Tip-In, Toronto Raptors Post-Game: Unnecessary Trouble

god we need a trade. this games pissed me off more than usual. i watched this game out of town with an old friend who's not a raptors fan. He laughed at me when i talk playoff contender. "You got a few good young players, thats it. Too many players you'll never see on a championship team." Those were his words and as i watched this game it was hard to dispute them. I've loved this team since day one, but we need an overhaul. Bosh, Bargs, Calderon. Build around that, and upgrade what we got. Please BC!

Nooooooooooo Martin pls what we need to do for the bench and the raptors did this for about 1 minute was have Delfino play pg inside the offensive zone. What!!!!Yes that was the only shot Kapono made and Delfino look to be taking over in the zone then it changed right away. An old problem showed up again rebounds and all summer we have talked that the raptors have not addressed this problem. So far raptors lost
3 to boston
2 to cleveland
2 to suns
1 detroit
1 to orlando
1 portland who is hot

That is all I can remember without going back on stats.
not excately poor teams.

20 offensive rebounds to cavs and no 23

I didn't see the game as I was up at Blue Mountain today on the slopes =) But:

Franchse:
"What I didn’t understand, and of course what no one asked Sam Mitchell post-game, is why the Raptors reverted to single coverage on the sides in the fourth quarter? In the first half Toronto was trapping Lebron and forcing the ball out of his hands but in the fourth there was too much one on one and switching and King James simply had his way on O."

Franchise are you saying these words beacuse trapping him in the first half worked? Even though I thought you mentioned that one of the keys for the raps was to let lebron become a scorer and lock on the shooters outside?

Who knows maybe smitch read your post yesterday during halftime and decided to take your advise =P

(this is not a knock on you btw..im just trying to point out that smitch should stick to what works..even though it was also a good plan to let him be a scorer instead of having a more complete game)

anyways sounds like it was a good game i missed =(

and Marcia, lol I guess you just didn't get the joke from the previous post....lol...

I watched the game live at ACC and beside what Franchise said I noticed the difference between our franchise player and their franchise player in the 4th Q. It was a battle of wills and Bosh lost it completely. In almost all possessions the ball went through Bosh and with only one exception he held it for 5-8 seconds allowing the Cavs' defence to set and making the ball a hot potato for our shooters with a few seconds left in the clock. His decision making down the stretch was atrocious and I don't think it will improve a lot.
From his draft Wade carried his team to a championship and LeBron carried his to NBA finals (so far). I believe Bosh is a very good player however he just doesn't have "it". All is not lost though: with a strong cast around him we may reach NBA finals one day a la Pistons.
The alternative would be to find another franchise player which means probably a different team than the one we have right now. The NBA history shows that champions require a franchise player (sometimes even two) - I don't think we can escape this tradition (well, if we do it then Colangelo will be considered a genius).

Great article as usual!

Still dont'get why everyone is so down on the raptors when we lose.

We are a .500 to slightly above .500 team when we are completely healthy.

We've been missing our second best player for about a month and the big who was supposed to be our third best player looks like he is going to have an offseason.

With the absence of TJ and Andrea flopping for over half the season things actually haven't been that bad.

Andrea will be ok eventually (on the offensive end) however on the defensive end he will struggle for a while however he is not even playing as well as he played last year.

If he can regain his form and we get TJ back no reason why this team can't finish above .500.

If you take the second best player off a lot of the teams they will struggle. Remove david west from the hornets or yao from the rockets....look what happened when the warriors were without s. jackson

The raptors are not at the level of a spurs, suns, mavs where they can have major players injured and still rack up the wins.

They were slightly above mediocore when healthy.....they haven't been healthy at all and are still at .500.

If we are going to get TJ back and there won't be any long term issues I don't see any reason to make major trades.

Either way everyones going to scream for trades when there are 2 or 3 losses and everyone will think we can make it to the finals after 2 or 3 wins...just the way it goes i guess...

