roster, as you can tell, to win many games.

As for tonight, well, look for more of Chris Bosh getting pushed around by Chris Anderson, Nene and Kenyon Martin if Jermaine O’Neal doesn’t come back. Heck, even if he does, he’ll undoubtedly be rusty. Chauncey Billups owned us in Detroit, no doubt he’ll own us here.

If Carmelo Anthony plays - he’s nursing a sore elbow - he’s got a size and strength advantage over Moon, Graham, Kapono, Parker… pretty much anyone we can throw at him. Hopefully he’ll be less than 100% or have one of those games where he seems to float around half trying, that were so frequent in his early career.

Melo had a great season last year - his scoring was down from the year before but all his other numbers were up. He averaged 25 points and 7.5 boards, while shooting 49% and 35% from three. It looked to me like he was taking the next step.

This year, even though they’re a better team, and he’s got a true point guard for the first time since, um, ever… his scoring is down below 20 and he’s shooting under 40%. (Still rebounding, though - up to 8.4). Is it early season woes and post-trade chemistry? Is the elbow injury to blame? Or is he taking a step back?

Maybe it’s the hair! I used to think that womens haircut of his was one of the worst do’s I’d ever seen. It got so long last year I started to believe it was some sort of bizarre WNBA cross-promotion, that David Stern was paying him millions to grow it long enough to join the sisters league and make it relevant. But now he’s coiffed like a man and he can’t shoot the rock (and the WNBA is still irrelevant) so maybe he needs to grow it back.

I guess what has to be frightening to the other Western conference teams is that, if they’re 11-3 since the trade and Melo is struggling, how good will they be when he and Chauncey get on track together? Let’s just hope it doesn’t start tonight.

Thankfully for the Raps, Denver is a little thin on the bench, just like we are. Of course, they start four NBA-quality starters, while we start two, but hey. And while their bench isn’t much, they’ve do have those hustle guys - Anderson and Renaldo Balkman, who killed the Raptors in New York last year - that we can’t seem to find.

So even though they’re not “deeper” than us necessarily, what they do have is NBA veterans who know their roles. We have guys who shouldn’t even be on an NBA roster.

Anyway. Depth or no depth, this team is too fast and too physical for the Raptors to play with. Jermaine O’Neal would help, but not enough. This won’t be as bad as the last time the Raps flew to Denver - a 30-point loss - but it won’t be pretty either. Nuggets by 16.

Tags: Chauncey Billups, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors

Well, finally I was right in one of my predictions! Lakers by 13.Tough loss, but an expected one. Man, the Lakers are good. Like, real good. Overall, while it may have looked like the Raptors stayed in it, I never really believed they were; the Lakers looked like they could just put it away at any time. Oh well, at least it was entertaining!

It really is unfortunate that Jermaine O’Neal couldn’t play last night; his absence meant Andrew Bynum was guarding Bosh, and he’s just too physical for Bosh. Had the matchup been Gasol/Bosh and Bynum/O’Neal, I guarantee Bosh would not have had the sub-par game he did. Bosh just couldn’t get it going with the bigger Bynum on him.

Bynum really used his size well, too. He gave just enough space that he could get a hand up on Bosh’s jumper, but also to take away the drive. He moves his feet well and he knows how to use that wide upper body. I’m disappointed Bosh didn’t have a bigger impact on the game, sure, but I give credit to Bynum and I place some of the blame on O’Neal’s absence.

As for the rest of the Raps, well, there’s not a whole lot to say. Anthony Parker had a solid shooting night, and did a decent job on Kobe Bryant… well, actually, I can’t really say that. For one, Parker had two early fouls and so Joey Graham and Jamario Moon guarded him for much of the first half. And Kobe didn’t even play in the fourth, so the 23 total points is a little misleading. On top of that, well, it’s Kobe … he made every basket he made look so easy, and he clearly knows he doesn’t have to score a bunch for the team to win. To be honest, I was more impressed with Kobe’s performance in this game than I’ve been in him in a while. He looked like part of a team, not just like a guy with some teammates.

Anyway, back to the Raps, Kapono, Jose, Moon and Bargnani all reached double figures; you have to figure if Bosh had a better game maybe it would have been closer? (Though then Kobe likely would have taken over the fourth).

Although Bargnani was a little off (took him 14 shots to get his 14 points), he had another solid defensive game, with 11 boards and four blocks; in fact, he should be working on putting together an instructional video for Jamario Moon called “How to not leave your feet on pump fakes.”

