Tough December Marches On

The Portland Trailblazers are coming into Toronto after getting taken care of by the Boston Celtics 93-78. That made them 7-7 on the road this season. But they have not lost a game at home this season. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have an overall 14-7 record. The Raptors left for the west coast hoping to be able to steal a win out of the 3 game trip. They come home with no wins and no Sam Mitchell. I think it is one of the worst road trips in the history of this franchise. The early Sunday start time of 1pm is not playing in the Raptors favour as well coming off that west coast swing. Jay Triano has had little time to work with this basketball team. I think by the performance against Utah it was evident. The Raptors under Triano are going to look different eventually but it is going to take time. However with the Raptors on a 3-game losing streak and facing a very tough schedule that is not exactly the message fans want to hear.

Nicolas Batum who was someone the Raptors had brought in to work out. He was thought to have heart issues ironically and it caused a lot of teams to pass on him. But those concerns have not stopped Batum as he was having a nice start to his rookie season with the Blazers who acquired him in a draft night trade. But he has cooled off as of late with just 3 points in his last 3 games. But prior to that Batum had been tearing it up.

But the Blazer rookie that is the center of attention is Greg Oden. He has not exactly tore up the league as many had said he would. An injury in his very first game after a year out prior to that. It has not been exactly the dream season for Greg Oden. I thought him winning the ROY was going to be a lock. O.J Mayo, Derrick Rose and a number of others disagree and have shown their stuff. Even on his own team Rudy Fernandez has been better than him. The Blazers are a young and hungry talented team that will be looking to bounce back from a tough loss to Boston.

For the Raptors Kris Humphries is listed as day to day with some knee soreness. The Raptors will be in a tough battle to get a win this afternoon at the ACC. They need to be much better on defense and need to start shooting like the team with great shooter that they are billed to be. Raptor Rewind will have the answers but you can also check in on the live blog over at the score. Scott Carefoot of RaptorBlog will be at the controls. So here is a link to that live blog