The “well, at lease we now know our coaches have more balls than our players” edition.
Banks – least he could have done is rushed on to the floor and attacked somebody. So what if they suspend him?
Bargnani – yikes. I said earlier in the day that if he remained in a haze, it would be a long night. He wasn’t in a haze, he was in a mineshaft with his helmet light on low. 7pts and 4rebs are actually overstating his game, if you can believe it. No passion except for one play where Garnett made him look like a bitch, KG clapped loudly and AB went up and walked right into him. Spellbinding stuff.
Belinelli – Marcoooooooo….come out and plaaaayyyyyyyyy. His play of late makes you wonder if he got a call from Don Nelson checking in to see how he liked Toronto. Much like Bargs, Beli gave us next to nothing tonight. You can’t disappear against great teams when you play on a good (bordering on mediocre) one.
Bosh – not a bad game, but max players find ways to not allow their teams to go 7 minutes without scoring and don’t step into the court while inbounding under your own basket. Granted, they didn’t get him the ball, but that is when you DEMAND the ball. Pull your guys in and remind them who the boss is. 20/13 against guys who normally own you is fine, but don’t let KG run roughshod over you early on and we keep this game close in the end. For that alone, he deserved the knee from Pierce. (okay, not really)
Calderon – poor start, a quick yank, but he did come back and play well on the offensive end. No surprise that Rondo made Jose look like a front door security guy at Best Buy on Black Friday, but at least Calderon didn’t make you groan each and every time Boston set up in the halfcourt. His turnovers continue to mount, though. 4 assists, 3 turnovers.
DeRozan – Lighthouse did no worse than anybody else (except Bargs). That one cut in the basket should end up on the Raptors internal hilight reel just to remind Jay that, you know, this kid is an athlete and might do some stuff with his hands on the ball.
Evans – faker….but you just know he wishes he was in Boston to say hello to Paul Pierce.
Jack – 18pts, 5 assists. He drove, he kicked, he committed a hard foul. The only thing he didn’t do was smack Andrea upside the head and ask “wtf?”. Solid game, played defense no worse than any of his backcourt mates, and tried to instil his will.
Johnson – on a 9-0 Boston run, and out of a timeout, who is the last person wearing a Raptor uniform you want to see running an offensive play? Like Reggie Evans, he needs to know his role: dig and put back, but don’t ever EVER think you are a ball handler or a run stopper.
Mensah-Bonsu – played 5 minutes of pretty munch inconsequential basketball. You know, I was wrong…he DOES deserve to be a Raptor.
Nesterovic – the difference maker. If not for Rasho, this would have been a 30pt blowout. Rasho played well enough to keep Andrea nailed to the bench in the fourth and was a major, if not the whole, reason we had a shot late in this game. He was boxing out, he was attacking on the boards and he was making chippies. Great game.
O’Bryant – insert blank stare here.
Turkoglu- offensively, he was a beast. 8 of 11 for 20 points. He was 2/2 from three in the first and actually made his shots look effortless. However, 7 turnovers. Yes, seven. Not that turnovers are ever good, but half of his were horribly timed and kept giving the Celts reason to live.
Weems – you know how useless a hat is in a tornado? Well, Sonny was a beenie in a hurricane.
Wright – another one of our X factor players that played like a z tonight. Would have been great to see him come out and light it up offensively, to feed off of being left fairly wide open. Instead: nothing. We need him against Phoenix. Time to bring it.
Driving The Bus: Rasho Nesterovic
Under The Bus: Andrea Bargnani
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