I’m actually really fascinated with the way this has turned out. Last year, both of them jumped at fakes and shooters constantly. Jamario is athletic enough to not pick up so many fouls, but Andrea’s not - he got a lot of pine time from foul trouble of this sort.

Over the summer, by all accounts, Bargnani worked his ass off; meanwhile Jamario was getting busy making babies and not practicing.

This year, Bargnani’s defense has improved about a thousandfold (and after 15 games - some at PF, some at SF, some at C, some starting, some off the bench, and solid defense in all of them - I’m willing to officially call it an improvement and not an early-season anomaly) while Moon’s has stayed the same (if not gotten worse). It’s a veritable billboard for offseason training.

While Joey Graham missed getting a third straight double-figure game, I thought he played with good energy again, enough to keep him in the rotation, anyway.

Overall, I really can’t complain about the way the Raptors played; you don’t expect them to win games against teams like LA and Boston, but you expect them to come to play, to give it 100 percent, to compete. Last Sunday against Boston, they didn’t do any of those things, and they got blown out in the first quarter, never made a run, and got booed.

Last night they didn’t get blown away, they played hard, made runs several times to stay in the game - even if they never really made it “close,” they provided the fans with some entertainment. I don’t have any complaints about that.

Hopefully we’ll be back tomorrow talking about the return of Jermaine O’Neal. Come on, big guy, we need you out there!

Tags: Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors

The Raptors take their perfect record against Western conference teams into LA tonight to face the near perfect Lakers.

Of course, that perfect record is just a single win, against the Warriors in the second game of the year. This is their first real test of the west, and it comes against the best.

Ahem.

So the Lakers are good. Bryant and Gasol have been great, Bynum has been solid and even Lamar Odom has been good coming off the bench. And the rest of the bench has played extremely well - their depth is a huge part of their hot start.

Depth, unfortunately, is one of the Raptors’ biggest weaknesses. After our starters, the talent level drops significantly and no one this year seems like they are ready to take it up a notch.

Unless maybe Joey Graham is the guy? He’s had two straight good games, a rarity from him. He’s been playing with aggression and without fear, and is actually taking the ball toward the basket - something the Raps have been lacking.

Still, joey could have career night tonight and it wouldn’t matter. For the Raps to win they need 3 or 4 guys to have career nights, and they need 3-4 Lakers to have off nights.

Hey, anything can happen, that’s why we watch. But it’s gonna take a near-perfect storm for this flawed Raptors team to near the Lakers in LA.

Lakers by 13.

Tags: Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors

Look out, NBA, the Raptors are rolling! Two in a row, baby!! It’s on!

In all seriousness, while last night’s win wasn’t an earth-shattering victory, it was a good win - the Raptors’ first against a quality opponent (read: +.500) all year. No, I’m not kidding.

What’s most impressive is that the Raps used the third quarter to make thier run - while I have no statistical evidence to back this up, my observations have led me to infer that good teams makebruns in the third - and that they withstood the Hawks’ inevitable fourth-quarter run.

Now I will grant the Raps caught a bit of a break when, down three with 20 seconds to go, Atlanta’s Marvin Williams froced an awkward drive instead of shooting a triple. Two Jason Kapono free throws later, it was over.

Speaking of Kapono, was it just me or was J-killah shooting jumpers coming off screens last night? Finally! He even made something happen on one of his out of control drives, drawing the D and kicking to Bosh for the lay-in.

Bosh, of course, was magnificent again. 30-10, plus seven assists? I really have no more words of praise to offer the guy, he’s just been too good to describe.

It’s a damn good thing the Raptors closed this one out and got a couple wins before heading west. I don’t think they’ll win one out there, but at least this gives them some confidence. Had they gone out on a 0-4 skid that really would gave been too huge a hole to climb out of.

But with two wins and the promise of Jermaine O’Neal coming back, hopefully spirits are high and this team is starting to feel good about itself. And when teams are feeling that confidence, anything can happen - maybe even a win out west.

Tags: Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors

If you can remember three weeks ago today - it feels like a lifetime, but it was a mere 21 days - the Raptors were coming off a tough loss in Detroit, but still feeling good about themselves. After all, they were 3-1, had managed to stick with Detroit - who’s had out number for years - for the whole game, and were looking to go 4-1 by beating up on the lowly old Hawks.

Even though the Hawks were 3-0, the Raptors gave them no respect, came out flat, and got their asses handed to them.

And while I’d like to believe the Raptors learned their lesson, I expect their usual un-prepared-ness will come in to play tonight, and they’ll get beat again. Only this time it’ll be even worse because it’s at home and the Raptors desperately need this win before they go out west for three games.

