-In a season of agonizing defeats and performances, Toronto's 113 to 112 loss to Golden State might have taken the cake.  Sonny Weems stole a Golden State inbound attempt with under 3 seconds left however Chris Bosh missed the lay-up ending the Raptors comeback attempt.

-It's hard to put much blame on CB4 however.  Without him tonight the Raptors would have lost by 20 as he did everything in his power to keep his team in the game.  He finished with 42 points, 12 rebounds, 5 steals, a block...oh, and got to the free-throw line 23 times hitting 20 of these.

-Unfortunately with the exception of Jarrett Jack, whose massive fourth quarter performance gave Toronto the push it needed to keep things close to the end, Mr. Bosh didn't get much help.  Jose Calderon, Sonny Weems, Antoine Wright and Hedo Turkoglu were a combined 6 of 26 from the field.  Even Andrea Bargnani, who was great at times and who finished with a solid 18 points and 9 rebounds, struggled shooting the ball.

-More frustrating though was Toronto's approach to this one.  After being blown out last month from beyond the arc and repeatedly settling for jump shots, it was as if the team learned nothing from that experience and made the exact same mistakes tonight.  Golden State hit 13 of 26 three-pointers and the Raps got caught up in G State's run-and-gun style, which meant way too many jump shots.  It was only late, when the Dinos started to run the offense through Chris Bosh on every occasion, that Toronto made a game of it.

-For Golden State, short-staffed again on this evening, it was the Steph Curry show once more.  He got some big help from Anthony Morrow (25 points) and Corey Maggette (31 points) but it was Curry who made some ridiculous shots to help his team keep the lead.  And, while he somehow bricked two free-throws that could have ended this one earlier, he made his final two, which ended up being the difference.

-Another tough loss for Raptors fans on a number of levels; from the way the game ended, to the team's lack of preparation throughout, to the fact that Golden State has but six road wins this season, one of these coming at Toronto's expense.  This was a match the Raps desperately needed to help secure a playoff spot with games against Cleveland, Boston and Atlanta coming up next.

-After two straight games of not getting any breaks, the Raptors finally caught a few when it mattered most, and the result was a 103 to 101 win tonight over the Charlotte Bobcats.

-This one wasn't pretty, especially through the first 3 quarters.  Both teams took suspect shots, turned the ball over at inopportune times, and looked out-of-synch offensively en route to a 47 to 43 half-time lead for Charlotte.  It didn't help that Tim Donaghy was calling the shots for the refs, who made bizarre call after bizarre call this evening.  (Or, didn't blow the whistle on obvious calls, like DeRozan almost getting his head taken off on a breakaway dunk.)

-Top performers?  How about Jay Triano for once.  He brought Hedo Turkoglu in off the bench tonight and Hedo had his best game in weeks.  Sure he stepped out of bounds on a key play near the match's end, but the Ottoman was 4 of 9 for 11 points to go with 3 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals in just under 30 minutes.  And aside from Hedo, Triano's balanced rotation enabled the entire roster to shine in their niche roles.  For instance Antoine Wright had 15 points and 6 rebounds starting at the 3, and Chris Bosh looked a lot more like his old self, with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

-For the Bobcats, they got a fairly balanced scoring attack as well with Boris Diaw, Stephen Jackson, Larry Hughes, Gerald Wallace and Raymond Felton all hitting double figures.  However a key turnover by Felton with the 'Cats only down 2, as well as some questionable late-game offensive decisions from his teammates, helped Toronto put this one away for good.

-As a Raptors' fan, you've gotta feel good about this win, and hope it's a sign of things to come.  The rotations tonight were finally what many fans have been clamoring for all season, the effort was there for 48 minutes, and both Bosh and Bargnani looked much more interested than they have recently.  It's perfect timing considering the string of winnable games up next on the schedule, however it's going to take a lot more than one win to convince fans and the media that the Good Ship Dino is back on course.

- On a night when the Toronto Raptors crushed the visiting Denver Nuggets 58-38 on the glass, it was the inability to grab rebounds in the final minute that resulted in a three by "Mr. Big Shot" Chauncey Billups to tie the game at 95 followed by a buzzer-beating jumper by Carmelo Anthony for the one-point win.

- The late-game struggle on the glass coincided with Jay Triano's decision to 'go small' to match up with the Nuggets, as opposed to simply continuing with what was working throughout the game. The wasted double digit rebounding performances by three Raptors -- Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and Amir Johnson -- is something that hasn't been seen by a Toronto team in over a year.

- Bargnani grabbed 15 — FIFTEEN!!! — rebounds in this one. I believe Hell has frozen over as a result.

- Despite the heartbreaking loss, a couple of changes to the starting lineup resulted in one of the Raptors' best efforts of the season. Antoine Wright got the nod in place of a sick Hedo Turkoglu while Sonny Weems replaced painfully ineffective starter DeMar DeRozan.

