Raptors Break Through in Charlotte

After two 4th-quarter collapses (Friday vs Denver at home, Sunday vs Miami on the road), Toronto finally managed to hold off the hungry, growling Charlotte Bobcats for a 103-101 victory. The win was absolutely crucial for a struggling Raptors team that had won only six times since the All-Star break, but the team will take ANYTHING at this point that will help the cause even if it means shuffling the starting lineup. It happened again with Demar DeRozan and Hedo Turkoglu coming off the bench and Sonny Weems and Antoine Wright taking their places. This move seemed to pay off vs the Bobcats, with DeRozan picking up 15 points on 7-8 shooting and playing aggressively, consistently looking to drive to the basket for the easy hoops. Wright, meanwhile, scored 15 points himself. However, if you happen to be misled into thinking that this game was ever simple for Toronto, think again. 3 players were hit with technical fouls (2 from the Raptors: Sonny Weems and Andrea Bargnani), with Gerald Wallace collecting 1 for Charlotte. The 1st quarter DID NOT flow well, and was consistently bogged down by foul calls from the referees. This was especially true for the Bobcats, who even had owner Michael Jordan jumped from his seat to yell about a foul call that he deemed unfair. Things heated up though later on, with Jarret Jack collecting all 12 of his points in the final frame. He scored 5 straight points during the start of the quarter and added 7 more clutch free throws for Toronto and generally helped to keep them afloat in the game. During that 4th, the Raps would open things up with a 7-0 run to take a 79-78 lead. There were 9 lead changes afterwards(17 in total for the game), but Hedo Turkoglu came through off the bench and swished a dagger 3-pointer that would put Toronto up 95-93. After that, the team nearly coughed up the game, but fortunately Charlotte could not capitalize on 3-point shot attempts from Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace. Then Sonny Weems was fouled, but could not convert on either of his critical free throws. In games past, this usually has meant "game over" for the Raptors, but not on Monday! They defended well against the Bobcats afterwards and forced Bobcats' starting point guard Raymond Felton to commit a costly turnover, thus sealing the win for the team. Also too in that final quarter, Andrea Bargnani threw a gorgeous pass to star Chris Bosh for a mighty dunk plus the foul. CB4, by the way, played a steady game finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds while Bargnani finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds. The Raptors also took care of the basketball, only committing 11 turnovers which is their lowest total since winning at home March 17 vs Atlanta and six players scored for Toronto. All in all, this game showed glimpses of the mental toughness necessary to succeed in the NBA, especially if you are fighting for a playoff berth. Here is the recap for the game: Raptors vs Bobcats  

Now, on to other things...the next game for the Raptors is TONIGHT vs the Los Angeles Clippers at 7 PM on TSN2. The Raptors are hosting the Clippers for this game (it will take place at the ACC). Meanwhile, the London Knights next game is TOMORROW night vs their rivals the Kitchener Rangers. Start time is at 7 PM, with London hosting the Rangers at the JLC. It should be a gritty and good series between the two, with some extra nastiness thrown in. The Raptors should be able to play well vs the Clippers, but you never can tell. Anyways, have a good one!     

Valiant Raptors Stunned by Nuggets, Victorious Knights Escape Storm

Another post, another day...

