3 In the Key – Toronto Raptors Game Day Preview vs. Wizards

"I’m not sure I can take many more of these "we let an easily winnable game get away" type affairs."

Amen Brother Howland !

Another thing which I just realized I didn't touch on - is that this team needs to start gelling at both ends and playing with some consistency. If they want to be the dark horse in the playoffs that many are predicting them to be:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=Roundtable-East

then they need to get it in gear. Performances like last week's fiascos against the Bobcats and Pacers are going to mean another first round exit...

My apologies
meant - Brother Franchise

I must be falling behind with my raptors nicknames, but who's gangsta beaker?

Timepants...it's Brezec ("Beaker" for his resemblance to the Muppets character and "Gangsta" for his apparently rap music influenced language skills).

Grange just reported that Bosh is out and Bargs is in for tonight.

Franchise: For input from Michael Grange on Feschuk's imaginative journalism, see his blog From Deep, on Shoot around lowdown, and article from end of Feb on the subject.

Franchise - nice call on Feschuk. Question: how does he still manage to be part of the Rap's press crew after all the dirt he throws at them every week? I can't imagine how awkward it would be to have someone like him on flights to other cities after he just finished trashing your team in the paper. Does the guy even like basketball?!

Thanks for the headz up John 19 - missed the afternoon update when I posted this piece. I love that Grange is all over the "case of the malcontent point guard..."

Interesting report on Bosh too...I said this yesterday but not having CB4 on the road trip is a scary thought and we might see this team back at the ACC with a .500 record when all is said and done. This group needs to bond in his absence like they did around Christmas last year.

BFet - Here's the link to the Grange piece: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/wbbasketball

It doesn't exactly say that Feschuk is stirring the pot, but it does make you wonder why Feschuk is working at the Toronto Star and not "The Star" or "US Magazine." Wouldn't he have more fun writing suggestive articles about Britney and co?

Franchise: For another perspective on L'affaire TJ see Eric Smiths blog @ Fan590

Thanks, John19. I think that even though TJ has publicly stated he's ok with coming off the bench for the good of the team, his play, his demeanor, his on-court facial expressions and body language all dictate that his ego is taking a bruising.

One could take the view that makes him a competitor and gives him a nasty fiery edge to help him excel. I think it makes him selfish.

In fact, I'll even go so far as saying this: TJ Ford will never be a starting PG for a championship team. And if he makes me eat my words, I'll become a roofer with DayOner.

TJ for Roger Mason Jr. Straight up. Please!!!!

TJ Ford is f**king garbage.

In 3 minutes he personally blew a 10 point lead. I say someone should go down to the ACC and knock him out for the rest of the season.

This is my last post this year, this team sucks from top to bottom, with Mitchell right out front--30 seconds left and he "designs" a play that gets Parker (shooting 4-14 at this point) an impossible turnaround jumper???????? What absolute garbage. This team can go to hell.

See you in 2008-09!

Poor Marcia's TJ did not play much except durning a 14-0 Washington run at beginning of the 4th and blames it on JC? That makes sense

WOW! Between Smitch's Subs, AB/Jose/Moon On Defense, Rebounding, Tj Ford, Chuckfino, Rod Black ("Sam Mitchell wants to run a high screen and roll" lol), and Chuck and Leo. This Team is beyond frustrating/disappointing to watch. I Dont even wanna watch them on the west coast trip. They'll get kill. Here's hoping washington gets it together and goes on a winning streak cuz we sure as hell ain't. Thank GODJESUSALLAH that we have parker/rasho, the only two guys that are steady. Parker misses a 3, realizes he should go to the hole and DOES IT on the next play for a foul. Rasho Yells at AB for switching. I Love them both. Oh yeah i dont think the tj haters need to say anything. The 2nd Quarter and beginning of the 4th say everything. He may be worse than Darrick right now. And this is the time we need him the most. Remember a couple weeks ago when everybody was saying perfect timing with tj comin back, and ab showing some signs of getting out of a slump? Everybody Jinxed it.

