The Raptors showed some promise tonight in blowing out the Nets to cancel out the loss from last week. An element of revenge was in the air too as it officially knocked the Nets out of the playoff picture. More importantly the win combined with Indiana’s triumph over Philadelphia means the Raptors are tied for the sixth spot with the 76ers and hold the tie-breaker. This win went some ways in trying to wipe the malaise thats been surrounding the Raptors of late but I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as I should and the reason is Chuck Swirsky. I hate to bring up this guy up in the first paragraph but he’s making it very hard for me to watch the Raptors. Swirsky calling for a hard foul on Vince Carter on a drive to the rim where Bosh was trying to draw the charge was a little nauseating, plus his constant hyperbole, slanted analysis, overreactions and just about everything else makes for a sour broadcast. Maybe I’m overreacting but nothing about him strikes a good chord with me, anyway, enough about him.

The Raptors started very slowly on offense and Vince started hot, some of the same old problems were starting to appear again - no ball movement, settling for perimeter shots, allowing Devin Harris to penetrate, weak close-outs etc. This translated into a 30-18 deficit at the end of the first quarter, not the start the Raptors were wanting after Bosh’s “players and fans should step up” pep talk. Jose Calderon came off the bench and was getting burned by Harris just like TJ. The pick ‘n roll defense was atrocious and Harris was doing a road-runner impersonation on every play. It didn’t look good.

Mitchell’s second quarter timeout initiated a spark of good defense, especially in the form of Calderon tightening up his man-D on Harris and knocking down a jumpers on the other end. Carlos Delfino had his break out game dropping 4 threes in the second quarter (which means he’ll be off for the next 5). The Raps went on a 12-2 run and shaved the 12 point deficit down to 2 at the half. For the second game in a row the PG play was stellar, TJ Ford picked it up in the third quarter where Calderon had left off (tweaked ankle). He was taking Harris to school from every spot on the court and the latter seemed helpless. When TJ gets in the lane and has his wits about him, he can demolish a defense from the inside-out and the Nets saw that first hand - 14/8 and 0 turnovers from TJ. Calderon with 11/10 and 0 turnovers, can’t ask for much more than that.

Chris Bosh is trying hard to walk the walk and was the only Raptor who came out with a sense of urgency which is not surprising. The man might seem like a deer caught in headlights in the fourth quarter at times but it’s hard to miss how excited he is about the time of the year. He understands what fans want to see from the team and is more than willing to reciprocate:

“No matter what happened, if I played a good game or a bad game, you were going to be able to tell that I tried my best, and sometimes that’s all people want to see. They want to see you trying to get every loose ball, rebounding the basketball. Sometimes a shot may not fall, but if they see the effort is there as opposed to lagging around and being lazy, they can appreciate that.”

If the Raptors want to have a shot against Orlando, its imperative that one of Kapono/Delfino start hitting some threes. Delfino was on tonight but who knows how long that’ll last. Jason Kapono was a miserable 0-1 for 0 points and 3 fouls in 17 minutes. Leave the offense aside, as soon as he was in the game Richard Jefferson and Stromile Swift made it a point to attack him, something you’ll see again in either of the Orlando or Detroit matchups. My point? Kapono will be a non-factor in the playoffs.

14 points and 6 rebounds for Andrea Bargnani who looked somewhat interested in going to the rim today, started off missing jumpshots but slowly took his game to the rim. Jack Armstrong’s got his game figured out, and I paraphrase: He’s got a chance to be a good player in this league, its a question of tightening up his offensive game, getting his confidence up and playing the game the right way. Not exactly a revelation but correct analysis nonetheless.

Looking ahead to the playoffs, he could be the difference between a series won and a series lost. You can shut down Jason Kapono, you can double Chris Bosh, you can contain Anthony Parker but if Bargnani seriously decides to be a factor, he has the ability to have a lasting impact in a 7-game series. If he plays like the way he’s been playing for 80% of the season, we’ll struggle, but if he can play inside-out, hit the offensive glass, try to take laterally slower players off the dribble, we might have a chance.

