A look into the future of the Toronto Raptors.

Okay so the obvious question that fans are asking now is would you rather see us in the playoffs and get blown out in the first round by the Cavaliers or would you rather ditch out of the playoffs and get back our first round draft pick? It seems like a logical, and easy choice. Given that Bosh is gone. We'll need some bit of talent to add to the team. I wonder if there is some way to buyout Hedo's contract. Or have Tonya Harding "Tonya Harding" his knee caps.

The Outlook
I don't think they need to blow this team up. I am quite comfortable with having Andrea, and Jarrett as good starting pieces with Demar and Sonny as a good pair to build on too. What we need is a legit wing. I know people say that a good player is a good play regardless of the position but history has shown us... and I mean really recent history... that a good wing is key to success in the NBA. E.g. Kobe, Lebron, Melo, Wade, Durant... need i go on? How about his so-called heirness Michael Jordan? Can't argue with that line of success. Not a knock on Bosh cause I love the guy and he is phenomenal but this is all being said with the assumption that he's leaving town to follow up with his brain that already seems half way there.

Roster:
C: Andrea
PF:???
SF: Demar/Sonny
SG:Sonny Demar
PG: Jarrett

Bench:
Sixth Man: Antoine(assuming he's back)
Jose
Turk
Amir

Everyone else is expendable. Reggie and Macro are good pieces but not crucial. That be said I would prefer to see them back next season.

The Strategy
We got some really decent talent here despite the handcuffs of Jose and Hedo's contract.

Needs:
A prototypical power forward - One with wide shoulders, a good jumper and a very strong rebounder

A high scoring SG/SF - One who is quick, has a pinpoint jumper and is fearless when it comes to driving the lanes.


Well Duh!!
Question is, where do you find one of these players? Everyone in the league and their grandmothers are looking for these 2 types of players. Problem before for this team was... we never were. Reason being that we used to have one that turned out to be a douchebag, or we have one right now but we don't have another. And he's probably on his first bus outta town when the season is over.

So again the shopping wish list is a wicked sick ass shooting guard or small forward. And a replacement powerforward. Something like Carlos Boozer but younger and better. Hopefully we get that first rounder this year but the pick won't be one of these wishlist players but still, any talent infusion would be welcome.

Time to plan out the parade

Time to get out the salami and cheese mama! Man, the Raps finally win a game against a decent opponent. I almost forgot what it felt like to get a win like this. No collapse this time, in fact it was the Bobcats would collapsed. Despite themselves, they were able to pull out this win. Turk played and the team survived a late boneheaded out of bounds turnover by him. He even hit a clutch three pointer. I'm not too excited though. It's a good win but that doesn't mean they're not going to blow the next 5 games.

I like probably most of you, are very skeptical still. This team is shaky at best and is still full of problems. Turkoglu got benched finally in the last game and it was a long time coming. I didn't blog about that game cause that game made me sick. Turkoglu needed to be benched for his shitty play all season long but it took him having to party out all over town when he was supposed to be sick to finally get him benched. I am glad it did but it still didn't seem to spark him like it should have. He hit that clutch 3 but with that 3 he made only 11 points. For $53 million I at least expect 16ppg not 11.9. Jarrett is averaging 11.1 and he cost $5 million a season. Now that is a deal. Bargs is going to be making about the same per season after this season, but at least that clumsy ogre scores 17ppg. 

It's still a win and I hope they can build something off of it. I am liking this idea of Turk coming off the bench. Now if they can only get Jack off the bench and back into the starting spot. For now there's not much more to say. As Raptors fans at this point, we can only sit and wait. See if they continue to play like garbage, or pull themselves together.

Stupid Stupid Stupid!

You can thank the moron coach for this loss. Things were going so well in the third so what does he do? Goes completely away from the what was working and inserts his usual stupid line up in fourth to lose the lead and lose the game. I was just waiting for this team to screw up and they did in many many ways. Most of these errors can be traced back to the decision making of the coach. Apparently he's never heard of using strategy to maintain a lead. I mean that is the best way to win a game is it not? You build a lead, and you hang on to that lead or expand it. It's not rocket science but yet Jay seems to do whatever he can to tear leads down. Everything he does serves that purpose. He's a moron!!! I am just some lowly fan who observes from afar. I am not a professionally employed through basketball in any means. Yet I can see these errors as clear as day and I am sure all you fans can too. If a dog gets yelled at enough times for pissing on the rug, the dog eventually knows it needs to be in the great outdoors to squeeze out even a drop. But this breed of Triano dog is sooooo dumb, it'll piss all over the rug, your bed, your couch and your shoes.

