Coming into the ball game, the Raptors were just one win shy of reaching a season high four game win streak. With the eighth place Milwaukee Bucks in town, they looked like an easy prey for the Raptors, especially with Michael Redd out for the season, and Andrew Bogut coming back into action from an injury. This game was a prime chance to get closer to the Bucks in the standings.
One player who loves to play against the Raptors in Toronto is Charlie Villanueva. He shredded the Raptors with his 26 point and 13 rebound effort to lead the Bucks with a stunning 96-85 victory.
The loss was very disheartening for the Raptors, because they played a strong first quarter, but their Achilles heel came up, they didn’t play a full 48 minutes. With the upcoming stretch of games the Raptors have ahead of them, a win tonight would’ve been crucial to start something and maybe turn things around with time running out.
But a sad final three quarters for the Raptors did it for them, and now they have to face the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, LA Lakers and New Orleans Hornets. Those four teams are as solid as they come with a combined winning percentage of .760. That stretch of games right there will truly determine what the Raptors are made of and their season.
After a 30 point first quarter, which saw Andrea Bargnani score 13 points and the first six Raptor points of the game, the team was shut down. The Raptors absolutely had nothing going for them after that point, and give a lot of credit to the Bucks defence. They showed their metal and that led to a strong offensive charge.
The Raptors did everything right in that first quarter. The players read the offense neatly; Jose Calderon distributed the ball well for five assists and exposed a weak Milwaukee defence. One player the Raptors couldn’t stop was Charlie Villanueva, who had the first eight Buck points. Besides Villanueva, the Raptors as a whole did a good job stopping the rest of the team, including Richard Jefferson who had zero points in the first quarter, and just two for the half.
After that, things slowly fell apart for the Raptors, which started off with a bad technical foul from Chris Bosh on Charlie Bell over the shoulder. The team also committed two early turnovers, and had eight for the half and five in the quarter. There was zero flow in the offence which resulted in zero points and a 9-0 Milwaukee run in the first two minutes of the quarter to get the lead at 33-30.
Midway through the quarter, the Bucks had reeled off a 17-6 run for a 41-36 lead and never looked back from there. Along with Villanueva, Bogut got things going as well and that gave the Bucks a huge boost.
After showing a great pick n’ roll offense, the Raptors were dumbfounded when the Bucks easily stopped those plays. To end the half, the Raptors were down 49-47, and were outscored 25-17 in the second.
Once again, the Raptors started off another quarter slowly by missing their first six shots, and allowed the Bucks to go on a 9-4 run in the first five minutes. But, both teams played real slow in the quarter and that was a prime opportunity for the Raptors to get back into the game. In just eight minutes, Toronto had only scored 4 points, and were down 70-59 to start the fourth quarter.
The bucks easily controlled the tempo of the game and got whatever looks they wanted, and their defense was top notch. They made the Raptor players take long jump shots, and very hesitant shots too.
Here’s an ugly stat that really killed the Raptors. In the first half they had 14 points in the paint, and in the third quarter, just two points. The two middle stanza’s of the game saw the Raptors get outscored 46-29 combined.
Chris Bosh, fresh from being named to his fourth consecutive All-Star game, scored just two points in the third after 14 in the first half, and ended the game with 18 points and 9 rebounds. What looked to be a career night for Bargnani with a 13 point opening quarter. The Italian scored three points after that.
One of the keys to the loss was the play of Jose Calderon. Since his return he’s been averaging 18 points and nine assists, and the Raptors were scoring 111 points a game. The Bucks defence came up big and had the main man on lock. Calderon was held to just six assists in the final three quarters and finished with seven points. Calderon’s perfect streak from the free throw line also ended at 87 straight free throws made.
Entering the final quarter, the Raptors got a spark from Jermaine O’Neal who finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds in thirty minutes off the bench. The Raptors looked primed for a comeback with O’Neal in a bit of rhythm, and the Raptors on a 7-2 run to cut the lead down to 86-76 with five minutes left to go. But a suspect call on JO for an offensive foul that looked to be a blocking foul, quickly turned into a technical foul on O’Neal for arguing the call. Things only got worse from there as JO committed a hard foul on Richard Jefferson which started a scrum between him and Charlie Villanueva.
