No Pierce/Garnett/Rondo, no problem…for the Celtics that is. What a waste of a Saturday night, and so much for that winning streak. I really thought the Raptors wouldn’t have much of a problem last night with the caveat that they come out focused and determined. I had a bad feeling about Tony Allen, not because he’s a Raptor killer (he isn’t), but because he is exactly the kind of hustle player who the Raptors always sleep on when they should have their foot on his throat. It’s actually textbook how this team reacts under these kinds of circumstances; they show up in body, not mind.
Call me crazy, but this loss may have hurt me more then the Atlanta blowout because of what it says about this franchise. It says that the 5-game winning streak we were on was the result of playing teams worse then us, and nothing else. It confirms that this team folds when challenged from the tip. This is a team that doesn’t have much strategy, can’t follow what little strategy it has, and is not constructed to win tight games that require you to dig in your heels and bleed. I know I’m getting dramatic, but this is how I feel – that AltRaps and the rest of his Girl Guide troop could give the Raptors a run for their money.
The Raptors front court must have been licking their chops heading into this one. With Garnett and Pierce out, Bosh and Bargnani had open season to attack the Celtics all game. Perkins is a tough sonabitch, but Wallace is an out of shape old man who’s best years were over with 3 years ago. What happened? Perkins got into early foul trouble that limited his aggressiveness in the 1st quarter, but the Raptors didn’t continue to attack him for some reason. In fact, they only had success when they drove the ball, but far too often in the first quarter, Bargnani would pop a jumper and bail out Perkins or Wallace from playing any real defense.
This was the point where I knew we weren’t going to win this one. When we didn’t continually attack Perkins/Wallace. After these two, the Celtics would have only had Shelden Williams, Big Baby and Scalabrine to carry the load up front. Triano’s strategy should have been “drive the fricken ball every single time straight down their throats until they get into foul trouble.” With those two out, Ray Allen wouldn’t have got so many good looks from all over the floor, and the game would have been over. Instead, we saw jumper after jumper.
Jack and Turkoglu did another great job of creating for everyone else. They moved the ball around, found the open guy (usually rolling off the high screen) and scored from enough points on the floor to keep their check honest. Banks even contributed in this department.
This loss came down to how points were being scored by each team:
Toronto:
Shots at the rim: 9-19
Shots <10 feet: 3-7
Shots between 10 to 15 feet: 5-10
Shots between 16 to 23 feet: 10-20
Three point shots: 8-15
Boston:
Shots at the rim: 17-22
Shots <10 feet: 7-13
Shots between 10 to 15 feet: 3-4
Shots between 16 to 23 feet: 3-15
Three point shots: 6-16
The Celtics hammered it inside, almost hitting more shots at the rim then the Raptors took. The closer you get to the rim, the better chance you have of hitting the shot, or drawing a foul (or both). The Raptors miserably failed in this regard. Yeah we shot well from the perimeter, but we have lost far more games because of our shooting then we have won.
This tells the tale really, the Raptors shot the ball well, but the Celtics did all the things necessary to win a game: they out-rebounded, protected the ball and got to the free throw line more effectively then the Raptors did.
Outside of Bosh/Bargnani/Jack/Turkoglu, no other Raptor did anything of note. AltRaps had a plethora of choices of who to throw under the bus. It was so bad that Triano actually started Pops in the 4th quarter. I’m not saying this was a good decision, because it wasn’t. In fact, Triano did a poor job when it came to match-ups and substitutions. At one point, both Pops and Banks were on the court at the same time in hopes that Jah would intervene and help us out. Didn’t happen…shocking I know.
I could have lived with all of this if only their bench didn’t outplay ours. You would figure that a shortish bench that lost three guys to the starting lineup because of injury wouldn’t be able to outshine a bench that was fully intact (Evans hasn’t played all year, so we aren’t missing anything).
Boston – 34pts 11rebs 9ast
Toronto – 21pts 6rebs 6ast
It’s games like this that I question the Raptors being a top 5 talented team in the East.
This brings me to Jack’s post-game interview. During this diatribe he talked about a piss poor effort and how they didn’t follow Triano’s game plan. How the hell do you not do what the coach tells you to do? I understand not getting the result from a play you want, but not doing what Triano says? How is this team so inconsistent from game-to-game? For the second time this year, Jack has called this team out, and alluded to Triano not being able to lead this bunch.
