There is No O in Ugly

What can you say about last night in Boston and still have Santa bring you presents? The answer is not a lot. The Raptors could not register a basket in the first four and half minutes of the game. It would only slightly improve from there. At times you wondered if the Raptors indeed had any offence in place at all. Other times they seemed to be in such a hurry to play defence they would just chuck it up in a hurry. I mean glad they have bought into playing defence but that is a bit extreme. That new and improved Bargnani....Forget about it! Back to the Bargnani we all have become accustom to. Only 4 rebounds for him. That improved defence had a lot of leaks in it and did not travel well. Bargnani did have 20 points and was 7-17 from the field. Aaron Gray continues to depress with 0 points and 5 rebounds. DeRozan and Bayless struggled as well with Double D going 4-13 from the field and having 16 points he did have 10 rebounds to lead the team. While Bayless was 4-16 and had just 12 points with only 2 assists. Calderon wasn't any better with 6 points and just 2 assists.

You can look up and down the boxscore and be hard pressed to find anyone that you could consider had a good night. The Raptors once again looked much like a Raptor squad in the Kevin O'Neil Era. In fact maybe worse as they shot as a team 24-74 for 32.4%. It is pretty ugly and it sure isn't entertaining. The Raptors may make all those people that want them to lose happy. But the NBA Lottery has no guarantees and the damage a season like this could do to individual players could be significant. For those waiting on Jonas Valanciunas to arrive the kid no matter what you think of him is not a Savior. Raptors will have an opener on Boxing Day that you have to consider a winnable game for them. An effort like we saw in Boston and no game for this team will be considered winnable.

Dwane Casey has 5 days to convince us he really has an offence to install because to this point there is no evidence that he does. Coming out of this mini pre-season it is hard to feel encouraged about anyone at this point really. Boston is not going to be the world beaters they have been in past season and Paul Pierce didn't even play in either game for them.

The long season that everyone has been warning you about is on the verge of beginning. My suggestion is go enjoy the holidays and hang on to those good memories because you will need them to get through this season. No matter what uniforms the Raptors plan on wearing the guys in them are going to be challenged to remain competitive at best. The entertainment value on most nights will be non-existent. If you want entertainment catch a lot of Clipper games after the Raptors have probably lost.

For the record the Final Score read 81-73 Boston but it was not really that close. It is an allusion like the Raptors funky 3-D logo.

We here at the Dino Nation Blog will be taking the next few days off for the holidays and will be back on Monday for the Season Opener in Cleveland. Enjoy the time with friends and family and I wish all of you that support the Dino Nation Blog a very Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays which ever applies to you.

I will be showing up for our DNB Fantasy Draft tonight though. So best of luck to all that have signed up to take part in that. If you want to sneak in and join the draft you will need to find a buddy to join you. When you have a pair of people that want to join contact me @Dinonationblog and I will send you both the info to sign up. Reason for the buddy system is so we maintain an even number of teams and it does not mess up our draft from happening.