Sweet Revenge

So the Raptors finally beat the Mavs and I don't just mean the first half of the game and then blow a huge lead and eventually lose. You see, that's what they did against the mavs twice last season. Earlier this season, they just flat out got their asses kicked. Tonight they did the opposite and beat the Mavs in convincing fashion and satisfied their fan's blood thirst for revenge. Too long have the Mavs embarassed Toronto, too long has Dirk Nowitzki strutted his stuff on the court at the expense of the Raps. Now only if they could do it against the Craptics then the world would be right.

Everyone seemed to play well tonight. Not only from an offense standpoint but on defense as well. Well duh, you can't win without having to play hard defense you must be thinking. But that's the thing that was their Achilles heel all this time and somehow they have suddenly managed to look like they're a good defensive team. They all seem to be playing very hard, getting into opponent's space and forcing them to pass or put up a bad shot. This has been the biggest change lately in their successes. A key part of this is Andrea Bargnani's improved defense. Since he is not leaving his man wide open anymore during switches, hedges and help defense, he's not allowing the opponent the chance to swing the ball around to the open man or just drive right into the lane. This in turn allows the Raptors to not look like total jackasses. But their defense wasn't entirely AB7's fault earlier this season. Every Raptor fan out their knew they had a problem with the other team's guards and wings just blowing by their defender and helping themselves to an endless buffet of jam, slams, layups and whatever they their hearts desired. They seemed to have developed this ingenious trick where they slide over and deny a slashing opponent a clear path. Groundbreaking strategy, I know. Nonetheless, these tweaks to the defense seemed to have stabilized them and allowed them to build confidence which as well all know is super duper important to success.

So to sing the praises of my favourite player even though I like to be fair and point out his shortcomings, Bargnani has been the difference to the team with their recent success. No matter how much defense you play you still have to score to win and the extra points we're getting from our new Madman AB7 is the difference. He's not only scoring, he's doing it efficiently, playing defense, rebounding, and showing some real fire and emotion. This seems to pump up his teammates and becomes contagious. Well to everyone except Hidayet Turkoglu. Yes that's his real name. Hidayet, (Rhymes with idiot) seems to be in a real slump. Bargnani on the other hand is on fire and here's hoping he stays this way and doesn't relapse back into the shadow of the player he's become.

When the Raptors signed him to a 5 year $50million deal I knew it was a great deal even though everyone else cried foul. Even without his recent improvements, at the time Bargnani was still one of the best centers in the league. I mean look at some of the other bums that play center in the NBA that make more money. Samuel Dalembert makes about $12 million a year. He is not half the player Bargnani is. Bargnani may not be as good a defender but Bargnani's ceiling for improvement is unlimited in comparison. Brad Miller is making over $12 million, Andrew Bogut is making 10, Tyson Chandler making about 12, Eric Dampier, 10, and he's making $13 million next season. Now... can you tell me how much you'd pay Bargnani in comparison? Not only that, he's very very happy with the deal telling me he's not a greedy bastard. I mean giving a person $10 million a year to play 82, two and a half hour games, a few practices a week, then get the summer off? Who wouldn't be content? Other NBA players, that's who! Bargnani is a quality player and Colangelo is a friggin genius. Darko is making $7.5 million and he's an absolute useless 7 foot tall pile of garbage. $2.5 million more and it upgrades you to Bargnani? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Let's face it, besides a few exceptional players, most centers are just tall guys that wave their arms around. Very few of them can shoot jumpers, even fewer of them can drive the ball, handle the ball, and the ones that can shoot threes? Well you can count them all on one hand. Bargnani, Troy Murphy(might be considered a PF), Brad Miller, Mehmet Ohkur, Rasheed Wallace(also might me considered a PF). Now that Bargnani has added shot blocking and rebound on a more consistent basis we now have one of the premier centers in the game. Dwight Howard might be a zillion times better but the man is naturally a PF and so is the boringest player in the NBA, Tim Duncan.

Now if only they can parlay Turkoglu into a decent wing we'd be a legit contender. No offense to Demar but since he's a rookie and for no other reason, i think we need another wing in order to go deep into the playoffs. Nobody wins a championship without a solid slashing, scoring, wing who possibly could be able to post their opponent up. Who does that sound like? Kobe and Lebron are extreme versions of this but someone a bit less skilled(and cheaper) would do the trick too. Kind of the way Carter used to be before he turned into a giant buffoon. Or at least until we realized he was one.

Trading Calderon was an option too when he was injured, but since he's come back he's played his way back into the lineup, back into respectability and back into my heart. LOL. But in all seriousness he's run the second unit so well and has executed the offense so well that he's untradeable in my books. He's showing that he's back to form. The type of form he had so long ago, most of us forgot how it used to look like. He's driving the ball and using that sweet lay-in. He's making great crisp passes to teammates that put them in good position, he's confusing the opponent's defense with quick swing passes, and he's hitting his shot off screens like he used to instead of clanking them really badly. Making shots instead of missing them? Great insight I know. There's no longer a huge drop off in PG play and offensive direction once the starting PG sits down for a rest. Other teams are finding that their secondary PGs are no match for us. Unlike Slowmo Ukic, who was garbage, human garbage. He's also finding Bargs more. Bargnani doesn't seem to get the ball enough in key moments of the game before. Bargnani would score 12 points in a first quarter, then the team stops giving him the ball. It's happened on many many occasions. Know how people always wonder why he does well in first and third quarters and disappears? Well it's cause he's not getting any passes!!! The only passes he gets is to move the ball in position for a play to feed Bosh or someone else. So when he does get the ball he forces up an ill advised 3 cause it's the only chance he gets to score.

So kudos to Bargnani and Calderon. Boo to Hedont Turkoglu.

