No Love No Love!!!

After watching Andrew Bogut tear through the Raptors now they face Kevin Love. Minnesota has their own losing streak to worry about losing 6 straight including their own heartbreaking OT loss to OKC on Wednesday and a loss to the Jazz last night. I am sure more than one person will mention the fact the Raptors could have had Michael Beasley as part of a Bosh sign and trade with Miami. He is coming off a career high 7 assists vs OKC on Wednesday. he had 16 points and 11 rebounds in that loss to the Jazz and has really had a nice season with Minnesota the only team that wanted him it appeared. Beasley the former 2nd overall pick is averaging a career high 20.6 points and career high 2.1 assists. Retrospect is a beautiful thing but given his off the court track record the Raptors along with 27 other NBA teams were not willing to take the risk. There was also probably some thought in not wanting to help out Miami. They were desperate to unload him in order to construct their Big 3 and friends roster. Speaking of career highs Kevin Love has those in both points and rebounds. He leads the league averaging 15.7 rebounds and is averaging 21.6 points that is a heck of a double double. he is on a streak of 32 straight double doubles. They also have Darko so a lot of big bodies to deal with for Toronto and despite 10-36 record this could be tough match up.

The Basics: Raptors 13-34 (Last Win On Road Jan 5th) T-Wolves 10-36 (6-3 vs East at Home)

When Last We Saw Them: I was there live and in person to watch the Raptors fight hard to get to OT for first time this season. But the problem that was Andrew Bogut continued into overtime. The Big Aussie was far to much for Italy's finest and the Raptors went down to defeat for the 10th straight time first time since a streak from Mar-Apr of 2006. Amir Johnson had a warrior like performance worth noting with season high 24 points.

Key Match-Ups: Simple as this... the boards. Kevin Love is a beast on the glass and the Raptors minus Reggie Evans struggle to complete on the glass. If the Raptors can't rebound they are likely dead. If you don't get rebounds it is hard to get out in transition and run. Unless you create a lot of turnovers which is possible vs T-Wolves. Amir Johnson will likely draw the assignment of Love. They wouldn't put Andrea on him would they? No they can't do that. They just can't. Andrea might have enough issues with Drako who himself was a 2nd pick, one that Detroit still regrets to this day. The other concern will be Beasley who will see a combination of Sonny Weems and Julian Wright tonight.

Other Things of Note: Nothing to do with this game but I have been talking about the Raptors future being in Texas. Well read about your future as Ryan Wolstat from the Sun has a great feature on Cory Joesph and Tristan Thompson. Also of note the two latest members of team blackberry will be in the blog this week. That would be myself and Jack Armstrong. Going to catch up with Jack when the Raptors are in Atlanta. I just wanted to also say that in having access and getting to go in the locker rooms it really changes your prospective. You see how hard these guys are trying to shake this losing streak. It gives you a sense of empathy for them. That being said they know just as much as anyone that they have to break through and get a win some how some way.

Where is it on? TSN (What no post ALL-Star Draft Breakdown show? Shocking)