SB Nation - Jarrett Jack

Tip-In: Toronto Raptors Post Game Report - Mo Questions

Raptors HQ - Vicious D — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:30:13 -0000

Chris Bosh seems quite happy with the way things are going. His team, however, still hasn't turned the corner in Vicious D's eyes.

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The Raptors sweep the Hornets for their second win in a row against yet another sub .500 team. Vicious D wonders what this team will do when they face a real challenger who doesn't shoot themselves in the foot.

Let's be honest for a moment.

There were a lot of things that had to break the Raptors' way for them to beat the New Orleans Hornets 98-92 yesterday.

With the Raptors last game against the Nets, I believed that they had not improved or implemented many different tactics to pull out a win against the worst team in the league. Instead, they were just playing the worst team in the league and the Raptors just were not as bad as the worst.

Against the Hornets?

Well, there was going to be a bigger challenge for the Raptors than the Nets, but the Raptors have recently played the Hornets fairly well year after year. Of course, Jose Calderon has always been a big part of that success and with Calderon sidelined indefinitely with his hip injury, Jarrett Jack came in and provided some offense despite fighting off an illness. More efficient than Paul, Jack was controlled with his offense and deferred appropriately to the others on the floor. He also challenged Paul to defend him by going to the basket throughout the game.

Then Marcus Banks came in and didn't miss a beat.

Now one might say that Marcus Banks has the widest shoulders of any player at his height which makes it that much more difficult for opposing guards to blow by him. In fact, he might actually have the widest frame of any Raptor this side of Joey Graham. With yet another quality performance under his belt, Banks seems to be rounding into form more and more. He is starting to resemble the backup that Phoenix saw many years ago who deserved a $4 million dollar contract. While Banks still does throw up the questionable shot once in a while, he does also try to use his body to his full advantage.

And thus, the arguments to trade Jose Calderon have begun.

Nevertheless, I'm not one to throw our starting point guard under the bus yet. Besides being one of the better "in control" players on this squad, he still is a high percentage shooter and is definitely one of the lowest turnover point guards in the league. More importantly, finding takers for a $9-10 million dollar contract over 3 1/2 years will not be an easy task and I don't believe his stock could be any lower than it is right now. However, Banks is definitely helping his own stock around the league as at least a serviceable second option for most teams and is definitely an important piece of Toronto's puzzle right now.

Of course, Amir Johnson was once again a major spark plug coming off the bench, and Andrea Bargnani has a couple key blocks down the stretch which almost made up for his fairly poor shooting. Chris Bosh also dropped down another 20 and 10 and DeMar DeRozan gave the Raptors a little bit of boost from his athleticism.

Besides that, there's little to be cheery about in this game.

The Hornets were pretty horrendous from all over the floor, shooting a horrid 39% from the floor and disgusting 14% from beyond the arc. Peja Stojakovic had an absolutely horrid shooting day going 1-7 from three and 4-15 overall after dropping a ton of shots on the Nuggets the other night. Many of the shots were open shots that the Hornets simply missed and the Raptors did very little to clean up the glass against Emeka Okafor and David West. One might point to the fact that the Raptors had three players in double figures for rebounding, but I would point to the horrid shooting of the Hornets as a large reason for those rebounds. Don't get me wrong. Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, and Amir Johnson especially, were not just standing around waiting for the ball. However, Okafor managed to get seven offensive rebounds for the game and probably would have lots more had Bargnani not been taken out due to foul trouble.

What was most disappointing for me was just watching the Raptors on the offensive side.

With the Hornets going "small" for the majority of the game, the Raptors insisted on keeping most of their shots on the outside and didn't attack the basket enough. Even when players like Chris Bosh got into the paint, they still ended up taking a fadeaway or an off-balanced hook in the paint rather than going up strong and racking up the fouls on the Hornets' big men. With Matt Devlin and Leo Rautins both pointing out that the Raptors needed to go inside and even reporting that Jay Triano was pleading for them to keep attacking the basket, the Raptors themselves seem content to keep taking outside shots.

And once again, I'm left shaking my head.