End Rant

Fantastic heart-pounding game, too bad we didn't get the win after all that gutsy play. I think these guys still have it in them, but we're just too weak defensively at the sf/sg positions. Moon's learning, but not fast enough for me. Wish we still had mo pete to round out that spot.

Gotta feel for tj, a couple of nice drives, right at the bucket and the ball doesn't drop. Even four more points would have redeemed him considerably.

Super clutch bargs, hitting the free throws to take it to ot. The drive in ot was the right idea, just barely spun off. The idea that those last plays need to be drives to the hoop is sinking in for bargs, wish others would clue in. Also, the alley oop to moon should have been a shooting foul!!!

Jus played the 4th/ot again, and still have no idea why smitch to rasho out. i understand haywood was playing ok but rasho was keeping this team together. the jose/ap/delfino/moon/ab line up is horrible on defense. nobody block shots, 2 small/soft 2 rebound. and nobody was hitting shots anyway (besides ab in the 1st and jose in the 3rd). KEEP RASHO IN!!!!!!!!!!
mitchell will have to play rasho 30+ minutes in the playoffs to have any chance of winning against orl/lebron

Sho..you are right, Rasho and the new guy should have been in the game together both of them are good rebounder, I like Mitchell but he needs to change the line up we need guys that are not afraid to rebound.

Very tough to win in the NBA when you only shoot 39%.
Calderon, Bargnani, Rasho & Delfino played very well, the others not so well. The bench players led by TJ did not get the job done, being out scored 44 to 24 by the Wiz bench and out rebounded 15 to 5. Tough loss, but thats the NBA !!!

For another update on L'affaire TJ, check out Granges blog From Deep @ the Globe.

Yep - dropping the Raps from your PVR after another frustrating loss is understandable...no reason to lose this one, and I too have NO IDEA why Rasho wasn't in to rebound at the end of the game. I mean, I'm listening to Mitchell right now saying "we didn't get rebounds at key points in the game..." Well...having Andrea on the court as your only big, isn't exaclty doing you any favours.

As for TJ, what can you say - Howland is going to discuss tomorrow but we watched this one together before heading out tonight and counted the possesions he had before he passed the ball...it wasn't pretty. Kudos to Sam for giving him the quick hook but you've gotta wonder if a quicker hook wouldn't have been even better. Do we actually miss Juan Dixon all of a sudden?????

Dixon has to be loving Detroit. Can't get to play very often in Toronto (guess line up too tough to crack) and is playing in Detroit and playing well. As backup PG no less

Marcia,

Calderon: 9 assists, 3 turnovers
TJ: 1 assist, 2 turnovers

...need I say more...oh, and Jose scored 20 points to TJ's 2.

I'm sure TJ is still your starting point guard.

You really should get used to the idea that Toronto has a lot of Euros, I mean if it's your team and all.

I do agree with your point though, that Rasho and Brezec should have been on the court together (especially when they were nursing that 2 point lead in OT and couldn't get the offensive board). It is nice to see that Rasho can get double-digit rebounds with significant minutes. Brezec brings an important element that overall these Raps lack...ENERGY!

Is there some sort of equation by which those who are still willing to support TJ are working with when deciding that he has not done enough dumb #^$& to deserve being called out, simply because he has "so much potential". This is a league where you sink or swim on most teams. Really, how much stupidity and arrogance do we put up with from a player not named Kobe. I really wish people would stop throwing in the disclaimer of "TJ still has the speed to break down anybody in the league and brings an edge to the Raps line-up" when assessing another bonehead move on his part. We all know this. The question is whether he can bring that on a nightly basis, and whether he has more than this to offer. Personally, I am not sure we are ever going to get more than brief glimpses of TJ playing the PG position effectively.

Said it once I'll say it again.

With Bosh we're average, without him we're terrible.

We were without him yesterday so we were terrible...we played a terrible team and it went to the wire. Two terrible teams should take the game down to the wire and thats what happened.

Remember the raps lost to this exact same team WITH BOSH.

However all is not lost....Jose seems to be out of that mini 3 game funk. Andrea is getting an increased role and responding.

