Some folks were worried with no Chris Bosh would the Raptors be in trouble even though they were facing the awful New Jersey Nets. But never fear Raptor fans cause Rasho is here. He would replace Bosh in the starting line up and Andrea Bargnani would shift over to Bosh's normal spot at the 4 spot. Rasho had an amazing night of 16 points 7 rebounds and 4 assists. There was a time after the first quarter would where Rasho was on pace to have a triple double. Jarrett Jack also had a major bounce back to lead the Raptors with 18 points and he and Rasho were part of 7 players that reached double figures in a 106-89 win over the Nets.
It wouldn't be the Raptors if they did not give fans a scare. Devin Harris lead a charge that would get the Nets back to with in 6 points. He had 19 in the game and it was Brook Lopez with 22 points and was the games high scorer. The Raptors are back at it tonight with a game vs the Wizards who come in riding high off a win over Denver. Al Thornton one of the players that came in the Wizards fire sale at the deadline proved to be effective off the bench with 21 points.
Chris Bosh looks to be doubtful for basketball night in Canada as he missed the trip to New Jersey with a bad left ankle. However CB4 would still make an impact. Not on the floor but on Twitter. He tweeted #LetsGoRaptors and asked his twitter army of Raptor fans to do the same. Well they did and in huge numbers so much so that #LetsGoRaptors became a trending topic in Canada. That would not happen playing for the Knicks or the Heat. In a small way this king of demonstrates the power the Bosh has in terms of being the Franchise guy on the Raptors. He would just be the top guy in a city in the U.S. But here in Canada he not only gets Toronto but the pockets of basketball fans across this country. That is something unique that only the Raptors offer. That along with the extra 30 million that the Raptors can pay him.
So Bosh may just be in a suit helpless watching like all of us for tonight's game vs the Wizards. The Raptors will need more of what they got from New Jersey game. The Wizards are a step up the ladder from the 5 win Nets. They are not a major step up but a step none the less. Raptors without Bosh have a much smaller margin of error and need to get production from guys like Bargnani and Turkoglu who combined for 27 in the Nets game. Not great but with the complete team effort it was good enough.
So CB4 or not it is Basketball Night In Canada....Are You Ready? More importantly are the Raptors ready? I am liveblogging it for The Score so we can find out together. Link to come later today.
2/20/10
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Looks like great minds think a like I used the same heading except my "to" and "the" were lowercase and I used an exclamation mark.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great game! Rasho is the man.
Hopefully we can get it done tonight going to be a lot harder against the Wiz and especially in a back to back this is a game where we could use a guy like Pops.
LOL. I think myself and Eric Smith have had title ditto's a couple times. But he really was the big story last night because of all the performances his was the most unexpected and most needed in some respects.
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