The Perpetrators
Did anyone else notice how the team just lost all their energy and enthusiasm as soon as Bosh and Jose entered the game in the fourth? They started turning the ball over like crazy and the offense went limp. Suddenly the Raptors turned into just the Chris Bosh show as the offense completely went through him and everyone else just stood around. Usually when Chris is on this is a good thing but since it was the Chris Bosh Butterfingers and Turnover bake off, it wasn't so good. See that turnover he made off the two missed Melo free throws that leads to a game tying 3 by Billups? Just pathetic. Talk about shooting yourself in the nards. Don't see it too often but Chris was part of the key plays that cost this team the game. First he had that particular turnover, then he missed one of his two free throws. Game over.


Coach? Please explain
Why on earth would you have your biggest defensive deficiency on the floor during crunch time? Why would you sit Jarrett who had played so hard for you during their hot stretch? Why would you have Jose on the floor who is so bad defensively that they had to make Demar or Antoine guard the other team's PG? It escapes logic. Everyone who did well: Belli, Demar, Jarrett all got nailed to the bench for most of the fourth and their lead gets dwindled down. Jarrett got put back in eventually but alas, your lead is gone. That entire stretch where they lost their lead coincided with Jose entering the game. Stupid coaching. Stupid stupid stupid. 


Why did they play a bit better? Can't Credit the Coach 
First of all it was addition by subtraction cause when you get rid of a black hole on defense and offense you would logically do better so no surprise there. Turkoglu didn't play. Don't know why, don't care, just glad he didn't. Sonny was inserted in place of that jackass and he played well. Which is immediately a humongous plus. Weems played with some passion and some pride in his game on both ends of the floor. As did Antoine who replaced Demar in the starting lineup. Demar, Belli, Sonny, and 'Toine stepped up big time. They get rewarded by getting their asses nailed to the bench in the fourth. If we were training dogs, and not managing a basketball team, we'd end up with the wildest, stupidest dogs in the history of man. They would probably run around chasing parked cars and piss and shit themselves. You punish for doing well, and you reward for playing like shit. Good job coach.



Rebounding
It's what Captain Picard would call a anomaly. Something that is odd, peculiar, a strange condition, situation, or quality. Something that never happens and you probably couldn't have foreseen, but somehow still occurred. The rebounding for once wasn't an embarrassment. Don't get too excited about it. Don't expect it to happen with any type of consistency from now on. Don't use it as a source of hope. Your heart as a Raptor fan will be broken. Andrea was a magnet for rebounds. Three Raps end up with double digits in rebounds. That's fantastic but I am not counting my lucky stars that it happens again.

Andrea the Giant
He was a force. I don't think I have ever seen the guy get teed up for slamming the ball on the court in frustration. And it was in regards to him getting a rebound too! I have been dying to see that since he came into this league. For him to play with some emotion and some passion. His rebounding tonight was also an anomaly as we all know. That being said, it was still really really nice to see.




To Conclude, take me to the vet and put me down
When you make these changes and they work, you'd think logically that you should stick to these changes. Instead logic has escaped us as Triano goes right back to the losing formula. Somebody please get us a real coach. Somebody please take Jose and Turk off our hands. Somebody please shoot me.

Raptors waste their time, my time, and your time

Why watch? Why bother to waste 3 hours of your life to watch this team that is giving no effort and cower against their opponent? Well I wouldn't so I changed the damn channel and found something else to do with my life. This is pretty bad when a die hard fan like myself would change the channel. It's the perfect shit storm and that's what it was yesterday as the Raptors acted like a little kid getting his ass kicked by a bunch of bullies. Except the difference being that hopefully the kid would eventually get up and stand up for himself. Here, the Raptors went fetal and just took an ass kicking and a curb stomping from the Jazz.