There is no question that the Raptors need to be beating this teams that they're facing right now. With Boston and San Antonio around to ring in the new year, they have to take advantage of every sub-.500 team match up they can. However, good teams will use this momentum to build and work on their faults. Like a sharpening stone, these sub-.500 teams are a good opportunity to practice the things you've worked on in practice and to establish good habits so that when you face the tougher opponents in the league, you have a good foundation to work on.

Right now? I'm seeing a lot of the same problems, just against lesser teams that can't take advantage of the Raptors' shortcomings. I've been asked repeatedly about improvements to this team and its chemistry, but to be honest, there's very little in the way of good news. About the only thing that's good is that the Raptors staff has been allowed to explore the depth of their bench, something that us fans have begged for since pre-season when we saw how both Sonny Weems and Amir Johnson played the floor. However, the main problems with the starting core remain the same. There is still too much of a tendency to do what comes easy in basketball rather than doing what will win them the close, tough games.

The wins are welcome, and the feelings around the team are good for now. but the sense of foreboding that I feel about the days ahead just can't be whisked away with these kinds of wins.

Somehow, this team has got to start taking care of their shortcomings or they're going to hit a wall very quick and very hard.

3 In The Key - Toronto Raptors Game Day Preview vs. New Orleans

Raptors HQ - Vicious D — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:30:13 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

Chris Paul almost got a well deserved triple double. Heck, he almost finished with a 30 and 20 night against the Nuggets. Will CP3 get that elusive triple double against the Raptors today?

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In a rematch where Chris Paul will play the team that injured him, the Raptors will face one of the league's most dynamic point guards. Of course, Mo Pete will be the talk of the town as Vicious D takes a look at the Hornets.

This is all Morris Peterson's fault.

Well, not really, but let's look at how Mo Pete left.

Back in the wonderous 2006-2007 season, the Raptors decided to start benching Mo Pete after years of loyal service. The Raptors had a new guy in Jorge Garbajosa who was a tough Spaniard who wasn't going to take guff from anyone. He was going to be our defensive stopper who just played hard in every game and who could defend bigger people while using his crafty mind to take out the smaller small forwards in the league. Mo Pete was benched and his minutes severely reduced. When Garbajosa went down with his Raptors Career-ending injury, the team picked Joey Graham to start over Mo Pete.

Thus ended Mo Pete's career in Toronto.

Getting snubbed once for a veteran player like Garbajosa was nothing to be ashamed about, but getting snubbed for the likes of Joey Graham was probably the straw that broke the camel's back. Since then, we have been without any real stoppers at the small forward position in Toronto. And yes, that includes the recently end-of-bencher Antoine Wright.

But good news:

Mo Pete is back in Toronto.

With the Hornets.

Doing not much of anything.

As part of their 15 years anniversary, the Raptors will be celebrating Mo Pete's service to the Raptors and the Raptors' community. Without a doubt, Peterson was a man who just got to become Mr. Raptor by being a subtle part of some very good teams. He was the Ironman of the Raptors and gave us some very important years with some good defense, some better shooting, and some miraculous plays.

He'll be a Raptor whom I'll definitely stand up and applaud from my condo.

Up next though, the Raptors still have a game to play and against the New Orleans Hornets, they will have it out a lot tougher than the Nets. That's why today's game will be a much better measuring stick for this Raptors team:

1) Protect Your "Glass Jaw"
The Raptors are simply bad when they have to do anything tough, but more than that, it seems as though whenever teams start trading baskets with the Raptors, they will fold. In boxing, a glass jaw boxer is a guy with a weak chin who will go down for the count whenever their opposition tags them on the chin. With these Raptors, their "chin" seems to be their paint and the Raptors get hit there way too often. It all eventually changes the game to their opposition's favour. It happened in the Nets game, albeit only in the second half after they built a sizable lead, and it's happened in just about every game where they've been blown out. We're going to keep mentioning it until the Raptors change their ways, but the fact is, this team's best defensive unit is probably Jarrett Jack, Marco Belinelli, Sonny Weems, Chris Bosh, and Amir Johnson.

That's four bench players with Chris Bosh. With Chris Paul almost dropping a triple double the last game against the Nuggets, the Raptors have to keep protecting their paint otherwise this game will get ugly real quick.

