DIsgusting effort + Disgusting officiating = Disgusting loss. Booed at home again, for what, the fourth time this season?

I’m sure that’ll upset Chris Bosh but maybe this team needs to start looking in the mirror. Yo Chris - there’s a reason you’re being booed. We don’t expect the team to win every game, but we expect effort, 82 nights for 48 minutes - and I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I just can’t understand how a professional sports team - one that’s on a roll and supposedly playing with extreme confidence, AT HOME - can play so passively. Jump shot after jump shot, against a team without a big interior presence. Unacceptable.

Don’t even get me started on the refs. They’re certainly not why the Raptors lost - plenty of awful calls went Milwaukee’s way too. But my God. What the hell were they doing out there? I tell you, if these two teams actually had any balls, it would have degenerated into a cage match. As it is you’ve got two crappy teams without much heart lucky for the NBA, all you had was a little shoving and some harsh words.

Just a joke of a game, a complete waste of everyone’s time that bothered to watch.

Welcome to another five game losing streak!

Well, it’s date #3 with Milwaukee tonight. The teams have split the season series, and in both games, the losing team pretty much choked down the stretch (you may remember the January meeting in Milwaukee, which the Bucks won 107-97, or as I like to call it, the Time Will Solomon Single-handedly Poisoned his Entire Team).

But this is a slightly different Milwaukee team, as I’ve mentioned this week. Michael Redd is out for the year after blowing out his knee, and that gives them a different look. Lotta people are counting the Bucks out because of it - I’m not one of them.

I think the Bucks might actually be better.

Look, Redd dominates the ball. He takes a lot of shots. But this team actually has a lot of weapons - Jefferson, Charlie V, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Bell - and I don’t think they need one guy taking all the shots.

Then you look at Jefferson in particular. He can dominate the ball too, and he’s definitely not as deadly a shooter, but I feel he does a lot more than Redd in terms of driving and slashing, and he has a decent post-up game to boot. Plus, he’s a far superior defender. In other words, he’s exactly the type of SF we need here. Sigh. Toronto fans don’t care for the guy because he came across as an ass in the playoff series two years ago, but I get the impression that’s not really him, and that he only acted that way to take some pressure off of Carter.

On the other hand, this isn’t the same Toronto team that Milwaukee beat, either. Both Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon missed that game, and with Anthony Parker handling the backup PG duties, the Bucks can’t count on Will Solomon handing them the game again.

Injuries have slowed Andrew Bogut (who is still day-to-day with back spasms, though he says he plans to play tonight) and he missed the last game against Toronto. Luke Ridnour is also banged up but expected to play. The Bucks have gotten good contributions from Ramon Sessions and Luke Mbah a Moute as well.

Ordinarily, looking at the matchup, you’d have to think that the Raptors, now fully healthy, should dominate this team at home. And obviously that’s what I’d like to see. But I just don’t trust the Raptors, healthy or not.

Yeah, they’ve won three in a row and the Bucks are banged up. But the Bucks have plenty of guys who can hit open shots and the Raps have been giving up way too many of those lately. And if Jefferson is ready to take the reins of this team like I think he is, he could be a real problem for the Raptors, and you know Charlie V is gonna go off ‘cause he always does against Toronto. Can the Raps withstand those two, and keep everyone else in check?

You know what, even though I don’t trust them, I can’t pick against the Raptors in this one. Even with their defensive woes, the offense is clicking, with Parker, Calderon, and Bargnani playing their best ball of the season, Chris Bosh being his usual All-Star self, and Jermaine O’Neal anchoring the bench. With those guys playing well, the roster is tightened nicely, and anything they get from the 3-spot is just a bonus. And since the Bucks aren’t a great defensive unit I feel like the Raptors can simply outscore them, even if they can’t stop them.

Raptors by 10.

OK… What the hell happened there? How in the world did the Raptors lose that game!?

All right, so the Raps blew a double-digit lead and didn’t execute down the stretch (what else is new). But still, they all but had it in the bag - four point lead with 2:30 to go? What happened?

Oh, right. Will Fucking Solomon happened.

From the Stats So Unbelievable They Simply Have To Be True Dept.: Big Willie took more shots (4) in the final three minutes than EVERY OTHER RAPTOR COMBINED (2). Shockingly, the Raps lost! Who would’ve guessed!?

