Raps season could end earlier than expected

Ok...no need to hit the panic button, but the best case scenario for this team is that it makes a visit to the first round of the playoffs and before they can blink, they will be watching the playoffs from the outside...like the other lottery teams.

Let's breakdown the Raps schedule over the remaining 20 plus games

Sun 28	@ Oklahoma City	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
March	Opponent	Time			Radio
Mon 01	@ Houston	8:30pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Fri 05	vs New York	7:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Sun 07	vs Philadelphia	12:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Tue 09	@ LA Lakers	10:30pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Wed 10	@ Sacramento	10:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Sat 13	@ Golden State	10:30pm		W/L split	FAN590 Radio
Sun 14	@ Portland	9:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Wed 17	vs Atlanta	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Fri 19	vs Oklahoma City	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Sat 20	@ New Jersey	7:30pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Mon 22	@ Minnesota	8:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Wed 24	vs Utah	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Fri 26	vs Denver	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Sun 28	@ Miami	6:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Mon 29	@ Charlotte	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Wed 31	vs LA Clippers	7:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
April	Opponent	Time			Radio
Sat 03	@ Philadelphia	1:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Sun 04	vs Golden State	6:00pm		W.L split	FAN590 Radio
Tue 06	@ Cleveland	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Wed 07	vs Boston	7:00pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Fri 09	@ Atlanta	7:30pm		L	FAN590 Radio
Sun 11	vs Chicago	6:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Mon 12	@ Detroit	7:30pm		W	FAN590 Radio
Wed 14	vs New York	8:00pm		W	FAN590 Radio

So...that's 11 WINS and 14 LOSSES,

Considering their easy schedule post December and their difficulty schedule as teams began to make a run over the last quarter of the season, the will probably finish with a record of:

31 WINS (11 WINS) + 26 LOSSES (14 LOSSES) = 42 WINS AND 40 LOSSES after 82 games.

Let's be serious...for all of those who were predicting that this team was going to wins 45 plus games this year, I really don't think that was a fair assessment.  In fact, given their run post December and relatively injury free season this team has had, I think 42 wins will be quite an acheivement.  What I saying is that this team has overacheived.  I know the argument people are going to use...the injury or the lack of production from big off season signing (Mr Hedo), but each end every team goes through injuries during the course of the year every single team heading into the playoffs have had to deal with their share of injury (Laker- Bryant, Mavs - Howard pre-trade, Cleveland - Oneal, Miami - Wade...and on and on). 

As for Toronto, the production that they got from their replacements was more than they could have asked for.  In fact, one could argue that had Calderon not been injured, the chemistry of the current five players without Calderon probably wouldn't have been discovered.  Who knows how long Calderon would have run this team into the ground.  I am not trying to be harsh on Jose...I love his play, but the reality is that he has not been the same player since we had TJ Ford in the mix.  May be he's the type of player that plays well when he's not expected to play 35 minutes?  As for Reggie Evan's injury, there's no way he would have had that much impact in wins and losses plus Amir Johnson really stepped and essentially would have taken up his minutes had he been healthy.

So what does 42 wins equal to in the Eastern Conference.  Anywhere from 5th through the 7th seed.  Which means the could be matched up with either Atlanta, Boston or Orlando,  Of those team, my best would be either Atlanta or Boston.  

There's no way the Raps can match up with either ones of these teams.  They don't have the talent, match ups or the man power to win a seven game series.  My bet would be that they would probably be eliminated in anywhere from five to six games and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they get sweeped (although there is way too much pride on this team so I don't see that really happening but it wouldn't be a shocker).

With a bitter early exit out of the playoffs, do you think the Raps will have a chance to convince Bosh that this team is heading into the right direction?  I know money talks and Toronto can offer almost 30 million more, but if Toronto feels like they don't really have a shot at signing him, they would probably do a sign and trade.  In which case, he would get more money with his new team.  I think I am also partly bitter about the fact that the Raps and Mr Colangelo to be specific threw away 50 million on a player who looks so not interested in playing basketball.  Hedo is an example of a player whose team managed to salvage the most out of him...and it happened to be his contract year.  He was a good fit for the team as he wasn't expected to do much for 3 quarters and then make some plays in the last 5 minutes of the game.  But please... don't call him Mr. Clutch...I don't think he's done enough even to be put in the breath of players such as Fischer, Horry in terms of the players of his calibre.

And now the Raps will have to ponder what they could have actually gotten for him at the trade deadline?