Media Watch for March 28, 2006

With Chris Bosh listed as day-to-day Toronto has gone out and recruited some 10-day contract help signing forward James Lang. The 6-10 Lang was drafted in 2003 by the New Orleans Hornets in the second round after being an early entrant out of Central Park Christian High School. While he's been more of a blip on the NBA radar since that time, Toronto needs all the help it can get up front and at close to 300 pounds, Lang could see some action, particularly against Shaq tomorrow night.

It's however still uncertain whether or not Chris Bosh will play against the Heat tomorrow night as he's still getting various opinions on his injured thumb. If Bosh is a no-go, they'll definitely need another big night from Charlie Villanueva to stay in contention.

In any event, here's to hoping the Raptors don't head into another overtime period for the rest of the season. Toronto is one and eight in games decided in extra sessions and coach Sam Mitchell continues to blame inexperience for this record. Broken plays, shots taken at inopportune times, bad fouls, unforced turnovers...fans have seen them all and Mitchell says that his young club sometimes tries to makeup for one error in OT with a quick score resulting in more miscues in the end.

These same miscues which resulted in the over-time loss to Milwaukee dropped Toronto down a couple spots on ESPN.com's Power Rankings released yesterday. However as the team dropped, Charlie Villanueva's stock went up on NBA.com's rookie rankings and he continues to trail only Chris Paul in their "Road to the Rookie of the Year" race. While it appears that Paul has had the trophy under wraps for quite some time, New Orleans' recent slide and continued performances from CV Smooth like the one against Milwaukee may make things a bit more interesting for voters.

FRANCHISE