The end result, the best player on the floor for the Raptors was given a second technical which meant an automatic ejection for JO, and on his bobble head night, mind you. With JO out of the game and the Raptors down 90-81 with 2.04 left to play, that was it for the Raptors.
Even with O’Neal on the floor and the way he was playing, it still wouldn’t have been enough for the Raptors who couldn’t find any sort of offensive flow. That’s how good the Bucks’ defense was, and the Raptors made life easy for the Bucks too with all the one and gun shots the Raptors took. On the flip side Milwaukee was getting open looks at the basket and at times, the Bucks were able to stretch the lead to 19 points. The intensity just wasn’t there for the Raptors.
The Raptors now find themselves even deeper in the standings at 19-29 and in 14th place in the East. They are now four games out of a playoff berth.
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.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
LEAFS BEATEN BY THE BEST, AGAIN
This act is getting real old now, giving up leads that you worked so hard for, but only to see them slip away with careless play.
Coming into this game versus the East leading Boston Bruins, the Leafs had just one win in their last seven games. You can now make it eight games.
The Leafs did play a good hockey game, but only for forty minutes. The Boston Bruins have proved this year that they aren’t pushovers as in years past, and are for real. They showed that by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period.
The Bruins were only one of two teams without any victories when trailing after two periods, and now the Florida Panthers remain the lone team.
For the Leafs, they couldn’t have asked for a better start to loosen themselves up, especially on home ice, considering that they have been shutout in the past two home games.
They snapped that nasty slide as Jason Blake, who has had a great resurgence of late, scored the opening goal of the game.
Before that goal, the Bruins really trapped the Leafs with their quick passing out of their own zone and out. And anytime Toronto tried to carry the puck through the neutral zone, they would be stopped and Boston would takeaway the puck.
With such great pressure early on the Bruins answered right back and had the Toronto defence running around, and the Bruins were able to make a full line change while still in the Toronto zone. With the Leafs all tired, Blake Wheeler tipped in a shot from the point to tie the game at one’s.
As the period wore on, the pace of the game picked up and provided great excitement.
With about two minutes to go in the period, the used to be goal scorer Nik Antropov, who is now goal-less in his last sixteen games, cleared the puck before a Boston player could tap it into the empty net. At least Antropov is showing that he can still play on one end of the ice.
Four minutes into the second period, Lee Stempniak scored his eighth goal of the year on the power play, and just his fifth goal in 27 games with the Leafs.
In the past three games, the Toronto power play had been clicking at a success rate of 33% (3/9), and went 1/4 tonight.
From that point on, the Leafs cracked the Bruins’ defensive scheme and were able to generate good scoring chances and showed a strong awareness from there. The Leafs outshot the Bruins 15-11 in the second period, and 34-30 for the game.
The more noticeable lines were that of the Mikhail Grabovski, Nik Kulemin, and Niklas Hagman line. Grabovski really carried that line, as he played with an extra bounce in his step.
The second line, which crashed the net and the boards, was the line of Jamal Mayers, John Mitchell and Brad May. With their simple style of play, which is of the dump-and-chase variety, they were able to produce the third Toronto goal.
Brad May was the goal scorer and tipped in a John Mitchell shot, and that was May’s first goal of the year and as a Leaf. That was also his first goal in 59 games.
Speaking of slumps, how about Toronto native Jamal Mayer’s who hasn’t scored a goal in his past 25 games. In his career he hasn’t scored a goal in Toronto, and that includes seven games as a St. Louis Blue.
Soon after that third Toronto goal, the Bruins once again came right back, but were stopped on a double pad stack by Toskala as he robbed Byron Bitz who was all alone in front of the net.
On the night, both goalies came up big for their teams.