Sigh. Another wasted gem from Chris Bosh. Even worse, a waste of a Bargnani gem - who the hell knows when Bargnani’ll string good games together like this again? The Raptors can’t afford to waste them! Argh.

Still, you can’t blame it all on Solomon. The refs deserve some credit, too. Most of the blame, however, goes to the coach.

I like Jay Triano, and I’ve been generally impressed with his rotations, his play calls, and the effort his team has given. Haven’t been impressed with the results, obviously, but at least it’s felt like the team is doing most things better, and they’re not quitting in the first quarter anymore. It’s all progress.

But Triano screwed this one up, starting with his rotations. They were so mind-boggling, they were Mitchell-esque.

First problem, Bargnani was having his way with the Bucks in the first and he sat almost the entire second. With zero fouls. Huh?

Then, even worse, Bosh (11-12 from the field at the time) was left on the bench for the final :30 of the third and first four minutes of the fourth quarter. He subbed out after Charlie V’s three point play gave the Bucks a one-point lead; The Bucks extended it to seven before he came back in.

Bosh had four fouls, but four minutes was way too long, especially since the lineup when he was out was this: Roko, Graham, Bargnani, Kapono and Moon. In other words, no rebounding presence; hence, the Bucks grabbed three offensive boards in the stretch and scored on each.

Still, the Raps manage to survive that awful lineup: Bosh finally comes back, Roko makes a jumper and three-point play and the lead is two; the teams trade buckets and eventually the Raps tie with four minutes to go.

And inexplicably - inexcusably - Triano takes Roko Ukic out for Solomon.

Now, the Raps actually stretched the lead to four after a couple of Bucks turnovers, but no thanks to big Willie. Solomon proceeded to go 1-4 down the stretch, did not pass the ball to Chris Bosh a single time (the guy was only 12-14 at that point and getting to the line at will) and took long jump shots on the two biggest possessions (tied at 97 and down two). He also allowed Luke Ridnour to go 2-2 from three point range by, unbelievably, going under screens instead of over (seriously, how is Luke Ridnour a threat to drive? Why would you go under the screen??). He even missed a layup, in which he went up weakly against Charlie V, getting it swatted (though the game was essentially out of reach by then).

I just cannot comprehend what happened there in that stretch. All Solomon had to do was give the freaking basketball to Bosh, and get the fuck out of the way. Hell, give it to Bargnani, who was 7-12 (5-6 from downtown) at that point! Or Parker, 5-8! Even Moon was a respectable 3-5. But Solomon, who was 1-9 when he came back into the game, was clearly the worst option out there to take a shot. The guy cannot shoot (41% on the year, 23% from 3). Yeah, he finished with 11 assists, but again, that’s not hard when your two best guys are shooting lights-out, and it only makes it even more inexplicable that he didn’t give them the ball down the stretch (he didn’t get a single helper in his four fourth quarter minutes).

Most of all, I just can’t see any reason why Roko should have come out. He was playing better than Solomon, he didn’t appear to make any egregious mistakes, he didn’t appear tired… he was 3-4 in the quarter with one turnover (which Charlie gave back 1 second later, no harm) … so what was the logic there? Sticking with Roko worked against the Magic, obviously, so why change it around one game later? I mean when the choices down the stretch in a close fourth quarter are: A) a guy who’s 1-9 and B) a guy who’s 5-8 - and that second guy has just hit three big fourth-quarter shots, AND helped your team win a game with an even bigger shot a day earlier - why would you ever, in a million years, choose option A? I honestly cannot understand it.

Still, let’s be honest, you really can’t blame Solomon too much - yeah, he shouldn’t have taken the shots, but Triano put him in there and he was open. Like 90% of NBA players, he doesn’t care that he’s laying bricks (you realize he’s shooting a worse percentage on threes than Moon on the year?), or that his teammate is on fire, an open shot is an open shot and he’s been trained his whole life to take those shots. Clearly, the Bucks left him open for a reason - “better him than anyone else” - unfortunately he’s just not good enough to make them pay, or smart enough not to take their bait.

But at the end of the day, he shouldn’t have been in the game. That’s on Triano.