2) Stick and Jab
The Raptors on the other hand, have to keep going inside against the Hornets. New Orleans just doesn't have a very strong front court despite having one of the most overrated centers in the league in Emeka Okafor. Chris Paul as well, has a propensity to being exposed by opposing point guards, so the Raptors should keep slashing and slashing in the paint like there's no tomorrow. Attacking them with two points here and there will keep New Orleans on their toes until you find yourself for open threes. Which leads us to...

3) Power Punches
The Raptors have not been shooting the 3-pointer very well lately. However, a lot of that has to do with who is taking those threes. DeMar DeRozan, Antoine Wright, and the recently cold Italian Duo are all people that should be careful about shooting too many threes. But if the Raptors start by hitting the Hornets with lots of jabs, they'll expose them for open looks on the perimeter. The Raptors are a team that needs those open looks and they'll have to stick them as it's a major part of what makes the Raptors a dangerous offensive team. It's how the Raptors pulled out a win in New Orleans earlier this year after all. However it's all got to start from the inside out. The best boxers establish themselves with their jab and then unleashes hooks and uppercuts when need be. The Raptors will need to do the same.

Orlando Magic 118, Toronto Raptors 99

Ben Q Rock — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:09:03 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

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The Orlando Magic used a team-wide hot shooting performance against the Toronto Raptors' perpetually porous defense to cruise to a 118-99 win Wednesday night. Rashard Lewis led all scorers with 21 points--including 5 three-pointers--while Matt Barnes scored 20 points on 10 shots off the bench. Dwight Howard approached a triple-double with 18 points, 14 boards, and 8 blocked shots before checking out as the game got out of hand. Orlando held Toronto's Chris Bosh to 20 points, while former Magic player Hedo Turkoglu chipped in 14 (on 2-of-9 shooting) and Jarrett Jack added 13.

Team	Pace	Efficiency	eFG%	FT Rate	OReb%	TO Rate
Raptors	94	105.4	46.6%	18.0	22.7	10.7
Magic	87	134.9	66.7%	24.0	27.6	16.0
Green denotes a stat better than the team's season average; red denotes a stat worse than the team's season average.

The game transpired more or less like you might have figured it would based on these teams' reputations going in. The Raptors hung with the Magic early on, but the Magic created just enough separation with an 8-0 run late in the first quarter--fueled by a tough Vince Carter layup and back-to-back treys from Jason Williams--to take a 27-19 lead, and Toronto never really challenged after that. It wasn't always a question of effort, but rather ability; Orlando got whatever it wanted, the Raptors couldn't keep pace with the Magic's blistering shooting, and so it continued for the next 36 minutes. After a while, the Raptors appeared to just say, "screw it," and they mailed in the rest of the game. The way things went for the Magic, you can hardly blame them.

Okay, well, you can, to an extent, but I think you see my point. Things came entirely too easily for Orlando. The misses came on well-executed plays, open, and in rhythm, at least until garbage time, when Marcin Gortat started launching just any old thing he wanted. And by "old thing," I mean "15-footer early in the shot clock."

Howard missed 1 shot all game, and it was an off-balance tip-in attempt. Barnes shot 7-of-10, and one of those misses came on an inexplicably blown dunk with nobody around. Several of J.J. Redick's shots rattled around and out... and on it goes. Nary a blemish for Orlando offensively, at least not when the game really mattered. Turnovers were a bit of an issue, with Anthony Johnson--who scored a lively 13 points off the bench--twice losing the ball off his knee on his way to the hoop. and with the odd push-off against Howard or Redick. Overall, though, what is your chief complaint if you're the Magic? Maybe it's that Mickael Pietrus struggled in his 17 minutes, shooting 1-of-5 with 2 turnovers as he tried to battle through illness. Maybe it's that the Raptors came up with 6 steals, despite being the league's worst turnover-forcing unit. Maybe it's that Bosh scored 20 in 30 minutes, on 7-of-11 shooting. Still, his touches were few and far between, as the Magic dared Jack (13 points on 15 shots) and Andrea Bargnani (12 points on 12 shots) to beat them. A sound strategy, which they executed.

