Which Raptors Show Up Today?

Inconsistency... definition - See Toronto Raptors. They say that all young teams are inconsistent but the Toronto Raptors took it to the extreme in their last two games. They beat the Chicago Bulls that were good enough to beat the Miami Heat the next day. Only to lose to Steve Nash and former Raptor Vince Carter in a game that was a blowout after the first four minutes if not sooner. Trade deadline is in the rear view mirror and the only help/hope the Raptors brought in was James Johnson. While the Knicks landed Carmelo and Nets who the Raptors will see in London England next weekend landed Deron Williams. You add all this together with a struggling Calderon that has lost his confidence to score. While Andrea Bargnani can score like Dirk, but he sure can't defend like him, or rebound like him most nights. Demar DeRozan continues to trend upwards but has the odd set back like he did on Friday as he got into foul trouble. Jay Triano post game blamed that on him being a step slow on defence. Something he said the entire team was. But as bad as this season has been the Raptors have shown flashes of brilliance. One of those flashes happen in Dallas taking care of the Mavericks in Dallas, something they had struggled to do for the better part of the decade. That was good news then but it probably will mean bad things today. Mavericks likely will be reminded of 84-76 loss heading into this one. When was the last time Raptors played defence anywhere close to that? It was a trick question the answer is that was the lowest point point total for an opponent this season vs Toronto.

The Basics: Dallas 42-16 (20-8 on Road) (2nd in NBA) Raptors 16-43 (5-22 in 2011)

When Last We Saw Them: We learned that V.C still sucks for most Raptor fans. But he also wins be it with the Suns, Magic or Nets and he did just that again in returning to Toronto. The Raptors as mentioned earlier were out of this one from almost the start. The only lead they had all night was 2-0. That says it all doesn't it?

The Match-Ups: When you play the Mavs it begins with Dirk and can you stop him. Remember the Peja Stojakovic era if you blinked you missed it. How about the Tyson Chandler Era? Oh wait that never happened did it. Jokes aside why are we mentioning them? The Mavs starting front court has Chandler at 7 foot 1, Dirk at even 7 feet and Peja at 6 foot 10 that offers a significant challenge to the Raptors who will need to deal with all that height. We have not even mentioned Jason Kidd who given how the Raptors point guards have played of late it, would not be surprising to see him turn back the clock. But the one true advantage the Raptors will have is DeRozan vs Beabois. DeRozan can win this match up without to much trouble if he is on his game.

Other Things of Note: It is #RTZ night at the game. What is that? Ryan explains to you for any of you that may not be familiar with it. It was nice to see a almost full house on Friday for Steve Nash. Attendance has been down and you only need to look at 43 losses as the reason why. Mavericks enter today on a 5 game winning streak and are trying to hold off the Lakers for 2nd place in the West entering play today. Lakers will be in action earlier in the day and I will be live blogging it for The Score Mobile and .com if you want to see a playoff re-match with the Thunder at 2:30 pm. Regardless of what the Lakers do it will be an important game the Mavs. Catching the Spurs might be out of the question as they sit 6 games behind them for first in the West. Raptors are in Ping Pong Ball standings and for those that follow that Raptors are a half game better than the Wizards. If the lottery was held today the Raptor would have the 5th best chance to win it behind the Wizards, Cavs, Kings and T-Wolves in not particular order.

Where is it on? Sportsnet 1 (Come on now, tomorrow is Hockey Stupid Day In Canada or as you may know it The NHL Trade Deadline Day did you real expect the Raptors on a main network? The Pre-Trade Deadline show is already on now I think so not a chance)

Bonus Note: It would appear Reggie Evans may just be back. Reggie just tweeted the following:

ReggieEvans30

2day is a big day LET'S GET ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

Could that mean anything other than a Reggie Return? It would fall in line with what he told us in the DNB as he said he needed a few practices with team to be ready to return. Raptors can sure take any help they can get. So you might hear some REGGIE REGGIE...Today at the ACC.