- Coming off the bench appeared to agree with DeRozan, who shot a blistering 7/8 from the field for 15 points in just over 21 minutes. However, the rookie mistakes and defensive miscues were still on full display.

- While they're benching DeRozan, would it be too much to ask Triano to flip Jarrett Jack for Jose Calderon again? Calderon is clearly better off the bench for some inexplicable reason while Jack is better running out with the starters.

- Forgotten man Marco Belinelli also looked solid tonight in just 15 minutes off the bench.

- The Raptors used a 29-16 third quarter to build a nine-point lead, but gave it back by allowing the Nuggets to win the fourth quarter 25-15.

- If the Raptors continue to play the way they did tonight, it's possible they could split a very difficult back-to-back set against the Miami Heat on Sunday and the Charlotte Bobcats on Monday. We'll probably have a much better sense of how the bottom three seeds in the Eastern Conference will play out by Tuesday morning.

-To probably no Raptors' fan's surprise, after barely beating the Nets and Wolves, the Toronto Raptors were thoroughly thrashed by the Utah Jazz tonight, 113 to 87.  The boos were out early in the first quarter as the Raptors got down by over 15 early, and could do little the rest of the way to stop the bleeding.

-Chris Bosh had 20 points to lead the Raptors but again it felt a bit hollow.  At times looked like he'd rather be anywhere than in a Raptors' uniform and there were still many more jump shots than "rim attacks."  Antoine Wright had 15 in one of his best outings in a while, and Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon had 12 and 10 respectively.

-The main problem this evening?  Why defence of course!  Outside of some brief periods of effective zone D, the game marked one of the most egregious displays of defence that I've ever witnessed as Utah got anything they wanted on O, and shot nearly 50% from the field.

-The Jazz were led by the combo of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer who both finished with 18 points.  Williams was huge in the first quarter, eating Jose Calderon up and shredding the Raptors "defence," which led to the giant hole that the Dinos could never climb out of.  He finished with 16 assists in a complete domination of the point guard match-up.

-Between the effort level early, the bizarre coaching decisions, the lack of defence, and oh...Hedo not coming out after half due to "the flu," this was yet another disparaging loss to say the least.  Perhaps not quite on the OKC or Atlanta level, but right up there with Sacramento and too many others to count this season.  There's little doubt that if this team doesn't figure out how to fix it's leaky defensive damn quickly, they're going to find themselves looking up at Chicago in the standings, and out of the playoffs.

 -This one was a grind, but the Toronto Raptors took care of business with a 106 to 100 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.  The Raps got solid production from a number of players in the win, and some solid D down the stretch when it mattered most.

-Much like the Nets match on Saturday evening, the first half of this one was a sloppy, see-saw affair where neither team looked to grab control.  Toronto held a one point lead at half but used a great third quarter to streak ahead by as many as 13. 

-However during the fourth, Jonny Flynn and Al Jefferson went on the attack and closed the gap to as few as two points with only minutes remaning.  But unlike recent games, Toronto refused to fold, and got clutch baskets from Bosh, Turkoglu and Bargnani down the stretch to secure the W.

-Bosh registered his career-best 44th double-double posting 21 and 10 on the night, but it was Andrea Bargnani who was the X factor this evening.  He had 19 and 7, as well as 4 assists and 2 steals in the win.  He was much more aggressive than he had been the past few games, and it showed in terms of his shot selection, and shots in general as he took the most on the club last night.

-Toronto's bench was huge too as Antoine Wright, Sonny Weems and Jarrett Jack all gave Toronto a boost in this one.  Weems in particular was a terror in limited minutes, all over the court adding 3 rebounds and 3 assists to his 13 points.

-For the Timberwolves it seemed to be a tale of two teams; the perenially lottery-bound club who was just going through the motions, and the one with a solid base of young talent, capable of surprising unsuspecting clubs.  It was the former which took the court for most of this match, with the latter making it interesting late.  However some questionable decisions offensively towards the end kept this from being the team's 10th home win of the season.

-Up next for TO?  Two tough matches against the Jazz and Nuggets.  With both the Bulls and Heat scoring wins tonight, this victory was crucial and now hopefully the Raps can take some of this momentum into the next few matches.

-There have been plenty of games Toronto fans probably felt their team should have won this year, only to see the team crumble down the stretch.  Tonight, on St. Patrick's Day, it was bizzarro world for these same fans as the Dinos put on an impressive final five minute stretch drive to snatch a victory from the Joe Johnson-less Hawks, 106 to 105.  Chris Bosh, after a miserable first three quarters, was huge down the stretch, and hit the eventual game-winner off an isolation play drawn up by Jay Triano.

-Big men on campus for the Raps tonight?  How about the entire team, which started strong, suffered some major malaise in the middle, and then locked-in to finish things off when they needed to.  Andrea Bargnani was the high point man with 22 points but also surprisingly led the team in rebounding with 11.  Hedo Turkoglu looked much more like the $53 Millioin Dollar Man with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, and the club got 19 big points from rookie DeMar DeRozan.  DeRozan's defence wasn't great, more on that in a minute, but his aggressiveness was huge in this one, and others like Jack, Calderon, Weems and Johnson all played some big minutes at times.

