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.

How About Those Magical Washington Finishes

There's something about playing the Wizards that make the Raptors have amazing finishes every time. Anybody recall the Morris Peterson hail marry shot?, Anthony Parker's clutch three being guarded by three player or just last game where Kapono had two three pointers in a row. Well now there is a new story that has been added to the saga by none other than by Toronto's All star, Chris Bosh. Let's just say that the Raptors have been nailing the Wizards in so many buzzer beater situations that the Wizards commentator yells "Oh No....Not Again" while Devlin yells "Overtime.....no wait Raptors win!".

The Play
Unlike the in play which Morris Peterson chucked up the hail marry, this was a set play which Jay Triano had planned before. In the play Jose attracts a double team while going into the lane which leaves Bosh open for the three point shot. Bosh was 0-10 from behind the three point line before that shot and there wasn't a better time to break that slump. The play kind of reminded me of Tim Duncan's three point shot in over time against the Sun's in the last playoffs.


REWIND
I also wanted to talk about the other "laboratory" play that Triano set before in which Kapono hit Marion with the ball and got him the easy layup. Afterward the former Raptor scrub Juan Dixon was pressured which made him throw the ball out of bounce.
Identical Stats
Both Bosh and Marion showed what they were made of by getting identical stats of 25 points and 15 rebounds; however, Marion shot 12-23 from the field while Bosh shot 7-15 from the field. Nothing special for Bosh as he was mainly being guarded by Songoila and Mcguire, while Marion was being guarded by a very relaxed Caron Butler.

The Doubted
How were the three relatively new Raptors doing tonight?
Scouby Douby Doo: Came into the game and seemed like a ghost. In 9 minutes all he got was 2 turnover and 2 assists. Not showing enough to stay next season.

Pops: The man was a beast like usual. Get this 9 points, 12 rebounds and 5 steals.

Patrick O'Bryant: A ghost trying to grab a rebound would have done better than this man who is a 7 footer. Soft as cotton.

Flipping Saunders
Even though the Wizards still have .........who's their coach again? Let me look him up. Right Ed Tapscott *whoever that is* as their coach, the former Piston coach Flip Saunders will be there next year for sure.

Real Gm Wire Tap
"He's definitely [Washington's] top choice," an executive said. "He's the top candidate out there, so in this shrinking job market, I imagine that he and his agent will want to sit back and see what offers they get."

As far as who the Raptors have as a coach next year I think that Triano should stay; however , it should take me to write a blog on all their options.

Last game of the Raptors on Wednesday. They haven't had a early summer in two season. Kapono will get to the golf courses early and then hopefully to another team.

How come every time I see Ed Tapscott I think of that guy from Law and Order Criminal Intent?

It must be the beard.

Anybody get the Tanking Memo?

So they decided to start winning all of a sudden. Half of the Raptor fans right now are thinking, you goons we need to get a better lottery draft pick, while the other half is thinking that that it's good that they won for some respect (especially since the game was shown on NBA TV). I'm kind of in between in this one. I would love to draft a guy like James Harden or Ricky Rubio in the lottery, but I also don't think that "tanking" has ever been the answer for any team. There's no formula of what a team should do when they're having a terrible season; however take a look at the 2002 Cavaliers and 2003 Magic tanked and look at them now though (Dwight Howard and Lebron James ring a bell?). Like I said before I'm in between in this issue.

At the Moment the Raptors are 9th in the NBA lottery

Thanks to www.nbadraft.net

1		Sacramento	Blake Griffin	So.
2		Washington	Jordan Hill	Jr.
3		LA Clippers	Hasheem Thabeet	Jr.
4		Oklahoma Cty	James Harden	So.
5		*Minnesota	Brandon Jennings	Intl.
6		Memphis	Demar DeRozan	Fr.
7		Golden St.	Earl Clark	Jr.
8		*New York	Gerald Henderson	Jr.
9		Toronto	Chase Budinger	Jr.

Being the 9th in the NBA lottery means the Raptors have a 1.7% of getting the first round pick, 2% for the second, 2.3% and 81.3% of getting the 9th. Miracles have happened before.

Shall we talk about the game now? No more splish splashing about mindless statistics about the NBA lottery.

The 76ers just didn't seem to be into the game, it was almost like the Raptors were the 6th placed team going into the playoffs and the 76ers were the ones having the early summer. Igoudala even thought that he was one of the original globetrotters and tried to give a behind the back pass to Miller.....which of course went completly out of bounce. It hasn't been his season that's for sure.

How weak is the east that we have a Phildelphia 76ers team making the 6th spot with a 40-38 record so far.

