Thursday, January 22, 2009

Raptors Sing the Motown Blues


Raptors 76 - 95 Detroit

Maxiell was a force against the Raptors

The Raptors continue to fall into the depths of the Eastern Conference basement with a loss last night against the Pistons. This was their seventh straight loss and the Dino's record now stands at 16-28. The possibility of reaching the playoffs is quickly becoming out of reach and our attention should turn to developing our young players and figuring out what we are going to do in the off season. (hopefully it involves grabbling a wing; whether it comes from the draft or as a free agent signing)

We limped into the Palace of Auburn Hills and the Prince abused us. He must have been thinking he was in a dream considering how favourable the matchups were for him. First Jamario Moon then Jason Kapono, this guy had a field day. He scored 25 points on 11-16 shooting; abusing us everywhere on the court and creating countless opportunities for his teammates.

We started the game very well as usual, running up to a 10-2 lead through the aggressive nature of Bosh. He started the game off with a drive and score; something he does not do often. He was also spreading the offense well and in the right position for offensive rebounds, grabbing three ones in the opening minutes. The offensive rebounds led to easy points for CB4 and he score 8 of the Raptors first 10 points. Detroit called a time out and substitued Maxiell for Johnson. The Raptors still played well and held a 14-6 lead when Jay made a huge mistake by substituting Roko for Parker. Stuckley saw Ukic and abused him into a foul, a offensive turnover and blew by him for a layup. Maxiell was a huge energy spark off the bench, and he managed to throw down four enormous dunks through screen and rolls and in transition. Raptors held though and lead 22-17 at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, the Piston were just smarter than us. Their backup Will Bynum consistently made the right pass either to Rip or Prince off screen. He also had the tools to brake down our perimeter defense and create easy baskets for his teammates (I know, its pretty easy). Tayshaun Prince started to heat up and that was because Kapono was guarding him. He is such an awesome player, if I would wish for a three for the Raptors it would be the Prince. The Pistons clawed back and led by three by halftime outscoring the Raptors 29-21.

The wheels just feel off in the third quarter. The Detroit offense was so efficient, with all of their weapons scoring at ease. The Raptors decided to settle on the jumper and went away from the fundamentals which made them successful early in the first quarter. Rodney Stuckley was using dribble penetration, posting up and passing well. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince was scoring at will through screens and Rasheed and Maxiell were scoring on the inside. There were too many options for the Pistons and the Raptors could not contain them all.

The fourth quarter started and it had already felt like garbage time. Maxiell started off by showing O'Neal how to scoring with a fadeaway (probably Maxiell's first of the season), and McDyess scored on a nice layup and jumper. Rip Hamilton scored five straight points and the game was now out of hand at 87-67.


Best moment of the game was Nathan Jawai entering the game. Aussie Shaq started his career with a walk, must have been watching Kapono too much. He really didn't do anything else for the final three minutes, but at least he played! Will Solomon decided to hog the ball at the end jacking up shots, which was something I would expect to do.

Ukic showed some big problems when he entered the game. He got exposed on defense because he doesn't know the defensive awareness yet and can be forced into easy turnovers for the opponents. He needs some seasoning in the D league, but it would lessen the little depth we have.

Bargnani had an off-shooting night shooting 6-16, by still made the right decisions, he just missed shots he was making during this run. Joey scored 0 points in 22 minutes, he really did not get himself into the game. Parker continued playing the point, and played reasonably well and hopefully this would increase his trade value going into the deadline.

Chicago up next and hopefully the Raptors can stop the bleeding.

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