That sentence more or less summarizes the Magic's night. They had a game plan on both ends, they put it in motion, and they prevailed with ease. Really, I'm more impressed with the Magic's defense of the Raptors than I am with their offensive assault against them. A team as gifted as Orlando should light up the scoreboard against a sieve like Toronto. But the Raptors had the league's 4th-most efficient offense coming in, and Orlando shut it down. Howard's rejections helped, sure--and some of them could have been fouls or goaltends, if we're honest, but not nearly enough to swing momentum in Toronto's favor--but rarely did the Magic get burned on that end. So Antoine Wright peels himself off the end of the bench and scores 7 straight points late in the 4th: who cares? Two contested looks in the lane and a three-pointer for a career 29.3% long-distance shooter. You're happy giving those looks up.

Finally, how about Brandon Bass tonight? Coach Stan Van Gundy dusted off Orlando's sparingly used free-agent signee, who played both power forward and center, and he responded. 5 points, 1 rebound, 3 blocks (?!), and the usual energy and aggression in just over 9 minutes for Bass, who's probably a rotation player on just about every other NBA team. I see no reason or him to take minutes from three-point ace Ryan Anderson on a regular basis, but it's always good to know that your 11th man can come in immediately and make an impact.

Sorry if I seem more peppy than usual, but again, there's very little wrong with the way the Magic played tonight. A solid win against a worthy offensive foe, and a chance to rest up on the first night of a back-to-back set. Orlando jets to Miami to play the Heat--themselves fresh off a win against Toronto--tomorrow night.

Tip-In: Toronto Raptors Post Game Report - A Little Athleticism Goes a Long Way

Raptors HQ - Vicious D — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:46:47 -0000

More photos » by Ron Turenne - NBAE/Getty Images

The HQ has loved Sonny Weems for a while, and so should you. Here's just one example of why.

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Defeating one of the better teams in the Western Conference, the Toronto Raptors snapped their two game losing streak. Vicious D talks about the win and gives us a look at the game that was.

The fans wanted Jarrett Jack to start. With Jose Calderon out, they got what they wanted.

The fans wanted more athleticism on the floor, especially with regards to Sonny Weems. With fewer options as Jarrett Jack would need to play a lot of minutes at the point, the fans indeed got more Weems as well.

The fans wanted "the Legend" to get some burn. With the Rockets having few lumbering big men, Pops Mensah-Bonsu came into the game and showed the Rockets what they had let go.

Now that's not to say that every single opinion of every fan should be taken as the truth, but there's a reason why the Toronto Raptors took down a very capable Houston Rockets team 101-88 for their first Sunday win of the season. Jay Triano deserves quite a bit of credit for finally giving some burn to players we've clamored for all season, and Triano even went so far to start the second quarter without a single starter on the floor. As a result, the Raps were covering each other on defense, racking up nine blocks for the entire game. It was impressive seeing both Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Amir Johnson help each other out of jams with their tenacious defense. Both energized the crowd throughout the game with their tenacity and grit to get rebounds and to protect the Raptors' paint.

On the other end of the court, Sonny Weems gave the Raptors a fairly impressive boost from the bench. Scoring with drives and his jump shot, Weems managed to put up 11 points off the pine, a nice boost during the times when the Raptors offense stalled. Chris Bosh put in a fairly quiet 27 points leading all scorers, but the best player on the court yesterday had to be Jarrett Jack. Taking the ball inside and out, distributing effectively to his teammates, sticking his nose into the crowd to get rebounds, almost sitting on players in order to "defend" them, and even coming to the defense of teammates, Jack showed the heart that was sorely needed in the absence of Jose Calderon.

Sticking up for DeMar DeRozan after Trevor Ariza took a swing at the rookie, Jarrett Jack immediately stepped into Ariza and proceeded to defend the rook. All over the ACC, everyone was applauding the move as the Raptors have been too soft and too slow in the past to take such actions. It is this kind of heart that Jack has shown that has made him another leader in this team so far in this young season, something again, that this team sorely needs.

