Final Score: ORL 104 – TOR 96.

Toronto looked to continue their winning ways today against Orlando, after a compelling win against Miami on Friday. The definition of compelling in this sense is “to win, but to do it in a way that goes opposite the grain of normalcy”. After nearly blowing a 20 point lead the other night, the Raps learned a valuable lesson. They realized they got a win, but also realized how thin that line is between winning and losing in the NBA. You need to put together a full 48 minutes of basketball to win on a consistent basis. I hope that was one focal point of Triano’s leading up to the game.

On paper, the Magic are a 10-3 team so far this season compared to the Raps 6-7 record. Regardless of whether the Magic softened (Stan Van the friendly man now) or the Raps toughened up, I did see a closer match early on compared to the last time these two teams played. Despite the difference in records, these two teams looked on the same level early. The Magic were putting a lot of focus into their outside game, and Howard was no factor early. Contrary, the Raps were taking it to the hole with a couple Jose drives, accompanied by some Bosh tenacity taking it hard into Howard looking to draw some fouls.

Vince Carter returned to the ACC in yet another uniform, but with the same warm welcome. To a chorus of boos, we saw VC versus the crowned “second coming” battle it up against each other. I don’t particularly like that tag put on DeMar by some analysts. We need this kid to grow into whatever he will become. He needs to become his own player for this team and not try to grow into the shoes of a ghost that haunts the ACC from time to time. I like what I saw with DeMar not backing down from Vince early. I wish he would have thrown down that alley oop with some fierceness straight outta hell, but what can you do. He battled, and helped hold VC to 2-11 shooting in the first. Success. After a quarter, TOR 28 – ORL 22. Do I see a basketball team finally?

In the second quarter, the Raps came out fast and strong building the lead up to 10. Then, before you know it, the game is tied again after Orlando goes on a 10-0 run. To be honest, I didn’t see too much that Toronto was doing wrong per se up to this point. Sure, there’s always things you can work on, but I don’t want to start getting negative and picking on every little thing. I think the Magic run was more so them starting to get back into what they’re good at. They got the ball into Dwight which not only got him started a bit, but it also created some open kick outs to Redick and Lewis who canned a couple jumpers. The Raps can’t forget to get on the glass though. Second chance points were hurting the Raptors in the second quarter when the Magic were going on their little drive. We also needed to focus a bit more on transition D on a consistent basis as these little lapses here and there slowly build up over the course of the game. When you go into half time competitive against the reigning Eastern Conference champions, you should be happy with that. But please, NO lapses in the second half – keep playing basketball. After 24 minutes, ORL 50 – TOR 49.

The Raps came out a little bit, okay a lot, flat in the second half. They were settling for the first shot they saw, and weren’t working the ball around to get easy looks. They seemed too reliant on Bosh creating his own shots as the offense ran stagnant. I saw a couple occasions where the ball was at the top in Jose’s hands for a good 10 seconds of the shot clock before we got into a set – this just can’t happen. If you wait this deep into the clock you end up scrambling for a good look, half of which usually are not ideal shots.

Orlando continued to hit the glass, completely owning Toronto on second chance points in the third. The Raps need to learn to limit this against teams like Orlando. When Bosh has to spend all of his energy focusing on containing Howard, the other Raps need to box out and hold it down. Too many times I saw balls tipped out to the perimeter into the Magic’s hands with no Raptors in sight. You need to box out, even if you’re near half court – it has to be a “that’s my ball” mentality. Amir Johnson came out with a burst of energy in the third quarter with a couple boards, points and drawing a charge on Howard. The Raptors needed this impact play as it wasn’t the ideal way they wanted to come out of the locker room. Despite all the imperfections seen in the 3rd, the Raps were in it. With a quarter left, a big one, the Raps and Magic were tied 76-76.

