62 Ways To Get Your Butt Kicked In Philly

Think of the worst Saturday Night you had in your life. You got a clear picture of it in your mind? This game in Philadelphia might be worse than that. Jack Armstrong's jokes and funniness were the only things that would keep you sane at times. This was poorly played basketball game by both teams in the beginning and by the end just one team and that team was the Raptors. As bad as the Raptors were vs the Nets this was perhaps 10 times worse. Raptors failed to score 20 or more points in any quarter and had a season low 62 points. I thought the K.O comparisons were over but maybe not. K.O did manage to kill offence even worse than this. Three times under K.O the Raptors scored less or the same as tonight. The low mark a 73-56 classic loss to Minnesota on November 1st 2003 who ironically the Raptors play Monday. Also on my birthday (November 23rd) of that same year they only scored 62 points in a 82-62 loss to the Bucks. There was also a 60 point game as well that year. Andrea Bargnani scored 21 of the 62 points meaning the rest of the entire roster only managed 41 points in 4 quarters. Raptors as a team shot only 31.8%. Take Bargnani away and the Raptors shot 19-66 which is 28.7%. The Raptors failed to rebound last night but did improve on that tonight it was just everything else that sucked.

Rather than go through the blow by blow of this game which may cause people to lose their will to read. The Game although very hard to watch was close at times. The Raptors would actually come out of halftime and cut the Sixer lead down to 3. Doug Collins would call a time out and before you could blink the Raptors were down 12 and basically done from that point moving forward. Sixers outscored the Raptors 56-28 in the second half. It was awful and ugly.

The Raptors have picked the worst possible time to go cold as the chances of improving during this stretch of games is going to be tough from a physical stand point. Casey saying his team had effort but just gave in physically is not what you want to hear when the team is on the verge of the dreaded back to back to back. People were half joking and half fearful in wondering just how bad it would look by the end of this stretch of 7 games in 9 days when the Raptors face the Bulls and Pacers.

In a game like this one there is any number of players you could blame for it. But when you perform as a unit so horrible on offence really to single out individuals would be pointless. They as a collective group wearing red jerseys were awful. On a night where you wondered how the Raptors would respond they simply didn't.

If there are many more games like this one the Raptors may just make even their most loyal and passionate fans look away. There was nothing pretty about that performance in Philly. Safe to say the Raptors days of being a .500 team for this season are done. I will doubt they can ever get back to that mark again this season. Raptors improved defence has gone away to a great degree. Casey said he was seeing signs of how the Raptors played last season but even last season they could score some points. This season was never suppose to be fun and it is looking like it will be much as it was advertised, after the Raptors teased us with some reason to hope. Watching that game last night left you feeling hopeless.

So hopeless that is the original draft I forgot to post the final score which was 97-62 Sixers.