How about that Williams fellow I always remembered how Chuck Swirsky used to say how much he like "that Lou Williams kid". I always liked his game too and he showed what he was made of in this game. 23 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. He's getting better each year and will be and even more solid player next season.

The Quincy Impact!
If there is one player that helped out the Raptors the most coming off the bench this game it would have to be Quincy Douby. In only 11 minutes of play he got 7 points and 2 assists. I hope this kid finds his place in a team.

Keeping Pops
Every Toronto Raptors fan know that Pops Mensha Bonsu is a keeper but it's nice to see on paper that Bryan Colangelo is going to do something to keep him.
Bryan Colangelo-
"Let's just say that at this stage I am inclined to extend the qualifying offer so we are in a position to control the cards in free agency.

Around the NBA
How about them Cavaliers? Today they showed that they have enough team chemistry, home dominance and determination to win the championship this year. 107-76 win against the Celtics; however, this was was without Lean Powe and Kevin Garnett. Along with this comment I add that I think Lebron James should get the MVP award this year.

Next Game is against the Wizards. Let's see if we can just splish splash our way through this one.

The Weak vs The Weaker

You know you don't have a life when on a Friday night you're watching a game between the 14th placed Toronto Raptors against the 15th placed Washington Wizards (The two teams are so bad that ESPN 2 dropped the game from their programming quite a while back). I must admit I don't have a life; however, I'm also a big Raptors fan that has only missed one game this year. I've always enjoyed watching the games between this to teams......let's just say crazy things happen. Anybody remember that hail marry buzzer by Morris Peterson or Parker's buzzer beater?

So before I start my regular blogging, I want to talk about how the Wizards went from being a playoff team into becoming the worst team in the east.

Reason Numero Uno: Fragile Agent Zero- After signing a 6 year 111 million dollar year, Arenas needed a third surgery meaning that he would be missing another season. As much as I hate this guy and his blog, he did put up 29 points and 6 assists only 3 seasons ago when he was healthy.

Reason Numero Dos: Firing Eddie Jordan: Even though the Wizards started with a 1-10 record it was still a pretty foolish decision to fire him so quickly. After being with the team for four years and making the playoffs for three seasons while handling an incredible amount of injuries the team suffered, they should have made a statue of Eddie outside the stadium instead of firing him. Ed Tapscott wasn't the answer to this team that's for sure.

Reason Numero Tres: Not Resinging Roger Mason- With Arenas being injured in the 2007-2008 season Roger Mason ,at the time an NBA scrub, got to more playing time an had a breakthrough season. The Wizards decided not to resign him and so the San Antonio Spurs signed him. The result was the Spurs got a good back up player that averages 11 points and 2 assists per game while the Wizards are left with scrubs like Dominic Mcguire and Juan Dixon as their starting shooting guards.

Now even with all the flaws this team have they still managed to beat the Raptors at home. Quite sad if you ask me.

Kapono! OH NO! OH YES!
Throughout this season I have cringed each time that Jay Triano decided to bring out Kapono from the bench. Most nights it resulted in Kapono coming in getting a couple of travels called on him, a missed layup and on the odd night a wide open three pointer in a transition play. The thing about Kapono is that he's an extremely streaky shooter, don't get me wrong he has an extremely fast shot. Watch his episode of Sports Science if you don't beleive me. Anyhow when Kapono gets hot he gets hot and this was one of those nights. 6 of 9 from being the arc....two of those were clutch. If he was only somewhat consistent each night.

Caron Butler For the Win! Caron Butler was quite in the first half but then was flaming hot in the second half. The Raptors were not playing any defence down the lane and so letting him get easy points. Even after the Raptors did make a couple of defensive stops to get the game tied up, Caron silenced the crowd of about 18,000 with a buzzer beater. Marion played terrible defence of that play.
Raptors.com Fail!

Whoever is running the Raptors website wrote "Gerald Butler hit the game winning buzzer beater Friday night". I know that Caron Butler is under rated but this is just pathetic. Maybe the guy writing it was thinking about the actor Gerald Butler. It's been 4 hours since the game ended and it still hasn't been fixed.



Do the Alvin Boogie
There was a Alvin Williams sighting at the ACC. He chatted with Matt and Jack for a while and seemed to be visiting some old friends in Hogtown. Gotta love Alvin Williams. That game winner against New York will never be forgotten. Hope he can get a gig as an assistant coach of the Raptors. Wouldn't mind seeing Darrick Martin too.

Next game against the 76ers. The Raptors were them a year ago.....the 6th seed going into the playoffs. Watching tv and Mr.T is in an infomercial......I better hit the sack.

