Raps Roll Into Motor City

Raptors will be busting out those ugly green uniforms tonight. I have never been a fan of those. Makes them look like the Celtics. If it made them play like Celtics I would be in favour of them. The Raptors and the Pistons are both going through hard times. Earlier this season Detroit had a revolt against it's coach and he only played 6 players in a game in response. Can we hope for another revolt tonight? Probably not. Amir Johnson the former Piston has remained back in Toronto. He tweaked his other ankle in practice according to reports. He is doing a nice thing for you fans that have supported him this season though. He has organized a pretty cool contest for 50 fans to hang with him. Check out the details here. He has really embraced Toronto at a tough time to do it. He deserves a lot of credit for that as much as he does for being a warrior for this team this season. When Amir Johnson isn't playing in a game, people because of knowing type of guy he is, never question it for a second.

The Basics: Raptors 18-48 (Lost 13 in A Row on Road) Pistons 23-44 (16-17 at Home)

When Last We Saw Them: Raptors battled with the Bobcats but off nights from Andrea Bargnani and Demar DeRozan was just to much for the Raptors to over come. Reggie Evans tried to will the team to a victory but they fell short and Bobcats got an important win for their playoff chances.

Key Match Ups: Good rookie battle with Greg Monroe the former Hoya taking on Ed Davis the former Tar Heel getting the start for the injured Amir Johnson. Monroe is having a good rookie year averaging 8.5 points and 7 boards a game. Davis in less games has averaged 7 points and 6.8 boards per game. This will be a good test for Davis with someone at the same level as him in Monroe. Whenever Tracy McGrady sees those old Raptor uniforms it tends to fire him up. Maybe the green jerseys will throw him off. He makes up the back court with Richard Hamilton who has been living in the Dog House in Detroit. He was rumoured to be heading to the Nets in the Mello deal that never was. He has been benched for many games this season racking up more DNP-CD's than points at times. It makes for an odd match-up for the Raptors. I am not sure I want Jose Calderon guarding T-Mac. So perhaps we see DeRozan on him. Some people (I being on of them) see a lot of McGrady's game in DeRozan.

Other Things of Note: We are having fun with March Madness on Yahoo and on The Score.com with Bracket Buster. Once you have signed up on The Score join our group DNB Madness the password is dnb4life. As for Yahoo, if you have a Yahoo account already just click on the link and join are group. If not make a Yahoo account and then just click on it. I love March Madness. I will share a couple personal stories with you as to why. When I was little back in the old days the only games we would get in Canada were the late games on Thursday and Friday. They started at 11:35pm well past my bedtime. But every March Break, I would go spend time with my Grandmother, and bless her heart she would make all my favourite snacks and go to bed and let me stay up and watch. March Madness always reminds me of her as a result. In modern times it has become a family tradition for my mom (Who knows nothing about College Basketball) to fill out brackets and try and beat me, who does know some things about College Basketball. She did win one year based on an incredible run by the LSU Tigers led at the time by current Celtic Glen "Big Baby" Davis. We don't have any prizes it is all for fun. So join in the fun and sign up.

Update: Had a chat with our Friends at St Louis Wings they are coming up with something for the winner of our Yahoo Bracket Pool. I did it for that one because The Score one does have prizes from The Score available. I will share details on what you can win in blog tomorrow or if you can't wait that long when I find out will tweet it as well.

Where Is It On? TSN 2 (I screwed up on this one and that is no joke)

How Bad Was It? Breaking Down The West Coast Trip

I may need my head examined to have done this. But I decided to sit down and crunch some numbers of this past 3 game road trip out west. So here are some of the scary numbers:

• Raptors lost by an average of 26.3 points in the 3 games
• Raptors allowed 358 points an average of 119.3
• Raptors only scored 279 points for an average of 93
• Raptors shot only 39.5% (104-263)
• Raptors 3 opponents combined shot 53.9% (145/269)
• From 3pt Range Toronto was 33.8% (20-59) opponents were 40% (22-55)
• Raptors were out rebounded by an average of 50.6 -34
  
• On offensive glass it was 10.6 - 8.6
• The Raptors only bright spot was they out shot opponents from the line on avg 82.2% - 75.4%

There are lots of scary numbers in that mix. The most shocking of which is the shooting. The Raptors as a team our suppose to be a team with a lot of dangerous shooters. It is suppose to be the strength of this club. But you see no evidence of that in these stats. The obvious is of course the lack of defense and the glaring difference on the glass. I also looked at turnover numbers which were fairly close actually but it is a case of when they were being made. The fact these were blow out games offer reserves that are in general more prone to make turnovers extra time on the floor. So those numbers did not reflect the true numbers in my view.

