Built Ford Tough

Brutal collapse during the 4th quarter. Williams has absolutely picked the Raptors apart this quarter. Guy has been lights out from the field. That 4 point play from Calderon was huge though. EDIT: Great defensive stand by Wright causing the turnover on Williams. Huge shot by Bargs though. That 3 completely bailed out Jack's ineptitude on that possession. Bargs ices the game at the free throw line.

Evans is absolutely gassed right now. Dude is sucking air BAD. Great hustle from him though. He has drawn a loose ball foul on Dalembert, has been diving after loose balls, drew a charge and done exactly what you would expect of him. Just don't like to see Evans try to create his own offense like he did right there, lol. Please Reggie, no spinning hook shots from you. EDIT: Reggie heading back to the lockroom. Probably needs to get some oxygen or some [expletive], lol.

Lol, the fans see Evans come to the scoring table and he gets a huge reception and a "Reggie, Reggie!" chant. Guy hasn't even come into the game yet.

I just woke up from taking a nap, but the last 2 minutes from Calderon has been outstanding. He was absolutely picking the Sixers defense apart and dropping some very nice dimes. You also have to give credit to Johnson, DeRozan and Weems for making some nice cuts off of the ball to get into the position where Calderon can find them with the lob pass. Very impressive 2 minutes from Calderon.

I'm guessing that the Raptors drop this game. They have been playing really well as of late (aside from that game in Indy) and with this being the last game that they play before the All-Star break, I have a gut feeling that we are going to see the Raptors have a bit of a let down today. The Sixers have also been playing really well as of late and I don't really like the way that the Raptors match up with them. The Raptors don't really seem to play all that well against teams with athleticisim (which is why the Hawks have completely dominated them all season long) who are capable of getting out and running. The Raptors are playing at home where they are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, so that helps matters. If they were on the road I would fully expect a Sixers win, but since it is at home I see it more as 50/50. One thing is for sure though, the Raptors can't afford to fall behind early and be forced to play catchup like they have been doing lately. The Raptors needs to come out and set the tone early if they want to win this game. Should be fun.

With Casspi (66%) and Rondo (59%) being such poor FT shooters, all Durant has to do is take free throws and he will win without even breaking a sweat.

You could very easily look at that as a reason to have Billups over Rose. Rose is the teams primary option, ball handler, facilitator and basically the primary everything when it comes to the Bulls' offense. Meanwhile, Billups is putting up nearly equal points (0.2 less), slightly more assists (0.3 more) on nearly 5 less shots per game and on greater efficiency (Rose has the higher FG% but Billups has the better eFG% and significantly better TS%) despite the fact that Rose has a USG% of 27.3 to Billups 24.4. I guess it depends on your perspective of how much players like Melo and Nene have a positive impact on Billups' numbers and how much Rose's weaker supporting cast has a negative influence on his numbers. Personally, I think that what Billups is doing is definitely more impressive than what Rose is doing, simply because of how much more efficient he has been and the fact that he has basically identical stats as Rose despite not having the ball in his hands nearly as often. Billups defensive advantage is what really seperates him from Rose for me though. I can understand the argument for Rose having a slight advantage offensively, but that is easily nulified by Billups being the superior defender. Rose has had a very good season, and it is no coincidence that once he got healthy and picked his game up that the Bulls made a surge up the standings, but I just don't think that you can say he has had a better season than Billups has thus far. My order would be: 1. Chris Paul 2. Deron Williams 3. Steve Nash 4. Chauncey Billups 5. Rajon Rondo

*Raises hand* I didn't think that they would be fighting for a 5th seed or anything like that, but I definitely thought that they had a very good chance of making the playoffs. I thought that the loss of Gordon would hurt them offensively, but I have always liked Luol Deng's game and thought that his return, along with Rose's improvement, would be able to compensate for the loss of Gordon. I don't remember for sure if I posted anything about my predictions on here in the offseason, but I had the Bulls and the Sixers fighting for that 8th seed. I predicted the East to be something like this: 1. Boston 2. Cleveland 3. Orlando 4. Atlanta 5. Washington (yikes!) 6. Miami 7. Toronto 8. Chicago 9. Philly 10. Charlotte 11. Indiana 12. Detroit 13. New Jersey 14. Milwaukee 15. New York Then again, I tend to flip-flop on my predictions during the summer. I'm not sure if I posted something during the summer or not, but I remember thinking that the East would be something like this. If I did, and it is different from this, I guess I am just remembering wrong.