The Ping Pong Diaries

That game was pretty rough, huh? 130-101....ouch.
A combination of having played 4 games in 5 night, being eliminated of the the playoffs with a 30-47 record and having Andrea Bargnani with a sore left knee will guarantee you a blow out loose every single time.

The Douby and O'Bryant Hour
If anybody was surprised by the amount of time Quincy Douby and Patrick O'Bryant have been receiving in the last few game then, NEWSFLASH it's the end of the season and Triano and Colangelo want to see if the have any skills left over. So far I've liked how Douby has been playing by driving to the basket ; however, Patrick O'Bryant hasn't convinced me even though he got 16 points and 7 rebounds last night in 20 minutes. He's just too "soft" and will just be one of those players who couldn't take their NCAA game and bring it over to the NBA ( 6 fouls in 20 minutes against Hibbert and Foster.....EAT YOUR WHEATIES MR.OBRYANT). Douby in the other hand could become our third string point guard.

Joey VS Joey errr I mean Stephen The two identical brothers met once again yesterday. The question that every writer tries to get a cheap laugh with " could they switch places before the game just to play with people's minds". The Winner of the brother vs brother fight was "good" Joey 14 and 4 rebounds while Stephen had 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Willie "The King" Solomon Update
You know you're bad when you are being waived out of the Sacramento Kings while having a 14 man roster. Solomon should start packing his bags to head back to a mediocre European team.

The Elimination Game
Who do I think is staying and leaving the team? Take a look.....If you dare!!
The Starting Five

Jose Calderon Hogtown Approved- Colangelo choose him over Ford only a year ago and will stick to him unless he is planning to make a big trade.

Anthony Parker Goner- Parker has passed his prime at the tender age of 33 years old. He would be a good back-up player, but I'm thinking we are going to bring back Delfino.

Shawn Marion Goner- The amount of cap space he takes up is a little too much for what he offers for this team. I think he will help us make a good sign and trade/

Chris Bosh Hogtown Approved- People say that his just waiting for 2010 to run off to New York along with Wade and Lebron James.......to me that sounds like a conspiracy theory more than anything. Bosh loves Toronto and will be sticking around for a long time.

Andrea Bargnani Hogtown Approved- All those Andrea Bargnani haters have suddenly vanished into thin air. He's shown that he is not a bust and can one day become an All-star. Can't wait to see him next year.

The Bench-

Roko Ukic Hogtown Approved- This young point guard has a bright future if he can just shoot a jump shot properly. I think we'll see a big improvement next year.

Jake Voskhul Goner- He was sort of like Primo Brezec 2.0, a great cheerleader in the bench, but when it comes to game time all the man can do is give a couple of hard fouls.

Joey Graham Mixed Feelings- I wanted Joey to be out of this team every year, but I think that he's become much more consistent and like the scarecrow in the wizard of oz......he found a brain.

Pops Mensah Bonsu Hogtown Approved- I like everything about this guy, his energy, dedication and toughness. All things the Raptors have been lacking this year. Great six man player.

Jason Kapono Get That Garbage Out of Here!- I was actually excited when the Raptors signed Kapono, but he can't dribble the ball and he can't ever find his own shot.

Quincy Douby- Mixed Feelings- He could be our third string point guard, but having a veteran would even be better.

Patrick O'Bryant Goner- Like I mentioned earlier he is just too "soft" and I think that we can find a better reserve point guard than him.

Kris Humphries Hogtown Approved- His Jumper is sexy, his game is sexy so why not bring him back?

Marcus Banks Goner- He is not worth 4 million dollars and I hope that we can somehow get rid of him in a deal involving him and Kapono.

Nathan Jawai Hogtown Approved- He had a rough year having medical problems at the beginning of the year. It would only be fair to give him a second look.

Two Games? In a Row? Does not Compute!

It's basically the end of the season now for the T-Dot Raptors and all they can do now is sit back and relax and let the season go by. Only 11 more games to go. Jay Triano should also take a hit of hard liquor or at least NyQuil to be relax. Bring out the golf clubs and the cold drinks! It's an early summer........well then you would ask why the even bother to win two games in a row. It was all a combination of having the whole team 100% healthy and playing two mediocre teams as opponents.

Villanueva Being Villanueva
With all his tweeting and inconsistency we got to see "bad" Villanueva yesterday which helped the Raptors win the game against the Bucks. 8 points and 4 rebounds in 4-11 shooting is fine by me. Take away having no Bogut or Redd and this team is pretty weak all around.

The Curious Case of Damon Jones For the past few seasons Damon Jones has just been a scrub. Up and down depending on the game and how hot his hand past the three point arch, however each time he plays the Raptors it seems that something makes him become Mr. Caliente. This season he has only played 11 games and averaged 2 points, but suddenly he scores 14 points last night with 4-7 from downtown. I'm pretty sure he went on fire last year with the Cavs against us. Wild haircut too last night.

