1st Quarter
I was doing a little interview on March Madness on the radio in B.C. Doing my part for March Madness on The Score. So we will jump into this one with Raptors doing well and off to a nice start up 12-6. Raymond Felton scores and a steal and Boris Diaw who was part of the Jason Richardson deal he gets the dunk. Maybe I should leave things were going better before I started writing. Jose Calderon has got into early foul trouble and that throws Roko Ukic into the fire. Speaking of fire Bosh is vexed over a foul call and that was his second. Raptors no Chris, no Jose and just up 2 with score 12-10. So much for the Raptor lead a 3 pointer for the Bobcats. Back to back turnovers and the Raptors had 8 so far in the first quarter. Bobcats having a serious run of 9-0 and lead 15-12 and heading to the line after a time out. Gerald Wallace at the line drains a pair and the lead was now 17-12 with Bobcats on 11-0 run. Andrea Bargnani makes a jump shot to break up the Bobcat run. Pops had a block on Okafor and Okafor would block Pops on the other end. Diaw would score after the blog and Bobcats lead by 5. Bargnani draws a foul on Okafor. He makes a pair at the line. But Bobcats would string together a couple scores before Pops Mensah-Bonsu would answer. A.P would get the next score and Raptors had the lead down to 3 with the score 23-20. Bobcats were getting it done on inside as Gerald Wallace had the easy score inside. Pops would answer with a slam of his own. But a Bell score at the end of the quarter would give the Bobcats a 27-22 lead.
2nd Quarter
Kapono turnover to start the second. Bosh was in there with his 2 fouls and he would draw a foul on someone else and head to the line. He would hit both and Raptors were again down 3 points despite some pretty awful play on their part through a quarter and a bit. Parker drove to the basket playing at the point and he would be fouled by Diaw. He made a pair. Bobcats hanging on 27-26. Raymond Felton got a much needed basket for Charlotte. He would check out after that and rookie sensation D.J Augstin would replace him. Bosh is long on a jumper and Augstin makes the Raps pay nailing a 3 pointer. Bobcats lead was 32-26. AP was fouled taking a long 2 pointer from the corner. Parker perfect 2 of 2 and he was 5 of 6 from the line. Augstin maybe feeling it would take another 3 but this one was an air ball. Calderon has checked back in. He also with 2 fouls. Joey G who was on Raptor that struggled in the win over the Pacers would get basket. Bobcats would take and make another 3. Bosh would respond with a long jumper for 2. Pops tried to throw one down but could not and Raps wanted a foul. But they would not get it and they would trail 38-32 with a time out on the floor.
Gerald Wallace would get fouled and was back at the line. He would make both and the Bobcats lead had expanded to 40-32. Bosh missed on a jumper but Joey G would tip it back up and in. D.J Augstin made a jumper to keep the lead at 8. Calderon would draw a foul and head to the line. Calderon only has missed 3 times all year and this would not be the forth as he made both. But Bobcats answer back quickly and the Raptors defense was far cry from yesterday. Bargnani and offensive foul and another Bobcat score. Bosh would drive and score plus the foul trying to rally the troops. Augstin would hook up Gerald Wallace for 2 after the Bosh 3 point play the old fashion way. Calderon would find Bosh and he missed the easy 2 but he was fouled with a push to the back. He makes both and the Raptors trailed 48-41. Gerald Wallace was having an impact inside scoring again and he was fouled. Bobcats lead by 12 matching the 12 Raptors turnovers. Wallace was getting whatever he wanted as he scored again. Bobcats lead is 55-41. Just over a minute to play. Raptors would trail by that 14 point margin with score 57-43.
3rd Quarter
After a small effort of a push to get back in the game the Raps would see Bobcats go on a run of 14-5 and this game was off the rails. The Bobcats were abusing the Raptors getting easy scores. Bobcats lead 80-62. Raymond Felton took a shot on a screen set by Pops. That was the biggest concern for the Bobcats at this point. The game was pretty much well in hand. Gerald Wallace had a wide open look from 3 point range and The Raptors looked nothing like the team that was on the floor Sunday afternoon. Calderon was back to struggling as well after 2 games where some folks were thinking he was the guy that was advertised at the beginning of the season. But on this night he was back to the norm for this season which was not good.
Pops Mensah-Bonsu in a win or a loss gives all he has. That can not be said for everyone on this roster by a long shot. Not surprising the Raptors are struggling and Joey Graham is not. That has always been my thing with Joey when games matter where is Joey? A game like tonight with the game pretty much decided Joey Graham stands out and shines when there is little else to notice. That is why I would not offer Joey a contract this off-season. 89-72 after 3 for Bobcats.
4th Quarter
An Augstin steal and score starts us off and a score. Unless there is reason to be optimistic I will save you the pain of having to ready about the 4th quarter. I mean it is bad enough having to watch this I do not want to put others through the pain of reading about it. Safe to say if you were hopeful Sunday meant something more beyond a win. You were sadly mistaken. Just checking in to inform you the Bobcats lead 100-78. Yeah it is that bad. I remember asking Matt Devlin earlier in the year if someone had told you the Bobcats (his former team) would have a better record than the Raptors what would you say? His answer was not possible but unfortunately it has been possible and is happening. The Bobcats are a team that looks to have a future and direction. The Raptors seem to lack that direction and this for the future are cloudy to say the least.
Things are coming unglued even Jose would get a technical foul. He had 8 points and 8 assists but was only 2-7. If Chris Bosh is going to be part of the future of this Raptor franchise it is going to take an off-season of Bryan Colangelo's career. If Bosh is still willing to give Bryan the chance to do so. If not this thing is in serious trouble. The Starters were on the bench watching this one come to a conclusion with the Bobcats up 109-85. the good news was this one was over 112- 86 for the Bobcats. The bad news is the Raptors will need to figure out what they did wrong as they will see this same Bobcat team at the ACC on Friday.
I wish that I could say that I was surprised or shocked, even angry about what I just saw. But I am none of those things. It has been par for the course for what has been an awful season.
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