Why Raptors? Why do you do this to us? Where was the energy? Where was the enthusiasm? Where was the will to win? Where was the intensity? It looked like they just aren’t having fun out there at certain points in the game. Minus the quick little run to get within six points with about 3:00 left in the game, I saw no push from the Raptors. Once again we could not put together a full 48 minutes. We had the Magic on the ropes in the first half and didn’t close it out. Despite our flaws in the second half, we still found a way to be in the game. But then in the fourth, we can’t transition these building blocks to finish the game and we can’t deliver that closing punch. For once I just want to see the Raptors capitalize on a dazed opponent - like the good old Mortal Kombat video games, “Finish Him…”. We straight up just can’t do that.

I’m out of answers. I’m out of analysis. I’m fresh out of ideas on what to propose that would work for them. Today was a dull game. I didn’t really get that joy out of watching it after the first quarter. It’s almost like I expect that fall off in energy to happen and I am not surprised when it does. I wish I felt differently, but right now, after that game, I don’t.

Jordan Steffler
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Rizwan Jafri 2009-11-24 00:44:30 | Quote I agree with what you're saying on the Raps not putting together a 48 minute performance. It's pretty bad at times that it looks like you're seeing two different teams on the floor. On the other hand, they were missing Belinelli and Wright both who are pretty important to the rotation. It's easy to lose gas when the energy guys off the bench aren't there. This shows how important bench players really are. Raps will do better as the season goes don't you worry 0 0

Darren Bondy 2009-11-24 12:43:37 | Quote Nice Article Jordan! All valid points. What's most upsetting about this team for me is the fact that our starters just aren't bringing the intensity that they need to win. I know certain guys have different ways of getting pumped (i.e. when Bargs would just dunk on someone instead of actually showing any emotion) but for the most part, the starters are just lacking that same kind of energy and enthusiasm that guys like Johnson and Weems are bringing off the bench, the same energy that I expect Reggie to bring off the bench when he is healthy too. Albeit, I have to give Bosh some credit so far this season. His added bulk has helped him get to the rim and finish at the rim more and more which is exactly what he needs to do. As soon as he falls in love with that little 15 foot fade away jumper with the hand in his face, then that’s when I get upset. So far, so good this season though, and I am willing to bet he keeps it up the whole season (ahem contract year). We need his and the bench's energy and emotion and his willingness to attack the rim to rub off on the other 4 guys Triano is using to "close out" games. This unit Triano is using to finish games out is making me sick. How many more times are we going to have to watch this little J & J combo in the back court? I don't think he's quite figured it out yet. Jack and Calderon, do not play well when on the court together! They each have their own strengths and weaknesses when they're on the court individually, but if you throw them out their together it just hasn't been working. Forget about even talking about their lack of chemistry on the offensive end, defensively it is a disaster with those two out there together. Jack is a good (not fantastic) on ball defender with guards his size. He has not proven to be very good at stopping the opposing two-guard, so the backcourts of other teams are making them look stupid. And I am not even going to get into Calderon’s defense. Bottom line is, if this team wants to close out games, they need to grind it out on defense and be big on the boards and then on the offensive end they got to take it to the rim, settling for jump shots is only going to get you a handful of wins. But hey that’s enough from me for one post..I apologize for the length. This team just gives me enough to talk about right now, and not in a good way. Here's to hoping after tonight's game we are left with a little more positives than negatives going forward. Nice article man, looking forward to reading more. 1 0

imzz 2009-11-24 15:36:25 | Quote that was an okay game..im not gonna complain cuz i didnt expect us tog et a win vs. oralndo. But, what i wil complain about is Jose calderon's Defence, 1 night after letting mario chalmers score a career high 30 points on him...he comes out and lets Jason Williams who by the way came outta retirement this season, score a season high 16 points on him. From what I know defence starts with playing hard D against the guy bringing up the ball (point guard) if jose cant stop these average pgz on a nightly basis... thats going to be a big problem for the raps. TRADE JOSE 0 0