Yes, that's correct. After two exciting, sloppy, and poorly played games the Toronto Raptors find their playoff hopes rapidly decreasing. First off, on Saturday, the team travelled to Philadelphia to play against the Philadelphia 76ers, a team going nowhere in the Eastern Conference (they are not even going to make the playoffs). The 128-123 OT win in Philly was huge with multiple playoff implications: the team found themselves only 2 games behind the Charlotte Bobcats for 7th in the East after the game, and they hold the tie-breaker in head-to-head play vs BOTH the Charlotte Bobcats and the Chicago Bulls (who are 9th in the East). Losing to Philly could have meant 9th spot, but as a result of the win, they keep the 8th and final playoff spot. The climactic period of the game occurred when the Raptors allowed the Sixers to destroy a 17-point lead (Yeah, that's right: SEVENTEEN!) during the 4th quarter, but the team found the offense once again in the furious overtime period. All-Star forward Chris Bosh put the Raptors ahead 124-122 on a key layup with 1:55 left to play. Sixer big man Samuel Dalembert split a pair of three throws on Philly's next possession, leading up to CB4's next clutch play: a wild, driving banker shot that used the glass and gave T.O. a 3-point lead. Next, Philly star Andre Iguodala missed on an extremely foolish, quick, and questionable 3-pointer, and Raptors reserve point guard Jarret Jack knocked down both of his free throw shots to seal the game and the victory: the team's 3rd straight! The key men for Toronto were: Chris Bosh and starting shooting guard Sonny Weems. Bosh came close to a triple-double (when a player grabs 10 or more in 3 game categories: points, rebounds, assists, etc.) with 28 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. He also made 12-13 free throw attempts. At first, it didn't seem as if Bosh would end up with such a dominant performance as he played through a sloppy and sluggish 1st quarter: 0 field goals, 2 free throws, 2 turnovers, & 1 foul in 10 minutes. For the rest of the game however, Bosh was superb getting 11 points in the 2nd quarter, 7 in the 3rd, and came up big in OT as already mentioned. Weems, the Raptors other key player scored 18 points in the game on 9-11 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds and 2 assists. After racing to 6 points in the 1st and looking strong, Weems pushed in 10 points in roughly the first 8 minutes of the 3rd quarter. This gave the Raptors a 15-point lead. Sonny has looked impressive lately, scoring 12.2 points per game and shooting better than 50% during the last 5 games entering Sunday's game vs the Golden State Warriors. Other honourable stats to mention are: a 56.2% shooting mark for Toronto against Philly, 7 Raptors players in double-figures, a 42-27 rebounding edge for Toronto, 35 Philadelphia points scored on 20 Raptor turnovers compared to 12 Raptor points scored on 17 Philly turnovers, and 15 points in the 3rd quarter for Toronto compared to 36 points in the 1st. So, a poor game for Toronto but a win is earned. As they say though: "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
After the Philly win, the Raptors had to host the Golden State Warriors last night on Easter Sunday at the Air Canada Centre. This game was key as the 9th-place Chicago Bulls were not in action and were only 1.5 games behind Toronto for 8th place and a spot in the playoffs. A loss meant that the Raptors lead shrunk to 1 game ahead of Chicago, and a win meant a 2 game lead. Well, a breathtaking finish answered the playoff situation question for T.O. After almost erasing a 16-point deficit, the team found itself down 113-112. This was after both teams traded quite a number of free throw attempts during the final minute of the game. The last attempts were made by Chris Bosh with 2.9 seconds to play. It was the Warriors turn to inbound the basketball in their own end (as the teams were both out of timeouts). As Golden State inbounded, Sonny Weems stole the pass for the Raptors and quickly whipped a blind pass to Bosh, who wrenched it away from Warrior big Rony Turiaf and immediately put up a close-in layup attempt toward the basket. Turiaf, however, challenged the shot and the ball clanged off the rim to the disappointment of the Raptors and their fans. It was an unfitting end to a marvelous game for Bosh, who scored at least 40 points for the 9th time this season. Warriors star and rookie point guard Stephen Curry (the son of former player and sharpshooter Dell Curry, who once played in key games during the Raptors BEST-EVER seasons in 1999-2002) had a more well-rounded performance than Bosh did though. Curry scored 29 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the game and was seemingly everywhere on the court. He dished out 8 of the 12 assists in the 1st half, showed great defense, and showed the Raptors that more was to come in the 2nd half. At that point, he found his shot during key Golden State runs in both quarters before hitting some key free throws at the end of the game. So, why did the Raptors lose this game that they SHOULD have won? That's an easy answer: they shot just 39.1% from the court, and hit only 3 3-pointers as well. Golden State however, shot 48% from the court and made 13 3-balls. That's not to say that the Raptors funked the stat sheet completely: they owned a 48-24 points in the paint advantage, a 25-12 fast break points advantage, a 55-40 rebounding edge, and they also sunk and attempted more free throws than Golden State (19 more makes and 20 more attempts). This game was the 3rd one this season where Toronto had a 20 or more advantage in free throw attempts. Other stats include: 31 Warrior assists on 41 shots, and 16 4th-quarter points for bench point guard Jarret Jack. To sum up this game: heartbreaker! The only other tidbit to write home about is that Golden State head coach Don Nelson is now tied with legendary former head coach Lenny Wilkens (who once coached the Raptors during their 2001-2003 seasons) with 1,332 wins. Congratulations Donny; you deserve it! This doesn't help our chances though!
Here are the recaps for the two games: Raptors vs Sixers, Raptors vs Warriors (the recap vs the Warriors has false information on it about Sonny Weems that is actually relevant only to the OT win against Philly; just thought I'd warn you all)
We now come to the end of yet another news-filled blog post. The London Knights are playing TONIGHT at 7 PM in Game 3 of their second-round series vs the Kitchener Rangers at the John Labatt Centre. You can catch the game on AM 1290 CJBK or on their official website. The Raptors meanwhile, play their next game in Cleveland against the Cavaliers tomorrow. The start time is at 7 PM on TSN. I'll catch you all again after the Knights and Raps are finished their games. Until then, be good!
No comments:
Post a Comment