Douby and Jawai!
Jawai went down to the D-league and was the big man on campus. Now he's back and only got to play one game and didn't even get a foul as a stat. Another scrub has been hired and this time it's Quincy Douby. The man was a scrub in a mediocre Sacramento team to say the least and probably won't stick around for too long. BC only called him up after Banks was done for the season. Well he's another shooter something definitely don't need.

What if the Raptors had played the way they did last night all season? What if Jefferson didn't intercept the pass to Chris Bosh in the sixth game of the playoffs? What ifs! they're just for dreamers and drunkards.

Isiah,Isiah,Isiah!
Isiah Thomas a great basketball player but I can't say the same thing about his coaching or team management. Apparently he's trying to get the GM job with the LA Clippers.

REAL GM WIRETAP-

Isiah Thomas is actively looking for a new job and met with Clippers' owner Donald Sterling about a front office position. The meeting was arranged by Mike Dunleavy.

Several NBA sources confirmed the February meeting to ESPN.com.

The talks were informal but substantive and there have been follow-up discussions.

Isiah Thomas ruined his reputation in New York and could turn it into dust if he gets his job. The man should only be a scout as he seems to be a good drafter at the lottery. He can't make the Clippers worse that's for sure.

Next game against the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow. Easy game? don't think so/

Have You Ever Had Deja Vu Mr.Colangelo?

Remember when we used to be better than the Bobcats? Wait didn't I just ask that in my last blog? Well this second loss to the Bobcats had an eerily familiar feeling. This losses have been so consecutive that Bryan Colangelo,Jay Triano and the whole Raptors organization think they're in the movie "Groundhog Day". Wouldn't be a bad remake of the movie if you ask me.

These back-to-back games against the same teams can show what a team is really made out of. A team can lose the first game by a large margin, but if you can beat the same team the second time then it shows how much determination and pardon my french (technically Spanish) , but cojones. This idea of having "come back" games is not something the Raptors didn't know about. Shall we take a trip down memory lane? Get the Delorean Doc. Brown.

Earlier this season....... We all remember how we got humiliated by the Knickerbockers 107-127 . Chandler, Lee and Harrington went full scene mode on the Raptors. Then the comeback came with a 111-100. The team was still playing for something back then.
07-08 season
Back-to-Back games with Washington. First an exciting overtime game which unfortunately ended up as a Raptors loss, 108-104. Even though Humps came out of the bench with 16 points it was not use because the Wizards had 4 players in double digits. The wizards having 4 players in double digits? Seems like a lifetime since that has happened.

THE COMEBACK. The difference between this team and the one that lost to the Bobcats is just how much the team wanted the win. The current Toronto Raptors were in a 24-44 record when playing the Bobcats in back to back while last years Raptors had a record of 24-21 when playing the Wizards. One team is tanking for a good draft pick while the other was trying to secure a playoff spot. Raptors had an amazing comeback in this game 112-83 and this year they lose it 102-89,

It doesn't matter how much talent you have, but if you're team is not in a winning state of mind then you will most likely lose.

Kille B's= Good. Rest of the team= Bench Burners Even though we two amazing perfomances by Bargs and Bosh it wasn't enough because the rest of the team was mediocre to say the least. Kapono,Voskhul, Graham,Banks and Parker are probably not coming back next year.

Is Ford Having Deja vu Too?
Apparently Ford is worried that the Indiana Pacers will choose back up point guard Jack Jarret over him next year. This situation might seem a little too familiar for Ford. This worrying exploded in the Pacers last game with Ford having an argument with Jarret in the third quarter.
From the Indy Star:
"The two starting arguing on the court and brought it to the huddle. Stephen Graham, Josh McRoberts and assistant coach Jay DeFruscio all went over to try and calm Jack down.....

It's unknown why the two were arguing, but I was told this had been "brewing" for some time between them.

The argument came after Ford was the only player to take a shot on three straight possessions."

Will Ford ever find a team in which he won't have to worry about a back up point guard taking over his job? Maybe Calderon has cursed him forever.

The Bad News Clippers
Next game is against the Laker's little unwanted brother, the LA Clippers. A team so sad that their only fan is Billy Crystal. A washed up team deserves a washed up actor. I expected more out of this team with the amount of talent they had, but with Kaman injured most of the season and Baron Davis not really showing any leadership it all went down south pretty quickly. If the Raptors don't win this game they don't even deserve to call themselves an NBA team. I take that back, they don't deserve to call themselves an NBA right now.