Well, looks like another entertaining game, and another blown win for the Raps. Sigh. You realize they’ve lost the last six games by an average of five a night? That in three of those losses, they were winning at the end of the third quarter?

If I can’t make it any more obvious: This team just can’t finish.

You know what’s interesting, is that over the past few years, we’ve all derided Sam Mitchell’s Xs and Os as the reason the Raps never seemed to score at the end of quarters or out of timeouts, and never seemed to execute when the game was close.

Yet here we’ve got a new coach and nothing’s changed.

Now, it’s possible Jay’s Xs and Os aren’t very good either. But I think it’s more likely that Sam’s assertion - “we draw up the plays, it’s up to the guys to execute them,” implying the guys on the floor simply don’t execute in the clutch - is actually the truth.

Look at the end of quarters 1-3 against Atlanta:

1: Raps get ball back with 23 seconds to go; Roko dribbles the ball off his foot, right to Flip Murray with 2 seconds to go. Can’t blame Jay for that one.

2: Raps get ball back with seven seconds to go; Bargnani turns it over, Moon fouls Joe Johnson with a second left, he hits both free throws and the quarter ends. Can’t blame Jay for that one.

3: Raps get ball back with 10 seconds left; Roko doesn’t attack, so the Hawks don’t have to use their foul to give until the three second mark. And somehow, Jake freakin’ Voskuhl ends up with the ensuing inbounds (and not surprisingly, misses a 17-footer). Might be on Jay for designing a play where Voskuhl end ups with the ball or even has Voskuhl in the game… but Roko needs to be aware of the clock and the foul situation.

4: With 50 seconds to go, trailing by one, Bosh loses the ball to Josh Smith - not Jay’s fault. Evans blows a crazy layup the other way - lucky break for the Raps. Parker pushes the ball ahead, but before anyone even gets down to set up the offense… Jamario Moon LAUNCHES A THREE. With 20 seconds on the shot clock and 35 on the game clock. Urgh. But definitely not Jay’s fault.

After Johnson hits a fadeaway to make the lead three, Raps get the ball back with 12 seconds to go. After a scramble, Kapono attempts an off-balance pass to Bargnani, or maybe it’s a shot, I’m really not sure. Either way, it’s deflected, but Kapono gets it back and launches an off-balance three with two seconds left. Airball. Game over.

In summary, the Hawks scored the final points of each quarter, and ended the game on a 7-2 run. They won by three. That tell you how important it is to finish quarters? And just how bad the Raps are at finishing? Sigh. But the point is, I don’t think you can blame Jay for the turnovers, or Moon and Kapono’s bad decision making. At the most, the blame is equal, but I’m starting to think more and more that Mitchell was right all along.

The end of the fourth was particularly hard on Moon. Bosh apparently chewed him out after Moon gave up a drive and a foul to Joe Johnson that cut the Raps lead to one with just over a minute left. Moon proceeded to bite on a Bibby pump fake on the next Hawks possession, which gave the Hawks the lead after Bibby hit the foul shots. That led to the final 50 seconds described above. Moon’s definitely the goat today, although Bosh’s last-minute turnover, Roko’s 5 turnovers, and Andrea’s 2-8 second half shooting didn’t help.

In the post-game, Bosh continued to talk about making the playoffs and playing with a sense of urgency. It’s entirely possible he’s just delusional, but on the other hand, maybe he really believes it, and it’s great to see that passion. I’m happy he hasn’t quit on the team or season, because, let’s be honest, he could. He has limited teammates around him, his point guard is injured, his coach was fired, his “genius” GM seems shockingly ineffectual at the moment… you know there are a lot of NBA players out there who would quit in this situation or just play out the string without caring. But Bosh is still battling, still playing hard, still getting upset about losses. I like to see that.

As for Bosh’s role in clutch situations… well, I agree completely with Doug Smith on the point that it’s not a good thing that your power forward is the only guy capable of stepping up to make big shots. Power forwards in general are not creators, they need someone to get them the ball in a good position to score. They aren’t generally asked to create off the dribble and break their man down to get a clutch basket, which is what you need in end of game situations - just ask Joe Johnson.

Unfortunately, there’s nobody on this team capable of doing that and as the best all-around player, the task falls to Bosh. He’s proven the past few games that he’s not really up to that task, and that’s unfortunate… but he shouldn’t be taking the heat for it that he is, because it shouldn’t be his role. Yes, absolutely, he could do a better job than he’s done; he’s proven in the past his best move is to take the ball and attack with zero hesitation because he’s pretty damn quick. If the defense recovers, he generally works the spin pretty well or should be able to kick out. He didn’t do that against Chicago, and last night he moved quick but dribbled the ball of his hip - Josh Smith is actually one of the few defenders who can stay with him.

It would be nice if Triano could come up with a play call to get Bosh the ball in a better position to score; but, that would require the other four players to execute screens and cuts and get the ball to him. If Triano doesn’t trust them to do that (especially with Jose out), well, I can’t really blame him… can you? Hell, half the time they can barely even get the ball inbounds!