Vesa Toskala showed he was in the game real early when Boston got a shot off from the slot, and Toskala made a great save with his glove. The momentum and weight of his body went one way, and he still made the save. Toskala played a smart game, and kept the Leafs in it when Boston could’ve ran away with the game in the third period.
How about the unorthodox style of play from Tim Thomas? This guy just keeps on getting the job done, no matter which way he does it, and for his efforts has the number one save percentage for starting goaltenders, while his counterpart Toskala sports the worst.
Thomas’ head turning style of play showed up when he made a save on a Toronto point shot while sitting on his butt. If that had gone in, it would’ve been 4-1 Leafs. And on one Toronto rush, with Blake coming down the wing Thomas lunged towards Blake, and didn’t even go for the puck.
In the third period, the Bruins stepped up their game and their strong crisp passing was too much for the Leafs and committed all four of their penalties in the third period.
The first penalty came 18 seconds into the period, and the other three came at 10.39, 7.38, and 3.40 left to play. The Bruins made good on the first and third power play.
Dennis Wideman just got one to go through the legs of Toskala who got a piece, but the puck also went in off a Toronto skate. That goal came seconds before the penalty had expired.
The goal that tied the game came a off a bullet pass from Marc Savard to a pinching yellow-teethed six foot nine Slovakian Zdeno Chara. On that play, rookie David Krejci showed his great vision and strong passing ability.
Right before that, Jamal Mayers had a great chance to clear the puck down the ice and kill some time as he had the Bruins trapped on a delayed off-side, but shot the puck into the team bench. Instead of twenty seconds coming off the clock, only three came off.
Just like that, the game was tied, the Toronto penalty killers were gassed and could only do so much, and another lead that was built through strong play, disappointingly vanished. The Bruins giving up three goals is a rarity, and when you have them down, lock down defensively and play smart. At the same time, these Bruins boast a team with six players that have +20 rating or more, so they are really never out of any game.
The Bruins thoroughly outplayed the Leafs in the third and Toronto got themselves into that mess, because all the penalties that were taken were real stupid. Three of four of those calls were holding penalties.
In overtime, Toronto had a chance to win the game on a power play, but were either stopped on some real good shots, or shot wide of the net.
The Bruins took the game 4-3 in a shootout. With the Leafs up 2-1 in the shootout, and one more shooter to go, Boston’s Martin St. Pierre scored to tie the shootout. The fourth Toronto shooter missed, and career 1/11 shooter Michael Ryder won the game with the last shot.
Before the game, the Leafs honored Ace Bailey, and when the first ever All-Star game was played in his name. Bailey’s number six is just one of two retired by the Leafs and was the first ever number to be retired out of the four major sports leagues in North America. The other retired Leaf number is the number five Bill Barilko wore.
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.
Coming into this game versus the East leading Boston Bruins, the Leafs had just one win in their last seven games. You can now make it eight games.
The Leafs did play a good hockey game, but only for forty minutes. The Boston Bruins have proved this year that they aren’t pushovers as in years past, and are for real. They showed that by coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period.
The Bruins were only one of two teams without any victories when trailing after two periods, and now the Florida Panthers remain the lone team.
For the Leafs, they couldn’t have asked for a better start to loosen themselves up, especially on home ice, considering that they have been shutout in the past two home games.
They snapped that nasty slide as Jason Blake, who has had a great resurgence of late, scored the opening goal of the game.
Before that goal, the Bruins really trapped the Leafs with their quick passing out of their own zone and out. And anytime Toronto tried to carry the puck through the neutral zone, they would be stopped and Boston would takeaway the puck.
With such great pressure early on the Bruins answered right back and had the Toronto defence running around, and the Bruins were able to make a full line change while still in the Toronto zone. With the Leafs all tired, Blake Wheeler tipped in a shot from the point to tie the game at one’s.
As the period wore on, the pace of the game picked up and provided great excitement.
With about two minutes to go in the period, the used to be goal scorer Nik Antropov, who is now goal-less in his last sixteen games, cleared the puck before a Boston player could tap it into the empty net. At least Antropov is showing that he can still play on one end of the ice.
