The Raptors are desperate to find a win and despite the Suns struggles Phoenix might not be the place to do it. They are just 4-12 all time in Arizona and have not won since February 10th, 2004. A large reason for that was Steve Nash who the Raptors will get to see Friday. The Suns have struggled to a 21-39 but are on a roll of late winners of three straight. They are respectable at home as well with 14-15 home record.
The real problem for the Raptors of late has been defense. They got shelled in the final quarter with the Warriors surrendering 42 points. The addition of Andrea Bargnani to the starting line-up of late makes things tricky for Jonas Valanciunas. It has been proven time and time again the combination of the two on the floor defensively is terrible. Not to mention the way Amir Johnson is playing of late it is almost insane to keep him out of the starting line-up. He did have a tremendous performance off the bench.
The Raptors are in really the worst spot right now with having to accept the reality that their playoffs dreams are dead. In addition to that they are in a place that has never been kind to them on the west coast.
How they can get off the mat and getting things rolling in the right direction. There seems to be some real confusion on the direction the team is going. Alan Anderson continues to see time and Terrence Ross struggles and is not getting much time to work things out. Ask yourself who is more important to the Raptors future going forward. Ask yourself Alan Anderson who has his contract up after this year or Terrence Ross on the second year of his rookie deal?
The Raptors win or lose have to change the focus to the future. You can debate if getting Andrea Bargnani going again is part of that. I think that no matter what he does good or bad his trade value is never going to get back to what should have been. The Raptors have missed the boat in getting any true value for him. What also has been made perfectly clear is this marriage with the Raptors needs to end.
Some feel the same way about this season at this point. It is still an important time for getting this team pointed in the right direction heading into next season. Tonight in Phoenix is one of those games this team is talented enough and should win against a team like this.
Will see if they can pick themselves up and dust themselves off and get a win.
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