I was really disappointed in the way Sam handled things. The Cavs decided to play small ball at the end with Anderson playing the 5 and lebron the 4.

Same decided to matchup and play the cavs game with Bosh at the 5 and Jamario at the 4. He was baited into playing small ball and it was the demise of the raptors.

Rasho was playing very well....who cares if the cavs went small....let them adjust to our big lineup instead of making us adjust to their small lineup.

Mike Brown made a drastic change in the end and was able to get the win while sam didn't make the right adjustments.

A problem I see is that at times especially late in games when players buckle down and play D is that it is difficult to get our offence going as we can't get the movement and penetration.....tj is probably the best at breaking down the dribble and opening up things for his teammates in games like that.

If the raps can hover around .500 until TJ gets back the raps will be in good shape. The nets are picking it up and so are the cavs...if TJ is out for long those two will likely pull ahead of the raps...however the raps need to be right behind them which would put them in 6th.

If you end up 7th or 8th in the east its pretty much the equivalent of not making the playoffs.

Where to begin. First off, what is going on with this team? Its like they have taken on the Toronto Maple Leafs losing trend as of late. Being realistic the Raptors should have come away with at 5 wins on this past road trip. Then Detroit comes to town. Bargnani was smokin' hot and he never takes a bloody shot in the 4th. Instead they went to Bosh. Im starting to nice that the more they go to Bosh, the more they lose. As for todays matchup, well thats just a brain fart. This team needs to ship up or shape out. I've been cheering for this Raptors team since I was a young lad but I am sick of the inconsistency. Its time for a change, cut the crap off the team and bring in people who want to win.

Hot: Anthony Parker in the first 3 quarters, played amazing ball at both ends, efficient and active.

Cold: Anthony Parker in the 4th. He disappeared (at both ends).

Horrible start to January and like adam this loss pisses me. Kapona and Delfino have disappeared. Did not see Bargnani much in second half. Thought when he was on the floor our defence worked well. Sam's quick to yank him.

Disappointing - more disappointed in the fact that this team cannot suddenly make a free throw - missed 9 or 10 if not mistaken. LBJ was horrible in the first half and amazing in the 2nd to actually have a so-so game. This was not Kobe's "81" performance. We make the free throws we win this game..AP played as well as I have ever seen him..so did Moon..however one player gets "baack" and two others go in the tank..

Anyone see BC in the tunnel? Looked like he was going to bite the neck off a pidgeon..

i think the calls for a complete overhaul are a bit overreactive (is that a word? maybe). a coach who can get them to keep their heads in the game would be nice. and a decent big man, which hopefully andrea will become.

as for the overhaul, it's been done before. maybe it's time for a little patience.

Better Looking Aaron ..Why would I imply that management should trade TJ, he is one of the best player we have, what I mean is that he is clear to play and he should get his behind out on the floor and play, the Raptors team cannot win a game like they are now, how are they going to win without their best player, I just think we need some back bone players instead of all these soft player who are not use to play with tough NBA players, BC has to get tougher player all the other teams that are winning has tough and gutsey players the Raptors has a bunch of players that don't know how hussle and play like some of the players we had in the past Oakley for example, we need to knock out some of the oposition player. I am tired of this loosing teams, and even if I choose a nother team I live here I can't avoid seeing them play.

Our second unit has become atrocious. We desperately need an improvement over Juan Brixon. Kap-one is suffering immensely.

Just to touch on the CBC coverage for a moment, I would love to see Elliotte Friedman work for the Raps on a full time basis (even though the angle on the trash talk from the end of the bench was way overblown, Friedman is a walking sports encyclopedia and is a VAST improvement over every single Raps broadcaster, save Jack). At this point I'd rather see that pig tailed tribesman with pink hair in that freakish Wendy's commercial do the Raps post game than PJ and Sherm (every time that commercial comes on, I feel like I'm on a bad acid trip).

