-Can someone say .500 basketball? Because after a 92 to 77 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, that's what the Toronto Raptors are. While the Dinos let the lead they had built up early get away a few times, in the end, a 20 to 12 third quarter busted this one open, as TO spoiled Cavalier Tristan Thompson's return to Toronto.
-How did the Raps win this? How about limiting the Cavs to 29.6 per cent shooting from the field? It would be great to say it was all Dwane Casey's system, but the fact was that the Cavaliers just missed some pretty easy looks, in addition to being forced into some tough shots. In fact one could argue that Cleveland's 26 trips to the free throw line, doubling the Dinos, was the main thing that kept this from being a complete blowout.
-Toronto was led scoring-wise by Andrea Bargnani, who was simply unstoppable. It's starting to sound like a broken record strangely enough, but Bargs simply did whatever he wanted on the court, hitting 11 of his 16 shots, and getting to the free-throw line a team-high seven times for good measure. Seven rebounds, three assists and a block to go with a plus 22 on the night, is nothing to smirk at either.
-The play of Bargs overshadowed the 25 points from DeMar DeRozan in fact. While he wasn't as efficient from the floor, he did hit 50 per cent from the field, grabbed five rebounds, and did his best Ray Allen impersonation, nailing five of eight 3-pointers.
-Other than those two? Well it was a lot of "everyone" you could say, as others like Jose Calderon, Ed Davis and James Johnson made big plays and put up solid numbers in various categories. On the Cleveland side, outside of Antawn Jamison, it was pretty ugly. Jamison had 19, but it took him 19 shots to get those points, and Kyrie Irving after a couple big games, hit only three of his 13 shots.
-Want more wins? How about next up for Toronto is the beleaguered Nets squad, one that may or may not have Deron Williams in the line-up, and a W would suddenly have this club looking down at good chunk of teams in the East. Who would have thunk it?