SLOPPY BASKETBALL HURTS TORONTO

Exacting revenge wasn’t in the cards, as the Toronto Raptors were downed by the Orlando Magic 103-90, at Amway Arena.

After being ousted in five games last year in the first round of the playoffs, you’d think the Raptors would’ve wanted some sort of payback. And for a moment it looked it was going to happen.

The first quarter was played smartly by the Raptors, except for a few turnovers. The presence of Jermaine O’Neal really helped the Raptors on defence and he did a good job of containing the freak of nature Dwight Howard. Who on the season so far is averaging 21 points and 14 rebounds, and finished the night with only 18 points and 9 rebounds.

In return, both O’Neal and Chris Bosh were able to work down low and the Raptors came out of the first with the lead, 26-21.

So, at this point you may be thinking to yourself, how did the Raptors let this one get away?

Well then, it all started with not protecting the ball and turning the ball over, and that’s where things began to fall apart. All tolled, the Raptors had 24 turnovers on the night, and the bulk of those came from the point guard play of Will Solomon and Roko Ukic. Solomon had nine and Ukic had two.

That just shows you how important and how much the Raptors miss Jose Calderon, who is out with a hamstring injury. So far, the two point guards have done a horrible job in filling in for Calderon.

Overall, the two point guards put up horrible numbers, combining only to score 16 points and had just five measly assists. To put that in perspective, Chris Bosh had four assists.

The Raptors really caught a break on the final score, because they should have been blown out with the amount of turnovers they had. Luckily for them, Orlando did a bad job on converting those turnovers into points.

Defensively, O’Neal had Dwight Howard covered nicely, but foul trouble was O’Neal’s demise, and eventually was fouled out. The first quarter was played clean, but in the second he picked up two, and in the third he got an early foul. The fourth foul was the worst, as he fouled Rashard Lewis on a three point attempt that missed. Give some credit to Lewis for some excellent acting skills, because that was a soft call by the officials.

With O’Neal out, Dwight Howard was able to do what he wanted, because no else on the Raptors was able to match him physically.

The third reason why the Raptors lost was they got no scoring help from other players.

Chris Bosh was his usual self posting another double-double, with a monster night of 40 points and 18 rebounds. And J.O. chipped in with 16 points and 10 rebounds in limited minutes (26) because of foul trouble. Those two had 56 of the 90 Raptor points.

The other three starters, Andrea Bargnani (5 points), Will Solomon (10 points) and Anthony Parker (4 points) had 19 points and 9 rebounds combined. Defensively they were no better because the Orlando starting five all were in double figures.

The bench play from the Raptors was even worse, as they only got 15 points from 6 different players.

As for the Orlando starters, three out of the five had 22 points. Which were Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson, and they also had 7, 1 and 5 assists respectively. Their shooting numbers were outstanding, as those three shot 50% on 24/48 shooting.

Even with Dwight Howard having had a sub par night according to his standards, the Raptors still couldn’t gain an advantage. They were badly exposed on the dribble-drive penetration and kick-out by the Magic players. The Toronto defence was slow to switch and box out players. With that, the Raptors were scorched on three-point shooting, as Orlando shot 48% (11/23). While the Raptors only shot 14% (2/13) from three point range. Both those made three’s came in the fourth quarter.

Here are two stats that should get you thinking. Rebounding, the Raptors won there, 44-37, but still managed to lose. Here’s the killer, Dwight Howard went 8/11 on free throw shooting.

If Howard had shot according to his season’s free throw percentage (.521) and the Raptors had capitalized on the Magic’s 17 turnovers, the game could’ve had a different outcome.

Both teams played very sloppy basketball and the team that won, was the team that was able to hit the most three’s. The Magic had 9 more made three’s than the Raptors. They only made two more field goals than the Raptors, 37-35.

With the loss, the Raptors are in an ugly slide having lost 5 of their last seven games and are 5-5 on the season. Meanwhile, the Magic have won four straight and are 8-3 on the season.


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