For me, this was the most aggravating loss of the season by far. We just got murdered on the glass and it kills me to see opponents grab rebounds out of Bargnani's hands that should easily be his. Did they mention that he had the flu today? The guy cannot catch a break.

Was there. It was weird game, they were playing really well, but they couldn't even get rebounds off the free throws. They had to switch to man because if you remember the last cavs loss, they killed us with the drive and kick to jones and gibson for threes. They started running that exact thing and the wings stayed with the shooters and parker starting playing off lebron to stop the drive. Then lebron makes like 6 long range shots in a row including something like four threes.

I think this team needs to live and die by bargnani right now, just play him.

BetterlookingAaron - Solid point ha ha. I guess in retrospect I should have written in the preview "it's ok to let Lebron get his 50, provided the Raptors aren't clinging on to a 10 point lead and getting killed on the glass..."

Yep, Lebron is pretty good.

Daniel - Yep, really if you redid that draft it would be Lebron and Wade battling for that top spot with others like Mello and CB4 to follow. Those two can simply carry teams and we saw that today.

WTF - I agree with you...while I think Sam's improved as a coach, I still always feel that he's a reactive coach in many ways. He hardly ever seems to force the opponent's coach to make the changes, it's always him. I would have liked to have seen the Raptors go giant too. Andrea was missing shots but I thought he still looked pretty confident out there and as you said AXL, I think this team needs to start living and dying by Bargs flu or no flu. The team really takes on a new dimension with him on the court and I was thinking having him at the 3 and Bosh at the four with maybe Rasho at the 5 and Moon at the 2 would have been interesting. Not sure it would have helped if Jones and Gibson were knocking down shots, might have been a case of pick your poison in the end. But when Lebron got going like that I just felt that Mitchell should have used some college ball double teams etc to try and get the ball out of his hands.

Benji - Same assessment as I had of Parker ha ha, well put. Good to see him being aggressive on offence though. Must have read my post about comparing him to Mo Pete and saw Peterson go off last night against Phoenix!

Finally, Marcia. Yeah, we get it about TJ, let's move on can we? Right now TJ's the one making the decision about when he's ready to come back. So posting a billion times about how much the team misses him isn't going to do anything but get your comments deleted.

Oh, and Sonicsuper, was thinking the same thing about Elliot. Really impressed considering when it was first announced that he'd be doing the basketball coverage I had visions of Rod Black Part II. I'd trade him for any of them except Jack as well.

Come to think of it, if opposing teams are just utilising the same strategy of letting the star of the team let loose while the rest of the team suck against the raps,maybe CB4 is just getting the big games offensively because of this reason. (which would might also explain why our wingmen are struggling.)

The way our team is structured is we have inside presence and tons of good outside shooters. Both need to have a good effective game in order for the team to be successful. It can't be just one or the other (unless we have someone like lebron). So opposing teams realise that taking either the shooters out of the game or bosh out of the game is the way to beat them raps.

So I don't think we can really say that, Bosh taking up the load will result in more raps losses. It's just, we need both bosh and our shooters to have good games. Otherwise, we need that consistent second option this blog always mentions. I don't think you can take three things out at a time (or at least it's a lot harder than just taking out two) IMO, at this point, this second scoring option would be the combination of calderon/ford (while bargs figure out his game). Unfortunately, we're missing one of our two headed monster wich is why it's easier to predict raptors offense right now.

The thing about LBJ is he is much more versitile than Bosh. He can hurt you in many different ways. The raps have a better supporting cast IMO compared to the cavs. But LeBron's Lebron. You can take away his rebounding, his assists, his scoring, he'll still find other ways to hurt you just because he is so multi-faceted.

now coaching..that requires its own separate post...but im not gonna dwell there right now..

on a final note...lol Franchise on your comment for Marcia =P

Dude, euros are not tough players. BC needs to understand this. We need a solid 2-3 man that can get meaty. Too bad Salmons screwed us over. He might have been a good fit right about now.

