Yes...back with another blog posting. I am here to report the happy news of the Raptors winning their SECOND STRAIGHT game for the first time this season. This win kicked off a 3-game homestand for the team which also features opponents such as the All-Star cast of the Boston Celtics (Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Shaquille O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal, Rajan Rondo) and the lowly Allen Iverson-less cast of the Philadelphia 76ers. (This will be a rematch of the victory that T.O. pulled out in the previous game before last night's win. Allen Iverson, by the way, is no longer playing in the NBA. He is playing for a team in Turkey, overseas in Europe.) First things first though...the victory vs the Houston Rockets. The final score was 106-96 with an impressive 46 of the Raptors points delivered by the bench (Linus Kleiza, Amir Johnson, Jose Calderon and Australian import David Anderson). This game featured a lot of lead changes in the middle two quarters and scoring runs by both teams (Houston would be up by 5 points with Toronto later taking the lead, etc). In the 4th quarter however, the Raptors got down to business: limiting turnovers, getting to the free throw line, and creating a 91-81 lead for themselves with just 5:27 left in the game. However, the Rockets weren't dead yet, putting up a 13-7 run which cut Toronto's lead to 98-94. Both clubs struggled to score for a minute and then Jose Calderon cam to the rescue for the Raptors, putting in a much-needed layup to increase the lead to 100-94. After that, it was all left up to Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems to seal the deal. Amir blocked a Kyle Lowry shot attempt which sparked a fast break dunk by Sonny. This left 34 seconds left of playing time and no chance for Houston to spoil Toronto's victorious performance. The star of the game was Andrea Bargnani with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Lastly, some numbers are in order here:
- Raptors have now won 4 straight games vs the Rockets at the Air Canada Centre
- Raptors only committed 1 turnover in the 4th quarter
- Raptors attempted no free throws in 1st half; promptly attempted 30 in 2nd half
Here's the game recap for the victory vs the Rockets.
Now Toronto has to play against the aforementioned Boston Celtics on Sunday at 1 PM on Sportsnet. Be sure to tune in to see if the team can stretch the win streak to 3 in a row.
Finally, some thoughts on the London Knights. Last night they hosted the Windsor Spitfires at the John Labatt Centre and promptly lost the game, 7-3. Here's the recap for this pathetic game: Knights 3, Spitfires 7 - Friday November 19, 2010 Let's hope they can do better tonight against the Saginaw Spirit on the road. The game time is at 7 PM.
That's it for this edition of the Sports Bag. Stay tuned for the blogging of tonight's Knights game later on. Have a nice day!
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