Just when you thought it couldn't possibly become any worse for the Toronto Raptors, another stumbling block slammed onto the NBA path for the team on Friday. After losing one of the season's most frustrating and stupefying games this year at the hands of the powerful Utah Jazz, the team had to battle against an even tougher Denver Nuggets who hold the 2nd seed in the Western Conference, while the Jazz hold 4th. To the team's credit, they played the Nuggets tough, staying close with these brutes all throughout the game. Toronto even led for most of the second half, leading 81-72 going into the 4th quarter. What led to that were two massive back-to-back dunks by All-Star forward Chris Bosh. Marco Belinelli helped push the lead to 12 in the final quarter before Denver put up a 9-0 run, led mostly by team star Carmello Anthony who nailed absolutely CLUTCH baskets for the Nuggets. He even evened the game score at 92 with 1:39 left to go before the Raptors trusty starting centre Andrea Bargnani converted a huge layup plus the ensuing free throw to give the Raptors a 95-92 lead. It all seemed good for the team at this point but then the WORST happened: Carmello was fouled. He missed both of the free throws (which is extremely unusual for him), but Denver snagged the offensive rebound and starting point guard Chauncey Billups sank a critical three-point basket to tie the game back up at 95-95. On Toronto's next possession, their star was fouled which was a very unwise move for Denver to make, but unfortunately CB4 could only make the 2nd of the two foul shots. This gave the Raptors a 96-95 lead, setting up the final play and a dramatic finish. Anthony missed the first attempt at the winner, but solid big man Nene kept the ball alive and threw the ball to Billups, who of course fed it to Anthony. This time, he did not disappoint his Nuggets, as the 2nd attempt hit nothing but net to the dismay of the Raptors and their faithful sellout crowd. After the shot, at least two of the Raptors players (Antoine Wright and Sonny Weems) could be seen with tears on their eyes, with Wright laying on the court floor on his back in disbelief. Frankly, I don't blame them; they both helped the Raptors to stay in the game, especially Weems who shot 5-8 from the floor and was a positive burst of energy all night long. All of this came DESPITE the Raptors ability to outrebound Denver by 20 (Toronto grabbed 58 to Denver's 38) and hold their opponents to a below-average 41% shooting clip for the game. What prevented Toronto from winning was: the turnovers (they committed 18 as opposed to just 7 for the Nuggets), and their inability to grab the game-ending offensive rebounds. Key players were missing for the Raptors however: starting forward Hedo Turkoglu sat out with a stomach virus and so could not participate, and rookie guard Demar DeRozan has been struggling lately; this led head coach Jay Triano to slip Sonny Weems and Antoine Wright in the starting lineup, and they rewarded Triano's shrewd thinking with pleasant performances. Did I mention DeRozan? He gave the team a huge lift, scoring 15 points on 7-8 shooting and was unquestionably aggressive, driving to the basket for easy buckets on opportunity after opportunity. Overall, I was pleased with the effort of the team, even though they did not defeat Denver. If they play this way every night however, they will be fine in the playoffs (if they succeed in making it there).

Here is the recap for Toronto's loss to Denver: Raptors vs Nuggets 

Finally, for the London Knights fine play...

After the Knight's shocking loss to the Guelph Storm in Game 3, the team knew it had to show up in Guelph for Game 4 on Thursday, and show up they did. The team won 8-2 on the strength of 4 1st-period goals that took any fight away from the Storm that they may have possessed and rode on to victory. In that 1st period the outshot the Storm by a count of 16-4...truly remarkable! For the game, the shots were 37-24 in favour of the Knights. Goal scoring in the 1st for the Knights was from: Seth Griffith, Nazem Kadri, Justin Taylor, and Chris DeSouza. In the second, Kalle Ekelund, Leigh Salters, and Daniel Erlich all scored for London. Storm goals in the game were both from Sisca. That made it 7-2 for London going into the 2nd period before Tyler Brown scored late in the 3rd to give the game its final score 8-2. This game gave the Knights a 3-1 series lead before playing back home at the JLC in Game 5.

Game 5 took place on Friday, and the Knights handled the Storm very solidly, winning 5-2. Case in point: the Storm were so frustrated that their star defender Adam Comrie broke his stick into 3 pieces against the glass after Daniel Erlich scored a dagger goal in the 3rd period. Comrie was promptly given a game misconduct and was ejected out of the game (that means the player has to be in the locker room for the rest of the game as punishment). Knights scoring for the game was from: Seth Griffith, Daniel Erlich (2 goals), Nazem Kadri, and Jared Knight. Guelph goals were scored by Michael Latta and Peter Holland. The shots on goals were won by London with a 31-25 edge. All in all, London should be very pleased with their effort and now wait to see who their second-round opponent will be. If the Kitchener Rangers defeat the Saginaw Spirit in their series, they will be the Knights next opponent. If not, it will most likely be the Plymouth Whalers.

Here are the recaps for the Knights wins:
Knights vs Storm: Game 4
Knights vs Storm: Game 5

Thank you for reading, and I will be back later with more from the sports world. Until then, keep cool.