The Bucks are a game back of Chicago for the 6th seed, but they are 4 back of Toronto for the 5th seed. Don't know why you thought Chicago and Toronto were tied for 5th, or I am just reading your post wrong.

Armstrong with another brilliant quote. "Mask. I've got nothing else to say; mask."

Raptors offense is absolutely picking the Kings defense apart right now. They can't stop Bosh so they are being forced to double him on the catch and once Bosh kicks it out, the Raptors ball movement has been flawless. The Kings look absolutely lost trying to rotate back into position. I imagine that the Raptors have really picked it up defensively this quarter, considering the Kings haven't really gotten anything easy this quarter (for the most part).

There have been some awesome quotes over the last 5 minutes or so of this game. Devlin after Bosh's huge block on Thompson: "And rejected by Bosh. WHAT A BEAST!!!" Armstrong on Nocioni: "Look at Nocioni yapping to the officials. Does he ever shut up?" Armstrong's usual "Get that Gar-bage out of here" after a Raptor block was great as well. That was probably the most enthusiastic one I have heard from Jack this season.

What a ridiculous start time. 9AM against the Kings? Give me a break. Can anybody give me a quick recap of the game? I imagine it is basically the Raptors can't stop the Kings and are turning the ball over (which is leading to the absurd amount of fast break points the Kings have). Most importantly, however, how has Kevin Martin looked in his audition?

Dash sent me this through a PM. I'm not exactly sure who the original poster was (somebody on RealGM) or do I know how valid it is, but I figured I would post it anyways. I can see some of the names being realistic, but others not so much. I don't really see any reason why Toronto would want Nocioni or Hamilton. Nocioni isn't any good and has a very unattractive contract. I have no problems with Hamilton as a player, but investing so much money long term in Hedo Turkoglu and Rip Hamilton would be a disaster. I don't see why they would want Dahntay Jones either, considering he isn't really enough of an upgrade over Wright or Weems to warrant spending $3M on.