The Hawks are 9-5 for a reason. Behind the veteran leadership of Mike Bibby, the steady all-around play of Joe Johnson, the improvement of Marvin Williams - finally - and the surpising sophomore Al Horford, the Hawks have a lot of pieces in place. They’ve also got Josh Smith, who’s injured - they’re 3-5 without him, pretty damn good considering all the things he does for them - and a cast of solid if unspectacular role players, like Flip Murray and Maurice Evans. They’re a well-put together team; and although I haven’t thought much of their coach, Mike Woodson, over the years, I have to give him some credit. He sure flummoxed the Raptors in game one when he put Joe Johnson on Jose Calderon and Bibby on Parker. Combined output for Bibby and Johnson: 36 on 13-22. Calderon/Parker: 10 on 4-19.

Yep, slight mismatch there. Sigh.

Now, the Hawks are missing Smith so you’d think maybe that’d go in the Raps’ favour, but remember he was hurt in the first half of the first game - he left right before the Hawks went on their game-busting 18-4 run if I recall. Not only that, but we had a healthy Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon for that game, and still got killed.

Now, we’re operating without JO and a Jose who, from all indications, is still suffering from his hamstring issue (seriously? That hasn’t healed yet? What the hell good are our trainers, anyway? Or are we just using that as an excuse for his terrible defense and lack of desire to turn the corner on screens? Just something to think about).

I have to say, going back to mentioning the role players, something bothers me more and more all the time with Bryan Colangelo’s plan last summer… the Hawks lost a key role player when Josh Childress went overseas. He was replaced with Flip Murray and Evans, serviceable guys with proven NBA experience.

So why, when the Raptors lost a key guy - TJ Ford - in the Jermaine O’Neal deal (we traded two key players, TJ and Rasho, but say Rasho is replaced by O’Neal) we didn’t replace TJ with a serviceable NBA veteran? Why was the only free agent pick-up we made an unproven journeyman from Europe? Why did we go into the season with only 13 guys when a high-energy guy like Murray was out there and a bomber like Evans was out there?

And say what you want about Darrick Martin, but whenever one of Jose or TJ wasn’t playing, Martin was always trying to teach when they were on the bench. What the hell is Will Solomon gonna be teaching Roko when the two of them are on the bench? Solomon was really just an indefensible acquisition.

Sigh. Anyway. Enough with the roster-bashing, “this is your team,” as coach Norman Dale would say. Jimmy Chitwood isn’t coming to save us so we’ll have to make do.

It’s gonna take another monster night from CB4 to stay in this game tonight. Without O’Neal to back him up, Bosh is also gonna have his work cut out for him on defense, with Horford. I say we also need Andrea Bargnani to have a big night tonight, and the potential is there for it: Zaza Pachulia is surprisingly effective but Bargnani, at this point, should have too many moves for Pachulia to deal with.

Still, all told, I think the Hawks, with Raptor Killer Bibby at the helm, will likely run us off the floor again. Even if Chris and Andrea score 30 a piece, there’s no way they can make up the mismatch that is Atlanta’s backcourt over ours.

Hawks by 15.

Tags: Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors

Phew. Well, at least we won’t go on that 7-game losing streak I feared.

Don’t get me wrong, a win against the Bobcats isn’t a cure-all; there are still a lot of concerns with the Raptors right now. But a win is still a win and I’m glad they got it. They needed it.

So what can you say about Chris Bosh? He simply owns the Bobcats, doesn’t he? 39 points (on 15-20!) and 11 rebounds; he threw in a couple blocks and two key offensive rebounds to boot. He has taken his game to another level this year.

Andrea Bargnani started at the center spot yesterday and also saw some time at the three with Kris Humphries on the floor.

Now, yesterday, I said the Raptors needed someone else to step up besides Bosh and Bargnani. I never, ever thought it would be Joey Graham!

Ah, Joey. I’ve touched on Joey numerous times here at Raptorama; much as I liked the draft choice at the time (I wanted him over Granger and Green) his basketball IQ has never been equal to his athleticism. He’s shown brilliant flashes in spurts, but it’s been more bad than good the past three years.

Last night was far more good than bad. Yeah, he made a couple of mistakes - a couple of rushed jumpers (which I guarantee won’t happen with consistent minutes) and a couple bad fouls. But he was so aggressive, going to the rim, diving the lanes, bodying up Gerald Wallace… and, in terms of the jump shots, he seems to have learned the lesson that Jason Kapono has not - when you’re open, shoot the damn ball! (Sam says it all the time - when guys are open, we want them to take the shot. I can’t imagine it applies to anyone more than Kapono, but the message doesn’t seem to have gotten to him.) Well Joey’s got the message, and he delivered, the tune of 17 points.