I was also at the game today....when you look at lebron the guy basically has the size and strength of a powerforward and the speed + shooting of a wing player and the passing, dribbling and court vision of a pg.

Its really scary to think how good he can become if he stays healthy and gets a good supporting cast around him (larry's contract won't allow that for a while though)

Franchise thanks for summing up what i was trying to say....you put it perfectly.

Once again once we get TJ back we will be a team that should get between 45-50 wins. However we still lack the leadership and toughness that championship teams have.

When I was watching the Pistons play the Celtics it was two big boy teams going up against each other.

If TJ is healthy I'm a firm believer that this raps team can go far if and only if they develop some grit and toughness....someone like a KG who is not afraid to step into someones face and talk some trash.

As much as I love Bosh...and as great as I think he can be one thing I have never ever seen him do in 4 years is get into any sort of confrontation with any player. I dont recall any one of the raptor players doing that other than possibly Rasho who laid the Slovanian Slap on Reggie Evans when he tripped up Bosh.

Once we get healthy....get Andrea going (not only offensively but defensively and on the glass) I think the next thing for this team is to address the toughness issue whether it be developing our own players or bringing in someone who can get in the faces of opponents.

L.James shot 80% in the last quarter. Double him and finds others for open dunks. Tough to match 80%.

Raps should bring scottie pippen in as an assistant. Would that not blow moon's mind?

We really need Ford back so that Calderon can get the bench going. I think that's something that's being overlooked because the ball does not move at all when Dixon is on the floor.

Everytime we play the Cav's we lose on some kind of a drama, remember last year the put back by Verajo. Now LBJ was just being his normal superstar cannot be stopped self. My problem with the Raptors is there softness we need a more killer instinct and tougher mentality on the team. The players are too soft, the play soft, they speak soft, outside of Humphries everybody is just too soft. I looked at the Detriot team in one of the huddles on Friday and they just looked so much tougher and meaner that the Raps (ala Billups, Rasheed, Maxiel. The Raps on the other hand looks like a bunch of nice college kids. Remember when the Raps was good, they had, Chris Childs tough player, AD, Charles, Alvin Williams and even Vince had to be tough. We need to get away from these fenese type players and get some bangers on the team. Out rebounded 20-3 on the offensive end is unacceptable and I blame Sam for trying to match the Cav's for going small. Stay with your regular rotations let them match us. I am so frustrated. I remember when the Raps could beat any or the best teams in the NBA even though they weren't making the playoffs. Now the Raps thinks its ok to lose to the elite teams in the league..(its Detriot, its the Spurs, its PHX, its Boston) who cares who it is everybody can be beaten in the NBA you just have to bring your A game. Which is something the Raps have not done once this season. Who is to blame, everybody, the players, the coaches and even the saviour BC. Cleveland is not a better team than the Raps, they just have the best player in the league in LBJ. Take the ball out of his hands like Parker and Moon did in the first half and Raps win. But for some reason in the second half Sam decide to play Lebron one and one, what a stupid move. Raps4Life

Did anyone else catch the comments from Chuck & Leo on how impressed they are with the fans' knowledge of the game? How they've come a long way since the early days? I thought that was funny, considering the commentators, production team, camera men, replay team, etc STILL haven't managed to get their sh*t together after all these years.

Blaxx - yep, that's something I've been talking about the past week or so. Just no movement and players like Kapono need that to get into their rhythm and get open looks. Tomorrow we'll discuss some trade options in terms of shoring up the back-up role because Dixon isn't gettting the job done. He has two assists in the past three games...