On the Rocket's end, you never really felt that the Raptors had complete control of the game as Houston managed to keep hanging around. And a late run brought Toronto's lead down to single digits. However with Ariza away from the game, the Raptors kept defensive pressure on the Rockets perimeter while making some key baskets down the stretch. Carl Landry and Luis Scola were both having their way in the paint, but beyond that, Houston just didn't get that many opportunities, especially on the break. Other than Aaron Brooks, who had 20 points, the rest of the Rockets team couldn't crack the 10 point plateau. The fatigue argument could be made for Houston but you still have to hand it to Toronto's defense on the afternoon.

With the next two games being their annual back-to-back trip to Miami and Orlando, the Dinos will need to sustain the effort that they put into yesterday's game. We've already seen that this Raptors team can overcome their defensive stigma if they only work on it a little and if the right personnel are given a chance. We are almost halfway through December and it's time that Jay Triano sticks with what works. Certain players have consistently shown a propensity to change the tempo of the game even when the starters sometimes have shown a lack of initiative.

So enough with the "set line-ups."

As the team draws near the trimester mark of the season, It's time they go with what works best in terms of playing time, even if this means injuring a few egos along the way.

After all, Bryan Colangelo talked about 50 wins to start the season.

With yesterday being only win number 11, this team still has a long ways to go but provided they can get near that 50 mark, I'm pretty sure both management and the fans won't care what line-ups help reach that plateau.

Raptors Rapid Recap - Toronto 101 - Houston 88

RaptorsHQ - Franchise — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:40:12 -0000

-Best game of the year so far by the Toronto Raptors? It's quite possible as Toronto pulled off a surprising win this afternoon against a tough Houston squad using some smothering defense.

-How good was the D? The Raps held the Rockets to only 88 points on 37 per cent shooting. Houston helped matters by having an atrocious shooting day from downtown (13 per cent) and outside of the interior of Carl Landry and Luis Scola (46 of the team's 88 points), didn't get much of a boost from their perimeter players.

-In fact, in a very strange incident, wing Trevor Ariza was tossed in the third quarter for throwing an elbow at the back of DeMar DeRozan's head. From the replays, it was hard to tell if it was intentional or simply a reactionary play after DeRozan stole the ball from him and started the fast break. It wouldn't be surprising though to see a suspension come from Ariza's actions.

-But back to Toronto here. Chris Bosh led the way again with 27 points but he finally got some great balance on O from the rest of his teammates. Hedo Turkoglu busted out of his slump with 23 points, Andrea Bargnani had an efficient 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Sonny Weems even chipped in 11 off the pine.

-The player of the game though was Jarrett Jack, who was masterful at both ends of the court finishing with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. He led the charge in terms of intensity and gave the team a huge boost of grit and toughness enabling them to hold the lead for the game's duration.

-The other person on the Raps who deserves major recognition is Jay Triano. Triano finally saw the light in regards to playing TO's most effective players and it resulted more minutes for the likes of Weems and Mensah-Bonsu, and less for players like Belinelli and Wright (who didn't get off the pine.)

-We'll break down this win further in the morning but safe to say it was a biggie. Toronto desperately needed to get a W before heading to Miami and Orlando and now have some momentum going into those two tough matches.

Game 23 Preview: Houston Rockets at Toronto Raptors 11:30AM CST

UofTOrange — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:12:30 -0000

More photos » by Matt Slocum - AP

11 days ago: Philadelphia 76ers' Samuel Dalembert, center, tries to hang onto a loose ball under pressure from Houston Rockets' Carl Landry, left, and Aaron Brooks in the second half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009, in Philadelphia. Houston won 96-91. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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Point Guard
Aaron Brooks - He's like good and stuff. I wish he would attack the basket with fury every single night, but for a guy his size, not named Iverson, that's probably not as good of an idea as it sounds in my head. Either way, Aaron has taken a huge step forward, he's clearly a top 10 point guard right now, right? Can anyone name 10 better?
vs.
Jarrett Jack - I was surprised to find out that Jack has only been in the league for 4 years. I swear it feels like decades ago that he was with Portland. Good basketball player that really is a 6^th or 7^th man. He has a long career ahead of him in that role. Starting in the NBA is only a stop gap measure for a team though.
Edge: Rockets