Raptors beat the Knickerbockers

Okay so obviously I am please to be wrong about my previous prediction that the Raps would drop this one but they almost did. However, they hung in there and managed to pull off a decent beating on the Pairs of Pants from New York. Many things to take note of from this game where the Raptors played like it was their last game on earth in the first half. Burying everything they got their hands on, running the break very well, attacking the rim methodically and playing defense so tight, the Knicks barely had room to move. Then they played some gutless, uninspired baskeball in the third. Turned the ball over like it was out of fashion, and laid more cinder than a mason. Luckily they got a surprise scoring punch from Jose and Double D.

Bargnani was playing out of his mind. I don't know why but he and Jose both seemed to have their shots locked down and zeroed in. It's like when you go bowling and you hit several strikes in a row. For some reason something just clicks and your shot is on. Bargnani went 5 for 6 from downtown, including some shots that were so far from the 3 line that I thought he was insane when he first let the ball go. But every time it would swish in. His dunk through traffic was one of the most impressive plays of his career. The offensive end was great but his defense... i just can't explain what I saw. It was the best defense I've ever seen him play. It was like some other defensive legend had possessed his body and was playing great positional defense, help defense, getting his hand in everyone's face and grabbing every rebound near him and ripping them down with force. I wonder what kind of pasta he ate. Yes Galinari scored a few more points but the battle of the I-talians goes to AB7, no question. Watching him jump up and down and yelling like he was the top gorilla of the banana pile was kind of cool but also a bit scarey since we never usually see him like this. Hooting and hollar after plays, slapping his teammates and acting like he isn't Frankenstein.

One particular development was AB7 taking the ball in the post several times and either getting a nice hook, a jumper in or kicking it out after drawing a double team. They need to run this play more in the future. It just flat out works and creates space on the floor for an open shot when the defense tries to recover from collapsing on him. It would probably work for CB4 too if he knew how to pass out of the post. It only didn't work once when the refs called him for a travel but I thought Harrington fouled him as he turned baseline. He was running roughshod on them all night and David Lee seemed pissed at times which makes me happy. AB7 gets an A for his performance.

Jose was also playing well. Running circles around their defense and spotted up for a lot of shots which he iced every time. I didn't feel this level of confidence in his shot since two seasons ago when he stole the starting spot from TJ. He also made some nice passes, setting up his teammates with several easy scores. This included that sweet little lob to Double D for that slick looking left handed alley-oop. He drove the ball right into the defense and helped buoy the Raptors' lead in the 3rd and 4th. Jack played well in the first but seemed a bit out of sorts the rest of the game. I think it was mainly due to some of his passes leading to the bricks Hedo put up and leading to Bosh getting shut down in the post several times. Jose is making a case to be the starter but he's going to have to put up a few more stat lines like this to convince the coaching staff. Maybe the trade winds will die down a bit. Jose gets a B and Jack gets a C.

Bosh played well in some stretches and seemed to battle Lee but this was subdued by Lee and some double teams. Bosh's problem is that he is a ball hog. I love the guy but 99% of the time he gets the ball, he keeps it regardless of the situation. This results in one of two things. He either drives it in for a hook, or a nice move under the basket where he scores more often than not, or it results in him turning the ball over. He needs to learn how to kick the ball out to the open player on the perimeter. I am starting to suspect this is part of the reason why Kapono never had much success here since Bosh can't pass out of a double team. It's frustrating to watch him lose the ball off his foot, off his butter fingers or just having it stolen or stripped outright by the help defense. He was subdued by this but on this night it didn't matter much and he knew it. His teammates were bringing home the bacon this time and he didn't need to be the force he usually is. I'd rate his performance a B-. I mean the guy still scored 18 and 9. Can't argue with that.

Hedo is the guy I credit most with the Raptors losing their big lead. He provided nothing early on and threw up brick after brick. Bricking shots in key possessions that fueled the Knicks run. Not to mention his turnovers which weren't too many but seemed to be at the worst times which helped the Knicks build momentum. Particularly his idiotic turnover and clear path foul which nearly made me tear my hair out. He made some key shots down the stretch but it probably only partially made up for the points he gave up on their other end in the third. Jay even bench his ass in favor of Sonny. He has this mentality of shooting weird, out of rhythm shots, that are not in the process and not produced from a set play. The shots that he took that were advised were way off and often clanked off front rim. Then he tried to make fancy passes that result in turnovers. On defense he was like a ghost. He stood there, waved his hand sparingly, and looked like he rarely expended any energy at all trying to distract the opponent. Basically, he just stood there and his presence was only barely known by visual means. Turk gets an D-. Would be an F if he didn't hit a few shots late.

Derozan was the other player that, like Bargnani was possessed by some sort of Basketball demon. He was cutting and slashing his way through the Knicks D. Slithering through and getting fouled or getting a lay-in, dunk, or getting fouled. He did his damage at the free throw line. It's quite obvious to see in the boxscore. He kept the team in the game and had a huge part in this W.

So what do we gather from this game? I mean in order to improve the team. Bosh needs to learn how to kick the ball out, Derozan needs to drive the ball to the basket every chance he gets, and Turkoglu needs to be shipped out of here. I suggest trying to snatch one of the decent players from the Nets, or seeing what the Magic might give you since he had most of his success there and now the Magic look like they wish they had paid him max money instead of letting him go and signing a coked out Vince Carter.

In the end, this was an excellent game to watch as a Raptors fan. Especially the first half. It's always satisfying to see one of my teams beat a New York team. It really makes me happy to see the Knicks on a losing end of a Raptors beat down. Now on to Dallas where I hope they don't get squashed and can carry some of the momentum over. Here's hoping they don't melt down again in the third.