Arsenalist

So much for those early afternoon starts giving the Raptors a decided advantage over any opposition playing them on a Sunday afternoon. This game technically started at 12PM considering DST but I guess the Sonics weren’t partying out last night since they came to play. Ray Allen was in the gym at 8AM working on his jumper - that’s called commitment. Thanks to an Andrea Bargnani four point play we avoided defeat in front of a sellout crowd on Family Day at the ACC. Situation: Raptors down two, last chance to tie the game and Ford throws up a WILD shot, possibly the wildest shot of his career when it comes to game-on-the-line situations, it’s an airball, Bosh rebounds, goes up very weak and gets rightfully swatted away. Mad scramble and Ford earns a partial reprieve and finds Bargnani - Bang!

Of course the Sonics came back to tie the game thanks to Ray Allen grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring at the buzzer, but they eventually succumbed to TJ Ford in overtime. TJ Ford had success with the mid-range jumper and there were only a couple instances in the game where you could say he was ‘out of control’. Gotta love the Raptors when they’re just about to break your heart but pull through. We got a full five game lead on New Jersey in the division and a semi-big game coming up with the Knicks on Wednesday after a chance for revenge against the Bucks tomorrow.

Seattle was always in this game, if anything, it was the Raptors who had to stay in it to have a chance to win it. That third quarter ending where the Raptors and TJ Ford went through a horrible 3 minute spell and went down 9 didn’t come back to haunt them. I can tell you the in-game betting on all the major books tilted in Seattle’s favor after that stretch. Raps got slaughtered on the boards 52-34 and the Sonics took 18 more shots than the Raptors but still managed to lose. If it weren’t for the Raptors shooting 56% for the entire game, this would’ve been a blowout. Basketball is a weird game where the numbers sometimes just don’t add up.

Anthony Parker had a quiet 11 points. He missed some jumpers that you expect him to drain including an airball three late in the fourth. Good to see Parker back, he IS the Raptors mid-range game. I was surprised to see Juan Dixon on Ray Allen late in the game, Dixon is giving up a serious height advantage to a shooter that needs millimeters of space to get his shot off. Interesting choice by Sam Mitchell given that Ray Allen was having a monster game. Luke Ridnour was out and Earl Watson got the call but he was just terrible. If he had just played a half-decent game, the Sonics would’ve won this but he went 3-15 FG with 3 TO.

Chris Bosh had 27 on 9-15 FG but some of those shots were just long jumpers where he appeared to settle for the shot, but when you hit two of those jumpers in overtime, nobody will complain. TJ Ford would have become the scapegoat if the Raptors hadn’t pulled through. His crazy airball with the Raptors down by two in regulation would’ve added to the TJ lore, it was the third time this season he’s thrown up a horrible shot with the game on the line. But when you get reprieved by a four point play, nobody talks about the airball.

Here’s the Andrea Bargnani 4-point play to give the Raptors the lead down the stretch:

A broken play bails the Raptors out, great stuff from the ACC.  Check out the highlights from this game in the RealGM thread.  The YouTube links for the highlights are on page 5.