The Glaring Weaknesses
The point guard play was atrocious, let's not kid ourselves here. Jose was a Spanish turd on both ends of the floor, and Jarrett seemed disinterested. Not unpredictable to anyone, Deron Williams was on fire. It's too bad the Raptors couldn't put together any type of game plan to at least try to contain him. But in my mind, Jose just couldn't handle him, the same way he can't handle any point guard in this league. At the same time, the Raps either helped out too much with double teams, or didn't double at all. Listen, you assign one person or a person at a particular spot on the floor to come over to double. Everyone else stay on YOUR man. Instead, you have Bargnani floating over and sticking his nose into the business and his man ends up getting an easy jam. Or you got Bosh swinging in as well, next thing you know you got 2 opposition players on the other team with wide open shots. Or Turkoglu would just completely blow his cover and leave his man wide open.

Hose B
It's been quite clear to me these issues with Jose. He has no lateral quickness or general foot speed to keep up with a driving point guard. Secondly, he couldn't cover the 3 point arc if his life depended on it. He dips into the lane way too much to try to wave his hands at a post player who is already covered. Leaving his man wide open for 3's. Let's examine. He dips away from his man who is standing on the perimeter to try to disturb another play who probably isn't in the slightest bothered by Jose's half assed double team. And his man sinks a 3. So to conclude... he's completely useless on defense. He might as well not be there. In hockey, this is called a powerplay for the other team. So in essence, the Raptors are penalty killing the entire time Jose is on the floor. Let's not even mention how much it gets worse when Turkoflu is on the floor.

The Curious Case of Jay Triano
I am not blaming this loss on Jose, this loss was a result of many factors. Jose being one of them. When I take a step back and look at the big picture I see an issue with the coach and it's a tough issue because I obviously don't know him, I don't know how his schemes are. I don't know how his relationships to the players are. All I know is this... this is a team sport. Yes it's up to the players to ultimately perform but when a team performs like this night after night, displays glaring defensive weaknesses game after game, the eyes start to stare at the man who is in charge.This team is soft yes, but it's also a team absolutely loaded with talent and I believe it's talent that hasn't been harnessed to it's potential. That's the coach's job. It's the coach's job to come up with defensive plans for the opposition's best player. It's the coach's job to bench a jerkwad for blowing a defensive coverage multiple times. To these eyes, Jay is in over his head. I guess I wouldn't replace him since it's this late in the season but I would be shocked if he's head coach next season.


Ok jackass, what would you do?
What would I do? Well I would remove Turkoglu from the starting lineup effective immediately. Start Sonny Weems in his place. Then I would remove Jose and replace him with Jarrett. I would have Antoine in my back pocket ready to sub in at the first sign of defensive trouble from Demar or Sonny. I wouldn't keep my scorers out of the game when we are trying to catch up, I wouldn't keep them out of the game if the other team is starting up catch up. If players whine about their playing time, they can kiss my ass and show me their effort to justify me changing my position on the matter.

Chris would be in the game as much as possible. Amir would be his sub still but Chris would play the entire 4th or at least from the 10 min mark on. At no point would I have Bosh AND Bargs out of the game. You can't take both your top scorers out at the same time no matter how shitty Bargs is playing D. You still have to score to win and this team ain't gonna beat anyone with their defense no matter how good it is on a certain night. Turkoglu would not enter the game unless we had a very comfortable lead. I would just run ISO to Bosh with Bargs on the perimeter feeding the ball to him. They double Bosh, Bosh kicks it out to Bargs on the perimeter. Either that or clear the lane for Bargs to take his slow ass defender iso up high so he can shoot or drive the lane. That would be the basis for the offense. Add to that Jack's slashing and Sonny's strong mid range game.

One last funny thing, a few games ago Sonny was asked why he did well on that particular night. He mentions he was given the gift to penetrate... he he you can see where this is going. I am gonna go out on a "limb" and say all men were given that gift. Unfortunately for the Raptors, only some of them have the will.

Toronto Raptors Vs. The Handsomest man in the NBA and his T'Wolves

So the Raptors barely pull out a win against the second worse team in the league. This doesn't bode well for them seeing as how they're about to take on some of the top talent in the association. I am hoping they can build on this though and use it to increase their level of play to another standard that can allow them to challenge. That being said, this game against the Wolves was one of the uglier games I've ever had the misfortune of watching. I can't say it was the ugliest since I was at the ACC to witness their predictable,(I predicted it anyways), ass whooping that was handed to them by OKC on their own home court. Seriously, people were leaving by half time. Some people left before half time, and me? Well it's the first time I've ever left a Raptor game early. And that's saying something cause I usually stay right till the end but this was really just too brutal to watch. It's like watching something get skinned alive. It's just not pretty.