Huge opportunity to beat the Celtics was pissed away. Doesn’t matter that they were shorthanded, this could have helped the Raptors get over this mental hurdle they have with Boston. Way to sieze the moment and ruin our Saturday night, thanks guys.
85 Raps
Totally agree, well put.
The Raps are just way to soft. Where is the killer instinct that says “these guys are missing their 3 studs and we’re gonna hammer them!!” Instead we came in and watched Allen go off and have Big Baby push us around. Hopefully when Reggie gets back he can interject some toughness.
Another thing that bothers me is when a player like Allen goes off in this game. Everyone knows that the only way we can lose this game is if Allen goes off so “lets get in his grill!!” How about Wright or Weems bodying up? I guarantee you they will eat an elbow or 2 but I also guarantee that Allen will be much less of a factor. We gotta toughen up and lay some lumber on those who attempt to go off on us. Our opponents know we are soft and they have no fear of getting cracked on their way to the hoop….we must put some fear in them.
We have plenty of talent, we just gotta get tougher and not let our opponents walk all over us. How about a little swagger Raps?
All Ray Allen did was go off baseline screens… It had to be the most simple play and yet we didn’t even have to effort to stop it.
Shoulda put a body on him. Get up in his chops and make him work to score. I bet he would slow down. He was going around like he was still an all-star, he’s not. Punish the old man physically. I guarantee you he would do it to us. He gets his lick in…like the rest of the Celts. It drives me nuts how they physically challenge us on every play and we fold against an older skilled guy like Allen. He knows that he owns us. We got to put an end to those types of attitudes. Get in his face and make him work. You’ll eat an elbow…I guarantee it, he’s dirty, but that’s what it takes to win. Question is…how bad do the Raps want to win?
Will everybody stop f#cking talking about Reggie Evans making this team tougher. He is not Kevin Garnett. When he played in Philly, were people talking about how tough a team Philly is…not that I recall. It’s like Philly saying they’re gonna be a better 3-point shooting team with Kapono. He’s averaging one 3-pointer a game. Reggie Evans is a role player that will bring some interior toughness…that is all. He is not gonna make Bosh, Bargnani, Turkoglu et al tougher…and whoever thinks this is either an idiot or an eternal optimist.
I think he’ll make em much tougher. He and Bargs were having some solid on-on-one battles at practice before he got injured. Practice becomes a battle when Reggie is there. It’s unfortunate they have had to play without him for this long and I can’t wait to see him in the line-up.
Evens is a tough and rugged competitor and the Raps are sorely lacking in this category. When teams such as the Celts start trying to bully the Raps you can bet Reggie will be right there. I remember Jordan going at Xavier Daniels of the Knicks to show that his team wouldn’t be pushed around. Daniels was the big dog and Jordan knew the effect that standing up to him would have for his team.
Evans will definitely have his teammates backs. This will give the Raps much more confidence in those down and dirty games.
I gotta laugh at how a lot of people on this forum change their attitude more than their underwear.
Rap have a 5 game win streak and everyone is singing their praises, loose 1 against Boston and the world is going to blow up.
Boston is our boogey team, all way has been, probaly always will. All teams have them and it doesn’t matter that Pierce, Garnett and Rondo were out, It is a mental thing that I was hoping would be broken, but not this time.
BTW they just beat the Spurs.
quite a rant i must say.
the raptors are pussies, I think everyone already knows this,.. Im not sure why we have to beat the horse dead after every uninspired loss.
They are however winners of 5 of their last 6. even though the competition wasnt the best… believe me when I say.. the raptors are not in the same leaque as the Celtics.
The officiating in the 2nd half last night was a disgrace. you cant as an officiating crew let one team bully the other but then not return the priviledge to the other team at the other end.
Very suspect officiating to say the least.
And Im not making excuses for the Raps… they arent that good, that is why they lost. But something has to be said about how the Celtics get away with playing so aggressive (fouling on nearly every possession)
Blame the refs? If the Celts can foul on every possession lets do the same!! Maybe this crew of refs don’t mind a bit of rough stuff but lets not do some banging ourselves. Lets just sit back and wine about how we never got calls. It looks like not only the Raps are soft, so are some of their fans, hey Razor? Your name certainly doesn’t suit your blog. Until the Raps decide to toughen up, they will continue to be mediocre. You can call it a dead horse if you want but the fact is it’s true.
