Built Ford Tough

This is why the Raptors miss Bosh so much. They are shooting 30% in the quarter but without having Bosh around to get to the rim, foul line, or draw the defense in to get an open look on th eperimeter, they have to continue to hoist up contested jumpers and hope that they catch fire. Guys like Calderon, Bargnani and Belinelli (when he plays) rely so much on Bosh's presence on the floor to get theirselves good looks. I'm liking the Raptors lineup on the floor right now. About [expletive]ing time they call a foul in favor of the Raptors though. The Raptors haven't played great and all, but the refs have been giving them absolutely no calls at all. Turkoglu was fouled at least 3 times before they finally called one.

For [expletive]s sake, how the hell do you give up an And 1 fastbreak layup after a made basket? This is the third time that the Raptors have given up a layup within 4 seconds of scoring a basket theirselves. It is absolutely pathetic. What is Triano thinking though? Jack has shown to be the only one capable of scoring consistently without Bosh in the lineup and he has him sitting on the bench for Calderon, who has been completely useless all season long. I don't care if the Raptors have a game tomorrow, this is the game that they need to win and he seems to be worrying about minute distribution? Give me a break. I'd rather see Marcus Banks on the floor over Calderon for crying out loud.

Bulls up 19? Yeah, this game is over.

I'm not liking the Raptors chances this half to be honest. Their only hope was to be able to keep it around 4-5 points all game long and hope to make a late push to take control of the game. Instead, they are down by 13 at the start of the 2nd half and don't have the ability to come back from this. Also, how funny is it that Joakim Noah is going to drop a triple double on the Raptors? You know your defense is awful when Noah is picking you apart with his passing. Turkoglu is now shooting 1-8. The rebounding and assists ar enice, but he really needs to start hitting these open shots and contributing socring the ball. Bargnani needs to get aggressive and look to get inside whenever possible as well. The Raptors can't afford for him to settle.

For like the 5th time, it is lottery protected until 2015.

So Calderon is playing like he did back in his rookie season. He can't hit a jumper to save his life, is commiting stupid turnovers and is useless on defense. As much as I dislike Wright at times, I really wish he was in the game today simply because it would put Calderon on the bench (I hope). Absolutely terrible foul by Turkoglu there and what makes it even worse is that Deng got basically an open layup off of a Raptors make. Raptors need to up the defensive pressure and intensity if they plan on doing anything today though. They are making it far too eay for the Bulls on offense.

Absolutely dirty move by Jack. And then he goes and starts talking smack to Kirk Hinirch by the Bulls bench and gets thrown out by the Bulls assistaint coach lol. I love this guy. Brandon, in Amir's defense, he never should've been put in that position if the refs called the clear as day Up and Down on Miller (which the ref went to Triano and said he missed the call during the TV timeout, which resulted in Triano throwing his clipboard). He was in position and everything, and I guarntee if he didn't have a reputation as somebody who fouls a lot (a lot of BS calls go his way too) that would've been called a charge. Hedo is doing a nice job on the glass as well. 8 boards by him already.

The Raptors should just leave Jack on the floor all game long. He is clearly the better player than Calderon is with Bosh in the lineup, and without Bosh in the lineup, Jack is abuot 10X more effective with his ability to create his own shot and get to the rim. And what kind of garbage was that? Miller leaves his feet with the ball and comes down with it, then Amir gets in position to draw the charge, but gets called for a block because of his reputation. Now Amir is stuck on the bench with 3 fouls and the Raptors are down by 7 when it should've been a 4 point gmae with the Raptors having the ball. 10 point game after a Hinrich 3 because Bargnani doesn't know how to rebound which can be directly attributed to Amir having to sit after that blown call. Raptors need to stop this run and get it together or else this game is going to get out of hand. 12 point defecit now. Raptors are getting severely outplayed.

