-To probably no Raptors' fan's surprise, after barely beating the Nets and Wolves, the Toronto Raptors were thoroughly thrashed by the Utah Jazz tonight, 113 to 87. The boos were out early in the first quarter as the Raptors got down by over 15 early, and could do little the rest of the way to stop the bleeding.
-Chris Bosh had 20 points to lead the Raptors but again it felt a bit hollow. At times looked like he'd rather be anywhere than in a Raptors' uniform and there were still many more jump shots than "rim attacks." Antoine Wright had 15 in one of his best outings in a while, and Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon had 12 and 10 respectively.
-The main problem this evening? Why defence of course! Outside of some brief periods of effective zone D, the game marked one of the most egregious displays of defence that I've ever witnessed as Utah got anything they wanted on O, and shot nearly 50% from the field.
-The Jazz were led by the combo of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer who both finished with 18 points. Williams was huge in the first quarter, eating Jose Calderon up and shredding the Raptors "defence," which led to the giant hole that the Dinos could never climb out of. He finished with 16 assists in a complete domination of the point guard match-up.
-Between the effort level early, the bizarre coaching decisions, the lack of defence, and oh...Hedo not coming out after half due to "the flu," this was yet another disparaging loss to say the least. Perhaps not quite on the OKC or Atlanta level, but right up there with Sacramento and too many others to count this season. There's little doubt that if this team doesn't figure out how to fix it's leaky defensive damn quickly, they're going to find themselves looking up at Chicago in the standings, and out of the playoffs.