So last night they took on the NBA's most handsome man and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Al Jefferson of course is who I am talking about and if you know who I am talking about then I wouldn't need to tell you I am being sarcastic. The poor bastard looks like a foot with a body attached. Good thing for him he's a hell of a basketball player. Al Jefferson is the real deal and is a post offense machine. He's got more moves than a jelly roll and is about as hardworking and hardnosed as every Raptor fan wishes Bargnani was. He made Chris Bosh look like a pylon early on. I know Bosh isn't the best post defender but he's not too shabby. Al made him look like a rookie on his first week in the NBA. Too bad for him his teammates don't give him the ball every single possession. I have a feeling they'd be a lot better off if they just ran ISO for him all game long.

This game was so ugly I was almost worried it would start giving fans at the ACC leprosy. It was like watching a dog try to eat a pork chop that's been stapled to its own head. Both teams were under 40% by half time. I thought I was back watching an elementary school game. They were serving up more turnovers than the Pillsbury Doughboy. They really couldn't throw it in the ocean if they were knee deep in shark crap.

Shit you might have noticed... AGAIN.

• Jose Calderon really is a turnstile. I was watching him play D, and I said to my gf... watch him. Watch how easily his man is about to go around him. Right on queue the jerk lets his man blow right by him. I think there's something wrong with this guy. His defense wasn't this bad when he first joined the team. He needs to stay the heck away from the Spanish National team and get some rest and treatment cause he's killing us on the other end. Bring Jack back as the starter. If you wanna sit anyone, you sit Turk. 

• Jack is like Andy from Shawshank Redemption. He's been wrongfully put in the doghouse and Jose and Turk roam around free to play their shitty brand of defense. Jarrett has been showing up when he's called upon and so far he's made the decision look silly.

• Does Chris Bosh spray his hands with Pam before every game cause he's got a case of butterfingers worse than Bart Simpson. He should try some of that chalk that KG and Lebron uses. He turns the ball over sooooooooo friggin much!!

• Thank goodness Minni sucks. Outside of Big Al and Brother Love, they are short on talent and even shorter on execution. Jonny Flynn and Corey Brewer have been busts so far in my opinion but they're still young. Or maybe instead of saying Minni sucks, I should say they suck just a bit less than the Raps at the moment. 

• You CAN'T start Amir Johnson. There's been a lot of suggestion about this move but Barg's confidence is as frail as Glass Joe. Not only that but he's your best centre like it or not. Amir is suited for a bench role because his offense is limited to that one move he does well. The hook when he can get it off against secondary units. Bargs creates way too much space on the floor due to his shooting. It's too much of a benefit to Chris to ignore. Pulling Bargs and putting in Amir would be a typical knee-jerk reaction. Pulling Turk would be a jerk-pull reaction. 

The Rant
In response to all of those negative things said lately about Andrea and him saying he's been lazy. All I can say is that he might be lazy, he might be a shitty rebounder but at least he's a player which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for Hedo who night after night is a walking, talking, smelly piece of turd who barely scores, plays worse defense than Bargnani, commits stupid fouls on both ends of the floor, sometimes to compensate for his shitty defense, and grins, smirks, and jokes around with the opposition about it. Andrea has at least admitted he's bad. How many athletes in the world would do that? Hopefully he takes the next logical step and stop himself from being so dumbass lazy. Oh, and did you hear his response to Jack Armstrong's question? It was hilarious. Jack asked him what his focus was on this game in response to his poor showing the game before. He replied, "Nothing". He focused on nothing? LOL!! He said he has to let his teammates pull the reigns sometimes and he just played his game. I seriously doubt Andrea started the NJ game thinking that he should tone it down a bit and give his teammates a chance to score more.

