Nothing To Be Mello About In Raptorland

The Denver Nuggets and Joey Graham come to town. No there will not be a 15th anniversary ceremony for Joey G. He was on HOOPS last night on the fan 590. He was confident he would not be booed tonight at the ACC. I am not confident that Santa would not get booed there after the mood in Raptorland yesterday. The Nuggets are not concerned with the Raptors slumping playoff push. They are on their own 3 game slide. Raptors could be the cure to the Nuggets have won in their last 2 visits to the ACC and 5 straight vs Toronto overall. Let's hope Carmelo had a great night out in Toronto and has enjoyed his time here is Canada A LOT. Every little bit helps. But Chancey Billups also will not be honoured as he was a Raptor briefly if you had forgotten. He will be a tough challenge for Calderon who admitted what we all knew in his post game comments after the Utah game. What was that? That Deron Williams beat him down. Jose phrased it in a little less harsh manner, but that is what happened. No reason to think Billups can't do the same.

Chris Bosh still had a birthday party but the pre-party festivities with the Jazz left a bad taste in his mouth. It has sparked a lot of debate on the level of responsibility Bosh has for all of this. He claims that he is doing everything that he can and needs some help. Others will say it is on Bosh to raise the level of his team and lead them. As with most things in life the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I think Bosh is right in terms of needing help. Bargnani, Turkoglu at the top of not helping list. That being said if you are going to call out your team, I am cool with that and I think they deserve it. That being said this comes when Bosh himself is falling off his top level of play.

Bosh has made a lot of turnovers of late and that is in part I think to this lack of faith in cast around him. Bosh now takes that extra second before he passes it to Hedo and thinks do I really want to do this. I mean he has watch HeDON'T happen as well. They say the hardest thing to build in relationships is trust. There is many a marriage that has not survived based on a lack of trust. No I am not setting up for some Tiger Woods reference here. But once trust is lost in any relationship it is extremely difficult to get it back. If Bosh has lost faith in his team around him that is not something that comes back in a short period of time. Basketball is a sport based on trust. Both on offense and defense. The Raptors as a group on defensive end have no faith or belief that players can stay in front of their man. It has led to people over helping and open looks all over the place.

Even the faith of this fan base in this team has been damaged greatly. If the Nuggets were to come out and get say a 12 point lead would it shock anyone if ACC booed the Raptors? If it would you have not been watching lately. Everyone in this franchise could use some therapy at this point. The best thing for all parties involved is winning. When they say winning cures a lot of things they do not lie. If the Raptors could some how find a way to win that would give them some nice momentum heading into their most important road trip of the season to Miami then Charlotte.

That being said please no one hold your breath out there. This game means a ton to the Nuggets and they need this win badly as well. A losing streak in the West is not like in the East. The drop in the standing is quicker and more painful. Maybe not more painful....watching the Raptors slow side to the bottom of playoff race has been very painful to watch. So that is why I am not going to watch. Actually the real answer is I will be doing March Madness for The Score once again and will not be able to watch the Raptors. So once again the DNB staff has stepped up and Danielle will give you her thoughts on whatever happens at the ACC between the Raptors and Nuggets. I joked with her if Raptors win she can't stop doing re-caps of games till they lose. I am not serious about that but some people can be that superstitious. I am not.

Hedo will be a game time decision with his I had to my Pizza at Bosh's Birthday Bash. No just kidding if you re-call he left Raptors loss to Jazz with what is being called a stomach flu. The Raptors fans can relate to this based on the team's play of late. I think they have left more than a few fans feeling ill.