The Samsquanch was at the ACC and witnessed The Beast from the East

So I sat in section 318 as I usually do and come to realization that over the years I have become a loud, rowdy Raptor fan much like the other die hard fans that sit up there. It's really quite energizing to sit with other fans as jacked up about the game as you. What I witnessed was not the blowout that I was hoping to see but still a fairly entertaining game that saw the Raptors give up a 6 point lead in the third quarter but managed to pull ahead at the tail end of the contest. Personally, I prefer to see the a good blowout as long as it's in the right direction.

Everything that you usually see at a game was predictably there. From the arena announcer who looks like Vickie Guerrero to the annoying planted fake fans that go from section to section and conduct their brand of phony baloney crowd noise. What was new was Turk sporting his mask which he reluctantly sported. I have to agree with him that the thing doesn't look good and he's not gonna get any sexy time as a result of it, but I mean the team is not paying him for his runway model looks. Deal with it! If he wants it to look good he could paint it black and add some whiskers to it. That'll distract the hell out the other team! Another difference was a small group of Israeli fans who were out there supporting Omri Casspi. Lots of Israel flags, shirts, and jerseys. Good for them, I am sure to them they love him as much as Turkish fans love Turkey Glue, and our Italian fans love Bargs and Belli who was out of action today. Belli looked sleek in a nice black suit jacket with pimpin' white shirt to go along with it. I think he gets the bench wardrobe award this season. Bargs looked more like a waiter, Turk looked like some 70's prof, and we all know Reggie looks like an ogre wearing his ogre father's over sized clothes. Marco was pimpin like Rocky Balboa in Rocky 4 when he was rich, not Rocky 5 when he became a penniless chump.

To the game now which I have to admit was entertaining but I am sure fans woulda blown a gasket if they had let it slip away cause we as Toronto fans are quite demanding as fans should be. I guess that is a good characteristic to have though, winning games regardless of how you manage to do it. The game in a nutshell for Sacramento was this high screen and roll they kept running from the top of the key. They ran that play so many times I lost count and I didn't understand why the Raps couldn't figure it out. Just have the man coming off the screen close out on the shooter faster and get right in his face. I guess it's easier for me to sit in the stands with 20/20 hindsight. Add in some nice perimeter shooting from Greene and Kevin Martin and that was pretty much their game. The Raps used their usual game plan dumping the ball down to Bosh every chance they got and swung the ball off high pick and rolls to look for an open man.

Things of note:

• Turk played a decent game in his first one back hitting several spot up jumpers and hit some teammates up with several nice passes. Then he added his usual charge that he does driving right with his head down, and his usual lazy bone-headed passes. Still, we have to give him credit since he was in his major shooting slump and seems to have better command of his shot for the most part. Maybe that mask helped his shooting. I think what would really help would be some prescription glasses but alas, he did a good job overall.

• Bosh was an absolute beast and like most games, he was the focal point of the offense and the main reason the Raptors won.  They kept feeding him the ball and he just kept forcing his way down low for an assortment of lay-ins, hooks, put-backs, and 2 handed rim rockers. I don't remember him shooting too many jumpers which is surprising as i didn't predict the Sac-town boys were up to the challenge of guarding him facing up but the Sac-town boys were right up in his face and Bosh more than happily obliged with his collection of And-1's. He ended up with a very impressive line, 36pts 11 rebs, 5asst. The fans were chanting MVP in the fourth as he took the game over and maybe some people think it's silly, but Bosh truly is the Raptors' MVP and I think he deserves some votes.

• Antoine Wright showed up in the fourth. The only thing he had going for him were a collection of early fouls and I remember thinking in my head, wow he's really having a crappy game. The guy sitting behind me voiced that opinion as well as he picked up his 4th. Then, right when he does he starts dropping shots. Mind you, he did receive some very nice passes for his jumpers but he also had a nice drive late that, along with Bosh helped buoy the team in the 4th.