Shooting Guard
Trevor Ariza - His shooting has picked up a quite a bit in the last 5 games and shot selection has a lot to do with it. Of course only playing one good defense, and having his worst shooting night of the five against Portland, has helped. Sometimes the NBA is all about momentum and I think this recent stretch can go a long way towards Trevor's confidence.
vs.
DeMar DeRozan - I like this kid. He was a good player at USC and while he's somewhat raw it may be exactly what the Raptors need. He's a strong attacker and finisher and he's energetic. Like most young players his shot leaves a lot to be desired, but that will come if he's willing to work hard.
Edge: Rockets

Small Forward
Shane Battier - Another season, another great season long effort by Battier. Every single team in the NBA would put him in their starting lineup no matter what it meant to other guys they have on the team. I think I can say that with supreme confidence.
vs.
Hedo Turkoglu - For Portland fans I'm ecstatic that this signing didn't work for them. For Raptors fans, I honestly thought it would be working out better right now. Not because Hedo is a superstar, he's simply a really good basketball player, but because there isn't a lot to take away from his taking another step. I don't know what has been happening with him, maybe it's the style of ball they are playing, but that 9MM contract is looking horrible right now
Edge: Rockets - Yes Hedo scores more but Battier's effect on the game is infinitely more.

Power Forward
Luis Scola -
vs.
Chris Bosh - With Calderon out, Bosh is the only guy on the Raptors that has the ability to scare you night in and night out. I am not in any way a fan of the Rockets signing him in the off season. He makes a team better, but not in max dollars ways. And the Rockets have two PFs that could be here for the next 4-5 years together pretty easily. And under no circumstances is Bosh a better center than even a hobbled Yao.
Edge: Raptors

Center
Chuck Hayes - Chuck has done his job for the most part all season. He has defended everyone that he has been asked to with heart and determination. Early in the season he seemed to take on the need for scoring, and has since realized it isn't necessary. Though part of me wishes he would go back to that same effort on the offensive end to score.
vs.
Andrea Bargnani - Shows sparkles all of the time, but never seems to truly break out. For Raptors fans, some of the best, and oddest, in the NBA I wish them more from him. Considering he makes 6.5MM, he's actually a heck of a basketball bargain at 16 and 6 a night.
Edge: Raptors

Injuries/Suspensions
Houston Rockets
OUT - Tracy McGrady
Toronto Raptors
OUT - Jose Calderon

My Prediction: Rockets build a lead early, keep it up most of the game, Raptors go on a run in the late third or early fourth and the Rockets pull back away to win by 8-14

3 In the Key: Toronto Raptors Game Day Preview vs. Houston

Raptors HQ - Vicious D — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:47:24 -0000

More photos » by Chris Young - AP

The Raptors are going to need a lot of this kind of play if they hope to keep pace with an extremely balanced Rockets team.

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Vicious D looks at today's game and is quite envious of the Houston Rockets who are extremely good despite not having their two best players. The Raptors will be in it tough today if they don't play like a team.

Oh hey.

If the last two Raptors games gave you a migraine, I don't blame you. I'm starting to think I'm a sadist as this will be the third game that I'll be attending in this young year. In all honesty, I usually make it a rule to go to games in the second half of the season after the Christmas break, just to make sure the team has started to hit their stride. The Raptors, after having a flash of "let's play defense" for two games against weaker opponents, have now lost against two fairly good teams who have exposed the Raptors' "improved defense" for what it is: a paper tiger.

Now you might say, "ok, the Raptors were down Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani as both weren't 100%". Ok, but our opponents today are the Houston Rockets. They're a team that has been arguably down at least one of their two best players for what seems like an eternity, and yet, they remain competitive, focused to win, and have depth in spades.

So much so that they could even cast off Pops Mensah-Bonsu without even batting an eye.