Here here. IF every other team gets away with “rough” interior play, why don’t the Raptors try it. We probably wouldn’t get those light fouls called on us if we were actually aggressive 100% of the time. The ref’s realize and see effort! I think they unconsciously make calls against the effortless team, because the fouls are so obvious and usually caused from lazy play.
Maybe the Raps get some bad calls according to the RULES, but according to the NBA they need to up their attitude and play with some heart. Being able to play for millions of dollars is a privilege, and can end a lot quicker than it started.
Amen Paul. Blaming the refs is the easy way out. If the Raps were the aggressors they would get more calls too. Way to soft last night….way to soft.
The refs won´t (and can´t) call a foul EVERYTIME there is contact, so chances of getting away with playing hard EVERYTIME are pretty high.
if you, like the raps, sleep half of the time on defense, you will get called for a foul if you try to play hard..
exactly right. its all about toughness and meanness. Diving for loose balls – elbows- no easy dunks. Too many pansies on the raps. Bosh is gone anyway- so how bout augmenting tuk and bargs with a tough guy- Boozer? or two tough guys- baby davis and perkins. (and a draft pick)
Did anyone see Jack tear a strip off of Belly after he failed to recover late in the strech? It looked like a Time out was called and Jack went to Belly only to be stopped by Banks, after some words Jack moved Banks out of the way and got into Belly’s face. Maybe I’m wrong, or maybe I was hoping for something so bad that I imagined it.
Can anyone else confirm this? I thought this should have been highlighted after the commercial but neh.
I caught that too. He was tearing into Belli a bit (which was good to see) but it was also good to see him smack him encouragingly at the end to say “let’s go”. You need to hold your team accountable and I was glad he did it.
Marco got completely destroyed on a screen while covering Ray Allen. He flopped to the floor and didn’t get up.
I think it’s more telling that the Raps never set a screen like the one Belinelli ran into. THAT’S how you get guys open.
I swear you guys expect a W every game.Typical RR over-reaction to a loss. Even good teams drop games. The Celtics minus 3 starters are still a better ball club than the Raptors so everyone stop cutting your wrists.
Teams like Dallas drop games to lesser teams do you think their fans suddenly turn on them? No they shrug it off and go for the next W.
This is why I hate being a fan of this team sometimes.
Love the site but not after a loss.it just gets silly
Unacceptable answer for a fan.
” Even good teams drop games ” Minus their 3 starters they are NOT a better team.
As a fan you have to demand better, if not, you accept losing, you still pay tickets to see the games, you still buy that hat…the management will NOT put out better because you accept they suck year after year and that is not good. Fight the power and demand better from your team.
“Minus their 3 starters they are NOT a better team.”
Somehow, I think they just proved that they are.
That does not make them a better team. That just shows how soft the Raptors are. The Celts could still bully us with two of their biggest dogs out of the game. Our toughness is much more questionable than our talent. Talent is skill, toughness is an attitude. We just need to adjust our attitude…hopefully Reggie will be back soon.
It doesn’t help when Johnson plays only 10 mins.
In that 10 mins. he shot 4 foul shots. Made 3.
He’s causing Boston problems and Triano sits him.
Explain that one.
Please stop with this Reggie Evans toughness bullshit…see above rant.
Agreed — Raptors were the better team
In terms of ability I thought the Celtics were closely matched with the Raptors if Hedo Turkoglu didn’t play. But with Hedo on the court, the Raps should have won. They simply had more talent than the C’s have.
A disappointing loss.
I gotta challenge you here Mathodical. I love the Raps, I never miss a game. I am almost always a positive blogger too (you’ll never see me blog bad about Jose) but there is absolutely no excuse for this loss. Without KG, Pierce, and Rondo the Celts are nothing. An 82 game season with last nights lineup would equal the #1 pick in the lottery, or at least the worse record in the league.
I don’t always get silly after a loss but I think everybody should be getting silly after this one. That was horrible. If we are a game away from the playoffs at the end of the season, this is the game I’ll look back to as the blame. There are certain games you just gotta win, this was one of them.