Getting back to the game, its worthwhile to mention the Raptors defense again. There were a lot of deflections leading to steals, some collapsing paint defense, Rasho holding his ground against their guards, great rebounding (47-39) and most importantly playing with a sense of pride. Mitchell summed it up after the game:

“We can’t play much better defence than we did from the second quarter on”

Defense is a contagious thing, when one player starts playing it they all join in and invariably it helps your offense because you’re playing with the energy that you got from the previous stop.

Tonight was an example of what is needed at the minimum for us to win a few playoff games.

Liners:

• Vince Carter’s charge on Jason Kapono was the worst call of the season.
• Andrea Bargnani getting rejected by the rim was awkward.
• Every time I see VC, I get nostalgic. Sue me.
• Richard Jefferson has a miserable game and looked disinterested, I’m used to seeing him kill us so often that it was fun to see him go 4-13 for a change.
• The fans did their part, the team did their part.
• Covered some Colangelo and Bosh issues earlier in the day.
• We can’t expect to win games after first quarters like that.
• Some nice Nets coverage.
• Top Rap: Carlos Delfino.

We can fill an encyclopedia with the problems of this team but Bryan Colangelo is correct in pointing out that that that kind of talk is best left for the summer. We got some meaningful basketball games coming up and the media, players and fans should be focused on that instead of pure speculation. Of course this won’t stop anyone from questioning things like the Kapono signing after he registers another 1-3FG. Colangelo sees the issues and will apply a fix, we might disagree with the fix but he’ll definitely be applying one:

“Are we disappointed? Yes, I think that’s the safest way to say it and we will make the necessary adjustments at the appropriate time. With four games to go in preparation for a playoff, we can speculate all we want on what needs to be done. But, right now, we would rather focus on what needs to be done to win beginning tonight.”

He’s not a fool and can’t miss the defensive and offensive issues with this team. Summertime is cleanup time. I like the swipe he took at Mitchell by saying that he’s underutilized some of the players (Kapono!!) this season:

“We have arguably a more talented team than last year, we have arguably under-utilized some of that talent to some extent this year at various points throughout the year.”

Wonder how Sam feels about that?

So Chris Bosh comes out with a video to offset some of the stir he caused by saying that the ACC was like a “funeral”. He’s saying how he wants the fans to be loud and the ACC to be the hardest place for opponents to play. The fans have always been loud, he picks out the stretch where the team is playing like shit and decides to call out the fans because they’re not pumped up and excited about losing to NJ, Atlanta, Charlotte and just finished seeing CV blow up. You can question a lot of things about Raptor fans but they do a damn good job of being loud in the arena. Bosh and his mates needs to step up first and then ask the fans to do their part, it doesn’t work the other way around.

Colangelo’s claiming that Andrea Bargnani is the source of interest of every trade call he receives. That’s because teams think they’ll be getting him for 20 cents on the dollar, not because he’s a great talent. There might be many teams who are probably low-balling Colangelo with draft pick and fringe player offers for Bargnani hoping that this season is nothing but an anomaly. This is exactly what was happening to Joe Dumars when Darko was struggling. It’s hardly an endorsement of Bargnani as a player but an acknowledgment that hidden deep down in his Italian heart, there might be a spark that might be able to channel his ability into basketball greatness.

Vince Carter’s apparently playing in the game tonight which should always help the noise level that Bosh has been complaining about. (Check out the pic of the girl guy girl tranny VC is with at Dinosty). For what its worth the season series is also on the line here and its always nice to win them against divisional teams. The Nets are coming off a woeful 1-20 fourth quarter against Cleveland which made Devin Harris finally realize that he’s on a team that’s a far cry from the Dallas Mavericks.

Michael Grange is revisiting the Charlie V for TJ Ford trade. Perhaps prematurely? As I said after the Bucks game, both have strengths, both have weaknesses and they’re pretty much even. At the time we needed a starting point guard and already had a PF in Chris Bosh. Charlie V’s defense at the SF position was brutal and that was the only position he could play in Toronto and was the reason he was shipped out.

Go Raps.