However, it's not like we were all gun-ho about all the moves that were made. It was back in the middle of the summer when most of the Raptors' Nation was in awe of Colangelo's Great Canadian Raptors Makeover Part Deux. Bryan Colangelo decided to let Pops walk, go for Hedo Turkoglu, fill his rosters with a coveted European and signed Jarrett Jack. At this point, while most of the Raptors nation was marveling at the moves, Franchise and Howland were both grumbling. We had one of our Raptors HQ meetings where I posed the situation and question:

Bryan Colangelo for all his flaws, has always been a good GM because he's left himself flexibility to get out from players that have underperformed. He's always seemed to have expiring contracts that he could trade away and get something back for. Now let's say this team is merely good at best, and at worst, terrible. Who can he trade away and change? Besides Chris Bosh, just about everyone is locked up for the next 3-4 years at least. That's starting and backup point guard, starting small forward, starting center. That doesn't exactly allow you make changes if you need to.

And so here we are, a team that will need to play extremely hard just to get a mediocre defensive effort. A team that has to rely on a high powered offense, which by the way, isn't all that high powered having lost in every good ol' fashioned shootout with just about every team out there this young season.

Yup, that almost just screams at Chris Bosh to stay.

But back to Houston. The Rockets are a team that have managed to stay relatively consistent thanks to some veteran leaders, some smart drafting, and keeping their roster full of athletes who have good basketball IQ. In fact, you could even argue that the Rockets are a much more dangerous team without T-Mac than with. Coming into today's game having won two in a row, having beaten both L.A. and Cleveland, the Rockets are a team that wins thanks to true balance throughout their roster. They are the well-oiled machine to the Raptors' own greasy mess, so our boys will have a tough time. To keep things competitive so that we can see a rare Sunday win, the Raptors will need to:

1) Minimalize the Loss of Calderon
Everyone's taken shots at the Spaniard this year. I've always defended Calderon over the years for his abilities, and he's been one of the players on this team who actually stands up for himself and his team. Those who wanted Jarrett Jack to start will now have a healthy dose of Jack for a while. The question is just how the bench will respond. We've long proposed to have a lot more Belinelli instead of Banks since he's comfortable with the ball and quick enough to defend against most point guards, but the trickle down effect should also mean that Sonny Weems will get more play time.

On the other hand, a lot of people have mentioned that this will maybe give Turkoglu more minutes handling the ball, but I'm not convinced that the reason the Turk has struggled has been because he doesn't have the ball enough. In any case, the Raptors have lost a leader, a guy who has been a fairly good shooter, and one of the hearts of this edition of the Raptors.

How the Raptors will overcome that will need to start today.

2) Team Play
The only way the Raptors will play good defense against the Rockets is if they communicate and act like a team. One of the reasons for the Rockets' success is that different players have stepped up over the course of the season to make big plays. The tough part about playing a team like the Rockets is that anyone can be a potential threat. So the Raptors will need to be organized on defense, they'll need players to have personal responsibility while they're defending their man, and they'll need to communicate. Otherwise, the Rockets will find that one or two weak spots and the whole defensive scheme will fall apart.

3) No Sleep For the Bench
In Friday's game against Philadelphia, the Rockets had six players in double figures. Their top scorer? Carl Landry off the bench. The Rockets are a team that are unabashed about playing their bench. With players who can get double digit nights when needed, and consistent rebounding that doesn't seem to drop off, the Rockets' bench has always seemed to be an X-Factor. Kyle Lowry and Chase Budinger are both ready to come in and steady the shop along with Landry when the starters aren't getting it done. It's allowed this Rocket team to weather storms and pull out some close victories.

Outside of last Saturday's win, the Raptors have lost on every single weekend game so far this season. This win won't be easy to come by, especially since the Raptors will need to make adjustments to compensate for the injured Calderon. But the Raptors have traditionally been fairly strong against the Rockets at home. Here's hoping the Raptors figure it out and manage to pull out a much needed quality win.

The Bulls' Rough Weekend

aramnath — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:05:06 -0000

More photos » by Tony Dejak - AP

Lebron James and Joakim Noah got into a verbal disagreement on Friday night. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

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The Bulls had a rough weekend. On a nationally televised game on Friday night, they got manhandled in the second half of a 101-87 defeat to the Cavaliers in Cleveland. The big story coming out of this game however had to do with Joakim Noah and Lebron James' spat in the fourth quarter. With Lebron taking a free throw and the score in favor of Cleveland 89-71, Noah picked that to be the perfect time to begin jawing at James.