Strictly looking at play from this season, I don't see how you can argue that Chris Bosh hasn't been a top 10 player in the league thus far. He is 8th in scoring, 6th in rebounding, has the 5th highest PER, 3rd in made free throws, 5th in attempted free throws, has the 6th highest rebounding percentage, 3rd in offensive win shares and 5th in total win shares. He is the only player in the NBA who is in the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding, is top 2 or 3 in double doubles and leads the league in 20/10 performances. He is right up there with Dirk as the best power forward in the NBA so far this season, and a legitimate argument can be made that Bosh has outplayed Nowitzki up to this point. The Mavs have more wins in a tougher conference, obviously, but you can't deny that Dirk has more help than Bosh does (although Dirk's supporting cast isn't that good either). Dirk doesn't have as much offensive help as Bosh does, but his team is significantly better defensively. From a purely statistical stand point, they are averaging: Bosh 24.2 ppg 11.4 rpg 2.2 apg 1.1 bpg 52 FG% 59.4 TS% Nowitzki 25.1 ppg 7.8 rpg 2.4 apg 1.1 bpg 48.1 FG% 57.4 TS% I don't see how you can make the argument that Dirk has the better numbers than Bosh does. Bosh scores 0.9 ppg less on 2.1 less FGA per game and his USG% is lower than Dirk's (28.9-28.6 for Dirk). But I would gladly take the 3.6 more rebounds per game than the extra point a game or so. Bosh has been the more efficient player when it comes to scoring the ball, but Dirk is remarkably efficient for a jump shot oriented player. Defensively, both are average at best. Dirk has the luxury of not being forced into a defensive anchor role which cannot be said for Bosh. Bosh's defensive weaknesses are magnified because of this fact. I'm not saying that Bosh is a great defensive player or anything because he is an average defender even when he isn't forced to anchor a defense, but if he was playing alongside a good defensive center than his defense would obviously improve. Basically everything that was considered to be a weakness for Bosh during the first 6 years of his career he has improved upon this season. Bosh settles for jumpers too often. This season he has been among one of the most aggressive players at driving to the rim and initiating contact. He has mixed up his jumper and drives to nearly perfection. Every now and then he gets a little jump shot happy (like the game against New Jersey yesterday) but for the most part he has done a great job of mixing up his jumper and his drives, which puts the defense on their heels. Being 3rd in free throw makes and 5th in attempts should indicate that this is simply no longer the case. Bosh is too soft. Bosh is among the league leaders in both offensive rebounds and total rebounds. If you watch him play you see that he is more often than not the lone Raptor battling among 3 opponents for rebounds and is coming down with them. Defensively he has done a much better job of holding post position on opposing players and making them work for their position. Obviously he has trouble battling some of the heavyweights in the league like Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Shaquille O'Neal or Zach Randolph, but what do you expect Bosh to do when guarding players that he is giving up around 30 pounds to? If you call Bosh soft still, it just makes it clear that you have seen him play maybe once or twice this entire season. Bosh folds under pressure. Bosh has done very little in terms of making late game, pressure situation plays in the past, but this season that is not the case. He has come up huge against the Spurs, Sixers and Magic. Against San Antonio he hit a dagger shot of his own over Tim Duncan and made a terrific find through the double team to Andrea Bargnani for the game sealing 3 pointer. Against Philly he made big play after big play down the stretch, which was capped off by a game winning 3 point play. Against Orlando he didn't necessarily score the big bucket or assist the big bucket, but he was generating so much attention from the Magic that once he caught the ball he would be seeing a 2nd or even 3rd defender on him. The attention that he commanded opened everything up for his teammates once he kicked it back out to them. Obviously he still has a long ways to go before he sheds the reputation as a unclutch perfomer and a handful of games doesn't change that, but he has made strides. Bosh can't lead a team as the number one option. This one is still up in the air, but there is no mistake that Bosh is a legit number one option in the NBA. He may not be a number one option on a Championship team, but being one of only 2 big men in the NBA in the top 10 in scoring for the past two seasons (last year and currently this season) should be enough of an indication that this man is a legit 1st option in the NBA. Everybody needs a supporting cast and up until this season, Bosh has yet to receive much help, and even then, this year, his supporting cast isn't anything out of the ordinary. Jack has played well after a slow start and Bargnani has been much improved (although still fairly inconsistent) but outside of that there really hasn't been anybody that he could rely on game in and game out. Bosh isn't going to be a number one option on a Championship team, but to say that he can't be a number one option on a very good team is false. Bosh is a superstar player right now. Make no mistake about it. The only thing that is holding him back from being an elite franchise player with the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade is his play on the defensive end of the floor. Bosh is a top 3 offensive big man in the league at the very least, with a very legit argument as being the best offensive big man in the NBA. Is Bosh a top 10 player? Well, that is debatable. What is not debatable is whether or not Bosh has been a top 10 player this season because he undoubtedly has. Again, based entirely off of play from this season alone and nothing more, you can make an argument that Bosh can top any of the players on your list that I bolded. I'm not saying that he is better than the guys that I bolded, but based on play from this season alone, I don't see how you can say that he can't be at least argued over them.

There is some rumor going around of a Calderon/Belinelli for Howard trade. I think that it where the RealGM thing originated from (although I could be wrong as I am not exactly sure what you are talking about. I don't really read RealGM's forums that much). I don't think it has much validitiy to it though. It looked like some guy just trying to get some traffic for his blog and some sites took it and ran with it. I don't know if I would want Howard on the Raptors anyways. He has been awful this season averaging just 12/3 on sub 40% shooting and he has injury concerns surrounding him. He isn't close to the player that he was 2-3 seasons ago as he had regressed both offensively and defensively. If he turned it around and played like the rock solid two way, 3rd option player that he was a couple of years ago, I would be all for it. However, this version of Howard is very underwhelming. Just for discussions sake, out of the rumoured swingmen on the block (the 6 or so I mentioned above or anybody else who you think could realistically be moved), who would you want to see the Raptors pick up the most?

