Ending a Low Season on a High Note

33 wins and 49 loses. That's the third time in the fourteen years of Raptors history that the team has gotten this record. The last two time were in 2003-2004 season and the 2004-2005 seasons. This record is extremely disappointing for a team to get because it means that the team just lost some easy, but crucial game that differentiates them from being a playoff team and well the 13th placed team that they are now. This season had it's highs and lows ......let's take a blast to the the not so far away past.

The Good
Even with such a mediocre record some "good" things have happened to the team.

Andrea's Development
After three years of hearing endless rants about how Bargnani was a "bust" and how he was too soft to ever be a center in the NBA, Andrea's game suddenly went from being mediocre at best to a 15 points, 5.9 rebound and 1 block player over night. I think that having Triano as the head coach and the training over the summer were the main reason for this improvement for Bargnani. Can't wait to see how much more Il Mago will improve next year.

POPS
We have found a player that hustles more than a junk yard dog. Pops Mensah Bonsu instantly became a favourite of all Raptors fans as he fights for every rebound like there was no tomorrow and can put down a hard dunk whenever he gets the chance

Jose's Free Throw Record
Even though Calderon didn't get a 100 free throws in a row he did get 85 and ended with a record of 98% (151-154 free throws.) This is the best record in NBA history. The last guy to hold the record was the former Rocket, Calvin Murphy, who got 96% of his free throws in 1980! 29 year old record broken by none other than numer ocho.

Orlando Payback!
Being a Raptors fan I was quite sore about losing to the Orlando Magic in the playoffs last season in only 5 games. This season the team has even gotten better with the development of Dwight Howard and a couple of improvements made to the team by adding Alston and Michael Pietrus; however, the Raptors were able to win the season series against them 2-1. What happened Howard? Somebody put Kryptonite into your wheaties?
The Plain Ugly

O'neal.......
Bryan Colangelo rolled the dice by trading Ford away for a injury prone Jermaine O'neal and no he's paying the price. O'neal was extremely inconsistent while playing in Toronto and definitely. Colangelo tried to patch things up by trading O'neal for Shawn Marion, but the damage to the team had been done


Other things that made me depressed
-Vince Carter winning in over time with a reverse dunk
-Shawn Marion's jump shot
-Every time Jason Kapono came into a game
-Jose Calderon being limited with an injury
-No Humphries!
-TSN 2
-Matt Devlin. to quote him "Overtime......No Raptors win!"
-Obviously not making the playoffs

The list could go on and on........

I'll continue to blog throughout the playoffs and during the Lottery. Tomorrow I'll have a new blog about the most wonderful time of the year......The Playoffs unless you're a King,Clipper, Thunder,Timberwolve, Warriors, Sun, Grizzlie, Wizard, Raptor, Knick, Pacer, Net, Buck or Bobcat fan.