Sportsnet's Raptors Rehab blog on the Return of the Mouth, Sam Mitchell. For more on tonight's game, check out the game notes.
The Raptors have fallen all the way to 28th in ESPN's Future Power Rankings. Their previous rank was 17th.
In terms of schedule-adjusted offensive and defensive ratings, the Raptors rank 21st through games played on December 16, 2010.
Andrea Bargnani had a few good games over the past week or so, and it's now showing up in his WP48. But before you get too excited, he's still costing the Raptors an average of four points per game. Il Mago also ranks fourth in voting among centres after the first All-Star returns.
The Hickory High blog looks at questionable omissions on this season's All-Star ballot:
Fans of the Toronto Raptors have to feel especially frustrated. Their three representatives on the ballot, Andrea Bargnani, Linas Kleiza and DeMar DeRozan, clearly don’t even belong in the discussion; especially as two of them have a WP48 in the negative range. Meanwhile, they have at least four other players, Jerryd Bayless, Jose Calderon, Amir Johnson and Reggie Evans, whose production seems to merit a spot on the ballot if not on the actual All-Star team.
NBA Playbook breaks down a nicely executed curl off a pindown screen by the Charlotte Bobcats vs. the Raptors.
ESPN's Tom Haberstroh looks at what might have happened if Amar'e Stoudemire had joined the Miami Heat instead of Chris Bosh.