The other thing on Triano - not having any plays down the stretch. Solomon’s excuse post-game was “we couldn’t get Bosh the ball.” OK, so try something else. Is there only one option? And what about that horrendous play when, down five, the Raptors seemingly had no idea whether they wanted a three or a quick two? Bosh got the ball from Parker, had a step on his man… and then kicked it to Bargnani… who wasn’t behind the line. So he ended up bombing a long two, which is the one shot you don’t want to take in that situation. Game over. Not that the Raptors gave up; no, they had a chance to inbound down seven… but couldn’t get the ball in play. Was Sam Mitchell really coaching this game? It sure seemed like it.

And no, the terrible officiating didn’t help. Besides the clearly blown call when the score was 97 apiece - Elson dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds and for some reason the Bucks got it back - there were a number of other curious calls and no calls, including at least two travels by Michael Redd and two timeouts awarded to the Bucks on loose balls on which they did not appear to have possession. But ultimately, despite those, the Raps were still in position to win but odd subs and poor execution did them in.

One other comment I’d like to make. I mentioned the loose balls above; those were two of at least four last night, in which the Bucks dove to the floor and got after the ball harder than the Raps, and each time they came away with it. Maybe that’s why the refs awarded them those timeouts - they showed more hustle. Even without the timeouts, I expect they’d have come up with them anyway because they wanted them more. Very disappointing hustle effort from the Raps.

I gotta say, this might be the most disappointing loss of the year. Even more than the “Thunder” game. They blew another lead. They wasted great offensive efforts from Bosh and Bargnani (heck, from just about everyone except Solomon). They were missing two starters. They kept Michael Redd in check in the fourth after he caught fire in the third (4-6, 13 points in the third; 1-4, four points in the fourth). They withstood losing all the hustle plays. They withstood two big Milwaukee runs to take a four-point lead, 95-91 with 2:30 to go. All they needed right then was one stop and one basket.

They got neither, only scoring two free throws the whole rest of the way. Bucks closed on a 16-2 run. 16-2!? That’s unbelievable. And incredibly disappointing.

I honestly believe that if Roko had stayed in the game, the Raptors would have won. He wouldn’t have taken those shots that Solomon did. He would have had patience, gotten the ball to Chris, Andrea or Parker in good position to score, or gotten himself into the lane for a higher-percentage shot or free throws. He may even have been smart enough to stick to Ridnour instead of going under the screen (though I wouldn’t wager on that).

The point is, if he could play the clutch fourth-quarter minutes against Orlando - the league’s fourth-best team - he could play them against Milwaukee. In fact, he deserved to play them against Milwaukee. He earned those minutes with his play on the court, and Triano jobbed him. I just cannot understand that substitution.

Triano never should have taken him out, and it cost the Raptors a victory.

The Raptors are in Milwaukee for the second time this season, and for the second time, it’s the second night of a back-to-back. In neither instance did the Bucks play the day before. How, exactly is that fair? Sometimes I wonder about these schedule makers.

Anyway, with O’Neal and Calderon back in the T-Dot, this’ll be a tough one for the Raps to win. Yes, they beat the Magic without them, but can they do it two games in a row?

If Andrew Bogut doesn’t play for Milwaukee, that should help - he’s got a hamstring problem or somesuch. I’ve blogged about it before, Bogut generally kills us early and then the rest of the Bucks decide it’s time to get their own and stop giving him the ball.

Of course, last time out, they did give it to him down the stretch and he single-handedly kept the Bucks in the game… but Toronto pulled it out when he didn’t touch the ball in the final two minutes.

Somehow, five other Bucks have attempted more shots than Bogut - Jefferson, Redd, Charlie, Sessions and even Luke Ridnour - even though Bogut shoots it at 56% and plays the third-most minutes on the team. Oh well, what do I know. Maybe he only ever looks that good against Toronto!

I believe Ramon Sessions is also hurt; he’s having a great season but the Bucks still have Redd, Jefferson and Mbah a Moute, not to mention our old friend Charlie V, who are all capable of scoring in bunches and are the types of players the Raps have trouble defending against.

To be honest, I think the Bucks are better than their record and if Toronto plays like it’s played most of this year - as opposed to the way they’ve played the past two - it’ll be a Bucks win.

But I’d like to believe these past two games have finally instilled some much-needed confidence in this Raptors team. Beating up on a good Western team and then beating the team that crushed you in the playoffs, at home? That has to make them feel good about themselves, right?