Four minutes into the second period, Lee Stempniak scored his eighth goal of the year on the power play, and just his fifth goal in 27 games with the Leafs.
In the past three games, the Toronto power play had been clicking at a success rate of 33% (3/9), and went 1/4 tonight.
From that point on, the Leafs cracked the Bruins’ defensive scheme and were able to generate good scoring chances and showed a strong awareness from there. The Leafs outshot the Bruins 15-11 in the second period, and 34-30 for the game.
The more noticeable lines were that of the Mikhail Grabovski, Nik Kulemin, and Niklas Hagman line. Grabovski really carried that line, as he played with an extra bounce in his step.
The second line, which crashed the net and the boards, was the line of Jamal Mayers, John Mitchell and Brad May. With their simple style of play, which is of the dump-and-chase variety, they were able to produce the third Toronto goal.
Brad May was the goal scorer and tipped in a John Mitchell shot, and that was May’s first goal of the year and as a Leaf. That was also his first goal in 59 games.
Speaking of slumps, how about Toronto native Jamal Mayer’s who hasn’t scored a goal in his past 25 games. In his career he hasn’t scored a goal in Toronto, and that includes seven games as a St. Louis Blue.
Soon after that third Toronto goal, the Bruins once again came right back, but were stopped on a double pad stack by Toskala as he robbed Byron Bitz who was all alone in front of the net.
On the night, both goalies came up big for their teams.
Vesa Toskala showed he was in the game real early when Boston got a shot off from the slot, and Toskala made a great save with his glove. The momentum and weight of his body went one way, and he still made the save. Toskala played a smart game, and kept the Leafs in it when Boston could’ve ran away with the game in the third period.
How about the unorthodox style of play from Tim Thomas? This guy just keeps on getting the job done, no matter which way he does it, and for his efforts has the number one save percentage for starting goaltenders, while his counterpart Toskala sports the worst.
Thomas’ head turning style of play showed up when he made a save on a Toronto point shot while sitting on his butt. If that had gone in, it would’ve been 4-1 Leafs. And on one Toronto rush, with Blake coming down the wing Thomas lunged towards Blake, and didn’t even go for the puck.
In the third period, the Bruins stepped up their game and their strong crisp passing was too much for the Leafs and committed all four of their penalties in the third period.
The first penalty came 18 seconds into the period, and the other three came at 10.39, 7.38, and 3.40 left to play. The Bruins made good on the first and third power play.
Dennis Wideman just got one to go through the legs of Toskala who got a piece, but the puck also went in off a Toronto skate. That goal came seconds before the penalty had expired.
The goal that tied the game came a off a bullet pass from Marc Savard to a pinching yellow-teethed six foot nine Slovakian Zdeno Chara. On that play, rookie David Krejci showed his great vision and strong passing ability.
Right before that, Jamal Mayers had a great chance to clear the puck down the ice and kill some time as he had the Bruins trapped on a delayed off-side, but shot the puck into the team bench. Instead of twenty seconds coming off the clock, only three came off.
Just like that, the game was tied, the Toronto penalty killers were gassed and could only do so much, and another lead that was built through strong play, disappointingly vanished. The Bruins giving up three goals is a rarity, and when you have them down, lock down defensively and play smart. At the same time, these Bruins boast a team with six players that have +20 rating or more, so they are really never out of any game.
The Bruins thoroughly outplayed the Leafs in the third and Toronto got themselves into that mess, because all the penalties that were taken were real stupid. Three of four of those calls were holding penalties.
In overtime, Toronto had a chance to win the game on a power play, but were either stopped on some real good shots, or shot wide of the net.
The Bruins took the game 4-3 in a shootout. With the Leafs up 2-1 in the shootout, and one more shooter to go, Boston’s Martin St. Pierre scored to tie the shootout. The fourth Toronto shooter missed, and career 1/11 shooter Michael Ryder won the game with the last shot.