A few things
- The Celtics were still favored by the oddsmakers going into the game, regardless of their injuries.
- the Celtics have way more depth than then this board is giving them credit for. Allen and Wallace are hall-of-famers who stepped up their games to compensate for the absence of starters.
- It is easy to rage at Bargnani and Bosh however they are the least of the Raps problems last night – the Raptors complimentary players (Weems, Wright, Belinelli, DeRozan, and Johnson)did SFA. They couldn’t score and they couldn’t contain Allen or House. Why this collection of unproven players is viewed as ‘talented’ is beyond me.
In summary I think it is BS to say The Raps have more than enough talent and only if they tried harder they would somehow be a top tier team.
When the going gets tough…the tough gets going. If the Raps could embrace this concept things would be much different.
The Raptors are a talented team.
Not talented enough to be an upper echelon team
Talented enough to smoke the Celtics team last night.
i´m a hawk, if only i could fly
“Talented enough to smoke the Celtics team last night.”
What game were you watching???
For those of you who keep saying the Raptors have a lot of talent. Look around the league…open you’re f#cking eyes and notice all of the other talented teams that suck too!
I contend that the Celtics even minus their top three players are still better than the Raptors on paper. Look at it like this: Ray Allen was the best perimeter player on the floor last night and he would be the best on the Raptors period. Rasheed and Perkins, while not as offensively gifted in total as Bosh or Bargnani, are better overall (when Rasheed is on his game that is) when you total together rebounding, individual and team defense, passing and scoring. And Glen Davis is better than anyone coming off the bench for Toronto, Eddie House is as well. If you took the top six players from the Celtics last night, Ray Allen, Rasheed, Perkins, Tony Allen and Glen Davis, they are better than Bosh, Turkoglu, Bargnani, Jack, Derozan and Belinelli. I mean, you have to strain to find the last two Toronto players which says a lot about the talent level.
You’re a waste Jerry. You must’ve loved the result last night. I figure you’re either a Celtics fan, a s**t disturber, or just clueless. No matter which one it is your argument is bogus. You are clueless.
If the Raptor played the exact same team last night 10 games,I figure that Celts would win at least 7 of those games…You are the one that is clueless.
Yeah, you would.
No excuses but Celtics are simply a better team……period.
Last night Nuggets without Melo and Billups beat Utah at Utah(full team).
No excuse for the Raps but if your a better team your a better team and it shows.
Then you don’t understand anything about basketball. We were rested, we had a five game winning streak, they missed 3 starters and us only one, they lost 3 games in a row, we lost 9 consecutive games to them. All the ingredients for a morale boosting victory were there. And what did we do? We play without a plan, we play without heart, and we lose to them. Again. Unexcusable.
My last comments about this team:
1. BC’s project in Toronto has failed. In my opinion not so much because of the players he brought in (even though a lot of his moves are questionable) but because of the coaches he employed. I am of the opinion that regardless of the players the coach is responsible for getting the best out of them. Which brings me to point number 2:
2. Triano is way over his head.I still cannot believe that after supposedly emphasizing defence in training camp and enunciating that the two things he will focus as a coach will be defence and rebounding that we are last in NBA in DRtg. That’s 100% on him.
3. We have the wrong franchise player. CB4 is a good guy and a very good offensive player however he’s a lousy leader and folds in clutch time. He is big in small games and small in big games.
4. Bargnani should be our franchise player at the 4 and coupled with a tough Center that protects the paint and fights for offensive rebounds.
One more comment about the fanbase: once I thought that the rise of Internet will make people more expressive and thus more knowledgeable. I hoped people getting exposure to different articulated points of view will become more tolerant and more civilized. Unfortunately I have noticed an increase in partisanship and agenda-driven attacks “ad hominem”. On this site and all the other basketball sites there are a lot of fans who take pleasure in hating and demolishing players for real or imaginary faults. It was quite a spectacle to observe during these last 5 games the hate on Calderon from pretty much the same people who “preferred” TJ and now love without conditions DeRozan. My advice to them: open your minds, people. It doesn’t matter the colour of the skin for any player: just understand structured basketball and the roles of coaches and each player in every game.
