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Raptors Report: week 19
The Houston Rockets have been struggling and find themselves battling for a playoff position in the extremely challenging Western Conference. Nonetheless, they have weapons such as Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola, as well as big scorer Kevin Martin, who came over from Sacramento at the trade deadline. The Rockets looked to score an easy home victory against a reeling Toronto Raptors team, who were on the tail end of a back-to-back and without franchise player Chris Bosh and point guard Jose Calderon.
Houston came out firing, and ran out to a 13-point lead less than 4 minutes into the contest. By the end of the first, behind Martin’s 14 points, the home team held a 9 point advantage. This game got out of hand for the Raptors in the second, which translated into a 68-47 deficit at halftime. The game was all but sealed at that point and the final was 116-92. To make matters worse, Hedo Turkoglu did not see the court in the final 24 minutes of the game because of a sore ankle. Toronto will have a lengthy break before their next game on Friday. They need to get things in order as the teams below them in the standings are starting to make up ground. Chris Bosh needs to be back in the lineup next time out and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be, unless his injury is more serious than what is being said.
After a long delay to think about their humiliating loss in Houston, the Raptors were back in action Friday night at the ACC against the Knicks. Bosh was out of the lineup for the seventh straight game, but it wasn’t his ankle that kept him sitting on the pine, it was a stomach virus. Toronto was not getting results with Rasho Nesterovic starting in the frontcourt, so Jay Triano called upon Amir Johnson to fill the void for the first time this season. Luckily Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu were able to play to help carry the scoring load. The game was extremely close, but the Raptors seemed to be pulling away late in the third quarter thanks to the energy of DeMar DeRozan and Calderon, who did an outstanding job driving to the basket for easy points instead of settling for contested jump shots, which this team has seemed to be doing in the past four games. Nonetheless, Toronto only managed to lead 78-77 going into the deciding quarter. The fourth quarter was evenly played as well, but due in part to their fast start and timely defense, the final score was 102-96 in favour of the home team. Sonny Weems had a monster game, with a career high 20 points in addition to 9 rebounds and terrific hustle on the defensive end.
CB4 was back in the starting lineup in a Sunday matinee against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Raptors never seem to be able to have their whole lineup healthy, as Hedo Turkoglu was missing in action because of his sore ankle. The game got off to a slow start with both teams struggling to score, which could probably be attributed in part to the noon start time. After one quarter of play, the Sixers and Raptors were both hovering around a 40% field goal percentage and the score was knotted at 24. By the end of the second quarter, Philly was in the lead with a somewhat comfortable 55-47 advantage. Turnovers were an issue for both teams in the first half as they combined for 19 of them. Most notable was Philadelphia’s ball movement. In the first half, they totaled 15 assists in contrast to the Raptors’ 9. The Sixers ran wild on the Raptors pathetic transition defense and held a monstrous 89-75 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Toronto was temporarily able to make it close, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 114-101. Thaddeus Young was the leading scorer, netting 32 in the victory. Chris Bosh had a solid game of 12 points and 12 rebounds in his return.
Next week will be a very challenging one for Canada’s team. They will embark on a 4 game west coast road trip that sees them stop in Los Angeles to play the Lakers, Sacramento for a matchup with the Kings, Golden State to square off with the Warriors, and Portland for a date with the Trailblazers.