Updates soon

I just wanted to leave a quick note that I’ll be getting back to posting here this week.  Between the holidays and my computer completely crashing I haven’t been able to post over the last little while, everything seems to be working now so I’ll get back to posting shortly.  

Garbajosa out indefinitely

Jorge Garbajosa will be out for the remainder of the season as he met with doctors in Baltimore and will require more surgery on his left leg and ankle.
No date for the surgery has been set. 

Toronto Raptors

Raptors Videos

Top 10 plays of the week

Dirk Nowitzki’s 4 three pointers the other night against Toronto.

A lot of people seem to looking for info on Jamario Moon so I found some video to check out. The Toronto Sun has an article on him today as well.

Toronto Raptors

Vince Carter returns to Nets

Vince Carter has returned to the Nets after his November 10 Grade 1 sprained ankle. New Jersey plays the Seattle SuperSonics tonight at 7:30pm.

Toronto Raptors

Raptors sill playing .500 ball

With only 11 games under their belt the Raptors are holding onto their second place standings with only 4.5 games between them and Boston, but Toronto’s win a game lose a game playing this season might not be the year Raptor fans had in mind. After letting a 20 plus point lead against Dallas turn into a 105-99 loss on Tuesday with the help of Dirk Nowitzki’s 32 points, most of those coming in the form of 3 pointers in the final moments of the third quarter, it would seem the Raps’ coaches still have to work on their line-ups. With CB4 posting 31 points and Bargnani getting 20 points the team still only managed a 45% shooting average versus the 49% average of  the Mavericks. After the game Bosh said “I’m going to start knocking down shots and playing better for my teammates” and felt he has ‘turned a corner” in his game play but the rest of the team needs to get around that corner as well, especially if they are going to have to face Boston at the end of the year and bring home the championship.

Injuries seem to be creeping up on the Raptors this year as they have had to bench Garbajosa, Graham, Ford, and Nesterovic already. Garbajosa will be out a little while longer while team doctors go over the latest MIR on his ankle. Nesterovic will also be out for two weeks due to a sprained right ankle and has been replaced by Maceo Baston.  If last season was any indication of the effects injuries have on the team it might not all be gloomy for the Raptors.  During last season when Bosh was taken out of the line-up it couldn’t have come at a better time, no longer could the team depend on CB4 which really did help bring the team together and made for some great games during the last part of the season.  Could the injuries this year do the same for the new players this season? 

So with the Raptors’ top players out and Bosh feeling good about his game what kind of effort was given Wednesday when they entered Grizzlies territory? The Raptors came out with a 6 point win.  Bosh came out and landed 22 points got 19 rebounds as well as his sixth double-double of the season, proving he is not one of those “We’ll get better next game” excuse makers like other Toronto teams have. Though the Grizzlies shot for 40.5% on the night compaired to 39.1% for the Raps, they were able to get the win. 
Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni admitted that Toronto’s “52% on threes” is “what really hurt us”. “When you’re third in the league, you have to make your threes. They’re second in the league, they made their threes.”

Up next for Toronto is at Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday with a 1 pm start. The last time they faced off Toronto won 111-78 in the pre season.

Toronto Raptors

NBA vs Mom’s

Some top NBA players took on their mom’s on a recent Family Feud episode.

Toronto Raptors

Toronto has a grudge against Garbajosa?

It seems there are some rumblings that the Raptors have some grudge against Jorge Garbajosa due to his lack of on court play so far this season. Could this be his last season in Toronto? It happened to Mo Pete last season, so could that be the case?

Former Raptors Carter out indefinitely

It seems even in New Jersey Vince Carter can take some time off with a sprained right ankle (Grade 1 sprain). Suffered Saturday night against Boston Celtics’ Paul Pierce he will be out indefinitely.
During the off season Carter signed a 4 yr $65 million contract the Nets.

Toronto drops to third place in the East

With two wins and two losses last week the Raptors have fallen to third place in the Easter Conference so the three days off this week for them seems very welcomed.

The loss to the Bucks followed the next night by a loss to the Magic was like watching the Raptors of yesteryear when they lacked the on court aggression they have clearly shown they have this year. 