“We have the wrong franchise player [...] He is big in small games and small in big games.”
Which brings me back to ask just which franchise player should we have? If you’re holding out for LBJ/Wade/Kobe, good luck!
You’re forgetting that in “big games”, where I’m assuming the other team’s defensive intensity is up, if nobody else on the team is doing anything, it’s really easy to put an extra man on him. Even Garnett never did it alone, and Bosh is no Garnett. I shudder to think what we would have said if the Timberwolves were our team back then — probably something like “Garnett isn’t a franchise player; he plays to pad stats.”
“I thought that the rise of Internet will make people more expressive and thus more knowledgeable”
Good grief.
1. Raps aren’t last in DRtg. They are 28th, just under Phoenix.
2. ALVIN GENTRY IS IN OVER HIS HEAD! Not actually.
3. http://www.82games.com/0809/CSORT11.HTM
‘Clutch’ stats from 08-09. Bosh is rated 19th and is the 3rd rated PF behind Dirk and Zac Randolph.
4. Bargniani plays more efficiently at centre, nearly +5 PER.
But the Suns have had a successful system for 5+ years now. Gentry isn’t implementing a new one from scratch, just continuing what they had. Plus he has some dude named Steve Nash to run the system..
My point about Gentry was that his 27th rated defense doesn’t mean he’s in over his head.
How is this an over-reaction? Good teams do drop games, even to bad teams, but the Raptors have done nothing but that all season.
What would you have us say after a loss? Do us all a favour and don’t come back after a loss, thanks man.
Memo to Mathodical
hey pal, you do realize that Boston was WITHOUT KG, Pierce, and Rondo last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it because of clueless fans like yourself that BC and Triano still have a job
I said it yesterday that the Raps HAD to beat Boston. Out of the next three games we HAD to beat Boston! Some people wrote me back saying that the Boston game wasn’t the important one but maybe that S.A. or Orlando should be the teams to think about because the injuries made it almost… unfair. That is what the WHOLE Toronto team did…look past the Boston game. Now the doubts are back from fans and from the team itself. This team is missing something that other teams have… BALLS and you can’t trade for that!!!
Look back before the game started and the Raps are in the huddle talking to Triano and what does DeRozan do? A BIG YAWN…boring…could be somewhere else…don’t want to play…not very exciting playing a crappy Boston team. Bench him, played like crap and it’s time to start someone else. Triano has to send a message that last night was UNACCEPTABLE!!!! Is there some back room, handshake deal with BC that DeRozan HAS to start every game? Someone has to come in and talk to this team about being a gritty, balls out team and until this team starts playing like they give a shit, we will forever be watching a team that has 3 starters out beat us.
Perkins and Rasheed Wallace summed up the Raptors “toughness” best last night, referring to what Jack said pre-game about needing to go into Boston and make “them respect us”. Doc Rivers showed his entire team Jarrett Jack’s quotes before the game.
“Doc’s always giving us motivation and he brought up whatever Jarret Jack said about being the bullies,” explained Perkins. “Doc brought it up today, and it helped a lot, guys got really focused. We decided we were going to be the bullies today.”
Wallace, not surprisingly, had the strongest comments on the matter.
“It’s just my personal opinion, but there’s only a few teams in the league that play physical, and they’re not one of them,” said Wallace.
I can’t stand anyone on the Celtics team…. but Sheed’s statement is absolutely true.
Excellent post anon.
Triano should have compiled a video of highlights where the Celts are bully the Raps. I wonder if it would have mattered. If we are afraid to step on the court with these guys we will never beat them…this holds for playing many other teams too.
I hate how the Celts push us around. What’s the Raps major fear? There’s no fighting in basketball? Whats the worse that can happen? The Red Rocket stood up to KG in Toronto and the fans gave him a standing ovation as he exited the court. We gotta stand up to these bullies. I can’t wait til Reggie returns. He may be a savior for our team of softies.
That’s an example of a coach motivating a team to play a certain way, something you would think Triano would be trying to do every single day with this group of “softies”.
I’m not there and I can’t say whether he does or not, but judging by what we do see of Triano I get the impression that he is lacking in that department – the ability to motivate players.