Do you honestly think that if the media hasn't convinced theirselves that Bosh has already packed his bags that they would mention him as much in regards to free agency? It isn't a coincidence that they stopped almost all of the Bosh free agent talk when the Raptors were 3 games up on the Bulls for the 5th seed in the East and had one of the best records in the league over a 2 month time framce, and then started it right back up again when the Raptors fell to .500. Then there is the obvious 2003 draft and Team USA connection between them (along with Melo). If everybody wasn't convinced that Bosh has already made up his mind to leave Toronto, he would be getting as much talk as Amare Stoudemire has been getting. The Raptors were playing a better team than them in th eplayoffs that year anyways. New Jersey may have had a worse record, but that was because of injuries. Kidd was a better point guard than Calderon or Ford (who was playing injured after game 1 or 2), Carter was a better shooting guard than Parker, Jefferson was a better small forward than Garbajosa and Mikki Moore played better than Bargnani or Rasho at center. The only position the Raptors had the advantage at was power forward, and the Nets knew this by sending 3 defenders his way whenever he touched the ball. They didn't have the better guards during the playoffs though, and that was the difference in the series (Kidd, Carter and Jefferson dominating). And again, you are comparing a fringe top 10 player in the league to Dwight Howard, a widely conisdered top 5 player in the league. You are comparing Bosh to players who are conisdered bonafide franchise guys while Bosh is considered by almost everybody to be best suited as a 1B or second option. And again, Dwight Howard has played with substantially better teams than Bosh has. Whatever though, this is a pointless discussion.

And LeBron James is probably the best player in the NBA and was an undisputed top 2 player in that year. The Cavs also had the 4th best defensive rating in the league that season. Just saying Plus Z, Gooden and Varejao being significantly better than the Raptors front court cancels out the backcourt advantage that the Raptors had, which I am sure you realize considering you left that out of your post. What are you even trying to accomplish though? What exactly is the point in proving that LeBron James > Chris Bosh? The fact of the matter is that you tried to discredit Bosh by saying that he hasn't led his team deep in the playoffs when the best supporting cast he has ever had is comparable to the worst supporting cast that Wade or James have ever had. I fail to see why that is a knock against Bosh especially since nobody is saying, well other than you apperantly, that Bosh is on the same level as James or Wade. So again, what are you trying to accomplish in this thread other than proving the superiority of LeBron James over Chris Bosh?

Nobody puts him up there with Wade and LeBron in free agency talk. He is talked about so much becasue people figure that he is the most likely to leave while LeBron and Wade are considered basically locks to stay with their respective teams. I guarntee that nobody actually thinks that Bosh is on the same level as Wade or James, that is just ridiculous to say. Hell, Bosh gets called the one of the most overrated players in the league by multiple analysts and fans more than he gets praised for being a 24/11big man. And please don't use that stupid logic of "what has he done in the playoffs compared to Wade and LeBron". First off all, Bosh is a definite top 15 player in the NBA, with a valid case to being on the bottom end of the top 10. LeBron and Wade are undisputed top 3 players in the league. There is a bit of a difference between Bron and Wade when compared to Bosh. Secondly, Bosh hasn't been blessed to play with a supporting cast half as good as either Wade or LeBron have/have had in their careers. Bosh's best second option has been TJ Ford/Andrea Bargnani. The best team Bosh ever played on had a lineup of: TJ Ford/Jose Calderon Anthony Parker/Morris Peterson Jorge Garbajosa/Joey Graham Chris Bosh/Kris Humphries Rasho Nesterovic/Andrea Bargnani and you are saying that Bosh is basically overrated because he hasn't led this team to an NBA Championship like Dwyane Wade has when he was playing with the likes of Shquille O'Neal, Udonis Haslem, James Posey, Alonzo Mourning, Jason Williams, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker or LeBron James leading his elite defensive and shooting teams to the best record in the East and Conference Finals? The times that Wade and James have had comparable supporting casts to what Bosh has had during his time with the Raptors they have managed to get knocked out in the first round (Wade last year) or missed the playoffs all together (James first few seasons in his career). Now I'm not saying that Bosh is on the same level as Wade or James, just like nobody else says, but give me a break with this horrible argument of yours. Bosh has been surrounded with below average at best teams his entire time in Toronto and he has still managed to lead them to the playoffs twice. That isn't great for a first tier superstar like a Wade or a James, but it's not like Bosh is a first tier superstar. As for the game, the Raptors are going to be putting Sonny Weems on Derrick Rose and Jose Calderon on Kirk Hinrich according to Matt Devlin's Twitter page. Good move by Triano and the rest of the coaching staff as we all know that Rose would absolutely abuse Calderon. Wright did a pretty good job of using his length to annoy Rose in the previous meetings (or at least the first one, although Rose was banged up then) and Sonny is longer and more athletic than Wright is. Weems just needs to keep Rose on the perimeter and use his quickness/length to contest jumpers. Make him beat you by shooting jumpers, not by getting to the rim.

