Raptors' Season Winding Down.

I am sure that at some point on a hot July day I will miss watching the Toronto Raptors. That is hard to bring into focus as this team limps their way home for another season. The lone ray of sunshine has been the play of Jonas Valanciunas who is on three game streak of double-doubles that he takes with him on the Raptors last multi-game road trip of the season.

Raptors have stops in Minnesota tonight and than on to Milwaukee tomorrow night and wrapping up in Chicago with the first half of a home and home with the Bulls. If the Raptors are to be taken seriously as playoff contender they need to get better on the road as they bring a 10-27 into this road trip.

Tonight’s opponent Minnesota has a similar record to the Raptors at 28-46 which is only good enough for 12 th place in the Western Conference. Minnesota is playing .500 basketball in their last 10 games and winner of two in a row.

Credit must be given to Rudy Gay for continuing to battle with bad back. It is admirable that he is still trying to play through this with nothing really of consequence to play for. It becomes a big concern moving forward that a player who is suppose to be in the prime of his career and is being paid a ton of money having back issues is a huge concern or should be for the Raptors.

Having had my on issues with back trouble from time to time it is something that is pretty unpredictable and it never truly is right. I have gone month’s pain free and than suddenly for no reason will have it flare up. We saw the great legendary Larry Bird have back trouble plague the end of his hall of fame career. The good news if there is any is that Gay seems determined to play through the pain and still has been somewhat productive at times.