Injured Celtics Whack Raps

No Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Marquis Daniels for Celtics. Doc Rivers joked that the Celtics held a lottery prior to the game on who would start. Rasheed Wallace would have his number called and that was big. Wallace has always had an answer for Chris Bosh and on this night he would as well despite not having a great year himself. We all still remember the game in San Antonio near the start of the season where the Raptors faced the Spurs with no Duncan or Parker. The Raptors would fall hard on that night losing a game that many felt was a gift wrapped victory. Many had that same feeling heading into this one with a 5 game win streak heading into it. However the Celtics were on a rare 3 game slide for them and motivated to not have it climb to 4.

The Celtics that were playing were hungrier than the Raptors that were. Which did include Hedo Turkoglu who had left the Bobcats game at halftime because of a knee bruise he suffered in practice on Tuesday. Despite the odd positive from the Raptors, it was a general lack of defense and rebounding that did in the Raptors. What were those positives? Well there was a nice highlight reel dunk from Demar Derozan and Andrea Bargnani was driving and taking it to the hoop on occasion.

The Raptors did not get blown out in this one. However you never really felt that they were in it. They had closed the gap to 6 late but never could get much closer than that. Jarrett Jack had one of his worst games since taking over from Jose Calderon with his injury to his hip. Marcus Banks gave people all the proof you should need on why trading Calderon would not be a wise idea. He was even worse in relief of Jack in this one.

Chris Bosh had several cost turnovers in this one and on the defensive end both he and Bargnani were far from good. In short the Raptors had a game that should have been one they could have one slip away. There have been more than a few of those this season and that alone is a reason this team remains below .500. The Raptors could have reached the .500 mark last night with a win but with San Antonio and Orlando on the horizon those thoughts of .500 are likely to fade away for awhile. Not to mention this same Boston team in Toronto a week from today. You have to figure they will be healthier by then.

Raptors and Spurs later today with an odd 6pm start time.