Some notes, inverviews, etc... from shootaround earlier today: (This is the kind of stuff why Jack has quickly become one of my favourite Raptors this season). Jose Calderon comments: Jarrett Jack comments: Jay Triano comments: More here: http://blogs.thescore.com/nba/2010/04/11/shootaround-bulls-raps/

Yeah Bosh did push for Aldridge, but management figured that the two of them were way too similar to work out, and even though I'm not much of a fan of Bargnani's, I have to agree with them. Aldridge could definitely be conisdered a worse fit beside Bosh than Bargnani is. Even though Bargnani doesn't play in the low post on offense and isn't a good rebounder or defender, its not like Aldridge is any of those things either. At least with Bargnani he gives Bosh more space due to him standing outside the 3 point line fairly often on offense. With Aldridge, you would have another high post big man like Bosh who likes to face up and work 15 feet or so away from the basket. I don't think that those two would work all that well. I'm not saying that you said he would be a better fit or anything. I don't hate the fact that they took Bargnani (I was really hoping for Rudy Gay) because the fact of the matter is that it was either Bargnani, Aldridge, Gay or Thomas (if I remember correctly) who were talked about as possible number 1 picks. Other than Gay, I think that Bargnani was the best choice for Toronto with the similarities between Bosh and Aldridge and Thomas being way too raw. That was just a terrible draft for the Raptors to get the number one pick in. Anyways, here is the latest on Bosh: http://blogs.thescore.com/nba/2010/04/11/shootaround-bulls-raps/

With Bosh out, Turkoglu and Jack playing hurt, DeRozan being an inconsistent rookie and Calderon and Bargnani looking lost without Bosh in the lineup, yeah, the Raptors need all the help that they can get. He is out for today's game against Chicago and is still on crutches. Injury officially released as a grade-2 ankle sprain. No word on anything else:

If the Raptos win today against the Bulls, I think that they have pretty much wrapped up the 8th seed. I know that they would only have a 1 game advantage over the Bulls with 2 games left for each team, which doesn't seem like a very secure lead, especially with the Raptors missing Bosh, and possibly Wright, for the season, having players like Turkoglu and Jack banged up as well and on a 4 game losing streak, but Toronto has the tiebreaker over the Bulls so that really gives the Raptors an edge as all they have to do is match the Bulls record, while the Bulls have to surpass the Raptors record. I know that it isn't very "glorious" or whatever you want to call it, to get into the playoffs because of a tiebreaker, but with the way that the Raptors have been hit with injuries and have sputtered since the All-Star break, I'll be happy with the playoffs no matter how they get in. I don't know if I would say that the Bulls schedule is harder than the Raptors. I know that Boston and Charlotte are clearly better teams than the Knicks and the Pistons, but you have to factor in that the Celtics and Bobcats already have their playoff spots locked up and may not have anything to play for, which means they would rest their better players. Boston is still trying to catch Atlanta, but if Atlanta wins one more game they would be out of reach of the Celtics, and even then, Boston has started to rest players like Garnett already and I'm not sure how worried they are with getting the 3rd seed. The Bobcats don't really have any shot at catching Miami or Milwaukee for the 5th seed either, so there is a very good possibility that they will rest guys like Wallace and Jackson. With Toronto's remaining schedule, they are playing two teams that have absolutely nothing to play for which makes them two very dangerous teams. Teams like Detroit and New York are looking to play the role of spoiler, and that could be more threatening than playing two teams that have nothing to play for. I'm sure that Detroit, and especially New York being a division rival, would love to ruin Toronto's season and make them miss the playoffs. If the Raptors win today than I think they have basically locked up that final playoff spot (although it is no guarntee) and if the Bulls win they control their own destiny and can make it very difficult on the Raptors. Like you said, this game today could be the deciding factor on who makes and misses the playoffs, especially if the Raptors win.