Dsl - I've found Chuck to be better this year but yesterday he and Leo were driving me nuts. They kept going on and on about Sam Mitchell maturing off the court and how he never complained about the talent he had even when the team struggled. Right, he's changed so much that the media is still too scared to ask him pertinent questions all the time (the difference between his and Mike Brown's post-game talks were night and day.) And I guess Chuck and Leo conveniently forgot his rants in his first year about Jerome Moiso. Mitchell on a number of occasions bemoaned his lack of rebounders (although rightfully so) and lack of talent and wasn't scared to say it publicly. Between these comments and the whole "the fans are so much smarter now" thing (it's not like the Raptors franchise is only three years old folks) I was ready to switch the audio to the Fan.

Finally, I think that's a great point raps4life - anyone can beat anyone on a given night in the NBA if they bring their A game. Memphis almost beat Boston on the weekend simply by out-playing them for most of the game. This year Toronto doesn't have that killer instinct. I'm going to say that even the team with Mike James from a few seasons ago had it. They didn't have the talent or depth, but they had more fire.

Long time lurker, first time posting. Just some random thoughts;

- bench points disappeared when Jose went to starting. Dixon and Martin can't replace Jose while Jose has replaced TJ. I have been impressed when Delfino plays the point. The man can distribute and has good size for a PG. Forget the Dixon experiment, try the Jackal.

- Man, the Raps need a big man to rebound and block shots. No not Hump - think Dalembert or Nazi Mohammend. Expecting Bosh to carry the offensive load and rebound is asking a lot.

- Why is everyone expecting Bargs to learn post moves. That's not his game - nor is that the game of his most often comparables (Gasol and Dirk). Let him clone their spot up technique.

- Lastly, we need a swingman who can drive to the hoop (everyone knows this already but thought I would add my 2 cents).

Total fantasy trade - Bosh for Iggy and Dalembert. Move Bargs to the PF spot.

Once again Sammy got out coached AGAIN! Man say what you like about rebounds and such (Maceo Baston anyone?) But again Sam took a back seat to superior coaching. Plain and simple.

I'm out

Fresh 1

Clawed...You hit it on the head...leave Bargs alone,and like you mentioned a la Dirk...I stilll want to see us toughen up somewhat at least.

Franchise - thanks for your thoughts. I think we get a whole lot of revisionist history from C & L - they conveniently forget the things that run counter to their points. I suppose some of it is for good reason - I'd imagine that the CBC still feels like it needs to 'sell' the game. I literally picture the CBC's sports dept as a group of white old timers hockey players who have 'meetings' in arena dressing rooms (PS: This is also how I picture the execs at TSN, RSN, The Score, etc), so I seriously doubt that they realize that the team has an established, national, loyal, knowledgeable and very vocal fanbase. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. There must be pressure on C & L to put a positive spin (read: sales pitch) on anything related to the team.

I'm still holding out hope that the production team will learn to skip replays of three point shots in favor of showing live action on fast breaks. I nearly threw the remote at the TV yesterday when they cut to a tight shot of Moon, after his block, WHILE the team was streaking on a fast break. Ughhhh

Was at the game and thinking that the Big 3 for Cleveland: Gibson, James and Varajao (sp?) can just take over games and coordinate the outside shot with rebounding and James dishing to Gibson. I sort of thought that the multiple o feeling of seeing raps ball moevement offense of last year was fleeting joy...

However, they are in almost everygame as a young team and yes, Sam could have stopped the bleeding that breathed life into the Cavs' come back

- after Bargnani lost the 3d rebound Humphreys or Rasho would have had

SUB HIS ASS OFF!

- the rebound differential in that stretch in the 3d is snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and Sam next time will know what to do...

I hope this loss burned into Raptors Nation (and our beloved GM) will spell out the short term cost of games lost due Bargnani developing.

He needs at least 6 or 7 rpg to not be considered a bust in this league. Also, the RAPS desperately need a 2nd scoring option that is not a liability on D.

Lets hope Bargani's Calibre score is indicative of what we will see from him in the future.

Even though I had to physically shake off the pain from Sundays loss before I left the building. I danced with glee wondering what roster moves are possible or what would happen if TJ was back and Garbo heals back to full speed. Dream Free Agent and I would love to see is Iggy coming to T.O.