Before the game, the Leafs honored Ace Bailey, and when the first ever All-Star game was played in his name. Bailey’s number six is just one of two retired by the Leafs and was the first ever number to be retired out of the four major sports leagues in North America. The other retired Leaf number is the number five Bill Barilko wore.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
THIS IS JUST BAD NOW FOR THE RAPTORS
That certainly was quite the game and finish…for the Atlanta Hawks of course.
Once again, the Raptors were involved in a game where they were up big to start, but sadly and painfully slow, faltered down the stretch and dropped the game 87-84.
Mind you, the Raptors were up against a very good home team in the Hawks, who improved their home record to 16-4 with the win, while the Raptors dropped to 8-15 on the road, and 16-27 overall. Currently, the Raptors now see themselves in 14th place in the East, and four games back of a playoff spot. With the six game slide the Raptors are now on, the playoffs look bleak.
Anytime a team goes on a five game losing streak on five separate occasions, it is pretty damn hard to imagine that team to qualify for the post-season.
This ball game was clearly a tale of two halves; the first half great, the second not so.
The Raptors jumped out to an early 22-15 lead, saw that lead get cut to 24-21, but didn’t let it get away completely, and the Raptors led by one at the end of the first quarter.
The Hawks ended the first quarter on an 8-2 run, to show some life after a slow start.
The Hawks were carried by some strong three point shooting, going 3/6, but shot just 42%. Mike Bibby, a player who always seems to burn the Raptors, scored the first seven Atlanta points of the game.
The start to the second quarter was very slow for either side, as the Raptors outscored the Hawks 4-1 in the first two minutes.
The Raptors turned up their game and started to play a smarter game, which involved driving to the basket. Chris Bosh was a picture perfect image of that, and had at least three strong drives to the rim, which resulted in trips to the free throw line.
CB4 had quite the half and game, and had 15 points and 8 rebounds at the half, and for the game had 22 and 14. That was followed up by Andrea Bargnani with a 14 point and 6 rebound half, and by Anthony Parker with a stat line of 12 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds for the game as the starting point guard.
Those three players were shut down in the second half, and was the sole reason the Hawks pulled out a victory. The combination of Bosh, Bargnani and Parker were held to 21 points in the second half.
If you take into account Anthony Parkers’ first half numbers, he wasn’t at the point guard position for the second half and had just 4 assists in the second half. With such a strong first half, putting Parker back at the two spot looked like a mistake.
Even though Roko Ukic had good spurts, he showed his rookie play in crunch time and failed, with costly turnovers and bad shots.
During the second quarter, Atlanta’s Solomon Jones committed a hard moving screen on Anthony Parker, which wasn’t called. The Hawks scored on that play to make the score 40-37 Raptors. After that play, it just looked as if a fire was lit for the Raptors players.
To close out the half, the Raptors went on an 11-5 run, and at one point had an eleven point advantage, but led 51-42 at the half.
The Raptors were shooting at a 50% success rate, and were out-rebounding the Hawks 23-17.
The Raptors were led by a combined 29 points from Bosh and Bargnani (42 points for the game), while the Hawks had 15 from Johnson and 11 from Smith.
The defense for the Hawks stepped up in big ways and held the Raptors to 13 third quarter points, and 33 total points for the second half.
On the flip side, the Raptors gave up 45 points, and let Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Mike Bibby control the game from there. Each of those players had twenty plus points, and combined to score 73 of Atlanta’s 87 points.
The third quarter saw the game turn in the Hawks’ favor. First it was Bibby who rattled down seven straight points again to open the quarter, and finished with 23 and three 3-ppinters.
It was an offensive struggle for the Raptors who at one point missed nine straight shots. When they finally did hit a shot, the score was 60-55 for them.
By the end of the quarter, the Raptors lead was at two points. One vital stat that hurt the Raptors was the points in the paint. In the first half, the Raptors had 24 points there, and just 4 in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was a weird one for either side as they missed easy shots, played sloppy basketball, and hit shots when they needed too.
The Hawks got the lead back 68-67, their first since a 9-8 lead. They continued to pad that lead, and built the lead up to as many as seven points. The Raptors battled back and went on an 11-2 run, and regained the lead at 80-78.
