-On a night of disgraces, the Raptors perhaps managed to top Mark McGwire as they blew a 23 point lead eventually losing to the Indiana Pacers 105 to 101.
-Worst loss of the season? This one was right up there with the Hawks debacles as for some reason Toronto stopped playing defence to end the second quarter and then showed almost no signs of life in the second half en route to a SEVENTEEN PERCENT shooting performance from the field.
-The TSN turning point for this one probably came in the second quarter when Danny Granger and Sonny Weems both got T'd up for jawing at each other. Granger promptly went off after that and had 23 points to lead Indiana. The incident seemed to awaken his team as well and they outscored Toronto 53 to 36 in the second half. Suddenly players like Troy Murphy, AJ Price and Mike Dunleavy Jr. were hitting from downtown and the rest of the team started to dig in on D.
-For Toronto, Chris Bosh did the heavy lifting again and while Andrea Bargnani struggled offensively, he hit some big shots and hauled in 17 rebounds and blocked 3 shots.
-But that's about all that Raptors' fans can take from this game in terms of positives. Hedo Turkoglu was abysmal garnering a team high -18 rating while putting up 10 points on two of nine shooting. Even a DECENT game from Hedo would have been enough to swing the tide in Toronto's favour despite their poor play. However Turk again looked like he had just capped off a large Pizza Pizza and wings even hoisting up an airball during one play. And defensively...well...on one of the game's final key possessions, Bosh funneled Danny Granger to the interior only to have Granger blow right by Turk with no hesitation, laying the ball in.
-And let's not forget Jay Triano here. Again he trotted out the horrific line-up of Calderon, Jack and Hedo in crunch time and again their play was mired by the "too many cooks in the kitchen" syndrome; indecisiveness when running plays, bad shot selection...and of course very little defense. The players need to make the plays of course, but seeing the success of guys like Rasho in the first half, you have to ask yourself why they didn't make appearances again in the second. I mean, can Jay really explain why despite Hedo's struggles and obvious fatigue, he played MORE minutes than Chris Bosh? I know they want to rest Bosh but give me a break!
-This loss won't make or break the season in the grand scheme of things likely, but it's a tough one to swallow. If Toronto wants to think it's making strides towards the top teams in the league, losses like these simply can't happen. Suddenly I'm not so enthusiastic about Friday's match agains the Knicks...