I am sorry to sound like a broken record but it just continues to be the story of this season. Bargnani with all his shitty D is at least averaging 17 ppg and is the blocks leader on the team. At the very least he's at least pulling some weight. I dunno if I have hated an athlete who was on one of my favorite sports teams more than I hate Hedo. He's like poison to his team. His footwork on defense is worse than Jason Kapono's. It's like trying to watch a horse shuffle form side to side as fast as it could.He did play well in the final quarter of this match but like I've said before. You don't pay a man $10m to average 12ppg.  That defense he played on the last shot of the game by the T'wolves was the best, bar none, BEST DEFENSE I have ever seen that bastard play. If he played like that for 50% of his time on D, we'd probably have a few more W's. Hopefully he's gotten sick of being a joke, a laughing stock, and the object of everyone's ridicule. Hopefully he's waken up a bit.

BBIAB

The Samsquanch will return next week... got business to take care of.

Toronto Raptors: Why Bother?

Why bother?

GUTLESS!!!

Starting on the lighter side:
Did anyone notice how much Leo was tootin Tyreke Evans' horn? I was tellin him to shut his pie hole the entire game. Well actually, I was telling my TV. I do that a lot, yell things at the screen. But Leo, if you love him so much why don't you quit your job with the Raptors and go move in with him? I think he's got a man-crush on him and is going to buy him candy and flowers.


The Game:
A gutless performance in the second half.  The Raptors mailed it in during halftime, put on their night caps and went to sleep. Their offense consisted of a lot of standing around and shooting an ill-advised jumper first thing down the court. Bosh was off big time and he kept forcing up that jumper that just wasn't working. He needed to post up every single time but he didn't. They needed to get the ball to him in the post, or post up Bargnani or run high ISO for him... they didn't. They needed to get Jose the heck off the court and out of the arena. They lost to an obviously inferior team and might as well pack it in this season. This ship seems to be sinking faster than Reggie Evans in a above ground pool.

The Complaints:
Jose was awful, just frickin awful. He should NOT have been left on the floor but yet after missing shots, turning the ball over and getting a flagrant foul, Jay was adamant about leaving him in the game cause things were going so well. With Jack our offense had a flow, but he remained on the pine again way too long. Jack at least can pass as an NBA pointguard even when he's having a bad game. Jose lately, seems like some dude they picked up out of the crowd. It pains me to say it since he used to be such a good player but he's just been a shadow of his former self. As his hair has gone, so has his game.

Again, Andrea does well in the first half and they don't go to him in the third till the end of the quarter when they've realized they've just been jacking up errant jump shots.  By that time he's worn out and ready to come out for a breather. To say that the Raptors have been stoopid is an understatement. Even Devlin and Rautins noted it. I get tired of saying, you must be tired of hearing it. I just put both my hands up in frustration, that's what I'll do from now on.

For the first time ever, I've felt that Jay Triano is not fit as headcoach. I've always been a supporter but now I see the idiocy of his ways. Bad substitution management, bad play calling, bad time-out timing and management. Ask yourselves this question Raptor fans, do you think any team would hire him if he got let go tomorrow? Uh-No.

The usual Turkoglu plea:
Dear Jay Triano and/or Bryan Colangelo. You made a mistake with regards to acquiring Hidayet "The Turnover" Turkoglu. Please remove him from the team. At least remove him from the starting line up. He is the newest version of Stephon Marbury. Last version was Tracy McGrady but he's playing again now. Hedo needs to leave the team, go home and keep from hurting his own team during games. He is the worst free agent acquisition in sports history, no wait hat was Hakeem. He is the second worst acquisition in sports history. If Jason Blake can be removed from the Leafs, the Raps have some sort of chance of getting rid of him this off season. I bet the Blazers are laughing their asses off at us.

To Live and Die in LA... in 1.9 secs

Ok off topic first...
Forest:
I GOTTA FIND BUBBA!! 
Bubba:
Forest, why did this happen?
Forest:
You got shot...






YOU GOTTA QUADRUPLE TEAM KOBE!!
Bynum:
Bosh, why did this happen?
Bosh: Kobe's got a fade away jump shot...
Bargnani:
Say... me fell like me want some shrimp on me penne



It was a good effort by most of the Toronto Raptors against one of the top teams in the world but in the end, the desired outcome slipped by the wayside by a silky smooth fadeaway jumper by Kobe. I didn't get a lot of time to write this one as it was a late game and I hit the sack as soon as it was over and I had work the next day so here I am writing this with a few hours till tipoff in Sackless-town.