That is the stats but basketball is only in part stats to me. They are the evidence that people use to make their points. But seeing as these are humans and not robots we need to look at the human aspects. Those are just as disturbing as well. In the process of this trip as we all know Sam Mitchell was fired. That was done for a lot of reasons. But the one main reason you make a coaching change is to get the attention of your team. Also the next game the Raptors would play was on ESPN in the United States. I am not sure what that means to guys like Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani. But even they understand it is a big deal. So you had a brand new coach and you were playing on National T.V. That would be a clear combination that should energize a team. But much like in Denver that energy lasted all of 2 minutes.

Something is fundamentally wrong with this Raptor team. What it is I can not tell you. No one in the established media says that they see any kind of problems in the locker room. I mean it is kind of like the Raptors have been turned into pod people. I say that joking around but seriously if this was happening to you wouldn't you be angry? I would. I'd like to see J.O kick a trash can, or Jose chuck a gatorade bottle at halftime. Show me some kind of anger and emotion. I am begging you. But the way things have gone for the Raptors if J.O kicked the can he would break his foot. The gatorade bottle who hit Bosh in the head and cause him to forget how to play basketball. Maybe that would not be a bad thing. Forget all of it. The expectations, The M.V.P talk, the future. Just worry about this next game. Worry about getting 1 win and not 50 wins.

I do not envy Jay Triano the task he has seems to be a hard one. This team has lost it's way and is in need of some kind of energy injected into it. Everything that has happened is making everyone look backwards instead of forward. Did the Raptors pick the right point guard? Did they make a good trade to get J.O? Was is worth risking the cap space for two years? What is Chris Bosh thinking and what is Bryan Colangelo thinking? Is Colangelo losing the heart and mind of his star player? Can he get it back if he has?

Raptor fans are getting frustrated and angry. But if you listen to Charles Barkley he would say we only have ourselves to blame. I base this on his recent comments that the Raptors are a good team but basically a .500 team and people who had higher expectations had been wrong to think that. Kenny Smith went further in attacking Jose Calderon and saying that he was a first rate back-up point guard in this league. That is a far cry from the best point guard in the Eastern Conference and deserving All-Star talk in Toronto until very recently. Chris Webber also chimed in but he also was on the record as calling the Raptors his surprise team earlier in the year. So he seems to flow with the way the wind is blowing.

To me all of this can be summed up in one word PRIDE. A classic example of that was shown in the NBA last night. Kevin Garnett who is a guy that I may respect but do not like. He got in the face of Glen Davis to the point he made him cry. Garnett demands accountability from his team and he is willing to make sure it happens by any means necessary. Maybe to extreme but still. Chris Bosh and Jermaine O'Neal how bout showing some of that to your team. I remember Bosh laying into a young Andrea Bargnani in his rookie year. He didn't make cry but the point was made. This Raptor team seems to accept it's fate far to easily of late. Someone in that locker room has to say enough and instill some pride into this Raptor team. Without that this team will be doomed to be at best a .500 team just praying and hoping that will be good enough to make the playoffs.

I did get to have a positive thing to do despite all of this negative stuff going on. I was able to contact our contest winner Brett. He is going to be taking his final exam of the his semester at Western. He will be able to focus on the fact he is going to be seeing the Return of T.J Ford with me. I hope that a lot of folks have learned just how important T.J Ford was over these past few weeks. He deserves to get cheers from the crowd at the A.C.C when he returns. I am not thinking that will happen but I will be at least on person that will clap my hands for him. I am not going to get into a Calderon vs Ford rant but let's just say without Ford you can see just how special that combination was together here in Toronto. Forderon was really a great combination and when we look back on this season if it goes wrong many may wonder if we should have tried to keep that together. Were there issues between the two and the team? Absolutely but the team has some serious issues right now. It is just a case of if those issues could have been worked through. At this point you may even wonder if it was a terminal case that could not be solved if the Raptors should have taken the risk on Ford. But this is all could have and what if. Raptors can not worry about any of that. They also can not wait for Bryan Colangelo to make a trade to save the day. Sam Mitchell being fired was meant to send a message and to this point the message still has not been answered.

It is not as much that the Raptors have lost 3 games as much as it is about how they have lost. Win or lose on Sunday against Portland the effort and energy must improve. That is the only way out of this whole. Chris Bosh wants to be a leader and an M.V.P well that is done through helping you team recover from tough times like these. It is his team by being the franchise player and he needs to address his team and let them know this is not acceptable. That is the first step on the road back.