Last, the Toronto Fans need to step up to give the home crew a lift!!!

What can we do to collaborate to become a potent 6 man/woman? The fans and team have a certain mutual softness that can be overcome when we Believe

If JD takes another shot wearing a Raps jersey, I think I'll send the mob over to break his hands.

Hate to say it (even though it counters my point about giving in too easily), but watching Drew Gooden and Anderson Verajo move Bargs with one hand then grabing the offensive board 4 times got me pissed off. A 7 footer shouldn't be moved off his position that easily - it's not like its Shaq or Zack. bah!

Yay G-men though.

When the Raps have bad games, it is sometimes mentioned how young they are.Interesting that Mike Jordon started his rookie season in 84 and didn't win his first championship until 1991 at the age of 28. Maybe we do expect too much from the young Raps?

Agreed Rt and no shame in losing to a good team. They really just need to play hard, stay loose and have fun and leave the spazzing out to us.

That said it's pretty obvious they hate to lose.

With all the other things we all see wrong with the Rap's a simple/easy make your FREE throws and they win. A back-up PG who can create/score would cure a lot of the problems. Jose can't continue to play 40+ mins.

The difference between a Rap's winning team and a .500
record team @ PG.
Forderon 13.1apg-23.3ppg avg
Calderon 9.9apg-13.5ppg avg
Back-up ??? 3apg -10ppg avg

Is TJ cleared to play or not? First I heard that he is cleared to play and now I am hearing that he is still seeing specialist for opinions on his injury. TJ has to get back on the Team, he is the only Raptor and the smallest one at that, that has any tenacity to his game, and the team does seem a little tougher when TJ is on the court. We are going to burn out Jose if we keep playing the poor kid 40+ min a night. He is playing really well but the team is not winning and all his good play is going to waste. I agree that the Raps should try Delfino at the PG position, he would be a Chauncy Billups big and strong, that would reap havoc on the other pg. Hope sam listens.

There really hasn't been any talk about what his consultations with all those specialists in the US said to TJ. I would imagine he is cleared to play but the decision is his to make. He is supposed to meet with management this week or next to discuss his plans.

just some random stupid information....the person that was chirping at lebron was chris boshs girlfrend

I fear that TJ is not going to be back for a long time. It might be one of those things were he is going to sit out the next 30 games, and decide on whether to return based on what the Raps look like at that point. The problem is that there does not seem to be much out there in the PG department to really trade for. BC is in a spot. There is no point in acquiring a Ridnour and have TJ return eventually as well.
Personally, I like Delfino running the point better than Dixon and don't think that much better is out there, other than Ridnour, who BC was rumoured to have wanted before TJ was traded for.
Mitchell, whom I like, did get caught a few steps behind in the strategy game again.

As far as I am concern they need to get some hard core north american players and trade all those Euro player, they are too soft we need some banger, if we are going to use Euro players we need the Varejo type of player, Bargni is 7 foot and can't even rebound, I have been patient enough with this team.

Franchise says:

"Mike Brown. The Cavs’ coach got the upper hand on Mitchell today"

Think about that statement for a second...Mike Brown ain't exactly Red Auerbach...

Marcia says:

"if we are going to use Euro players we need the Varejo type of player"

I guess I missed the news the day that Brazil was admitted to the European Union...

Fizzle thanks for pointing out who that girl was....she was sort of blocking my view during the last minute of the game but it was already over at that time.

I remember on one play when the raps were fighting for the ball she started screaming and chris grabbed the ball, looked over and gave her the calm down signal with his hand....not to actually calm down but to show that he had the ball and there was nothing to worry about.

Me and my friends were also screaming at lebron and he did look over at us once....we also made fun of Damon's hair....don't know what that guy is thinking sometimes (remember his suit at the allstar game?)

Two games coming up....need to win both...although we are perfect thus far against the 76ers.