With the Raptors up 84-82 with 1.46 left to play, the Hawks’ Joe Johnson split a pair of free throws, and after a Raptors miss, Mike Bibby was able to draw another foul and hit both shots for an 85-84 lead with 54 seconds left to play.
On the ensuing possession, Chris Bosh lost the ball and turned it over. But the Hawks followed suit and did the same thing. With the ball in Jamario Moon’s hands, he tried to play the role of hero and jacked up a stupid three point attempt and missed badly.
On the other end of the floor, the Hawks ran out and Joe Johnson hit two of his game high 28 points. That bucket sunk the Raptors as they had a fruitless trip down the floor down by three with 12.5 seconds left to play.
With such a great first half and with high percentages, the Raptors flat out stunk in the second half. By the 6.30 mark of the fourth quarter the Raptors had hit only 9/32 shots and ended up shooting 41.7%.
The Raptors did manage to hold the Hawks to that same mark, but couldn’t control Bibby, Johnson and Smith. At times, it looked as if the Raptors were going to exploit Bibby defensively but hardly did that. If they did, they would settle for jumpers instead of posting up.
The play of Jamario Moon was horrible, and had just nine points on 4/9 shooting and also took 4 three pointers, and made good on only one. His defensive effort matched his offensive output, bad. Moon let Joe Johnson do too much, and wasn’t physical with him, especially down the stretch.
With the backcourt play of Parker and Graham scoring 30 plus points the day before, they only scored 16 points in this game, and Graham took himself out of the game with three first half fouls, and an early foul in the third quarter.
Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon once again did not dress due to nagging injuries. For the Hawks, Al Horford was out with a bruised bone in his right knee and his replacement Zaza Pachulia proved to be bad as he scored zero points with one rebound.
Nathan Jawai, Toronto’s draft pick from this past summer was dressed for the game, which was his first for the year.
The Raptors, who had such a bad 2008 record, have to go 30-20 in 2009, just to finish above .500, and improve by one win on last years 41 wins. So far, this year the Raptors are 4-7, which means they must now go 26-13.
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.
Once again, the Raptors were involved in a game where they were up big to start, but sadly and painfully slow, faltered down the stretch and dropped the game 87-84.
Mind you, the Raptors were up against a very good home team in the Hawks, who improved their home record to 16-4 with the win, while the Raptors dropped to 8-15 on the road, and 16-27 overall. Currently, the Raptors now see themselves in 14th place in the East, and four games back of a playoff spot. With the six game slide the Raptors are now on, the playoffs look bleak.
Anytime a team goes on a five game losing streak on five separate occasions, it is pretty damn hard to imagine that team to qualify for the post-season.
This ball game was clearly a tale of two halves; the first half great, the second not so.
The Raptors jumped out to an early 22-15 lead, saw that lead get cut to 24-21, but didn’t let it get away completely, and the Raptors led by one at the end of the first quarter.
The Hawks ended the first quarter on an 8-2 run, to show some life after a slow start.
The Hawks were carried by some strong three point shooting, going 3/6, but shot just 42%. Mike Bibby, a player who always seems to burn the Raptors, scored the first seven Atlanta points of the game.
The start to the second quarter was very slow for either side, as the Raptors outscored the Hawks 4-1 in the first two minutes.
The Raptors turned up their game and started to play a smarter game, which involved driving to the basket. Chris Bosh was a picture perfect image of that, and had at least three strong drives to the rim, which resulted in trips to the free throw line.
CB4 had quite the half and game, and had 15 points and 8 rebounds at the half, and for the game had 22 and 14. That was followed up by Andrea Bargnani with a 14 point and 6 rebound half, and by Anthony Parker with a stat line of 12 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds for the game as the starting point guard.
Those three players were shut down in the second half, and was the sole reason the Hawks pulled out a victory. The combination of Bosh, Bargnani and Parker were held to 21 points in the second half.