Can it translate to on-court success? I hope so. The Raps need this one, and the next two (at Washington Wednesday, home for Memphis Friday). I said it last week, they need a winning streak of at least five to get back into it - and this is as good a chance as they’re likely to have. That’d put them at 17-20 heading into Sunday’s brutal home-at-home with Boston; we have to assume that’s two losses so it’s imperative to get some wins before then.

(Again, what is with this schedule? Two straight games against the champs on back to back nights? No other team in the NBA gets this “honor.” Why us? Sigh.)

Anyway, let’s not get ahead. Raptors gotta come out tonight and execute like they did yesterday. Hit the glass, force turnovers, don’t settle, and the offense will come, I really believe that.

I think they can do it. Raptors by 13.

Toronto Raptors

Yikes, maybe I should give up trying to make predictions!

Well, I was right that the Raps would be gassed by the end - they were completely out of steam in the fourth quarter. Fortunately for them, Milwaukee didn’t take advantage of it, and Toronto escaped with a win.

I was also half-correct that the physical battle between Bogut and O’Neal would result in foul trouble - only O’Neal ended up fouling out. That was nearly the undoing for the Raps - once O’Neal was gone, Bogut manhandled Bosh for six straight points and an assist that gave the Bucks the lead with about two minutes to go.

But, as has happened many times in Milwaukee over the past couple years, their perimeter guys are too selfish - instead of going back to Bogut, they settled for jump shots, and that - combined with Jose Calderon’s huge three-pointer - was that.

Jose was huge against the Bucks. I indicated I wanted him to be more aggressive, and he certainly was last night. He had an uncharacteristic six turnovers, but I believe that had more to due with being fatigued than anything else.

Bosh didn’t have his best game, but again, fatigue was a factor. He was destroyed by Bogut down the stretch, but he gave it right back to the Bucks on offense. And as usual, he got to the line - and made the free throws - when it mattered. Matt Devlin thinks he’s the best free-throw shooting big man in the NBA. I might be inclined to agree.

Anthony Parker was fantastic on the defensive end again (8 steals in two games!?), and came through with a couple of clutch jumpers. Jamario Moon grabbed two rebounds to up his average to one per game on the year; thankfully, his jump shot that was missing in the preseason seems to have returned.

As for the bench, well, well, I would have liked to have seen a little more from Bargnani and Kapono – especially on the back-to-back, it would have been nice if Bosh and Calderon could have gotten more rest. Instead, they (and Parker) played 43 minutes apiece, and the starts accounted for 82 of the team’s 91 points. (I know the bench is short, but that’s ridiculous).

Bargnani’s goose egg was a little disappointing, following up the 19 point, 8-10 game against Golden State. Still, he’s averaging 5 boards and 2.3 blocks in 22 minutes a night. And the complaint last year was that when he wasn’t contributing on offense, he was useless. This year, so far at least, he’s contributing on defense – and you can see it too, in that he’s more aggressive, he’s trying to box out (not always successfully, but still), he’s moving his feet. It’s good to see that he’s made a commitment to playing the other end of the floor.

In fact, you can say the same about the whole team – their defense has been keeping them in games when they’ve run into scoring droughts (which they’ve done in all three games). So far, the Raps have held three fairly talented offensive teams all under 45%; not that that’s lighting the world on fire, but it’s better than what we’re used to seeing from the Raptors. And, they’re starting to close that rebounding gap, from -23 against the Sixers, to -10 against the Warriors, to -4 against the Bucks.

More than that, though, it’s that aggressiveness on defense that I am seeing; unlike last year, when every other shot an opponent took was uncontested, the Raptors defenders are sticking to their men much more closely. I am 100 per cent certain that this has to do with O’Neal; the Raptors don’t need to double the post and scramble back anymore, knowing that both Bosh and O’Neal are back there. It is really good to see.

Granted, it is only three games. And the last time the Raptors started 3-0, in 2004, they went 30-49 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs.

Still, it’s better than the 1-15 of 2005 and the 2-8 of 2006. Heck, it’s even better than the 2-3 of 2007!

It’s the first back-to-back of the season as the 2-0 Raptors roll into Milwaukee to take on the 1-1 Bucks.