Basically we lost this game due to a variety of reason which have been touched on by most people online and most people with eyes. These reasons are very obvious to everyone but like so many things in sports, seems to be invisible to the team's and the other people involved in the game.

The Refs should be SHOT or HUNG or STABBED but they should not be let go without consequence.
Now before you go and call me a psycho I don't mean that literally of course but these refs lastnight were a good example of a major issue in this game. That being, giving the superstars preferential treatment. Kobe was given every chance to get to the line on a variety of phantom calls where he would fall on his own ass and not be in the vicinity of a Raptor but yet the Refs who must've had something of LA's in their pants would call everything against the Raps and basically changed the outcome. This is not acceptable. This is not what fair play is about. This is disgusting.

What's also disgusting is the pig of a player we have on the Raps. The oinker in question of course is Hedo "The Turnover" Turkoglu who was without a doubt a detriment to this basketball team. Not only is he not living up to his guaranteed contract. A contract that spits in the face of every hardworking, blue collared... or white collared for that matter, citizen of the world. But he is costing us games with his sloppy play. He's slow, sloppy, careless, lazy and now you can add sorry to that list. This pig is gobbling up money, taking away playing time from players who could contribute and all the while, he's laughing and smirking on the court and on the bench. A horrible attitude, coupled with a horrible season is a good formula for failure.

Triano... I hope this is a situation where you learn from your mistakes, but since you've made these mistakes countless times I am guessing you are blind. Why on earth would you take Jack out at the end of the 3rd, and hold him out of the game till about the 8 min mark of the 4th when your team has given up the lead or is on a serious cold streak? Jack was on a rampage lastnight and the idiot coaching staff decides to rest him way too long. This is the NBA, it's the 4th quarter against a top team you are within reach of beating. I am sure Jarrett can spare some tiredness to push towards a win. Compounded with leaving Bosh and Bargs on the bench way too long as well, this was another formula for failure and Jay Triano is every bit as culpable as anyone. Jay has a bad habit of taking hot players out of the game. And by this I mean players who are on a scoring streak or are effective at a certain moment in a game. Then he totally ignores the person the rest of the game. Key examples are where Bargs gets hot. Suddenly Bargs couldn't touch the ball other than to swing it to the other side of the court on top of the key. Jack is another example of course, as is Demar. When Demar gets hot in the first half, it doesn't matter. He's coming out of the game in the 4th or even as soon as the 3rd. Demar had a very good first quarter but was completely forgotten about after. I'd still rather have him on the court playing defense than Turk who would more likely tear a groin than play good man to man defense. It's like asking a giraffe to run down a gazelle.

In this end, a double teamed Kobe hit his trademark game winner. He's what a real game winner is. Turk is a joke, he's not a 4th quarter player, he's not a 1st, 2nd or 3rd one for that matter and I wish I could say otherwise. I am a Raptor fan. He is a Raptor... i don't want to see him fail but that's all he seems to be able to do. Wait, the only other thing he is capable of doing is inducing Raptor fans to slap themselves in the forehead with the palms of their hands after watching him play. Vomit, wipe, repeat.

Philadelphia runs afoul of a Toronto Sporting Venue

Intro:
thesamsquanch was in attendance. He was down at the ACC with his lady, with tickets in hand for a sporting event. Instead, thesamsquanch somehow walked into a masons, or bricklayer's convention. All manners of bricks and mortar were on display, from the Italian variety to the standard American. The Raps couldn't hit the side of a barn, as they say. Or throw it in the ocean, as some others mention. To be perfectly simple about it, they stank. Oh, and if you were wondering where I was, which I guess none of you really do anyways since nobody cares. I was the young chap in section 318 wearing his white Andrea Bargnani jersey, old man's hat, doing his darndest to sport a short but growing mullet. Oh and their were two really annoying screeching kids sitting behind us. I know they are just having fun, and I appreciate that but when I looked around me all I can see are people with their fingers in their ears trying not to get permanent hearing loss. To the parents of those kids, please teach them volume control. To those kids, I hope you have fun and enjoy that free cardboard you call food.