Knights Jousted by Storm, Raptors Show Their Mighty Teeth

New Jersey...the land in the swamps, where attendance stinks as much as the atmosphere, an NBA franchise is veering close to possessing the league's worst-ever season roster, and where a team can only be winning 7 games.

Yes, that's right. The Raptors defeated the Nets 100-90 on Saturday night to improve to 34-34 while still holding on to 8th place in the East, leaving the Nets with still only 7 wins in the season. (The worst-ever record for a season was made by the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers, with a 9-73 mark.) This game was a fairly nice effort by the team, and Chris Bosh has started to show signs of finally shaking off the after-effects of the sprained ankle he had suffered earlier this month. CB4 (as Raptor fans have taken to calling him throughout the years) scored a season-high 36 points in the win, but was struggling early, committing 5 turnovers in the first half of the game. He did, however, score an unbelievable 15 points in the 3rd quarter, including a vicious reverse dunk in that same quarter that helped to turn the momentum in Toronto's favour. The team held the Nets to an ugly 39.8% shooting percentage, and faced little pressure from New Jersey in the win. One more note about the game...apparently one of the Raptors' reserve players (small forward Antoine Wright) lit into Bosh about his uninspiring and lackluster play of late since coming back from the injury. He got after Bosh for his bad play and helped to motivate the big star towards a big night. Wright did follow his own pep talk though, and backed it up with a solid 11 points, 4-8 shooting, 2-steal, and 2-block night in 22 minutes of playing time. It just goes to show what accountability can do for anyone, especially big athletes and celebrities. Although I must say...Bosh needs to be careful that this doesn't develop into a habit, especially since Raptors fans are familiar with what former star Vince Carter went through with the franchise. He was legendary among them for not always giving a 100% effort in every single game, and often needed teammates, media criticism, and/or special games to motivate him to show his all-star talent. A word of warning to Bosh...DON'T pull a "Wince Carter", whatever you do! Also too Chris, if you want to leave, be completely honest with us about your intentions, and PLEASE tell the fans and the media about it all, even after you do finally leave someday, whenever in your career that may occur. All right, let's move on...

Following that game, The Raptors flew to Minneapolis, Minnesota to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in order to climb above the .500 mark and establish a two-game winning streak. It was an up-and-down night for CB4, who struggled to find his game in the 1st half (remember my "word of warning speech" earlier in this post?) and once again turned it over 5 times in the following quarter. However, Bosh again was huge in the 3rd and scored 9 points for the team, going a perfect 4-4 from the field in the process. It led to a respectable 21 points and 10 rebounds on the night, giving him a team-record 44th double-double. He did have assistance though, from Jarret Jack, Hedo Turkoglu, and Antoine Wright, as the Raps were successful in knocking off the gritty Wolves, 106-100. One more note...did I mention that Jarret Jack, the Raptors 6'3" backup point guard DUNKED against the T-Wolves in the game? Yes, it did occur. For the first time in my life, I have seen him dunk a basketball, which was surprising since I had never seen him do it this year for the Raptors. Of course, he is getting older now, and there's no telling how many dunks he may have performed earlier in his career. All in all, it was a great night for Toronto, as they are now 35-34 and still hold an 8th-place spot in the Eastern Conference. The team has won 2 important games, and the task continues tonight, as they battle the Utah Jazz at the Air Canada Center. Start time is at 7 PM, with the broadcast on TSN2. I'll come back later and speak about the London Knights. That's all for now!

*Update: I'm going to update you on the Knights now...on Tuesday, the team played Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinal round vs the Guelph Storm, and it proved to be a wild affair. The two teams were scoreless until 7:44 was left in the second period, and then the two teams scored 3 goals each in that period. Goals in that period were scored by: London Knights - Jared Knight (two goals), and Colin Martin; Guelph Storm - Peter Holland (two goals), and Michael Latta. So, the score was 3-3 after two. The game picked up again with scoring from Z. Mitchell from Guelph and Michael D'Orazio from London and the teams were again tied, this time at 4. It all ended, however, because Nazem Kadri took two bad penalties within the fianl minute of the 3rd. He committed a dirty check to the head, which automatically gave him a game misconduct for his behaviour. Guelph promptly scored on the winner from Taylor Beck with 36 seconds remaining. As I said, it was CRAZY!!! The Knights now know that they have to tighten things up and become more disciplined if they wish to defeat Guelph and move on to the Western Conference Semi-finals. Guelph has finally showed their true game and made the series a dogfight. Their next game is tomorrow in Guelph. The start time is 7 PM, and the game can be heard on AM 1290 CJBK or online at the Knights' official website. So, that just about ends the updating.