-Atlanta was without Joe Johnson and therefore it was the Jamal Crawford show.  Crawford had 33 points off the bench, mostly at the expense of DeRozan, and looked to be single-handily taking ATL to the win.  However the rest of his bench-mates scored only 5 points and that was one of the key differences in the end tonight.  Yes Smith, Horford, Evans and Bibby ranged from solid to fantastic on the evening, but there just wasn't enough bench help.

-It's hard to know what to take from this win as a fan however.  Bosh looked borderline disinterested through most of this (he took his first foul shot with a few minutes left in the game), Toronto's 3-point D was again invisible (Hawks were 11 of 18 from downtown), and the Jose for Jack switch in the starting line-up didn't seem to have much effect...probably to no one's surprise.  However after looking ready to collapse in the third quarter, it was indeed inspiring to see the team bounce back the way they did.  Let's hope this is a sign of things to come, and a turning point for the remainder of the season.

-While Raptors' fans were treated to a better effort tonight, the end result was the same, another loss as Portland out-worked Toronto en route to a 109 to 98 win.  Toronto got down early by as many as 15, but, in an inverse situation of their recent losses, they actually used the third quarter to cut into the Blazer lead.  In fact, with about six minutes left, TO had things down to 2, but that's as close as they got.

-Chris Bosh tried to back up yesterday's post-game critique with 28 points and 7 rebounds in the losing effort, however he didn't get enough production from his other big guns.  Andrea Bargnani had 11 points but on 5 of 13 shooting, while Jarrett Jack had only 7, and didn't start the second half of the game as he was replaced by Jose Calderon.  Hedo, booed mercilessly all evening, actually had a respectable night with 14 points and 5 boards, while DeMar DeRozan had 12 and Jose Calderon chipped in 11.  In fact, it was Amir Johnson's hustle (13 and 6 in 22 minutes) that really helped buoy Toronto outside of Bosh tonight.  Without him, this would have been Golden State ugly.

-For the Blazers, it was the Nicolas Batum show.  Batum had 22 on 7 of 9 shooting, and he got lots of help from the usual suspects, Brandon Roy (20 points) and LaMarcus Aldridge (22 points and 12 rebounds.)  However scoring aside, it was the damage they did on the offensive glass and in the paint early, that really propelled them to victory.  Portland outrebounded Toronto 40 to 34 on the night, but had 19 offensive rebounds compared to only 9 for TO.  As well, the Raps continued to allow opposing teams free looks from long-range, and Portland made good on 12 of their 20 attempts, also severely hurting the Dinos cause.

-It would be great to say that the Raptors can now seek some solace at home, however that's hardly the case.  Instead, they face Raptor-killers the Hawks and Thunder next, two games that look like obvious losses.  That would be a lot easier to swallow had Toronto even gone .500 on this recent road trip.  However tonight's loss drops them a game under .500 for the first time since January, and at this rate, it's hard to say just when TO will be able to get back above that mark.

- Well the Raps are really struggling and learning nothing from their past mistakes. In tonight's game Toronto did almost exactly what they did against the Kings and got absolutely destroyed in the second half yet again. In the third quarter, the Raps achillies heal, the Warriors outscored the Raps 41-25, pulling away, and never relinquishing the lead.

- The Raps starters were once again a major disappointment. The wing-men were badly outplayed in every facet of the game and both Bosh and Bargnani were unimpressive. Hedo Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack combined for 11 points. Bargnani showed little, and Chris Bosh, despite a double-double, struggled with 6 turnovers. If it were not for solid performances by Jose Calderon and Amir Johnson the Raps would have lost by 20+.

- There are lots of concerns for this team but clearly the number one concern has to be the perimeter defense. The Raps did not defend at all tonight. The defense was so bad it left Jack Armstrong begging the Raps to dress Marcus Banks against the Trailblazers. Monta Ellis and Steph Curry absolutely destroyed the Raps tonight - combined they had 66 points and 10 threes. Curry, in particular, was just unbelievable. He is a joy to watch and just an excellent young player.

- The Raps never really had a chance in this game as they seemed happy to play at a pace that readily favoured the Warriors. Although they did outscore the Warriors in the paint they turned the ball over way too often (16) and allowed a lesser team dictate the outcome. Outside of Monta Ellis, Steph Curry and Corey Maggette the Warriors are essentially a D-League team. I mean Anthony Tolliver played 39 minutes.

- Also playing into the loss? The Raps were outrebounded by a very undersized Warriors team. The Warriors also did their rebounding damage on the offensive end with 18 offensive rebounds. This is just another indication of how badly the Raps played tonight.

- So what now? There are a lot more questions than answers. Tomorrow night in Portland doesn't look to be much fun and a loss there and the Raps are BELOW .500.

- Get the feeling things are going to end badly this season?