I get the feeling that there are coaches out there who would be putting their foot up the asses of some of these guys after what we’ve seen at times this year. But instead we get Triano making excuses in the post-game chats.
I’ve said it before, I like the guy as a person, but I can’t stand him as a coach.
You shall be watching one of those coaches tonight. Try and imagine what Popovich would do to his team (with help from Duncan) if his team ever turtled. They NEVER give up. Its a mindset and the Spurs have always had it SInce Buford and Pops have been there. Of course it helps when there is someone on the floor who assists.
Hmmm …. I PVR’d this game last night. I think I’ll save myself those couple hours and find something else a little more productive to do instead this afternoon. :(
“but this loss may have hurt me more then the Atlanta blowout because of what it says about this franchise.” Ditto. I feel exactly the same way.
Fact is that if the Celtics front line starters and reserves played for the Patriots, the Patriots wouldn’t suffer for it except for lack of NFL experience.
The one Celtics – Magic game I have seen this year, King Kong Kendrick turned Superman into Lois Lane. Well not quite but I think the point was made.
The only way to beat the Celtics on almost all nights is to run and gun to get their footballers winded. Unfortunately the Raptors forced very turnovers that led to fast break baskets and the same could be said for the for run outs on rebounds.
The Raptors were only able to keep it close last night because they shot well behind the arc, but at the end of the game except for Jack’s one three I believe the Raptors didn’t get another.
Andrea made the last 3 pointers with about one minute to go and made the score 95-99 .
Turnovers: If instead of 4 turnovers each for Bosh and Jack they had made 2 only (more or less their season average) . the game might have been won/lost only with the last basket.
had made only 2 more>>
———-
Yes playing against the Celtics bench minus Daniels and only 2 starters.
With only Calderon missing from the Raptors active list.
What about Bargnani only grabbing 4 rebounds? What about the bench shooting 6-17? Play Pops for 4 minutes in the 4th? There are a lot of factors that led to this, not just Jack and Bosh turning the ball over a couple more times then they normally do.
Agreed. Only a total team collapse could explain losing to the players the Celtics had last night. Although nobody stepped up I think the team leaders should shoulder most of the blame. I see Triano and Bosh as being responsible for getting everyone else going.
These are NBA players getting paid millions, nobody should have to “get them going”. They either want it or they don’t.
Not true, it doesn’t matter what level you attain in your profession, there are always those that can push you to achieve more.
And it’s human nature that we sometimes need leadership, motivation, or a swift kick in the ass at times, even if we are making millions doing it.
How the fuck does your 7′0″ Center only have 4 rebounds in a game that means so much to the team? I can’t believe this guy gets away with so much without people calling him on it. The blame seems to always fall on Bosh which is quite ridiculous. Numbers don’t lie. I don’t think there’s any reason he shouldn’t be grabbing at least 8 boards a game… I want a center that plays D, rebounds, and shows toughness. No more of this Sally nonsense!
for the life of me, I don’t understand why people are so hung up on rebounds. In many cases, the ball just lands in your hands if you are under the basket. Yes, Andrea’s rebounding numbers should be better but there is nothing wrong with his defensive effort over the past 6 or 7 games. Bargnani’s man to man defense is good and he is often covering smaller players. His help defense is improving as well. He was not the problem last night
His man to man defense is *good*?
Rebounds aren’t important, for a *center*?
Are you related to Bargs or something? I don’t see how you can honestly believe the above, unless you are his cousin.
Ripp, I agree Bargnani’s rebound numbers should be better but his man to man defense is not a problem. In fact, I would argue it is better than Bosh’s although Bosh is a obviously a superior rebounder. I am not his cousin but the critism he takes is ridiculous
his man to man is getting better, but rebounding is not that important ? wtf.
ditto
to Ripp not to Don.
If you think Barg’s defence s better than Bosh’s your not watching the games closely enough.
We got scared of the name of their jersey. Its like they saw “Celtics” and they all went into a hole in the fetile position. They had no heart, no hustle, and it made me sorry to be a fan.
I gave up on this team. The problem is with the culture of this team. It is not the player since the same players have played good with effort for their clubs perviously. It is not the players since ex Raptor players are playing great with hustle for their new clubs.
It is not the coachs because with other coachs we had the same problem.
I gave up, lossing to celtic missing 3 starter is embaressing.