One more thing...the Toronto Raptors were massacred yet again at home tonight with great performances by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer who led the Utah Jazz to a 113-87 thumping. The game was SO horrible that I can't even blog any more about it. So now I am truly finished! The Raps' next game is Friday at home at 7 PM, with the telecast being aired on TSN2. So, have a good and splendid day!

*Here are the recaps for all of the games I blogged about in this post: Game 3 Knights vs Storm, Raptors vs Nets, Raptors vs Timberwolves, & Raptors vs Jazz. Have fun cheering and goodbye!  

Updates on Raptors, Knights, & Paralympics

Well, I have not blogged in almost a week. I apologize for any inconveniences that my readers may have suffered as a result, and I will attempt to become more regular with my postings in the future.

All right, back to my normal voice...It's been quite a week of sports action...what with the Canadian Paralympic sledge hockey team playing in Vancouver, the London Knights starting their first-round series vs the Guelph Storm, and the Raptors appearing to finally straighten out their problems. I'll start with the Knights...they are now 2-0 in their series after winning 4-3 in OT in Game 1 at the John Labatt Centre, and winning Game 2 in Guelph by a score of 4-3 in a wild, rough-and-tumble, back and forth slugfest. In Game 2, there were numerous penalties and there were even fighting majors and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties handed out. The Knights goals were scored by: Jared Knight, Nazem Kadri, Daniel Erlich, and Tyler Brown. That was just game 2; in game 1, the Knights defeated the Storm on a classic OT winner courtesy of Nazem Kadri, who scored with approximately 4 minutes to go. This was possible in part because Guelph had to overcome a 2-man disadvantage which had started just before the end of regulation; the penalties were of the hooking and delay-of-game variety which were committed during the final minute of the 3rd period. This of course, eventually lead to Kadri's heroic winner of a goal for the Knights. For more on the games, read the recaps:
Game 1
Game 2

The Knights now have to play Guelph in Game 3 of the series tomorrow (Tuesday) In London, Ontario; Canada at the John Labatt Centre (known better to locals as "the JLC"). Start time for the game is at 7 PM. You can catch the game on the radio (AM 1290 CJBK) or online at the London Knights website (Just look for the "schedule" link on the main menu, just above that is a link entitled "listen live"; click that and you will be taken to a page with an icon stating "Listen Live London Knights" complete with the team logo and colours. Just above that is black text stating "Click on the button to launch the player." When the Knights are playing, just utilize those options and you are ready to cheer the team on.) So that's all for the Knights.

I'll touch on the Paralympic sledge hockey team next. On Friday, the men played against Norway and defeated them 6-0 in a fairly solid and easy affair (from an offensive standpoint, although it is not easy for the goaltender to do his job, as sledge hockey participants are strapped to a seat and they need to use their waist muscles to steer themselves around the ice). Not only that, but the players are given two sticks (one is shaped more like a regular hockey stick but is more suited to each person, and the other is to help them steer their seat around the ice. When you factor in the bumping and grinding that the players experience with each other and the physicality that goes along with hockey in general...it can become difficult to move ANYWHERE, let alone make goalie stops. This is all required as participants usually cannot make use of their legs due to the physical disabilities that they will have to deal with. Needless to say, it was quite interesting watching these athletes play and succeed at their game. I also viewed the skiing with great interest as well, as many of the participants had at least one leg that was amputated and had a prosthetic one as a replacement, some had no legs at all, and some skiiers (for a different event) were BLIND! It's amazing when you think about all of this. Canada overall, finished 3rd in total medal standings with 26 total medals and 14 gold medals (most golds overall). It was truly a proud moment for myself and for all of the people involved with the Paralympic Games.