• Donte who? Donte Greene, that's who! Greene scored 3 straight 3 pointers coming out of a timeout and stunned the Raptors who were up by 6 points at the time. Then he got fouled by Amir on a 3 point shot and hit 2 out of 3. It was the key moment in my mind and if it had not been for Greene, this might have become a blow out. I only heard of this guy in passing and I assume he doesn't usually go off like this from the arc. He made Amir look bad, but like most big-men he can't be counted on for perimeter defense so I wouldn't lay too much blame on him.

• Battle of the 7 footers: Andrea the Giant had a fairly efficient game ending up with 22 and 8. Missed more 3 pointers than you'd like to see but I can live with that if he's scoring in other ways and grabbing boards. Defensively he wasn't anything to write home about as Spencer Hawes seemed to have his way a bit with him. Spencer has a decent mid range jumper and Bargs seems to have trouble against this. I guess it's a bit of karma considering that is his m.o. as well. Bargs didn't seem to get his post up game in as much as he'd like but managed to keep his mid range game alive and had a nice duck in for a lay in. On the other end he had issues with Hawe's back to the basket game as Hawes has this very nice drop step where he head-fakes and ducks in for the lay-in. A move we saw Bosh do several times in the first half which resulted in dunks. Bargs has this move as well but he doesn't do it as frequently. Hawes also abused the Raps on the offensive boards and was one of the reasons the Kings stuck in there despite shooting a low percentage.

• A lot of momentum was taken out of the game as soon as Bosh left in the first but to compound things, when Bosh came back he saw Jose take several sequential 3-pointers in a row and clanked them, adding in a bricked 2 point jumper and you got the makings of a drought. Calderon didn't play particularly well but I guess I wouldn't say that if some of his shots went in.

• Subdued at the wing: Neither Weems nor DeRozan make a big impact points wise. Was this due to DeRozan returning? Sure it was. Neither were given too many minutes and seemed to float out there for the most part. They both had some nice dunks and Demar had a noticeably nice alley-oop jam courtesy of Jack who through a beautiful pass in full speed transition up the court. 

Play of the game:

The Bargnani touch pass inside to Bosh who turned and threw down the big two handed safety jam. The pass was very sweet and had the other team completely faked out. We've seen this quick swing pass from Bargs before and when it works it's pretty but when it doesn't, it ends up looking like a good idea gone horribly wrong.

Bone-headed play of the game:

Turkoglu right side, drives in towards his defender and proceeds to brick it off the corner of the backboard, he then recovers to toss up a brick from 3-point land as the 24 sec shot clock winds down. It looked as ugly as it sounds. I'll take the benefit of the doubt for him and blame it on his mask and not his decision making.

Funniest moment:

Demar losing his shoe on the offensive end and running back with the shoe in his hand to get back on defense. He smoothly put the shoe back on as the ball was on the other side. Oh and some douche bag from the crowd air-balled a shot during a contest to win some cash. He got a chorus of boos for his troubles. I guess it's not as bad as missing 5 straight field goal attempts at a CFL game.

The Raptors have now won 2 in a row and sit 5 games over .500. They are an impressive 19-6 at home and 7-3 in their last 10. If they could take something away from this it would be that their defensive intensity seems to have diminished noticeably in the last 3 games and they should ratchet it up a notch again. They need to play to the level they were playing against the Lakers as they seem to be playing down to the level of competition as evident here today. Outside of Kevin Martin, this Sac team was pretty thin on talent. This should have been a blow out by the Raps but instead it was another ugly game like the one against the Nets. Just like that game this is another, "a win is a win is a win" type of result.  Next up, the Raps face Philly at home. Another team they should blow out of the water but I am sure the two A.I.'s would have something to say about that. It's not till Wednesday so I will post either a scouting report or a pregame chatter sheet beforehand.

Studs: "The Animal" Christopher Wesson Bosh, Antoine Wright

Duds:  Amir eventhough he had a few decent plays he was never really able to get anything going.

I think that Bosh has been hanging out with Batista lately cause he is playing ball the way Batista wrestles. He just tosses his opponent around like a rag doll and beats the living heck out of them. I would be worried though if he starts giving them sit-out power bombs.

P.S. Props to the R.R. crew for doing an amazing job and showing this little blog some love.