In-arena crud:
Since I was there, I can mention some of the things you wouldn't normally see in a televised viewing. Vickie Guererro was at it again, giving out prizes. I wonder if she ever gets bored of showing the same video of the BMO cards going around so a fan can pick the right card. I sure as heck am bored of her. The worst in-game advertisement shown on the big screen, usually during halftime, is the Cambria commercial. Cambria is a bar in the Air Canada Centre. Or at least, that's what I gathered from the commercial. The commercial shows some old musician who I don't care about, and then goes to shots of the bar furniture, the stools, the bathroom sink for some reason, and the bench etc. I am not sure if I should go there to get a beer, or if I should run out and buy some bar stools, or get a new bathroom sink installed. Just bizarre.

The Raptor drove around in his Ford go-cart which for one of the few times I have seen it, didn't actually break down. It's true, I've seen the thing stop working like 3 times and the Raptor would have to wave someone over to help him push it off the court. Typical crap. Much like the way the Raptors basketball team performed today, and has been performing like a lot lately.

The Good Guys:
 Bosh was back, Turk was out. As of this time I do not know why he was absent. I guess it was probably due to the ankle but whatever. The Raptors lacked that 6th gear to shift to, heck they lacked the 5th gear and only showed their 4th gear a bit in the fourth after a Jose 3 pointer and an Antoine 3. Bosh scored 12, Bargs with 11. You can't win like this. It's not possible. Jarrett had a good game with 20 points 9 assists, and 4 steals. Off the bench Belli was had a rare decent game chipping in with 11. That's usually not very good news from an overall standpoint. If I had to describe what I saw, I would say that it was a flurry of turnovers by the Raptors, a lot of offensive boards given up and their second chance points as a result, and a lot of bricks on the other end of the floor where the Raps found themselves wide open and still either lose the ball or lay a big stinky egg. It's like the old sports cliche, they didn't get beaten by the 76ers, they did a good job of beating themselves. At no point did I think that Philly was overpowering the Raps in anyway. The Raps just continued to screw the pooch. Eventually, when you keep doing that to yourself, the other team is going to pull away and that's exactly what happened. I really was like they had their nards removed lately. They just had to fight, no backbone, no willpower, nothing.


The Bad Guys:
They mostly held Elton "No Name" Brand in check with a series of fouls. Thaddeus Young went off on us and was "That Guy" from the other team that the Raps like to allow to have a career night. Just ask Kobe about the topic. AI was in attendance for this game and did a lot of damage with a hand in his face, and also wide open sometimes. He wasn't much of a factor the last time they played the Sixers.

I usually like to get into specifics about the way certain players performed during a game. This game I will spare myself, and yourselves the headache of trying to dig through a pile of dung to find the nuggets. Let's just agree that every has their nads removed except Double J.


The Rant:
What really bothered me, and I mean I got pissed off when this happened, was when the Raptors crowd started chanting PIZZA PIZZA when the team got to 99 points. Your team just embarrassed themselves in front of their home crowd against a shitty opponent. What kind of jackass fans are you to cheer for the garbage pizza you get for free? Get out of the arena, get out of my city, don't come back, don't call yourselves Raptors fans, don't call yourselves sports fans. Just get out, go watch Yo Gabba Gabba, or Hanna Montana, or whatever it is that idiots watch. You're the type of people that go to play day when you were children and are overjoyed to get the participant ribbons. Mind you they are nice ribbons, but when their isn't an ounce of competitiveness in your blood what good are you?

The Raptors own New York this season

Despite missing the big Boshman again for the evening due to a stomach virus, the Raptors once again beat the Knickerbockers. Bosh had food poisoning or something, just a few days after Andrea had something similar. This raises the obvious question, who the heck is their cook/nutritionist?!?! What are these guys stuffing their faces with? Week old pizza slices? Penne Pasta consisting of NOT the finest Italian ingredients? If I had to guess, they probably ate some of that crap that is given out for free after the Raptors get 100 points. Big mistake. But alas, they still manage to beat the Knicks, snapping a 4 game losing streak and all is right with the world once again.

Lets talk about the game though and it was an ugly game. Very difficult for me to watch as their didn't seem to be any flow, any rhyme or reason. Just a couple of crappy teams playing crappy ball. Basically it was David Lee versus the Raptors bench. Nobody pays to see that but the ends justify the ugly means. David Lee basically ran roughshod on the Raptors, Andrea in particular. Andrea bascially just waved at Lee's shots as they went by. Almost escort him to the basket for free. On a positive note, the Raps fans got to boo an old foe in Tracy McGrady. The original Raptor villain. The one we booed with passion long before VC abandoned us. Plus he sucked so it made it so much sweeter. He had like 6 turnovers or something awesome like that. Pretty good for the top payed played in the league.