I would like to see Joey get a “block of games” (as Mitchell likes to say) to see what he has this year. I don’t have a lot of confidence in him, but if he play, say, 70% good Joey and 30% bad, that’s OK, isn’t it? Heck, 50/50 would be better than whatever the hell Jamario Moon is bringing, which isn’t much.

All told, you can’t take too much away from this win; it’s the Bobcats, they’re terrible. The Raptors are supposed to beat teams like Charlotte. You’d have a case to complain that maybe the Raps should’ve won more easily, but then again, they’re also missing their starting centre.

Either way, it’s back to .500 (they were 7-7 last year as well) and hopefully, they got a bit of confidence back and can make a game of it Friday against the 9-5 Hawks.

Tags: Charlotte Bobcats, Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors

Time to get back to work. After two and a half days of people like me spouting off about the death of the 2008-2009 season, the Raptors finally get a chance to go out and prove us all wrong.

The potential victim: The Charlotte Bobcats, who, at 4-9, are the second-worst team in the Eastern conference.

But… while the Raptors are coming off of two horrendous losses, and dealing with injuries to Jermaine O’Neal (who may not play) and Jose Calderon (who’ll play at less than 100), the Bobcats are coming off a big win over Philadelphia and likely getting their top scorer, Jason Richardson, back after two weeks off with a knee injury.

Given the Raps less than stellar play of late, you have to imagine their confidence coming into this game is at a serious low. If Richardson is healthy, and with DJ Augustin and Ray Felton playing great basketball, plus bombers in Adam Morrison and Matt Carrol not to mention Gerald Wallace… this is a team that has strengths that can exploit our weaknesses - perimeter D, and vulnerability to the drive-and-kick.

Still, as the Raptors showed in Charlotte two weeks ago, the Bobcats have no answer for Chris Bosh, none whatsoever. Bosh dominated the second half of that game, along with some help from Andrea Bargnani. In fact, Charlotte didn’t now how to handle Andrea that day, and now he’s starting so hopefully it creates even more of a mismatch. Even if he has to start at the centre spot - if O’Neal doesn’t play - Emeka Okafor doesn’t like guarding guys on the perimeter.

Taking a look at Bargnani’s numbers since he joined the starting lineup in the 3-spot, you can see they’re looking pretty good: 17 points per game, on 56% shooting - and that’s pretty impressive seeing as how almost half his attempts are from downtown (he’s shooting 46% behind the arc). He’s also adding 5.6 boards and one block per game.

Now, those aren’t exactly all-star numbers and maybe you’d like a 7-footer to get more boards. But they are superior to what Jamario Moon was providing; though he was shooting a respectable 48% (and 42% from downtown), Jamario was only scoring 7.6 per game with 3.5 boards. While scoring isn’t really his strong suit, last year he was getting more than 6 boards per game. If he’s not willing to go get some - and, has been pointed out ad nauseum, he’s going to bite on every pump fake the other team tries - he’s not contributing. Bargnani earned his starting role by playing solid defense every time he came off the bench.

As for the rest of the Raptors, Jermaine was playing well before he got hurt, and they continue to get career years from Chris Bosh (3rd in the NBA in ppg, 5th in rebounding) and Jose Calderon (2nd in assists, 1st in free throw percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio)… but they’re getting nothing from everyone else. If O’Neal doesn’t play - and even if he does, I assume he’ll be limited - someone is going to have to step up. Whether it be Parker, Kapono or Moon, or even Humphries, if the Raps want to win tonight, they need an above-average game from one of their supporting players. Bosh will be great, and I believe Bargnani has another big game in him, but whatever Calderon does will be offset by Augustin and Felton (Calderon struggled on D before he got hurt, now I’m pretty sure Larry Brown himself could beat him off the dribble), and you know one of Wallace or Richardson will have 30-plus.

Basically, I believe tonight’s game is in the Bobcats’ hands. The Raptors are banged up and in the dumps. If the Bobcats come out aggressive, if they establish the drive and kick game and only take the threes that are open as opposed to just launching bombs, they should beat Toronto.

Thankfully, Charlotte has shown itself to be inconsistent and impatient. If they continue to do that, and if Bosh gets going and Toronto gets just a little help from its supporting players, the Raptors should win.

Or maybe those factors all cancel each other out and we have a close game down the stretch, in which case, it comes down to who manages their timeouts, who draws up the better plays and who executes.

And you don’t really think Sam Mitchell’s going to outthink Larry Brown in a close game, do you?

Bobcats by 2.

Tags: Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors