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.

I don’t have much of a preview to write here. The Raps just played the Bulls last week, and lost at home, so I don’t imagine they have much hope of winning in Chi-town.

As I wrote last week, Derrick Rose is better than any player on the Raptors (and he’s just a rookie), the Bulls winning simply depends on how much support he gets from his teammates. The Bulls have a lot of shooters, and if they’re on, they’re tough to beat; They’re also athletic so when they get out on the break, look out.

Since the Raptors give up more open looks than any team in the league and offer up some of the worst transition D you’ll ever see, it’d be pretty easy for the Bulls to run them off the floor.

The Raps were in last week’s game because Andrea Bargnani caught fire and they fed him the rock for three quarters (and proceeded to ignore him down the stretch). They also hit the glass when Gordon, Deng and Hinrich were missing shots.

That’ll be tougher tonight because the Bulls will have Drew Gooden back; their best rebounder missed the last game and although the Raps were without Jermaine O’Neal, his contribution is expected to be pretty minor.

Early word is that Jose Calderon is gonna try and play tonight. Not sure if this is a good thing or not; if he’s not 100 per cent then what’s the point? Heck, 100 per cent or not, he’s going to get destroyed by Rose.

As for the rest, well, the deal is still the same. The Bulls offer the sort of shooters and athletes that that give the Raptors trouble. If their shots are dropping and they’re getting out on the break, the Raps are in trouble. But because jump-shooting teams are always vulnerable, the Raps can steal this one - they get a few misses, hit the glass well, keep the bigs involved, slow things down some, and get solid contributions from Parker and Calderon… well, I guess there’s a chance.

But not much of one.

Bulls by 11.

Moving on, the All-Star Starters were announced last night, nothing too crazy happened (like T-Mac making it ahead of Chris Paul or even worse, Yi making it ahead of Kevin Garnett). I agree that Allen Iverson isn’t having a great year but he’s always been a fan favourite, and he’s still a very good player; remember the starters should be a combo of player talent and popularity. Devin Harris and Jameer Nelson are having good years but they haven’t reached their ceilings and they’re not that popular… yet. Let them join the team as bench players this year, pay their dues that way, and in the next year or two - assuming they continue to get better - they’ll get the votes.

I assume Chris Bosh will get selected by the coaches, and although the team sucks and Bosh has been up and down, I definitely believe he’s one of the best forwards in the east. And, although I was hoping he’d make it this year, I have no doubt that Jose Calderon will miss the cut. He’s missed too much time and, either because of the injury or some other reason, hasn’t played quite as well this year as last year. He just doesn’t deserve it, not with Harris and Nelson having the seasons they are. Even Derrick Rose is more deserving right now. Calderon’s turn is going to have to wait until next year - assuming he ever gets healthy.

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say for today. It’s an unfortunate time to be a Raptor fan, our team sucks and there’s a chance we won’t even have an all-star. Sigh. Hopefully we’ll get a couple of good, exciting games this weekend to keep us entertained.

Ugh. I don’t even know where to begin with this game.

I had a feeling the Raptors would come out slow, based on my perception of the way they’ve responded to tough losses in the past. They took their own crowd right out of the game by giving up second chance points, by not getting back in transition, and by settling for jump shots.

But I’ll give them credit for playing a six-minute stretch to finish the second quarter. Trailing by 8, we witnessed one of the most pathetic displays of basketball you’ll ever see - a Bulls possession in which, with a lineup of Deng, Gordon, Nocioni, Noah and Rose (not a single player over 6′9″ except Noah who I can’t believe is any larger than Deng), they grabbed FOUR offensive rebounds before Deng finally scored.

You can believe the crowd was upset, and the boos rained down. It was embarrassing. And now the Raps were down 10.

But then something unexpected happened. The Raptors actually responded to the fans! I almost didn’t believe it as it was happening, but the Raps went on a 20-6 run, highlighted by stellar defense and punctuated by a Solomon-to-Moon alley-oop dunk that brought the crowd to its feet. Naturally, the Raps couldn’t hold off a Hinrich three at the end of the quarter, but they’d turned a 14-point deficit into a one-point lead.

The Raps continued to play solid ball to start the third, with Bargnani and Bosh eating up the Bulls. They combined for the Raps’ first 14 points of the quarter as the lead stretched to seven, and the Bulls were reeling. But then, instead of dropping the hammer and closing the door, the defense relaxed a little and let the Bulls back in.

And come the fourth quarter, it was Derrick Rose time.

I’m just gonna say this. This Bulls team might have guys in their primes like Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Loul Deng, up and comers like Ty Thomas and Joakim Noah, plus vets like Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes… but Derrick Rose is the best player on that team and it’s not even close. He is that good. Granted the Raps D isn’t exactly stellar, but Rose was doing whatever the heck he wanted out there and I swear he didn’t even break a sweat. It was all completely effortless.

The beauty of it was, he saved it all for the fourth. He had 8 points and 8 assists at the end of three and finished with 25 and 10. In other words, he spent the first three quarters setting up his teammates and took the game over in the final frame. This is a skill that usually takes players a couple of seasons to learn (and usually takes teammates a couple of seasons to buy into) but it was a flawless display. His teammates put the ball in his hands, gave him picks, and got out of the way.

The Bulls scored 34 in the quarter. 34! The Raps simply could not get a stop. And why they switched on every screen-roll, I don’t really understand; Rose wasn’t shooting it, he was driving (and easily beating Bosh or whichever big switched to him) so why not mix up the look? Why not try going under a screen and see if he can hit the long J? Sigh. Defense was way too passive in the fourth.

Still, despite Rose’s heroics and the awful defense, the Raps were still in it thanks to Bargnani’s hot shooting. 10-14 for 31 points, plus 2-4 from three, 9-10 from the line and 10 boards. Easily his best game as a pro. The Bulls had no idea what to do with the guy, and he was in the zone - everything was going in, even shots that bounced off the rim three times dropped through.

Naturally, in typical Raptor fashion, he didn’t take a single shot in the final 6:13. He only got the ball once in scoring position, and he traveled on a post move. He wasn’t a factor at all in the offense.

Don’t get me wrong, Bosh was having a good game as well, but the two of them work better when they’re working together, you know?

So, Bosh gets the ball down four with a minute to go, and botches a drive. Tough play, lotta contact, but you won’t often get that call in a close game. After a Nocioni miss Anthony Parker - who was solid - scored on a driving, aggressive layup and it was a two-point game.

After the Raps fouled (about 10 seconds too late) the Bulls proceeded to turn the ball over on the inbounds! I couldn’t believe it. The crowd went nuts. 14 seconds to go, Raps have the ball and a chance to tie or win.

You know what happened next.

Bosh executed an extremely sloppy drive and spin, rose up and got his shot blocked back in his face by Noah, who had played all of 13 seconds in the entire second half.

Mr. Un-Clutch strikes again. Sigh.

I don’t understand the play call, to be honest. I get the idea of putting the ball in the hands of your best player. But an iso? For a power forward? Bosh is many things but he’s not Paul Pierce, you know? Compared to other PFs, yes, he is fairly adept at creating his own shot, but still… you can’t be relying on that at the end of the game. Why not get him the ball on a cut through the paint? Why not a simple pick and roll, try and get him matched up on someone smaller? Why not anything with some movement where he can kick out to a teammate who happens to be on fire (like Bargnani)? Anything where all he has to do is score, not create.

Argh. I agree Bosh should be the first option. But as far as I can tell there was no other option on that play. The Raptors have the most success when they move the ball and just dumping it into Bosh and saying “do it yourself” does not strike me as the best play call.

At the end of the day, it was an exciting game and I’m glad to have seen it in person. Few other random observations:

• Kapono hit a couple of shots but was predictably awful on defense, getting out of position and forcing the entire Raps team to scramble. Joey Graham can no longer call himself the Hulk; in fact, if there’s a super-hero name to describe his performance last night, I’d say it was the Invisible Woman. 0-1, two boards, two fouls, two turnovers in 12 minutes? Yikes.
• Moon had a couple nice plays but as usual, settled for WAY too many jumpers. You realize the guy is shooting 8-38 from downtown in his past 14 games? That’s a Roko Ukic-like 21 per cent. Please, stop shooting, Jamario.
• Parker was solid. 7-11, 15 points, held Gordon to 10 points on 4-13 shooting.
• Will Solomon shot two threes, both times the crowd held their breath. Only one dropped. He wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t great, Ukic was the same. Although everything Ukic did was going to the basket, which is good, he’s still struggling to finish in there. It’ll come. I think the kid’s going to be good. He’s not intimidated and he has gotten about 1000 times better at handling pressure than he was at the start of the year.
• You knew it was going to be “one of those nights” when the Raptor missed both of his trampoline dunks during the second-quarter timeout! Yikes.
• Chuck Swirsky got a plaque of recognition and a nice round of applause at halftime. We were sitting 10 rows up, right behind he and Bill Wennington, and if we’d arrived a few minutes earlier I would have gone down and said hello. As it was he was chatting with several fans and I knew there wouldn’t have been time to get a handshake before he had to be in his seat.
• Matt Devlin is quite tall. Wonder if he ever played?
• Decent sized crowd, but it’s true what they say - it’s dead in the lower bowl and it makes you feel uncomfortable to cheer too loud. Nobody in my section got in on the “de-fense” chant except me and my buddy. I don’t know how you could not get excited during the final two minutes of that game… unless you’re not a basketball fan. And I guess that’s the problem with the corporate seats. Too many of these people are just there to be there, not because they’re fans. Real shame.
• Jermaine O’Neal: MIA. Jose Calderon? On the bench. Drew Gooden, injured for the Bulls? On the bench. Nathan Jawai? Inactive all year but has been on the bench every single game. This is getting ridiculous. My buddy speculated that maybe he has a stipulation in his contract that says if he’s hurt he gets to stay at home or something. Which is fine, but why not just say so? Why the smokescreen about treatment? It’s BS. Give us the true story here!

Well, another tough loss in a season full of them. I’ll have a half-way report this weekend, after game #41… let’s just say whatever optimism I had left is all but gone.

Another day, another game the city of Toronto misses because it’s on TSN2. Sigh. Lucky for me, however, I’ll be at this one. I wonder, next year, do you think they can do a “TSN2″ ticket package where you can buy tickets to all the TSN2 games? That’d be nice.

Either way, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Derrick Rose play, so I’m glad I’ll get the chance to see him live and in person.

Chicago’s a funny team. Two years ago, the same season the Raps won 47, the Bulls won 49. Last year, with great expecations, they lost 49, and didn’t even make the playoffs.

This year, the expectations were minimum and they’ve started off slow again - 16-22. Their team is a little different - they traded away Ben Wallace, for one thing - and they’ve handed the reins to Rose. Plus they replaced head coach Scott Skiles with rookie Vinnie Del Negro. They’ve still got a lot of talent left over from that 49-win team, though. Loul Deng, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni… they’ve got young guys in Tyrus Thomas and Jaokim Noah, not to mention Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden… you might say they’re a lot like the Raptors in that their roster should have produced a better record thus far. Plus, like the Raptors, they also lost to the Thunder! Couple of regular overachievers here, eh? Sigh.

Deng and Hinrich have both missed time due to injury, but both played in the Bulls’ last game (off the bench) so we should see them tonight. The Bulls come in off a five-game home stand in which they went 2-3; in fact they’ve lost 7 of 10. Before getting schedule-fucked (seriously, back-to-back games against the Champs?) the Raps had won 4 of 5, so as I said yesterday, the big test is going to be seeing how they bounce back from the Boston beatings. Will they get right back on track, or have those two games completely thrown them off the rails?

Rose has been impressive, averaging 16 points, 6 assists and 3 boards, starting in all 38 games. He’s also shooting 46% from the floor, not bad for a rook. Yeah, he’s got almost three turnovers a game but that’s to be expected from a rookie PG.

If our two back-up PGs can give the same solid play they gave against Boston on Monday (combined: 11-18, 4-5 3FG, 5 boards, 8 assists, only 2 turnovers and 26 points) then we should be able to hold our own in the PG battle, especially if Hinrich is still rusty (they also have Lindsey Hunter, who isn’t scaring anyone). If Jose plays, well, he’d better be at 100 per cent because we can’t afford to let Rose get into the paint at will.

At the off-guard, the Bulls trot out super-scorer Ben Gordon who can light it up in a hurry. But, I believe he can also be taken out of a game with some aggressive D, which is what Anthony Parker will have to bring. I hope he’s up to it because if Gordon goes off, the Raps don’t have a chance in this one.

The Bulls have started Deng, Hughes and Thabo Sefolosha at times at SF this year; plus, they’ve also got Andres Nocioni who can play there. Deng, obviously, is the biggest threat (when healthy) but Hughes can still score too. Moon just has to stick to his defensive principles - keep in front, stay down - and he can be effective. Of course, we all know how likely it is that’ll happen, so expect one of them to go off tonight.

Up front, the Raps should - SHOULD - have a big advantage. But, Drew Gooden always manages to have good games against us, so I expect he can effectively neutralize Bosh (unless Gooden is injured - apparently he rolled an ankle in the Bulls’ last game). That means Bargnani’s gonna need another big game, something he shouldn’t have any problem doing with Thomas or Noah guarding him. They’re athletic young guys, but haven’t yet proven they have the basketball smarts to hang with a versatile big like Bargnani. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of Nocioni guarding the big Italian - he’s a decent defender with good footspeed who should be able to stay with AB.

Of course, there is the question of Jermaine O’Neal, who is rumoured to be ready to play in this one. I’d be happy just to see him in person, you know, to see if he still exists (anyone notice Kendrick Perkins on the bench for Boston the other night, even though he’s hurt? Funny how that works. Sigh). No word at this point if he plays (or if Jose plays, though that seems more unlikely) and certainly no word on if he starts or comes off the bench… but I can’t imagine him not starting. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

One other thing to note, Chuck Swirsky, former voice of the Raptors and current Bulls radio play-by-play man, will be back in the house for the first time since leaving last summer.

I always liked Chuck. Yes, he was too over the top and an unbelievably biased homer. And he should have retired the “salami and cheese” bit long ago. But he was a good play-by-play guy, and he had an undeniable passion for the team, the sport of basketball, and most notably the city and Canada in general. I know he’s a team employee, but that only makes it his job to be a homer. He went above and beyond the call of duty in his effort to integrate basketball as a sport, and himself as a person, into Toronto and Canada. He didn’t have to do that, but he did, and I’ll always respect him for that.

And he was memorable, you can’t deny that. He was a personality, a true character. Watch one Raptors game with him doing the play-by-play and you couldn’t forget him. I wished he would have stayed because I love the idea of having a “voice” for the team, you know? Guys like that, the Chick Hearn, the Jack Buck, heck, even the Tom Cheek… they are a dying breed and I hoped Chuck would have a legacy like that. And if you’re gonna have a “voice of the team” it should definitely be someone unique and memorable. He did every game for what, nine years? There’s no doubt some Raptors fans who had never heard a game called by anyone else until Devlin stepped in.

Don’t get me wrong, Devlin’s done a fine job, but, well, let’s just say he’s no Swirsky, eh? I’ll always miss Chuck.

As for the game, well, I really want to believe the Raps can take this one. But their bad habit of blowing games after tough losses doesn’t give me much confidence. I’m afraid their mental makeup is still shaky and they’ll come out flat and uninspired… and that means the Bulls will take it, by 9.

Well, I hope everyone has put their panic buttons back in storage where they belong. It’s clear this Raptors team isn’t finished yet!

They thoroughly drubbed the Bulls last night, much like they did to the Nets just over a week ago. I’ve said before, the Raps didn’t have nearly enough blow-out wins for my taste last year - you always need these types of wins, to build confidence, to intimidate other teams, to rest guys - so I’m glad to see we’ve had a couple in this young season.

The Raps used a bilstering 31-9 run across the second and third quarters to turn a 2-point game into a rout, at which point Scott Skiles sat his starters for the rest of the night. Not sure if he was conceding the game or sending a lesson? Both perhaps.

Not to take anything away from the Raptors, but the Bulls looked awful last night. They had some seriously bad body language going on, and there was a distinct lack of communication between them. Did anyone on the floor say one word to one of his teammates? I didn’t see it.

The Bulls young guns - Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Loul Deng - shot a combined 6-24. That’s unbelievable; these guys are great offensive players, and have absolutely murdered the Raps the past couple of years. I’m sure the Raps defense had something to do with it, but overall, the Bulls just looked out of sync.

I expect they’ll improve as the season goes on, but I can’t blame their fans for booing last night.

As for the Raps, imagine my shock at seeing Jamario Moon in the starting lineup! Holy cow, was that a shocker. I mean it took Sam like 10 games just to give Bargnani more than five minutes last year… it’s the guy’s second game and he’s starting? Wow.

I must say, he played great though. 23 minutes, 12 points, 6 boards, 3 steals… he’s as active as any Raptor on the defensive end, getting in the passing lanes, slithering in for rebounds, tapping balls, keeping them alive… between he and Rasho, I thought the Raptors had a big edge in energy around the glass last night. They were in the mix for every ball. That’s two straight games - on the road no less! - the Raps outrebounded their opponents. That’s a trend I like!

What I don’t like… Bargnani’s troubling interior play continued (and again he was nailing it from outside… stay there!). Even worse… he had a big fat goose egg on the boards! Zero in 23 minutes. (This makes it even more impressive that the Raps are outrebounding their opponents…) Seriously, the kid has to get his groove back. They’re not gonna win without him…

Parker had another solid game, and while Bosh didn’t get to the free throw line, his outside shot was finally dropping. He finished with 14 and 6, in only 27 minutes.

Carlos Delfino had another solid game on both ends of the floor. I really love the second unit, with him, Jose Calderon and Bargnani…

Kapono finally had a decent shooting game, going 5-7; he didn’t start, but still played 27 minutes, so that’s a good sign that, like Bargnani, not starting was not really a “demotion” - he’s still going to get his minutes, just at different times.

On the point guard front, Ford and Calderon combined for 23 assists and 3 turnovers. I hope everyone who bitches about Ford doing this and Jose doing that remember just how damn lucky we are to have two starter-quality point guards on our team!

If the Raptors can run two units with three quality players each - Ford, Bosh and Parker, followed by Calderon, Bargnani and Delfino - the other four players can be pretty much interchangeable. It really is a testament to how deep this team is.

So, now they’ve got a couple days off before the Jazz roll to town. Let’s hope the Raps learn from the lessons of the last two games - crashing the glass, hustling back on defense, moving the ball, getting to the free throw line - and not get mired in the offensive struggles that befell them last week.

Finally, a win! Seems like it’s been forever since New Jersey… the last week felt like about six months for Raptors fans.Last night’s win in Philly was a decent win, although the Raps sure made it harder than it should have been. They should have put the Sixers away! But they allowed them to hang around and then, with some untimely misses from the free throw line, almost gave it to them.

Thankfully, the Sixers added a big FT miss of their own and we got the win.

So last night was the first night with the switch back to Rasho Nesterovic in the starting lineup. While his contribution offensively was, um, non-existent (0 points in 12 minutes) he did have eight rebounds. I definitely think he made his presence felt on the defensive end, clogging the lane and altering shots.

And I don’t know if you can say for sure that Rasho starting had anything to do with it, but Chris Bosh finally had a breakout game. He was taking the ball strong to the hole on isolation plays, and getting to the free throw line, going14 of 16 on the night.

Most important of all may have been the play of Anthony Parker. He finally had a solid game from start to finish. He was hitting his shots, including a big three towards the end, and the rotation and release looked picture perfect.

Now, let’s talk about the final few minutes. With a small lead, the Raps basically allowed second-year player Louis Williams to take over the game. Now, granted, you’d rather have Louis Williams taking the big shots than Andre Igoudala or Kyle Korver (who had an awful game and is killing my fantasy team) or even Andre Miller. But here’s my problem… why in the hell are the refs protecting Louis Williams? He’s a second year guy who barely gets off the bench! Yet in the final minute he got a three-point play and a four point play opportunity! The four-point play was an egregiously awful call. He jumped right into Anthony Parker, who was actually leaning away from him to avoid contact… and Parker gets the foul. I thought the league was going to stop calling the plays when offensive players clearly jump into defenders? But even so, he still BARELY grazed Parker. Why was he sent to the line? Maybe you give Igoudala that call… but not Louis Williams.

Anyway, he missed the game-tying free throw, and that saved our skins… because Carlos Delfino went 1-4 in the final minute from the line! Sheesh. How does Delfino go 2-4 from three, and 1-4 at the line? I thought I might have a heart attack… anyway, Chris Bosh grabbed the offensive board on Delfino’s final miss, and that was that. Thank God.

The big surprise last night was definitely the play of Jamario Moon. The 27-year old rookie scored his first NBA points - on a dunk no less - and threw in 7 more, along with 8 rebounds and 2 steals. He definitely was an energizing factor for the Raptors… I don’t have the fast break numbers but it felt like they definitely had more fast break opportunities than they’ve been getting so far this year. Even more odd, he got Andrea Bargnani’s crunch time minutes!

Speaking of Bargnani… I’m not sure what’s going on with him. He went 3-8 last night, 2-4 from downtown. The problem seems to be his post up game. Basically, he doesn’t have one. Yet the Raps keep posting him up! Meanwhile, he’s knocking down threes with deadly accuracy, and opposing bigs don’t know how to guard him out there… why isn’t he running that screen and roll from the top and popping out. That’s the play he’s money on, why are they going away from it?

For his part, Bargnani needs to develop a back-to-the-basket dribble and dropstep. These are the basic post moves, the rest of the stuff can come later. But even when he’s got smaller players on him, he faces up - which allows them to swipe the ball. On three straight Bargnani post-ups last night, the results were turnover, miss, turnover. Meanwhile he hit 50% from three. Go with what works!

But back to Moon… anything they get from him, obviously, is a bonus. They took a gamble on signing him and it paid off last night.

Few other notes…

• The Raps got Sam Dalembert in early foul trouble, which was key. He missed almost the entire first half and only ended up playing 20 minutes; he didn’t control the paint the way he did in game one. The Raps also held Reggie Evans to 7 rebounds, something which I think having Rasho in the lineup helped with. It was a pretty intense, physical game, and the Raps actually held their own.
• The Sixers seem to basically play playground ball… they grab rebounds and run, and don’t really seem to have any plays in the halfcourt besides “Isolate Igoudala on the wing” and “point guard penetrates.” (Not that the Raps are running an offensive clinic, but still… young teams like that need some kinda structure.)
• Our two point guards continued their rock solid play. Combined: 25 points on 10-16 shooting, 12 assists, 3 steals and 4 turnovers.

All in all it was a tough, gritty contest that the Raps were able to grind out - these are the type of wins you sometimes need to help get everything back on track.

As for tonight’s contest in Chicago, I can’t figure out the Bulls… they have pretty much the exact same team as last year, except Joe Smith has replaced PJ Brown… other than that, they’re the same team that won 50 games. So what’s the problem? I’ll have to see them to get an idea. But let’s keep in mind they started slow last year (3-9 as I recall) before they came on, so don’t count them out yet. The prediction: Bulls by 9.