-In their most complete game of the season, the Toronto Raptors moved one game back over .500 with a terrific 110 to 88 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
-The first quarter was a bit rough, but Toronto's defence kept Dallas to a respectible 45 per cent, and really turned it on in the second quarter, outscoring Dallas 34 to 18. And unlike their past two matches, Toronto never let Dallas back in this one, outscoring the Mavs in the final two quarters as well.
-This was indeed a complete team effort. Chris Bosh was his usual 20 and 10 self (23 and 13 actually) while Andrea Bargnani showed again why he's such a dangerous offensive player with 22 points to go with 6 boards. However it didn't stop there; Calderon and Jack combined for 26 points and 14 assists, Amir Johnson had a huge 10 points and 8 boards in only about 20 minutes, and even Antoine Wright showed up with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
-In fact Wright may have had the game's turning point when he took a charge late in the second quarter. Both teams were reasonably close on the scoreboard at that point but that and a few key defensive stands after got the Dinos going and they were off and running from there.
-On the Dallas side, this was a disappointing performance. Dirk led the way with 19 but had only 4 boards, was only 1 of 4 from the free-throw line, and really a non-factor in the second half. Jason Terry was probably the Mavs' best player in fact with 18 points off the bench, but the team just didn't get much help from anyone outside of Shawn Marion.
-In the SF battle I alluded to in my preview this morning, Marion was slightly more dominant in this one finishing with 15 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Hedo stuffed the stat sheet once more (8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals), but again shot a putrid percentage from the floor (he was 2 of 9.) If the Raps can get him going this team will be a VERY tough match-up if they play like they did this afternoon.
-And fans will get to see just what the Dinos can do to build on this win in their next game, one Tuesday night against a very tough Cavs' team. For now though, fans and the team should bask in this win for a while, if not their biggest this season, perhaps their most promising in terms of a sign of things to come.