What it comes down to is this: Bosh is a great player, a fantastic all-around talent that you can, in fact, build a team around. But one of the pieces he needs is a small forward or shooting guard that can create his own shot. The Raptors have not had that since Vince Carter was here. That’s why you always saw TJ Ford taking the end-of-quarter shots - he could break ankles, unfortunately, he was a terrible finisher and didn’t usually hit the shots he created. Until the Raps have someone like that to at least be a threat to finish then Bosh will continue to be ineffective in the role.

As for the non-trade talk, it would appear nothing is happening on the Jermaine O’Neal front, including JO spending time with his teammates. I can’t believe this isn’t a bigger issue to our “sports media.” Look, I appreciate how hard the guy has played when he has played. There’s no question he gives his best effort on the court. But why on earth can’t he sit on the bench with his teammates? Please, please, stop with the lame-ass “treatment” excuses. There’s no way in hell he was in the visitor’s locker room in Atlanta receiving treatment all game long. You don’t go on road trips to get “treatment.” This is just weird and getting weirder.

Anyway, for the trade itself, it seems to be in some holding pattern, we’ll see if it goes down today or what. I still don’t know if Marion is the right guy - as I just said, it’s clearly evident this team needs someone who can create their own shot and that’s not Marion - but he is a huge upgrade over Moon or Graham at SF, and he, you know, plays, unlike O’Neal.

Ultimately, though, Marion is only here until the end of this year (his contract is up and no way in hell does he resign here) so he won’t be making much difference for the Raps. Even if he was the player they need or if they make a trade for a scorer, it won’t help this season. For whatever reason, Colangelo waited far, far too long to make a trade and now it’s too late. This should have happened by the end of December when there was still time to turn it around; it was obvious to all of us the Raps needed a trade (see my Raptors-Mavericks preview from December 17: I thought a trade would be made that week). Why wasn’t it obvious to Colangelo? Why did he wait?

I guess we’ll never know, but we know he waited too long.

A mid-afternoon tip (as our American cousins celebrate Martin Luther King day) sees the Raps taking on the Hawks in Atlanta. As I indicated earlier, most of the intrigue today surrounds Jermaine O’Neal and the trade rumours, but there is still a game to be played!

The Raps and Hawks have split their two matchups, each winning at home in November; the Raptors 93-88 victory on November 28 was Sam Mitchell’s last win as Raptor head coach.

The Hawks rode their backcourt of Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson in their win, and the Raps rode the back of Chris Bosh in theirs. Bosh’s 30-10-7 capped off his magnificent November.

So who will show up to play today? Once again, the Raps get schedule-screwed, having to play on the road on the second day of a back-to-back while the Hawks had both Saturday and Sunday off.

The Hawks were missing defensive ace and high-flyer Josh Smith in the Raptors’ win, and he’s back in the lineup now. However, Al Horford is out with a knee injury, as the status of Marvin Williams - who hit his head on the floor against the Warriors Friday - is also questionable. Without those two, the Hawks will be on the small side tonight.

As for the Raptors, well, they’re also shorthanded. Even if O’Neal plays, he’ll likely be limited, and there’s no word yet on Jason Kapono, who sat out yesterday’s game with the flu (unfortunately for Raps fans, this looks to actually be the flu, and not trade speculation flu). And of course, starting point guard Jose Calderon is still on the shelf with the Hamstring That Won’t Heal.

So, that means Parker will likely get the start at PG, and although it’s a plus to have him guarding Bibby, I suspect the Hawks will pick him up full court and try and pressure him into a couple turnovers, and will likely have some success.

Of course, given the absence of Horford and perhaps Williams, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani should have no trouble scoring against Zaza Pachulia, Solomon Jones and Maurice Evans, should they? Bargnani has struggled a little the past two games (11-30, 4-10 from downtown, 8 turnovers) so let’s hope the Raps can get him back on track.

Meanwhile, on the defensive end, I suspect the Hawks will get out and run and expose the Raptors’ sloppy transition D. Look for some Josh Smith highlight-reel alley-oops on the 6:00 Sportscenter.

Joey Graham will likely get his second straight start at SG, matching up with Joe Johnson. Johnson has killed the Raps in the past but Joey has the size to guard him. Will he play smart and stay out of foul trouble? Remains to be seen, but if the same Joey shows up today that showed up yesterday, he’ll help the Raptors stay in this one.

All in all, I have to give the advantage to Atlanta. Their frontcourt is small, but Bibby, Johnson and Smith are Raptor killers. Even if Bosh and Bargnani have big games, the Raptors have proven they don’t know how to ride a hot hand and you’ll likely see some forced bricks down the stretch. And without Jose, you’re going to see too many turnovers, leading to too many Hawks fast breaks.

Add to all that, the Hawks are 15-4 on their homecourt. Whoever would have thought Atlanta would have a significant homecourt advantage? But you know what, good for them. They’ve been bad for so long, it’s good to see a team like that finally have some success. And I like the way they built this team through the draft, and added a veteran leader (Bibby) to guide their young guys. That’s the way to do it.