Tuesdays 112-85 loss against the Milwaukee Buck’s was going to be a hard game no matter what with former assistant coach Jim Todd leading the Bucks, Sam Mitchell said “he had a pretty good handle on what the Raptors do.”  Down  37-23 after the first quarter the Raptors were held to only 41.6 per cent shooting for the game and the second half didn’t go much better as they were down by 36 points in the fourth.  It was also a great night for the Bucks Desmond Mason who shot 10/10 while the team shot an impressive 60.3% for the game.  Perhaps it was the huge win against the Nets in the Raptors previous outting but this game was not an ’07-08 style game.

When the Raptors faced the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night they managed to tied up the score but missed to many shots and fell 105-96 at the final buzzer.  The Raptors only shot for 38.2% during the whole game.  CB4 was able to add 26 points to the final score and seems to be getting over his early season slump.  Andrea Bargnani’s three pointer in the later fourth helped get Toronto fans excited as they got the closest to winning, but Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson both landed their three pointers and snagged the final victory.  

Toronto’s 105-103 win over Philadelphia and their 101-71 win against Chicago were definitely needed to help boost the team.

When the Raptors started their second game of the season against the 76ers they had lost their last three games straight and from the get go it was appartent the Sam Mitchell was going to try some different lineups.  CB4 maganged to score 24 points while Anthony Parker seems to have gotten back into the season with 22 points and Jamario Moon got 8 points in his longest NBA game to date.  Overall the Raptors shot 46% on the night but T.J. Ford’s scoring in the last seconds of the fourth helped take them to the victory.

Finally we get to the big game last week, Toronto versus Chicago. 101-71 was the final score and I wonder how much “win” was in the Bulls even during the third quarter. By the fourth quarter most of the 22,467 Bulls fans had left to catch the train home. By half time Toronto had a very healthy 52-31 lead with Delfino getting 16 points and Bargnani scoring 14 points and a 14 point outing for CB4 it was no surprise. The Bulls were only able to get a 33.3% shooting average, while Toronto shot 54.7% for the night. It was a good night for the Bulls’ Nocioni who managed to get 20 points and 1 assist.

Next up for the Toronto Raptors is Utah on Wednesday with a 7pm start followed by Indiana Friday with 7pm start as well. 

Toronto Raptors

Raptors beat Nets, fall to Celtics

Friday nights game against the New Jersey Nets was sweet revenge winning by 37 points. The Raptors were up by 40 points going into the third quarter and ended the game shooting 50 per cent overall and an impressive 59 per cent from three point range.
For the Raptors Andrea Bargnani scored the highest with 21 points and Richard Jefferson scored the most with 27 points for the Nets. Juan Dixon scored 14 points while Anthony Parker, Jose Calderon and Carlos Delfino all got 10 points helping to beat New Jersey by the highest win margin in ten years. The Nets shining moment came when Vince Carter, who only played for seven minutes, scored his 15,000th point during the last few minutes of the first quarter and only taking 623 games to get there. 

Sundays loss to the Boston Celtics 98-95 in OT was a loss on paper but after trailing most of the game by ten points the Raptors came back in the last seconds of the fourth to tie the game up sending it into OT. After a slow first half Toronto was down 24-14 and shooting only 27 percent in the first half and 36 per cent overall. They started looking better in the second half with  T.J. Ford helping his team get back in the game with 32 points along with 5 assists and his shot in the fourth quarter with only seven seconds left put the game into OT.
Joey Graham had to leave the game due to a quad injury and will be replaced by Jamario Moon.
Kevin Garnett scored 23 points and Ray Allen broke 17,000 point by adding 33 points to the Celtics final score. It was Paul Pierce’s OT shot with 2.6 seconds remaining that won the game for Boston and giving 13 points to his overall contribution.

Sam Mitchell had THIS to say after the game and Boston’s Big Three.

Bryan Colangelo was in Phoenix (Suns) where his father (Jerry Colangelo) was given the “Ring of Honor” award and will be back in Toronto on Monday.

Toronto plays the Bucks next on Tuesday at 8pm.

Toronto Raptors