If you take into account Anthony Parkers’ first half numbers, he wasn’t at the point guard position for the second half and had just 4 assists in the second half. With such a strong first half, putting Parker back at the two spot looked like a mistake.
Even though Roko Ukic had good spurts, he showed his rookie play in crunch time and failed, with costly turnovers and bad shots.
During the second quarter, Atlanta’s Solomon Jones committed a hard moving screen on Anthony Parker, which wasn’t called. The Hawks scored on that play to make the score 40-37 Raptors. After that play, it just looked as if a fire was lit for the Raptors players.
To close out the half, the Raptors went on an 11-5 run, and at one point had an eleven point advantage, but led 51-42 at the half.
The Raptors were shooting at a 50% success rate, and were out-rebounding the Hawks 23-17.
The Raptors were led by a combined 29 points from Bosh and Bargnani (42 points for the game), while the Hawks had 15 from Johnson and 11 from Smith.
The defense for the Hawks stepped up in big ways and held the Raptors to 13 third quarter points, and 33 total points for the second half.
On the flip side, the Raptors gave up 45 points, and let Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Mike Bibby control the game from there. Each of those players had twenty plus points, and combined to score 73 of Atlanta’s 87 points.
The third quarter saw the game turn in the Hawks’ favor. First it was Bibby who rattled down seven straight points again to open the quarter, and finished with 23 and three 3-ppinters.
It was an offensive struggle for the Raptors who at one point missed nine straight shots. When they finally did hit a shot, the score was 60-55 for them.
By the end of the quarter, the Raptors lead was at two points. One vital stat that hurt the Raptors was the points in the paint. In the first half, the Raptors had 24 points there, and just 4 in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was a weird one for either side as they missed easy shots, played sloppy basketball, and hit shots when they needed too.
The Hawks got the lead back 68-67, their first since a 9-8 lead. They continued to pad that lead, and built the lead up to as many as seven points. The Raptors battled back and went on an 11-2 run, and regained the lead at 80-78.
With the Raptors up 84-82 with 1.46 left to play, the Hawks’ Joe Johnson split a pair of free throws, and after a Raptors miss, Mike Bibby was able to draw another foul and hit both shots for an 85-84 lead with 54 seconds left to play.
On the ensuing possession, Chris Bosh lost the ball and turned it over. But the Hawks followed suit and did the same thing. With the ball in Jamario Moon’s hands, he tried to play the role of hero and jacked up a stupid three point attempt and missed badly.
On the other end of the floor, the Hawks ran out and Joe Johnson hit two of his game high 28 points. That bucket sunk the Raptors as they had a fruitless trip down the floor down by three with 12.5 seconds left to play.
With such a great first half and with high percentages, the Raptors flat out stunk in the second half. By the 6.30 mark of the fourth quarter the Raptors had hit only 9/32 shots and ended up shooting 41.7%.
The Raptors did manage to hold the Hawks to that same mark, but couldn’t control Bibby, Johnson and Smith. At times, it looked as if the Raptors were going to exploit Bibby defensively but hardly did that. If they did, they would settle for jumpers instead of posting up.
The play of Jamario Moon was horrible, and had just nine points on 4/9 shooting and also took 4 three pointers, and made good on only one. His defensive effort matched his offensive output, bad. Moon let Joe Johnson do too much, and wasn’t physical with him, especially down the stretch.
With the backcourt play of Parker and Graham scoring 30 plus points the day before, they only scored 16 points in this game, and Graham took himself out of the game with three first half fouls, and an early foul in the third quarter.
Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon once again did not dress due to nagging injuries. For the Hawks, Al Horford was out with a bruised bone in his right knee and his replacement Zaza Pachulia proved to be bad as he scored zero points with one rebound.
Nathan Jawai, Toronto’s draft pick from this past summer was dressed for the game, which was his first for the year.
The Raptors, who had such a bad 2008 record, have to go 30-20 in 2009, just to finish above .500, and improve by one win on last years 41 wins. So far, this year the Raptors are 4-7, which means they must now go 26-13.
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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