Well, the Raptors are inching back closer to respectability thanks to two straight wins. No, neither opponent was a world-beater, so it doesn’t make sense to get too excited, but the Nets are above us in the standings, and as I said the other day, wins are wins!
And, as we all know, there was a little extra motivation for last night’s game.
It sure seemed to pay off, as the Raps earned their first blowout win of the year - Chris Bosh and and Jose Calderon got the fourth quarter off! I didn’t see that coming.
As for Vince, you’ve all heard the story by now - 0-13, only 3 pts on 3-4 foul shooting. Hate to blow my own horn, but didn’t I just say he was due for a bad game? Now, maybe, can we stop the “he plays so great against the Raptors!” comments.
To be honest, I was more worried about Devin Harris going into the game than Vince. Harris has been playing so well, and our perimeter defense - especially that of Jose Calderon - had been so weak, I thought Harris would go off. But, credit Jay Triano for giving Harris a multitude of looks - Calderon, the strong Joey Graham and the long Jamario Moon - to keep Harris off-balance. He finished 4-10 for 14 points.
The first half sure was a sloppy affair, with only Bosh really finding a groove; both sides missed a ton of open looks and the combined 74 points at halftime wasn’t pretty.
But Jason Kapono found his groove in the third with three threes and the Raptors sealed the deal early.
For the second straight game the Raptors held an opponent under 35% shooting. Crappy opponents, or good defense? I’d like to think it was a combo of both. I mean, you look at the Pacers and Nets; both were averaging just over 100 points per game going into their contests with the Raps (on 45% shooting) and the Raps held them to 88 and 79 respectively, on 35% and 31% shooting, respectively. So you gotta give the defense some credit.
Credit the Raptors bench, too, for playing well, and not just holding the lead but building it. Raps won every quarter except the ugly third, where each team scored 16. Ukic, Graham and Bargnani all scored in double figures off the pine.
Unfortunately, Bargnani’s 11 came on 10 shots and he only hit two of them (got the rest of his points at the line). He was fine defensively - 11 boards and 4 blocks - but man, he has got to get that jump shot falling. Like last year, he’s rushing everything and nothing he shoots even looks like it has a chance to go in.
Jermaine O’Neal was also a non-factor; 2-9, 2 boards, 2 blocks. Bosh made up for the scoring, at least, going 6-8. But he only had 5 boards as the Raps were once again outrebounded 50-37.
Now, once again - as with the Indy game - the Nets’ low shooting percentage contributes to that number. You miss 57 shots, there’s a lot of offensive boards to be had - and the Nets got 20 offensive boards. At the end of the day, though, a 13-rebound differential is way too high, regardless of the shooting percentages.
So, once again, a quality win. Raps led most of the way, held every Nets run in check, and won going away. A much, much tougher test comes to town tomorrow with the Hornets, but at least these wins should give the Raps some confidence going into that one.
And yes… revenge is indeed, sweet. Thanks for another memorable one, Vince! See ya Monday!
Tags: Chris Bosh, New Jersey Nets, Toronto Raptors, Vince Carter
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