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64457/20100204/amare_leaning_towards_not_opting_out/ What do you think Amare will do? Will he opt out of his contract, leaving guarnteed money on the table, and risk falling through the cracks a bit as teams go after LeBron, Wade, Bosh and even Joe Johnson? Or will he take the guarnteed money?

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64363/20100130/raptors_have_no_intention_of_dealing_bosh/ I never really believed that the Raptors would actually pull the trigger on a Bosh trade unless they were absolutely blown away by an offer or Bosh made it clear that he wouldn't resign with the team. This was reported January 30th, and the Bosh rumors have really died down over the past couple of weeks, so thank god. I was getting sick of reading how Bosh was a "sure thing" to be traded.

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64467/20100204/raptors_will_be_buyers_in_trade_market/ I would imagine that they would be looking at a wing player and not a big man or point guard, so who are some possible names that you could see being dealt before the deadline? Obviously there have been rumors about the following: Kevin Martin Caron Butler Andre Iguodala Monta Ellis (the last have no realistic shot at coming to Toronto) but another name or two that I could see are: Josh Howard Rip Hamilton Realistically, I don't think that the Raptors really have the pieces to acquire a fringe All-Star swingman, but if Colangelo can somehow manage to snag one without gutting the team, it would really solidify the Raptors lineup. Regardless of what happens, it is nice to see MLSE giving the Raptors the green light. They haven't really been willing to pay much for a while now (2004 was the last time MLSE really backed the Raptors financially, if I recall correctly).

Found this on Rotoworld. - Hedo Turkoglu is expected to return to action on Sunday against the Kings, according to the post-game recap. - DeMar DeRozan is expected to return from his ankle injury on Sunday. - Jose Calderon is said to be "game-to-game" with a Grade 1 sprain of his right ankle.

I've been feeling sick the last day or two so I slept through most of this game and, because of that, I can't really comment on anything other than looking at the box scores. Bosh looked like he played a pretty poor game, but considering how well he had played over the last 4 (first player since '06 to have put up 20/15 in 4 straight games), I can live with him having an off game against the Nets. Wright and Weems looked like they stepped up nicely in place of the injured Raptors, and also, made up for the poor shooting of Bargnani and Bosh. Jack looked like he had a gritty game. I was worried that he would be ineffective tonight considering what I had hear in the pre game show about him being under the weather and not sure if he could go or not, but it looks like he gutted it out and played a solid game. Despite the fact that it looks like the Raptors played a pretty poor game, a win is a win regardless of how "pretty" it was. In two weeks nobody is going to remember that the Raptors played a poor game against the Nets. They will just look at it as another win. Best news of the night though? The Raptors moved a game up on all 3 of the teams that were chasing them as the Bulls lost in overtime against the Sixers, the Heat lost to the Celtics and the Bobcats lost to the Lakers. I said it before, the Raptors can put some seperation between theirselves and the Cats, Heat and Bulls if they take care of business during this easy portion of their schedule, and, for the most part, they have done just that.

The rest of the Raptors team are all injured. DeRozan, Turkoglu and Calderon are all not playing tonight and Jack has the flu or something and they aren't sure of what to expect from him. Don't be surprised to see a lineup of: C: Rasho PF: O'Bryant SF: Wright SG: Weems PG: Banks tonight. Funny thing is, New Jersey would still probably lose to that lineup with how obvious it is that they are tanking.

On the bright side, the Bulls lost to the Clippers at home so there were no changes in the race for the 5th seed.

Turns out Pierce is fine. God dammit! http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press_release/press020210-pierce-injury-update.html

I didn't really watch any of this game aside from maybe 5 minutes, but this looks exactly like the kind of game the Raptors were playing earlier in the season. Absolutely no defensive resistance and just trying to match the Pacers bucket for bucket. Bosh and Bargnani look like they played well. Is it just me or does it seem like whenever Bargnani has good scoring numbers on good shooting he rarely gets any rebounds? Oh well, it would've been nice to see the Raptors win this game considering Miami and Charlotte both lost last night, but this loss doesn't surprise me. The Raptors were bound to lose a game sooner or later. A 5 game winning streak is nice, but, realistically, that is about as high of a winning streak that I would expect from an average to slightly above average team like Toronto. At least the Leafs won 3-0 over New Jersey.