Raptors Rapid Recap - Toronto 101 - Houston 88

by RaptorsHQ - Franchise on Dec 13, 2009 3:40 PM EST Comment 13 comments

-Best game of the year so far by the Toronto Raptors? It's quite possible as Toronto pulled off a surprising win this afternoon against a tough Houston squad using some smothering defense.

-How good was the D? The Raps held the Rockets to only 88 points on 37 per cent shooting. Houston helped matters by having an atrocious shooting day from downtown (13 per cent) and outside of the interior of Carl Landry and Luis Scola (46 of the team's 88 points), didn't get much of a boost from their perimeter players.

-In fact, in a very strange incident, wing Trevor Ariza was tossed in the third quarter for throwing an elbow at the back of DeMar DeRozan's head. From the replays, it was hard to tell if it was intentional or simply a reactionary play after DeRozan stole the ball from him and started the fast break. It wouldn't be surprising though to see a suspension come from Ariza's actions.

-But back to Toronto here. Chris Bosh led the way again with 27 points but he finally got some great balance on O from the rest of his teammates. Hedo Turkoglu busted out of his slump with 23 points, Andrea Bargnani had an efficient 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Sonny Weems even chipped in 11 off the pine.

-The player of the game though was Jarrett Jack, who was masterful at both ends of the court finishing with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. He led the charge in terms of intensity and gave the team a huge boost of grit and toughness enabling them to hold the lead for the game's duration.

-The other person on the Raps who deserves major recognition is Jay Triano. Triano finally saw the light in regards to playing TO's most effective players and it resulted more minutes for the likes of Weems and Mensah-Bonsu, and less for players like Belinelli and Wright (who didn't get off the pine.)

-We'll break down this win further in the morning but safe to say it was a biggie. Toronto desperately needed to get a W before heading to Miami and Orlando and now have some momentum going into those two tough matches.

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good game by raptors and im impressed with hedo in this game we need to see more of tht from him

by raptors_run_the_show on Dec 13, 2009 3:48 PM EST reply actions

Jack, Weems and Trades

is making a case to remain as the starting PG. He turns the ball over alot but makes up for it with his toughness and leadership. I think when JC comes back he’ll have to fight his way back into the line up.

Weems gave us some good mins as well; he looks like he might be useful at times.

With Jack performing like he is would anyone do this trade:

Calderon & Wright
for
S. Blake & M. Webster

Blake expires after this season and Webster becomes a reliable SG/SF coming off the bench who is also good enough to start if necessary (currently starts for Portland)

Portland does this because it allows them to go ahead and trade Miller while still having a good PG in Calderon to start which also gives Bayless his chance at regular minutes.

by Member29 on Dec 13, 2009 4:00 PM EST reply actions

not sure

if you have to be happy Marco got limited minutes

by renato on Dec 13, 2009 4:40 PM EST reply actions

He’ s just not playing well. Not as bad as Wright, but lately I just haven’t found that Marco has earned his minutes.

by RaptorsHQ - Franchise on Dec 13, 2009 5:47 PM EST up reply actions

Missed the first quarter

Thought it was a 1 PM start.

Nice win but think we faced a tired Rockets squad.

We had plenty of opportunities to blow the lead, kinda surprised we didn’t.

by Tinmann on Dec 13, 2009 5:23 PM EST reply actions

I was too but the club just had a different feel to it today, right from the outset in fact. Rockets did seem tired, but the Raps did a good job of forcing them into some tough shots as well.

We’ll see if this sort of effort shows up in Florida…

by RaptorsHQ - Franchise on Dec 13, 2009 5:46 PM EST up reply actions

Agreed that Rockets

didnt bring their stuff today. I want to see us win a game against a good team that brought their A game.

by Member29 on Dec 13, 2009 6:35 PM EST up reply actions

At this point we should be happy to see them win any game, against anyone, for any reason, as long as they win. In the NBA no one cares who or why, only how many.

by Johnn19 on Dec 13, 2009 8:30 PM EST up reply actions

Disagree. They’ve already played two eastern conference teams… And other Western Conference teams have taken it to the Raptors on Sundays already

Kinnon "Vicious D" Yee
Author - RaptorsHQ.com Twitter @RapHQVicious

by Raptors HQ - Vicious D on Dec 13, 2009 9:57 PM EST up reply actions

I don't believe it

Our big free agent signing decided to surpass the 20-point mark for once this season. Way to go ~~Mr. 4th Quarter~~ Hedo!

by RaptorsHQ - Defensive Stance on Dec 13, 2009 9:36 PM EST reply actions

Have you noticed?

Almost every game the Raptors win is labelled as the best game of the year. To the untrained eye this would let people believe there is a fantastic progression going on……

by renato on Dec 14, 2009 2:55 AM EST reply actions

I dunno..

if each subsequent win appears to be a better win than the previous one, then it’s appropriate to say that each win is labelled as their best game of the year at the moment in the season. I guess ppl would believe there was a fantastic progression going on, only if they ignored the losses in between…

by gdon18 on Dec 14, 2009 3:22 AM EST up reply actions

Everyone needs to calm down a little as the Raptors are really pretty much on pace for what they should be at this stage of the season….. A work in progress. It takes time to work out rotations, minutes etc on a team made up of 12 new players (for all intents and purposes). Wins are being hyped a little too much as the Raps continue to beat teams they should lose to and lose to teams they should beat and this is nothing new in mediocre Raptor land. I would like to see a trade though as I agree that getting a solid wing player would really boast this team. Calderon does have value still and trading him while he still does would be wise (especially if we can get a solid backup PG in the deal). I am not convinced that Jack will continue to play solid minutes as the starter forever but he has shown in the past that he can do it so maybe he should get a run.

by McGateway on Dec 14, 2009 7:46 AM EST reply actions