-Led by Toronto's twin towers of Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani, the Toronto Raptors notched their third straight home win with a 111 to 103 victory over the Miami Heat tonight. In the process, they leapfrogged Miami and took over sole possession of fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings.
-Bargs led the offensive foray with a ridiculously effecient display of moves on O, netting 27 points on 13 of 19 shooting. Andrea had but 3 rebounds however so his front-court counterpart Mr. Bosh picked up the slack, falling two rebounds short of a 20 and 20 game finishing with 24 points, 18 rebounds...oh...and four assists for good measure. And Sonny Weems performed admirably replacing DeMar DeRozan in the starting line-up; he had some shooting woes in the second half, but finished with a solid 10 points and 3 assists.
-Good ol' Hedo? Well he hit all his free throws again (4 of 4) but his 1 for 5 night with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 turnovers was something Milt Palacio could have accomplished at a tenth of the price tag...
-The Raps didn't start off this game well however, falling behind to Miami early thanks to some suspect shooting and porous defence, but got a great boost from their bench in the second quarter to cut what was once a 13 point Miami lead, down to size. The bench in fact was huge all game as players like Marco Belinelli and Jose Calderon hit big shots and orchestrated the offense majestically, while Antoine Wright and Amir Johnson provided the hustle and D as well as a few big buckets themselves. Wright and his benchmates outscored the Heat's pine-crew 37 to 25 on the night, a crucial factor in Toronto's win.
-Another crucial factor? No Michael Beasley for Miami. The Beast-man started off hot, scorching Toronto for 6 points and 4 rebounds in about four minutes but fell awkwardly soon after, hyper-extending his knee. He tried to return, but was ineffective and sat out the second half. Without him in the game, D Wade had to do too much and the Heat just couldn't generate the offense necessary to stay with Toronto. Wade finished with 35 points and 10 assists but only Jermaine O'Neal (22 and 8) and Udonis Haslem (16 and 11) really gave him any major assistance.
-Up next for TO? A tricky match-up with the Knicks tomorrow night in New York. As I mentioned earlier today, this one has "trap game" written all over it so Toronto is going to have to come out more focussed and energetic than they did tonight.