Milwaukee made big-time changes in the offseason, shipping out Mo Williams and Yi Jianlan, getting Richard Jefferson and Luke Ridnour in return. They’ve still got Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd of course, along with our old friend Charlie Villanueva, so this is no cakewalk - this team has some talent. Throw in the fact that they’re at home and have had two days off, and that the Raps played a hard fought overtime game last night, and you can see my concern.

It also doesn’t help that the Raps have laid some serious eggs in Milwaukee over the past couple years.

Now, both Bogut and Charlie V have had succes against Toronto, but hopefully having Jermaine O’Neal outs an end to that - it should allow Bosh to chase Charlie on the perimeter while JO guards the post.

Offensively, Bosh should get his no problem, and I expect a physical battle between O’Neal and Bogut, probably resulting in foul trouble for both.

Jefferson has also owned the Raps in the past and I don’t see Kapono and Moon putting a stop to that tonight; Parker usually does a good job of holding Redd in check, but you know he could go off at any time.

Thankfully, Calderon is far superior to Ridnour so I gotta give the Raps the advantage there!

Bench-wise, both are fairly short; if Bargnani is on again, it’s another Raptor advantage - but don’t hold your breath on that one.

If the Raps have any advantage, it’s that the Bucks are still integrating two key guys and a new coach, while the Raps only have one new face, O’Neal.

But I just don’t think they’ll have enough energy tonight. It’ll be close through three quarters, but the Bucks will pull away in the fourth and win by 13.

Well, that was pretty much a disgrace from start to finish.

I don’t know that I can even talk about it rationally. It’s hard to look at a game like that objectively when your team just rolls over like that. Sigh.

The last two games illustrate my “no such thing as a good loss, but definitely such thing as a bad loss theory” from last year. While Sunday’s loss wasn’t good, it wasn’t that bad either; the Raptors played a poor offensive game, but their defense kept them in it, and they had a chance at the end.

Last night both offense and defense were awful. In fact I think the offence was even worse than Sunday; at least against the Celtics, the Raptors were getting decent looks. Last night they stood around, didn’t set screens, didn’t swing the ball… it’s like it was 12 strangers playing basketball out there.

On defence, well… I simply can’t explain that lack of effort. Not getting back in transition? Not boxing out? Allowing guards to get post position? Leaving Michael Redd open to shoot? All unacceptable.

And then there’s Bosh… where to begin? He got abused by rookie Yi Jianlian on one play, just the lowest of many low-lights for our (supposed) all-star forward. Bosh looked slow, sluggish, awkward, uncoordinated… basically just awful. 1 point, on 0-4 shooting, with 2 rebounds in 15 minutes. Add to that Bargnani’s 5 points and 3 boards… well, it’s safe to say that 6 points and 5 rebounds from your starting big men aren’t going to cut it in the NBA.

For the Bucks, well, it’s almost hard to judge if they’re any good or not, since the Raptors didn’t challenge them once. Jianlian looked good - he’s smooth, confident, clearly not the overwhelmed rookie some were expecting. I think the Bucks found a keeper there.

I have to be honest, I pretty much forgot the Bucks acquired Desmond Mason. I’ve never been a big fan but you can clearly see how much it helps to have a great athlete like that on your team. I don’t know what those one-handed baseline fallaways were (well, they were pick-up ball shots, that probably drove his coach crazy) and I can’t believe they were falling, but they were… he gave Kapono and Delfino fits out there.

As for the rest, no one on the Bucks did anything particularly special, they just played basketball - the Raptors simply didn’t bother to defend, or to challenge them on offense.

One bright spot for the Raps, the play of Kris Humphries; 16 points on 7-9, 9 board, 2 assists and 2 blocks. And it all came within the flow of the offense (and no, it wasn’t all in garbage time when the game was decided; he scored seven straight at one point in the first half). Hopefully he can bring that energy on a regular basis!

I’ll also give small props to Juan Dixon’s 20 points; he missed too many shots, but he showed a desire to do something no other Raptor has done all year - get into the paint, and draw some fouls. Good for him.

So it’s right back on the horse tonight, at home against Orlando. Players always like to say the great thing about the NBA is you can shake off a bad loss right away, because the next game is right around the corner. The Nets shook off their 37-point loss to the Raps by beating Philly the next night, let’s see if we can do the same to the Magic.