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
Entries (RSS)