Boshless in New Jersey... Rash Nest of fury

So the Raptors roll into the big swamp without the services of their ace, Christopher "the Animal" Bosh. So someone needed to step up on both ends of the court. It's like a car missing it's steering wheel, or missing 2 pistons in the engine. Luckily they had an ace up their sleeve in Rashman and the whole team turned it up a notch to compensate. Especially considering that they were facing former Raptor, The Humpty Hump. Nah, I am just kidding but in all seriousness I miss having the services of Kris Humphries. I always thought he could have provided a lot more if given more steady minutes. He has a good jumper, decent footwork, and hustles more than most Raps did last season. The only knock on him was he took a few jumpers you wouldn't want to see but how do you expect a young player to develop his game without taking some shots. I wouldn't be opposed to the Raptors re-acquiring him.

Hedo Turkoglu bounced back well and it really was a good opportunity for him as he would be getting more shots with Chris out of the lineup. After his horrible 1 pt performace, Hedo came back with 14 pts, 6 boards and 6 assists. It's the type of performance that you want from him on a more consistent basis and here's hoping he strings together a few more games like this so he can get back into the flow. One thing I did notice tonight is that he had a more serious demeanor out on the floor, not smiling at everything and he seemed more focused on the court than I have seen. Even more so than that season best performance he had against the Knicks. It was against the Nets but it's a good building block for him.

• Rasho showed what he's made out of. He's a classic styled centre that you don't see much anymore. He relies on his clean, smooth jumper and has a variety of moves in the post. He possesses a good hook, and good instincts which I suspect comes from his years of veteran experience. As bad as he's looked sometimes this season, he's shown us what he can provide given solid minutes. He's making Colangelo look like a genius. Or... more of a genius than he already did.

• Bargs only had 13 points. I expected a lot more points out of this guy tonight but Bargnani played within the confines of the team's gameplan and the flow of the game. The rest of the team was scoring and didn't need him to score 20 in order to win. He had a good shooting percentage and played well on the defensive end. That being said, he seems to have cooled off and needs to step it up. There's something missing in his game. Perhaps it's aggressiveness, more likely assertiveness. He needs to impose his will on the offensive end like we've become used to seeing. It's almost like he's mentally tired.  He needs to pick up his britches and find some way to spark his game. Another factor that I might not be considering... at least for this game, is the dynamic that he and Bosh have together when they're both on the floor. The operating space that they create for each other was obviously not there.

• Turkoglu, like I said looked really focused. He didn't toss up too many ill-advised shots, ran off screens well, tried his post up game and took what the game gave him. People may say I have been too harsh on him and too harsh last game since he had some family issues. I did not know about his issues till after I blogged but I still think it was fair since he has been off his game the entire season. He needs to concentrate on himself, instead of pouting about him not getting "Ball". This game was a good example of what he can do. Let's see some more of this and hope it's not another case of a blind squirrel finding his acorn. He is a highly skilled forward but in my opinion he hasn't shown the mental toughness or the assertiveness he's capable of. I for one pray he brings it together down the stretch of this season. Will he be Dr. Turko, or Mr. Hide?

• Double J and Mr. Jose. Jarrett more than made up for his off game against the Griz. He ran the offense well and didn't embarrass himself at all. He pushed the ball well and found his teammates. On the defensive end he looked like he was more awake than previous.  Jose came off the bench and sparked a 7-0 run. He really is the sparkplug off the bench and is exactly what we need from a 6th man. His shot was on which is very good to see for Raptors fans cause we know the type of damage he can do when he's nailing those shots off screen and rolls and off curls.

• Demar stepped it up a bit and played the type of aggressive game that he needs to play. He attacked the basket and got a good variety of dunks and more importantly, put-backs. He seems to have the skills and just needs to develop naturally as wings of his types do. Hopefully he develops into a top tier player. He seems to be getting more comfortable as the season goes along and that can only mean good things for this up and coming team.

• Swamp monsters. To be fair to the Nets, this team was as much won by the Raptors as it was lost by them as they were playing their usual NJ Nets style basketball. They don't have the talent to compete but at the same time, also don't have the confidence and all the other little things that make a good cohesive unit. They've lost too many games and even if they did have the talent, they certainly don't have the will anymore. The cupboards aren't totally bare in NJ though as they have some quality players. Obviously Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, and Yi Lian Jian are the bright pieces they have but Yi hasn't played to his ability and to his potential. 

• If the last Raptor loss could be blamed on the absence of Turk's game, then this NJ loss can be at least partially blamed on Yi's brick show. In fairness to him he still played well defensively at least from a numbers standpoint. Perhaps he needs a change of scenario much like most of these Nets. I suggest he enlists to services of a good big-man coach much like the way Patrick Ewing is for Dwight Howard. In fact, I would suggest that for Bargnani too. So far he's been an embarrassment to his Chinese people but he's got the tools to turn it around and I hoping to see more from this guy.

I just got HDTV thanks to my cousin Julie and I absolutely love watching the Raptors on HD. It makes a world of a difference. Of course when my favourite team wins, it certainly doesn't hurt. Tonight, they face a Wizards team that I don't know. I don't even know who they have on the team anymore, seriously. I am going to have to look up their roster cause they have pillaged this team worse than the Nets did. No Jamison, no Butler, and thanks to his gunshow, no Agent Zero... now just Plain Zero, (thank you Arnie!). What I worry about is that it is a second end of a ROAD back-to-back. This is a game Andrea should be able to dominate but we shall see.