What to say?
I covered the last time these two teams met up and I had a difficult time putting together any sort of recap in an absolute snooze fest. I am not sure I have much to say this time around either.
This game can be summed up pretty quickly. Poor effort led to poor shooting and poor shooting led to a unacceptable 78-70 loss to an inferior team missing it’s best player. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even without Rudy Gay this Raptors team managed to lose to a miserable Memphis Grizzlies team and boy did they lose in style.
There are so many reasons this team lost this game. How does 29.5% shooing sound? How about the fact that the Grizzlies had more assists, rebounds and blocks that the Raps? Or better yet look to the fact that the Raps couldn’t manage more than 20 points in any quarter but one.
This was an embarrassing loss. Unacceptable and inexplicable. After taking the Lakers to the brink and putting forth a solid effort in New Orleans to say the Raps came out flat would be a huge understatement. They pretty much came out dead.
Other than Joey Graham no-one really brought it on this evening. Jermaine O’Neal was a non-factor, Anthony Parker and Jose Calderon were ice cold, and other than the fourth quarter Jason Kapono was hitting more iron than Camilo Villegas at the Buick Open.
It was hard to watch and frankly a waste of a Saturday night. What made this loss even more disappointing is that this game was supposed to cap off a solid day of basketball. Yesterday there was a lot of great college ball on TV and lots of great prospects to watch. The hope was that the Raps would cap off a solid day of basketball viewing. Well that definitely didn’t happen.
What did happen however was I am now convinced that I, along with all Raps fans, are better off this season watching more college ball and less Raps games. I am also convinced that if this loss doesn’t push BC to make a move, of any size, I don’t know what will. Hell, I would settle for a Jason Kapono-Stromile Swift deal at this point.
Perhaps the only positive to take from this game is that I don’t have to waste a whole Sunday watching this sort of performance in a Sunday matinee affair. Tomorrow I can take a break from all things Raptors.
I am looking forward to it.
HOWLAND