This is purely speculation on my part as nothing is confirmed, but considering the fact that he had to be carried off of the court, had a previously injured ankle (not sure if it was the same one or not) and left the arena last night on crutches, which he is still on as far as I know, does anybody else think that Wright may join Bosh on the shelf for the rest of the regular season? EDIT: I stumbled across this comment in the Toronto Star while looking to see if I could find any concrete facts about Wright's status. http://www.torontosun.com/sports/basketball/2010/04/09/13534211.html#/sports/basketball/2010/04/09/pf-13534211.html So it seems like I'm not the only who is speculating that Wright may be done for the season. Doug Smith also wrote in his latest blog entry and he doubts Wright will be in the lineup tomorrow, but I don't think he mentioned anything in regards to the Detroit and New York games.

Not really. All they said during the game was a sprained left ankle, which I think everybody could've concluded on their own. I haven't read anything else, but juding from the way that he was carried off of the floor, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't play against the Bulls on Sunday. I was actually pretty pleased with the game tonight. I wasn't expecting a win or anything, but I liked the way that they battled, well aside from the 2nd quarter. Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems really stepped up without Bosh in the lineup. Amir had a great game, but once again, he was a bit limited due to foul trouble. He could be a really effective player if he stops fouling ever minute he is one the floor.

Patrick O'Bryant shares my exact thoughts on his Twitter: "13POB13: thank god for the nets???? wtf lol"

Williams had a great game posting his first career triple double with 27 points / 13 rebounds / 10 assists. Brook Lopez had a very good game as well with 26 points / 14 rebounds including some very big plays like that put back dunk to send it into overtime and hitting some clutch free throws in the two OT's. Bulls just looked like they ran out of gas during the 4th quarter. There were some questionable calls that didn't go their way and that seemed to deflate them even more. Terrible loss by them with their playoff lives hanging in the balance, especially considering they had this game all but wrapped up in the first overtime. Sunday's game against Toronto could very well end up deciding who makes the playoffs.

Great play by Harris to draw the foul on Rose. Terrible foul by Rose though, especially knowing that he already has 5. Harris chokes at the line again. At least he made 1-2 this time. Bulls look flat and deflated right now. New Jersey up 119-112 wtih 2:19 left. Oh yeah, another gem by the Bulls announcing duo. "Maybe the Nets have finally figured out a way to win a game?" I love these guys.

Yeah, up 6 with less than a minute to go against the worst team in the NBA and you manage to blow that lead? Ouch. Then again, New Jersey had an equally epic choke job in the 4th quarter to give the Bulls life in this game. Heading into a 2nd OT right now. Tied at 112.

The Bulls color guy is absolutely freaking out right now. This guy is pure entertainment. Lol, the Bulls announcers are saying that the refs should give the Bulls the ball because they missed a foul on Rose, despite the fact that it went off of Rose out of bounds. I'm pretty sure you can't do that. Rose was clearly fouled though, but I'm not complaining about the call. 2 point game with 25 seconds to go. EDIT: Lopez to the line for 2 with 13 seconds to go. EDIT#2: Lopez hits both free throws to tie the game up. Bulls ball with 13 seconds left and a chance to win it.

Pretty much, haha. I know they will get dominated but I just want them to pay off their debt right away and move forward without restrictions (other than bad contracts). I'm not really all that impressed with the prospects that would be available when the Raptors select anyways. Really though, I won't be upset either way. If I had my choice they would make the playoffs this year though. There is no way that New Jersey wins this game though. They are down 7 already. EDIT: Another gem by the Bulls' color man. "The Nets know they are going to lose, they just don't know how or how bad." I love this guy.

Brook Lopez with a put back slam with 0.1 seconds left to tie the game and, presumably, send it into overtime. Bad, bad defensive possession by the Bulls as nobody put a body on Lopez or Yi.

Brad Miller hits 2 free throws after a horrible foul by Lopez. Miller was somewhat out of control and there were only 3 seconds left on the shot clock so he would've had to force something up. Instead, the Bulls are not up 3 with 9 seconds left and it looks like they are going to take possession of 8th place in the East. Harris hits a jumper in the lane to cut it to a 1 point lead with 4.6 seconds left. PS: These Chicago announcers are brutal. The color guy is making choking noises into the mic and talking all kinds of smack about the Nets.