Hawks by six.

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.

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.

Oh, boy. And I thought the defense played poorly Wednesday night? I don’t think there are words to describe how awful the Raptors played on D last night.

Basically, everything I said the Raptors needed to do, they didn’t. Keep them out of transition? Nope. They were fast-breaking all night. Hold Johnson or Bibby in check? Nope, they combined for 36 on 13-22 shooting (and 7-10 from 3).

Even after Josh Smith got hurt, you’d think the Raptors might take advantage but nope. There was Bibby, the Raptor killer, hitting 4 straight threes in an 18-4 Hawks run in the second that all but ended the game.

Bosh had another solid game, and O’Neal wasn’t too shabby either. But when the Hawks are beating you down the floor every posession, it’s gonna be hard to keep up.

Jamario Moon was awful yet again, securing only two boards as Hawks scrubs scored at will. Kapono wasn’t much better - 15 shots, none of them threes? I think it’s possible they are in fact the worst SF rotation in the league. Neither one does what their supposed specialty is!

Sigh. You know you hate to say it, it’s only game six, but tomorrow’s tilt in Charlotte is a must-win. They can’t go into Boston 3-3… They just can’t.

Toronto Raptors (3-1) at Atlanta Hawks (3-0)

Look out, folks, the Hawks are undefeated! Seriously, this team has played some solid basketball so far. They beat the hornets on Wednesday! Held one of the West favourites to 79 points! For the Raptors, coming off a tough home loss, this will not be an easy win.

Now, the Raps have had a lot of success against the Hawks in the past. Well, when the Hawks scorekeepers don’t actually, you know, steal the game from them and give it to the Hawks…

However, this is a different team now; sure, Josh Childress is backpacking around Europe, but I was never that impressed with him. And clearly they’re not missing him.

What concerns me is Mike Bibby. Yeah, maybe he’s lost a step. But if you’re not aware, Mike Bibby is an absolute Raptor killer. I don’t have stats on him, but I know that there’ve been any number of games where he’s just either destroyed the Raptors with great all-around production, or simply hit a clutch shot that drives the dagger in. He managed to do both last April in Toronto; he hit a game-tying three at the buzzer, sending the game into OT, where he hit another three with a minute left to give the Hawks the final lead. He finished with a 26-12-6. Yep. Raptor killer, through and through.

Then you’ve got Joe Johnson, who’s also had success against Toronto, and, given the Raptors, ahem, less than stellar wing play, will probably continue to do so.

Throw in Josh Smith, the improving Marvin Williams and the impressive Al Horford, and they’ve got a decent team. To be honest, I’m actually really looking forward to seeing them, and how they all mesh, now that Bibby’s had time to settle in.

It’s an athletic team, no doubt. Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon are gonna have their hands full. I’m sure Parker will harass Johnson as much as he can, but if Moon lets Smith get off the way he let Tayshaun Prince get off, it’s going to be a long night.

Still, I have to believe the Raptors have the advantage up front; Williams and Horford can’t match up with Bosh and O’Neal. If Bosh continues to play at a high level, no one on the Hawks can stop him. And if Bargnani can get it going, he’s a matchup nightmare for them as well.

Much has been made in the press the past couple days about O’Neal’s poor offensive production. Personally, I’m OK with him not scoring - it’s his defense that really matters, and he’s been huge in that regard. Foul trouble limited him on Wednesday and led to that Detroit layup line in the second, and he didn’t get as many boards as I’d like. But you know he’s altering shots, making guys think twice about penetrating, and occupying rebounders so Bosh can hit the glass.

On offense, yeah, he’s missed a lot of shots, and he’s forced a couple. I would like to see the Raptors change up how they get him the ball a little bit. Right now, they give it to Bosh in a variety of ways; off screen-roll, iso’d at the elbow, in the post. With O’Neal, they’re only dumping it to him when he’s on the block. Sure, his turnaround used to be solid from there, if not great; but clearly, it’s not there at all right now, due to some combination of rust, age, declining skill, whatever. He doesn’t have the lift or the touch to hit it consistently.

So why not get him the ball elsewhere? Why not on screen and roll? Get him some open fifteen-footers. He can shoot from there, and it’ll likely do him some good to be able to put up a shot or two without a defender all over his back. And if he hits one or two, well, that’ll open things up a little more down low for him.

That’s my suggestion, anyway.

As for tonight, as long as the Raptors don’t let the Hawks get out in transition (where Smith is a killer) and they hold at least one of Bibby or Johnson in check, they should come away with a victory; I hope they’re sufficiently disappointed in themselves from Wednesday that it gives them extra motivation and it’s a 16-point final.

Final not, the next two games are very important for the Raptors; they’ve got Hawks, then the Bobcats, before the big matchup with the Celtics on Monday (a back-to-back with the Bobcats on Sunday). That’s a tough one - going into Boston at the end of a three-game trip - so it’s important to go in there on a winning note. You definitely don’t want to go in there at 3-3, because let’s be honest… you won’t be coming out 4-3. Winning tonight is going to ease the pressure on that game in a big way.