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Raptors Report: Week 15
The Pacers aimed to exact some revenge against the Raptors in Indianapolis on Tuesday night. Already missing DeMar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu was out of commission for the game. Marco Belinelli started his first game of the season in place of Hedo. After the first quarter, the Raptors held a small 34-32 lead. In the second, Toronto’s shooting percentage nosedived as they struggled mightily to put the ball in the basket for the majority of the frame. With a couple minutes remaining in the half, Chris Bosh and company returned to their abundant scoring ways and trailed by a mere five points. CB4 had 20 points and 11 rebounds at the break. In the third quarter, the team checked out of the game when their leader picked up his fourth foul. The Pacers cruised to a 130-115 win.
With DeRozan, Turkoglu, and Jose Calderon all injured, as well as Jarrett Jack battling illness, one might believe the Raptors would have no chance at winning the second game of a back to back. Thankfully, the team they were facing has only amassed a total of four wins all season. The New Jersey Nets are the worst team in NBA history, so if there’s any game that is as good as a guaranteed victory, it’s against the Nets. The first quarter belonged to the Raptors, and rightfully so. The second quarter saw New Jersey storm back and take a twelve-point advantage. After thunderous boos from the home crowd, Jay Triano burned two timeouts and the Raptors responded thanks to the energy of Sonny Weems, who had his own personal highlight reel in the quarter, tearing down the rim with an impressive one handed alley-oop in addition to taking a behind the back pass from Jack and flying in for the slam. The Raptors were up by one at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, Weems had recorded his first double-double and the Raps extended their lead to five. In the fourth quarter, Canada’s team took care of business, sending the fans who showed up for “Fan Appreciation Night” home happy with a free slice of pizza. Antoine Wright and Andrea Bargnani shouldered the scoring load. The game ended with a score of 106-99 as the Nets fell to 40 games under .500.
Leading rookie of the year Candidate Tyreke Evans and the Sacramento Kings travelled north of the border for their only trip to Toronto all season. The Kings had lost ten in a row away from ARCO Arena and to make matters worse for them, the Raptors were well rested and fully healthy. DeMar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu, and Jose Calderon were all back in the lineup Sunday afternoon. It was important to make sure a win was achieved for Toronto against a struggling Western Conference foe. That being said, Sacramento has their share of weapons in the lineup – the aforementioned Evans, outstanding rookie Omri Casspi and prolific scorer Kevin Martin. Defense was optional in the first half as the Raptors led 62-59. The lead would have been much greater if it weren’t for 9 turnovers and the abundance of fouls charged to the team, leading to 22 first half free throws for the Kings. Sacramento seized control in the third and led 87-84, due in part to a controversial non-call for offensive goaltending in the dying seconds of the quarter. In the beginning of the fourth, Sacramento added to their lead and appeared to be running away with the game. Chris Bosh was going to have something to say about that, putting his team on his shoulders and firing up the home crowd. The Raptors surged right back thanks to CB4 and Antoine Wright and walked away with a 115-104 victory.
Toronto only plays one game next because of the all-star break. They will try and continue their dominance at home against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.