In defense of Noah, James was showboating a bit by dancing around the court and shaking his shoulders after a missed layup. Noah was a bit irked by the perceived disrespect and felt the need to let James know, according to Ric Bucher, that "this is so f***ing old" and "you're a bitch".

Then again this is Joakim Noah we are talking about. It's hard enough to take this Sideshow Bob looking clown seriously enough without him talking trash to the reigning league MVP, while sitting on the bench trailing by close to 20 points . If somebody wants to call out Lebron for his antics, I'd leave that up to the Kobes, Wades, Garnetts and Duncans of the world.

If you're a Bulls fan though you could at least take some pride in the knowledge that one of your players was pissed off about getting wrecked by a division rival and didn't take it sitting down (figuratively speaking). With Toronto coming to visit Chicago the next day you probably figured the Bulls would put up at least 150 points and win the game by 40.

Unfortunately that's not quite what happened. The Bulls lost the game 110-78, but the worst part is what took place in the last 15 seconds of the third quarter while trailing 86-58 at that point.

If you're an NBA team you just can't let that happen, especially not a day after you just got worked and had a guy sitting on the bench running his mouth to last year's MVP. Even worse was that when asked about it after the game Jack said he wasn't trying to show the Bulls up, but decided to tie his shoe when he saw their defense was out of sync and thought he could straighten out his laces while the Bulls got organized.

You know it's bad when you have players on a 9-13 Raptors team, fresh off of giving up 146 points earlier in the week to Atlanta taking pity on you and showing some mercy. This that should happen to the Nets, not to a team that showed a lot of fight and promise in a seven game playoff classic against the Celtics last year.

Raptors Rapid Recap: Washington 106 - Toronto 102

RaptorsHQ - Franchise — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:16:33 -0000

-In what many considered a must-win game, Toronto fell yet again, this time 106 to 102 to the Washington Wizards despite big offensive games from Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani.

-The Wizards got good offensive production from their big 3, and a bigger boost from role players like Brendan Haywood (15 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks) and Earl Boykins (8 points and 5 assists.) This was one of the key differences in the end as outside of Jarrett Jack (18 points), the rest of the Raptors' bench was very quiet offensively, and as usual, the defence didn't exactly hold up.

-The goat of the evening was Mr. Turkoglu. With the ball in his hands down the stretch in a very close game he came up well short...

...unless you want to count his buzzer-beater which got the ACC fans their pizza.

Even in other key moments he failed to make necessary stops on D, or good decisions with the ball. His stat-line looked ok (13 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists) - but the Raps aren't paying Hedo $55 Million to fill the stat sheet - this team expected him to help deliver wins.

-Speaking of which, suddenly the w's look hard to come by. Tomorrow night the Raps face a tough test against the Atlanta Hawks, then later this week, it's Washington again before taking on the Bulls on the second night of a back-to-back.

Raptors Rapid Recap - Boston 116 - Toronto 103

RaptorsHQ - Franchise — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:20:04 -0000

-Not only was the D absent in this one, but so was the P; P as in Pride.

-Toronto allowed Boston to run all over them (litteraly as Paul Pierce dunked on and through Chris Bosh) en route to a 116 to 103 win.

-The Raptors' hot shooting kept them in this one early, in fact they lead by a point at halftime. However the third quarter was the team's undoing again and Boston cruised to the W the rest of the way.

-The Celtics had 6 players in double figures with Ray Allen leading the C's, dropping in 20. All 5 starters hit double digits on O however and Rajon Rondo was especially lethal dishing out 11 assists.

-For Toronto, Hedo Turkoglu and Chris Bosh did their best, both dropping in 20. But they got little help offensively from anyone but Jarrett Jack and Rasho Nesterovic.

-If you missed this one, you'll probably see the highlight (or lowlight) of Bosh getting viciously crammed on by Pierce and that really was the second-half in a nutshell. When Boston turned up the aggressiveness Toronto folded faster than a poker player holding a 7 and 3 off-suit and that was all she wrote. We'll nevertheless recap this sordid affair in the morning...