It was the night of the point guard’s, and their play, Jose Calderon versus TJ Ford. On this night, Jose Calderon got the best of ex-Raptor TJ Ford, with a better stat line and play, and the Raptors won the game 101-88 over the Indiana Pacers.
Before the game, most of the hype was surrounded around TJ Ford and Rasho Nesterovic, who were traded for Jermaine O’Neal. All three of these players had much to prove, to their ex-team and current team. Like gentlemen, both Calderon, O’Neal and Ford downplayed the situation of the match-up, but deep down this just wasn’t any game. And all three players knew what the deal was and wanted to play big games.
Both teams started the game off slow shooting at extremely low percentages and taking jumpers instead of driving the ball.
The starting point guards of either side really didn’t get into a steady flow offensively or defensively. Calderon got the better of Ford and his four points, four assist night. While Calderon finished the game with 11 points and 14 assists, with five rebounds. He also re-wrote the Raptors record books, by breaking Chauncey Billups’ old record of 51 consecutive free throws made. Calderon went 4/4 from the line, and has hit 55 straight free throws.
The guard play from the Raptors over matched the Pacers and their disorganized play, and led the Raptors to a big win.
The Raptors did manage to win the first quarter 20-18, and picked up the pace in the second quarter with some strong play on both ends of the floor. Instead of the jumpers both teams fell in love with, the Raptors decided to drive the ball, and it paid off nicely, en route to a 51-45 lead at half time.
Jason Kapono who replaced Anthony Parker in the starting lineup due to an ankle injury had a monster first half with 15 points and 6 rebounds, and finished with 25 and 8.
With the missed game, Anthony Parker had his consecutive games started streak snapped at 103.
Chris Bosh, who has struggled lately, showed signs of his earlier play this season, and ended the night with 21 points and 7 rebounds. His minutes, since Jay Triano took over as head coach, have been cut down from the usual forty minutes he was playing, and Bosh only played 34 minutes. The minutes needed to be cut back, because his slow play of late was due to fatigue and heavy minutes early on.
The play of Jamario Moon was just something else, and something that no one had seen this year. He was doing everything, played with energy, shot the ball at a high percentage and played some solid defense altering plenty of Indiana shots. If he could only play this way every game, the Raptors wouldn’t be in the mess that they are in now. Offensively, he was in a groove and scored a season-high 17 points, which was highlighted by a put back slam off a Jermaine O’Neal missed shot.
Moon replaced Andrea Bargnani in the starting lineup, and Bargnani didn’t do much in the way of proving that he deserves to be a starter with zero points and four rebounds in 22 minutes. His inconsistent play continues.
The ex-all-star Pacer, Jermaine O’Neal really didn’t show up his old team, but did have a relatively solid game with 10 points and 9 rebounds. His minutes were reduced in the first half due to two quick first quarter fouls in the games first two minutes.
On the night, six Raptor players ended up in double figures, which included the starting lineup and Joey Graham off the bench with 12 points.
As for Joey Graham, he put up another solid effort, and has played consistently for the last ten games. This is huge for the Raptors, as they have a strong player to come off the bench and provide good secondary scoring, with athleticism.
The Pacers had stretches where it looked as if they were going to make the game close again, but the Raptors pretty much took control of the game in the third quarter. Toronto won every quarter as well, which is always a great team stat.
Indiana scorers were very quiet, even though they had three players that ended up scoring 20 or more points. Danny Granger the main threat of the Pacers offense put himself in a hole when he kept tossing up bricks in the first quarter and throughout the game. He only scored two points in the first quarter, but ended up with 22 points, but the bulk of those points came in the latter stages of the game, when the game was essentially won by the Raptors. Granger taking stupid shots, and not getting to the basket really hurt the Pacers’ chances of winning or keeping it close.
Lost in the Pacers loss was the game played by Troy Murphy who had 20 points and 20 rebounds. That is a stat line that usually go to the likes of Dwight Howard, and that help a team win games. The Pacers never seemed to get into a comfortably pace or settle down, and made a lot of bad decisions on offense. And defensively, their short lineup was exploited by the Raptor big men, and Toronto shot 50% from the field.
The defense of the Raptors showed up in the game, and consistently, and held the Pacers to 34% shooting. The Raptors’ biggest lead was at 18, but were outscored 34-28 in the paint, and out-rebounded 52-47.
Strong runs by the Raptors in the second and fourth quarters put the team up big, with 11-0 and 9-0 runs. Raptors head coach Jay Triano won his first career game with the new title, and was the first head coaching win by a Canadian born and trained coach. The Raptors snapped a five game losing skid, to somewhat improve their record to 9-12 and their home record to an even 5-5.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.
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