One more thing needs to be said before I close the book on the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Winter Games, and that is this: Canada didn't get gold in sledge hockey as many people thought they would; the team didn't even play in the gold medal game. The team was defeated by Norway 2-1 in the bronze medal game on a controversial penalty shot that tied the game late in the 3rd period for Canada before Norway iced in with 3.6 seconds left. Still, I believe these men should be proud of themselves for trying their best despite their struggles in both sport and in life. The Paralympic athletes deserve more funding and also high honours for attempting to break the social barriers that still exist for disabled people everywhere. Here's hoping that things will change in the future. Now, let's finish up with the Raptors...

The team won a dramatic come-from-behind win on St. Patrick's Day at the Air Canada Centre (or "The ACC") in Toronto vs the Atlanta Hawks, were destroyed mercilessly by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday in Toronto (or "T.O.") and won a fairly easy game in New Jersey vs the Nets. For more, see the recaps:
Vs Hawks 
Vs Thunder
Vs Nets

So that about wraps it up. The Raps are 34-34 (.500) and still hold on to 8th place in the Eastern Conference. They play tongiht in Minneapolis vs the Timberwolves at 8 PM on the TSN2 channel. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Take care of each other!

Knights Finish Season with Record Points, Paralympics Rant, Raptors Update

Hello everyone. I have some superb hockey news to pass along, and this news concerns the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The team had a fantastic weekend on Friday and Saturday, where they defeated their Western Conference rivals Windsor Spitfires 4-3 in overtime on a Nazem Kadri winner in front of a packed house at the John Labatt Centre. London also played against the Erie Otters in Erie on Saturday, but were routed 8-3 partly due to the team resting its biggest stars Nazem Kadri and Steve Tarasuk. For more on the games, here are the links to the games (vs Windsor: http://londonknights.com/display_game_summary.asp?game=707 and vs Erie: http://londonknights.com/display_game_summary.asp?game=708). I will point this out before I move on to more pressing issues: by going into OT against Windsor on Friday, the Knights assured themselves of a 100+ season for the 6th time in 7 years. Talk about dominance!! 

Now that their season is over, London will face the 7th seeded Guelph Storm in their OHL Western Conference Quarter-Final. The 1st game is on Friday, March 19 at 7:00pm at their own rink, the John Labatt Centre. You can listen to the game either online at http://londonknights.com/default.asp or you can tune in to AM 1290 CJBK on your radio dial. In fact, you can catch ALL of the Knights games in either of these two ways. It should be a great series. More on the Knights later...

Many of us have undoubtedly experienced the heart wrenching fact that life is not always kind and fair. My own experiences this week have confirmed this fact to be true when it comes to the Paralympics that are occurring now in Vancouver. I am writing about the lack of coverage in the media concerning these great athletes and events. For starters, the coverage is ONLY on one channel: TSN, and the amount of coverage only adds up to 1.5 hours, with replays coming the rest of the day. When the Olympics were on however, the coverage almost ran most of the day on most days and nights and viewers could catch the action on many different stations. Also too, tonight's sledge hockey game for Canada starts at 11:30pm (Eastern Daylight Time), not at primetime the way that the men's hockey games at the Olympics were. This to me is completely uncalled for and unfair. It is almost as if TSN is telling its viewers: "Paralympics? Who cares, now that we've got the NHL back up and running? Besides, we've got money to make and a schedule to keep. We'll NEVER get rid of our hockey, so we're going to only give you 1.5 h highlights each day and we'll push the sledge hockey to the twilight hours. We'd rather show you Raptors and Leafs games anyway, even if they stink right now. You've seen enough; now GET LOST!!!" Even the London Free Press newspapers haven't written many stories on these athletes and the pain and determination they show as they struggle to compete for a gold medal. All I've been hearing is "we have our first gold in the Paralympics...and now we return to blah, blah, blah." I have a suggestion for these media buffoons: try the sports yourself (as Wendall Clark did with sledge hockey for a mini TV spot) and see if they're unimportant and "wussy"! Go ahead; you've got the money! Surely you'd breeze through the games and the courses, after all these athletes are HANDICAPPED!  In my opinion, the Paralympic athletes are accomplishing much more due to the fact that they have special circumstances that they are forced to deal with each day of their lives: some are paralyzed waist down, some have no use of their legs, some are blind, some are in wheelchairs, and still others have no legs at all! My own mother was equally upset; so much so that she went on TSN's Facebook page and complained about these very issues. To no one's surprise, there hasn't even been a whimper of acknowledgement of my mother's comment! It just goes to show you that a severe double-standard exists in the media and in society in general: if you look pretty, are in complete health and are a winner, you gain success and fame. If not, tough luck buddy. This is all immoral and grossly detrimental to anyone aspiring to lead a great life, especially if you are a handicapped person. Here's hoping that enough people will care to lobby TSN for more balanced coverage of the Paralympics and other related events that NEED to reach people for the better. 