We're not competing for a championships focus...winning is nice but we're still developing our young talent.

Calderon is 25, bosh is 23, tj is 24 and andrea is 22. Give it a couple years...probably at least another 3 with our core and then we'll be a good team.

Although I'm not convinced TJ is part of this core as much now. We're really going to need TJ to improve....so we can move him.

Kopono also has to go, he's just not helping the team...although his contract isn't great i'm sure a lot of teams would be interested in his services.

It'll be interesting to see how Andrea continues to play. Remember early in the season Bosh went down and that was the exact time Andrea played his basketball. If he continues to do so there will be questions in regards to Mitchell's ability to have the two guys clicking at the same time on the court.

That being said I'm still hoping TJ can pick things up. He has just as big a heart as anyone in the NBA and has constantly gone out there are proved people wrong (height, spine problem, strength). However it seems that big heart of his is hurting him a bit now. Sometimes your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness i guess....

whops replace the focus with folks...my bad

Oh one more stat for you guys in regards to last nights game

Jose: +10
TJ: -14

people are talking about tj's game like it's any different from before he was injured. if guys don't run with him, and present themselves for the ball at the right moment, he works the dribble and takes a shot. If there's an argument for him starting, it's that the starters are better at doing that but really only CB4 and kapono have a knack for that. Delfinos game I'm starting to hate and moon, ugh, he just doesn't know how to play offensively.

But at the end of the day, there's a reason seeds 3 through 6 are within a few games of each other and it's because they're all pretty much equal teams. Differently built, but really not much better or worse at this point. There's work yet to be done.

That was possibly one of the worst posts I've ever read.

One USA doesn't recognize players from Europe? Then why was the finals mvp from Europe and why was the regular season mvp from Europe? (Also note runner up for ROY was Euro)

You said the raps are a bunch of Euro's who dont rebound execpt rasho and primoz. So lets analyze the raps roster....

The roster euros are:

Garbo - injured although was a leader fro rookies last year in rebounding

Bargnani - Terrible rebounder

Jose a pg grabs 3.1 rebounds....

Deron williams, nate robinson, iverson, chauncy billups, tj ford, tony parker, nash, kirk hinirich, mike bibby all grab 3 or so rebounds a game. Obviously Jose isn't the best rebounding PG but he's certainly average.

So that sums up the raps euro players.

Garbo was good, Jose average, Andrea bad.

Thats 3....and yet you claim the raps roster is full of Euro's who can't rebound (minus rasho and primo)...nice one

Does it really matter what analysts say? Listen to the analysts every year you'll hear about how the knicks made big moves and this will be the year they make a push for the playoffs.

And then you say ESPN says toronto is a picnic team. Then why did Hollinger consistantly have the raps ranked in the top 8 before bosh went down? Why did he call them a dark horse in the east playoffs?

The raps losing in the first round wouldn't suprise me. However its called rebuilding...have some patience. Teams aren't giving away 7 footers who are dominant rebounders.

Its easy to pick faults with a team....any moron can do that...however fixing them and developing a terrible team is a much more difficult process. Look how long ATL has struggled for, look at the clippers, the knicks, the wolves, memphis, the bucks, the bobcats.

The raps were a bottom team and in two years have moved into the middle of the pack which is amazing.

Still don't understand why i bothered responding to such an ignorant post

Not too frustrated by last noghts loss. Thought we played tough, for the most part. To be honest Washington has won my respect, the few times I've seen them.
I too sympathize with TJ, his play has not been good lately. He is better than what we have seen the past few games. His troubles are mental and lets hope he works them out soon. We need all cylinders clicking come playoffs.
Few weeks ago someone stated that as long as Bargnani plays well, he's OK with a loss. Thats sorta how I feel right now. I like the agressiveness he is showing right now. At least it's shut up BargBust(although his next bad game, he'll be back).

Marcia...I mean Patty...you are soooo redundant!

Did Marcia...I mean Patty just get deleted?

Did Marcia...I mean Patty just get deleted?