Finally, Jose Calderon is back. Finally, the Raptors showed that they can, indeed finish a ball game.

After all the recent late-game collapses, I’m still having trouble believing this, but the Raptors - clinging to a 94-92 lead with five minutes to go - slammed the door shut on the Bulls with a 20-2 run to close the game. When was the last time you saw something like that?

To be honest, I don’t know what the heck is going on with Chicago; Vinnie Del Negro threw out some pretty wild substitutions last night. Rose never got anything going because he was jerked on and off the floor all night. And why’d he go back to Noah (5 fouls) in the fourth? It’s not like played well (zero field goals, three boards). That team appears to be in disarray.

All told though, I think it’s pretty clear that with a healthy Jose Calderon, the Raptors are a different team. He was much more aggressive on offense last night (10 shots) and his steady hand was key to the team’s late game surge. He led all scorers with 23, had 10 assists, and made all 4 of his free throws.

Chris Bosh struggled shooting the ball, but Andrea Bargnani picked up the slack (23 points). Parker had another solid game, and Graham played well also. Moon, well, he didn’t do much and Roko struggled in his few minutes.

Unfortunately for Jermaine O’Neal, the only thing he did was let himself be posterized by Tyrus Thomas. JO is still struggling to get his legs, but at least he’s healthy.

Overall, though, it was a solid effort all-around. As I said yesterday, this team is much more interesting to watch when it’s at full strength. It was definitely an enjoyable Friday night game.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 6:40 am and is filed under Game Wrap-ups, Toronto Raptors.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.