So, I end off my blog now. Before I do however, I do wish to update you on the Raptors, as crummy as they are: the team is on a 5-game losing streak after losses to Sacramento, Golden State, Portland and other teams, and have now dropped from 5th seed to 8th seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started today the team would face the 1st place Cleveland Cavailers, which would most likely mean a first-round exit and a certain loss of the team's franchise player (Chris Bosh) to free agency in the offseason. They are playing the Atlanta Hawks tomorrow at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Tip-off is at 7:00pm on the TV channel TSN2. Now, let's end this puppy, and have a good one!   

The Dino Woes Continue, Knights shine their Armour

Great amounts of disgust and questions swirled in my mind as I watched the Toronto Raptors become worm food for the Sacramento Kings during the 2nd half of the game last night. Some of them were: 
1) Why is it that the team plays better against powerhouses such as the L.A. Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, and others while they writhe and die against lowly pack shops such as the Philadelphia 76ers, the Sacramento Kings, the Houston Rockets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Miami Heat, etc? 
2) Why is it that every season the team gets destroyed by THE SAME internal difficulties such as lack of defense, lack of consistency, relational troubles among teammates, "playing according to the level of the competition", the inability to work through injuries (especially to the star player), the sheer willingness to settle for the unwise and poor perimeter shot when they could easily score big transition and/or inside buckets, etc.?
3) Why is it that they seem to keep requiring "closed-door team meetings" when the team has an atrocious losing season, as if the athletes are children needing to go on time-outs? 
4) Why is it that when trouble comes, the GM and/or the head coach are the ones to take the blame thrust upon them by the fans and the media? Shouldn't we also blame ourselves, the scouts, the assistant coaches, and all of the players as well? 
5) Why is it that athletes make excuses for their less-than-inspiring performances, blaming the other team's transition defense, teammates, coaching, the opposing star players, inability to score, etc, INSTEAD of blaming themselves? 
and finally...6) Why is it that Raptors fans and their media are showing poor sportsmanship when it comes to villains such as Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady? Sure, those two guys betrayed the team, but it's been 5-10 years now and both guys are on different teams and have moved on. WHY HAVEN'T WE? Shouldn't we learn to forgive and go?


There, I'm done being frustrated. Now all we can do is wait and pray for better results. Here are the recaps for both games (against the Lakers and the Kings; the Laker game in which they played brilliantly but failed because of a Kobe Bryant game winner, and Sacramento because of a horrible 2nd half): the Lakers game - http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_09.html  
the Sacramento game - http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_10.html


On a brighter note...the OHL's London Knights will hit 100 points in the OHL standings for the 6th time in 7 years!!!  Talk about consistency and professionalism. I don't think many other teams have done this. Tomorrow night will be critical for Nazem Kadri and the boys at home in the John Labatt Centre against the Western Conference-leading Windsor Spitfires. It will be a chance to prepare for the playoffs as the Knights officially have the 2nd seed in that Western Conference. I'll be back after Saturday to run-down that game and also the final game of the season on the road against the Erie Otters. Be good, everybody! 

Raptors, Raptors, and more Raptors, oh my!

Wow, LOADS to discuss on this blog entry...on this edition, the Raptors past two games will be looked at.  I'll try to make it short and sweet for all of you so that you don't have to get bored reading a long post. Here goes...

