-The Toronto Raptors made a move off the court this evening but couldn't find the right ones on the court as they dropped a 114 to 101 decision to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Cats came out aggressive in the first quarter dropping 33 first quarter points on the Raps and never looked back.
-Leading the way for the Bobcats was DJ Augustin, who torched TO for 23 points and 8 assists. He made it look fairly effortless but got some excellent assistance from Boris Diaw (16 points, 9 assists, 4 steals), Gerald Wallace (a quiet 20 points and 6 rebounds) and other like Gerald Henderson and Nazr Mohammed.
-For Toronto, Sonny Weems had his best statistical game in ages with 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting, and Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan both had decent offensive outings with 18 and 14 points respectively. Bargs also hauled in 8 rebounds, great to see, but unfortunately Nazr Mohammed racked up 14 on his own in 8 less minutes of action.
-The weirdest line of the night for Toronto? How about Jerryd Bayless who couldn't hit a shot from the field (0 of 4) but got to the line 12 times hitting 11 of them, and dished out 11 assists. In fact his play in the fourth quarter gave the few fans who stuck around to watch this on Sportsnet One a reason for hope. However hope was not enough and the more talented, aggressive and experienced team won easily by the time the buzzer sounded.
-Considering the Raps drew even with the Cats in terms of rebounding and various other statistical categories, how then did they lose this one? Toronto in fact shot a better percentage from the field than Charlotte! One look at the free-throw numbers on the night and you've got your answer. Toronto shot only 26 freebies while Charlotte stepped to the line 42 times! Combine that with 15 turnovers for TO and only 9 for CHA and you've got a big chunk of what eventually led to loss number 42 on the season.
-However is there hope coming in the form of an athletic 3? Perhaps. We'll discuss more in the morning but the Raptors just prior to tip-off announced the trade of their second first-round pick (acquired via the Heat in the Chris Bosh deal) to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for James Johnson...