TJ is apparently heading to Cleveland to meet with more doctors. I want to know what he keeps asking all these doctors and if he keeps getting different responses. Thus far all i know is that he is pain free, no symptoms, no soreness....

Suns 137 Denver 115 holy what a game!!!!Too bad Grant Hill chose the Suns!

I have had some more time to stew over our last lost.....somethings are very apparant...
We are way too soft
Bosh needs help on the boards
Our forwards must slash to the basket...Parker,Captain Eye Liner,and especially Moon.
Our bench is hurting right now,because we have no one that can get them the ball in a timely manner(Kapone).
Forget about playing Bargs with his back to the basket...ain't working!!!!
We need both TJ and JC to be succesful(I'm not getting into the who is a better starting guard debate).
Maybe I'm or We are a little too optimistic about this team,but the frustrating thing is that at this point without the luxury of being patient ...we are not a top tier team with the big boys as of yet (Detroit,Cleveland,Boston,Orlando) not this year anyway...lets hope we dont take the Sixers to lightly..

Marcia You want Raptors to rebuild from scratch again and go back to 30 wins per season? Trading all the Non US players will result in that.And at what cost to the raptors? Do You have trades in mind (who for who?) or is this just an emotional idea?

Marcia just for fun!
You fill in who U would trade for these players

Andrea Bargnani for__________
Jose Calderon for __________
Carol Delfino for __________
Rasho Nesterovic for ________
Jorge Garbojosa for__________

Rest of the team I believe is Tough Americans lol

Will all your trades salaries work for the Raptors?

anybody else care to fill in the blanks I sure dont have trades for those players that will make the raptors better this year!

Daniel, the main reason I think Bosh is not a "Super DuperStar" is that many Pf's do not have the insane athleticism to command a destructive arsenal of offence. Im not saying all Pf's are not completely dominant (see Garnett) but there are many more superstar wing players that have killer instincts because they were built to do everything on the offensive end of the floor. For instance, shooting threes, slashing and dunking.

I think Marcia ment to say "International Players" and Brazil is colonized by Portugal which would make them a tad Euro...lol. What's up with the basketball media in Toronto, Chris Bosh's girlfried who is a friend of Lebron was trash talking to Lebron from the side lines and the Media thinks that is why Lebron went off...who cares. what do you guys expect the fans to sit in their seats at court side and say nothing because if a player gets mad he will score 50 on the Raptors. BC said it best, if the Raps had rebounded, and score some of their easy looks people wouldn't be worried about who said what to Lebron. On the radio show this morning Dan and Gord was going on and on about let sleeping dogs lie. Trash talking is a part of basketball, its fun for the players and too bad they are not mic so that the fans could enjoy the fun. KG is always talking, he believes in getting into other players head. You can't be playing the game and be scared to talk because it might motivate the player you are playing against. That is a load of crap. TJ and DM was also going at Lebron after he missed the dunk. I bet if Chris Bosh's girlfried was playing she would at least get a rebound. 20-3 on the offensive glass how do you expect to win with those numbers. I wanted the Raps to pick Aldridge as the #1 pick in that draft but I concur with the pic when BC selected Andrea, because I have faith in BC's basketball GM IQ. Its just very tough watching Andrea goes through the learning curve that is the NBA but I know he will be a very good player in this league one day and I hope its with the Raptors. But man he has to learn to go after the ball and don't let people ease him out of his spot with one hand. He has to get stronger and tougher. Everyone thinks the Raps now have a favourable part of their schedule but as we can clearly see home court does not gaurantee a W. The team has to go out and compete and beat the other team. The Raps fans is not the 6th man. They are way too quiet, especially when the team is down or when another team is making a run. The fans just sits and said "here we go again" we need to take some lessons from the Sacramento fans. Come on Raptor fans lets cheer on our team, we have one of the highest attendance in the league, lets act like it. Raps4Life