Now, on with the Raptors. In my previous post, which set you up for the Raptors game against the Knicks, I stated that Jose Calderon and Chris Bosh were back from injury, which was only 1/2 true. Calderon came back completely healthy and played well for the team, but Chris Bosh missed his seventh straight game, this time with a stomach virus which required the team to take him to hospital for fluids. Before this he had suffered a sprained ankle, which contributed to the team losing 4 games in a row. After this four-game slide, the media and fans were beginning to question the heart and the ability of the team to hold down 5th seed in the Eastern Conference. After an ugly 102-96 win over the New York Knicks on Friday night and an even uglier 114-101 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon, the questions still abound and remain legitimate. Still, their win Friday provides the team's fans with some hope: namely in the development of the young, talented, and athletic Sonny Weems, who finished with a career-high 20 points on 9 of 16 shooting and an equally impressive 9 rebounds in roughly 28 minutes of work. Other notable performances for the Raptors were: Jose Calderon (16 points, 6 assists), Hedo Turkoglu (12 points, 9 rebounds), Amir Johnson (14 points, 8 rebounds), Jarret Jack (14 points), and Demar Derozan (10 points). Notable performances for the Knicks were: star forward David Lee (23 points, 18 rebounds), Danilo Gallinari (13 points), Tracy McGrady (13 points, 6 rebounds; also had 6 turnovers though), and Al Harrington (10 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists). This game was tight and wild, featuring 16 lead changes and 9 ties, and had Sonny scoring half of his 20 points in the final quarter, when the Raptors needed some key baskets late to hold off pesky New York. To sum it up, Toronto was able to grind out the victory. Here's the link to the recap and some video highlights: http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_05.html

Finally, for Sunday's loss to Philly...this game was terrible for the Raptors. The team was forced to play catch-up all game long, and Philly's ability to make 9 of 12 shot from 3-point range for a clip of 75% sure didn't help. (Simply unbelievable!) Add Thaddeus Young's monster 32-point, 5-rebound, four-steal and two-assist performance and the Raptors allowing the Sixers to score 30 fast break points...and you have the makings of "a bad loss" as The Score analyst Leo Rautins concluded. Oh, the game wasn't a complete flop for Toronto, as they did cut the lead to 94-87 with a Jose Calderon 3-point basket with 6:26 to go in the 4th quarter. (That ended a 13-6 run that brought the Raps back into the game, but Philly only missed 2 of their last 11 shots afterwards to put it all away). Anyways, here's the recap link: http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_07.html

 So, that's a rap on this here post. Join me Thursday as I provide you with the recap for the Raptors game out at the Staples Center in L.A. against Kobe Bryant the Los Angeles Lakers, and whatever else I happen to come across in the sports world. Until then, be cool!

Welcome to the bag!

Hello, and welcome! Since this is your first time viewing the blog, allow me to just take a moment to explain how the blog will operate. I will post new entries at least bi-weekly, sometimes maybe 3 a week depending if I find any news worthy enough to be posted. Every so often, I may post an issue related to my beliefs as a Christian to give a break to the sports blogging, and also because that is the other area of my passion. I trust and hope you find something to enjoy here on the blog, and leave comments if you do. I will most appreciate them. Anyways, that is all for now! See you all Tuesday! 

By the way... 

Big news tonight for Toronto Raptors fans! Their injured players (star forward Chris Bosh and starting point guard Jose Calderon) are BACK!!! Yes, they will play on the starting lineup tonight which will move solid reserves Rasho Nesterovich and Marcus Banks to the bench. In one way, it's a shame because both of these men have played well for the Raps and have done what the team has asked of them. Add the toughness of Reggie Evans to the mix along with swingmen such as Antoine Wright, Sonny Weems and the athletic rookie Demar DeRozan, and you have a decent mix of talent. The Raptors will need all the players they have for the playoff push as they try to maintain their standing at 5th place in the NBA's Eastern Conference. That all starts tonight, when they host the New York Knicks at the Air Canada Centre. The game will be on TSN starting at 7:00 PM, EST. Enjoy it folks, and as Fan590 radio analyst Eric Smith says, "Have a good one!"