• Sonny Weems is the next coming of Michael Jordan!! Ok maybe not... maybe not even close but he's made Bryan Colangelo look like a genius all season long. He's got the attributes to make a solid wing in this association and maybe more. Someone just needed to look beyond his draft positioning and give the guy a chance and some playing time. So often, the Raptors have been the springboard to success for players in this league. The trend seems to be, they do well here and cash in some place else. Hopefully we can retain Sonny. He displayed his entire arsenal tonight and teams continue to sleep on defending this guy's jumper.

• Point of interest...Jose and Jarrett. Our backcourt was weaving their way through traffic and finishing off the glass. The Knicks just couldn't contain their slashes and they hurt the Knicks all night long. Jose seems to have his step back as he was a half step faster than the defender on almost every drive. Jarrett was going through the Knicks defense like a wrecking ball and the Knicks just got outta the way. I kinda wished they gave Marcus Banks some burn though since he's been so good off the bench for us this season. A year ago, I woulda read that and thought I was making some smart ass, sarcastic comment. 

• Andrea Stunk. I mean he was awful. I cringed every time he put up a shot cause it never looked like they'd go in. They should make him watch the tape of this game over and over again. It's a how-to and how-not-to visual learning tool. Try the things that David is doing, stop doing the things you were doing like forcing up bad shots, rushing possessions, and trying to go through a double team on the post like you were Shaq-fu. The low post game was not working and he needed to go back to his mid range game. He didnt. He needed to go to the head fake jumpers, the step-out jumpers and the controlled drives. He didn't. His defense was atrocious. I don't know if you've noticed... rhetorical question, but it seems soooooo easy for everyone in the league to shoot over top of Andrea. I dunno if his long arms actually help the opponent line up their shot more or what. He took a shot to the back of the head that busted him open. I thought that might awaken him, nope.

• Amir also played well. I always thought they should start him instead of Rasho, especially with Reggie back. He's done well and deserved to be rewarded. Tonight, he rewarded Jay by being a rebound hound on the offensive end. Showing the other team the offensive rebounding usually reserved for Raptors opponents on the other end. He was a fireball, a sparkplug, a catalyst all night and I thought some of that hustle might have sparked something for Andrea. Some of the hardwork would have infected Andrea via osmosis. Shows how much I know. 

• Turk did well. I guess you can call that well. The rebounds are certainly nothing to sneeze at. All the Turk supporters would agree he did well. Let's bring some reality. He's getting paid $53million dollars!!!!!!!!! He's expected to play the way he did in Orlando, and he's expected to score more than 15 points a game, every game!!! Then the cynics would say, "Well we don't need him to". We're 5th in the East, not 1st. So therefore, we need him to! 

There's nothing sweeter than beating the team for the so-called best city in the world. It just makes me sleep a little better at night. It's really a wonderful thing. However, the Knicks are going to try to do what everyone else in the world hates about New York franchises. They are going to try to buy success. Throw money at their problems instead of working hard. Instead of scouting, drafting properly, developing their players, and building a team like everyone else does. They just make a crap team for years, and try to buy talent. Makes me sick. Another reason why I am savouring this win.

Raps got PHI next. PHI doesn't seem very powerful but you never know what any team is capable of at any time and it's a game that's going to need Chris Bosh, and Andrea Bargnani back. Neither of which were present at this game. Physcially, nor mentally. And please, someone please feed these pro athletes something good.

Raps get PWNED in Hooooston

SO, that was a wonder game wasn't it? It was like a time machine for me, like watching a Raptors game from their old early expansion years. Turnovers everywhere, disorganization, rushed shots, porous defence, and really really bad shooting. Critics would say that they were missing their star players but I respond to that by saying, NO EXCUSES. Especially in the way that they lost. I mean I have to admit, i didn't even finished watching the game. It was too painful to watch. Bargs was scoring but some of the ones he missed were atrocious. There was no defense to speak of at all. The Rockets just made their way to the basket at will. I dunno what to say... really. I am speechless. I just hope that Bosh comes back soon and they can collect themselves soon cause if they keep playing like this, they'll end up being another joke in the east.