The Celts came in hungrier last night and that was it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the the best in the league or the worst in the league if you don’t come to play you’ll lose. I’ll never give up on the Raps but it hurts to see them play fantastic basketball one night then see them flop the next. The club has to find some sort of motivation. Although Triano has knowledge for the game he needs to HYPE his guys up. They need to come in ready to play everynight regardless of who they’re facing. There are no excuses for their “piss poor” performance last night, the Blazers are plagued with the injury bug but they play hard, the Celts are missing 3 stars, they play hard, and these teams win. I think the new years resolution for the club should be to play every game as if it was game 7 of a playoff series!
Agreed. I don’t think this Raptors squad has earned the right to take a night off. They are below .500 and maybe they sometimes have to be reminded of that. They cannot afford to lose any games that they should win. Go out and fight and I know I’m happy win or lose. These uninspired loses are inexcusable.
Both Roy (Blazers) and Allen (Celtics) are guards , all star players who can carry their team on their back . Our franchise player is a forward who cannot carry a team on his back , he can score/rebound with the best but is not a natural leader, never will be.
Can someone please outline the symptoms of becoming a “fair weather fan”? I think I might be coming down with something…haha
Sometimes you lose plain and simple. I do expect better of my team but I know everyone drops games. I guess the Spurs should have just folded last year when Roko Freakin Ukic beat them in Toronto? No it happens. Any NBA team can beat any NBA team
Completely agree with the article here. One additional point though – there is no way this depleted Boston team should have been allowed to score over 100 points. While the Raps should have played aggressive and attached the rim, they should have been able to do their job on the D with this Celtics team. Letting a depleted Boston team score like this is disgraceful!
I had the game recorded and by half time I could see what the outcome would be. I checked the final score and immediately erased the game. God forbid if the Raps ever come out of half time ready to adjust their game to get the win. They always continue the same crap in the 2nd half as they do in the first half. It’s almost as if JT sings the team a lullaby and gives them a nap time during the half!
People are blaming the players.
How about Triano.
You match hustle with hustle. So why did he bench
Johnson. In 10 mins. of play he was productive.
His reward the end of the bench.
How about Nesterovic. On the bench.
Triano plays Banks 20 mins. More than Belinelli.
Johnson, Nesterovic, and Belinelli aren’t the toughest
but their not soft.
This game was lost because of poor player rotations.
What bothered me is what Chris Bosh said during the post game interview. At least Jack admitted they played piss-poor. All Bosh said was “they were a good team, give them credit” or something along that line. Really, I don’t recall Boston has anybody on the floor that will receive 100+ million dollar contract next year. I don’t know whether he wass pretend the loss doesn’t bother him or the loss didn’t bother him at all.
We will know whether Bosh is a leader or not today in the SA game. I will not hold him to anything said during a post game interview. But a leader will say “it was on me” in the locker room and carry the team to a win next game.
That is a bad post game statement from a team’s so called leader. IMO Jack has taken the reins as the teams leader. The next question is weather or not Bosh follows his lead, or does he assume his numbers make him the man? I think this is the case and I think it hurts the Raps. If you’re gonna be the leader you have to have your teammates backs. I see Bosh as more of a “me” player than a “we” player. Bosh has a tonne of skills, but he was not cut out to lead. I wish he would realize and accept this.
Agree with JYD and Raptorboy74…really disappointed that this loss didn’t make him angry. At the very least, I’d hope he’d learn more than the vague nothings he uttered.
Maybe his response is vague because he thinks Triano’s rotations are
garbage. Alot players don’t feel it’s good to call out the coach.
If you watch the game it’s hard to understand the decisions the coach
made.
I think we can beat SA tonight.
I just cannot believe people are surprised we lost. Did the team prove they can beat decent opponents by beating poor ones? This is the same team now that it was prior to the win streak.
Yesterday’s performance was a team decision to prepare for tonight’s big game which will be nationally televised and with a bonus – CB4’s attempt to claim the franchise scoring record.
Ever wonder why none of them (players and coaching staff) got so pissed from last night’s result? They probably had a consensus that tonight’s game is more important and requires more energy and driving force – it should be fun to watch. I could be wrong though – lose raps lose (my good luck chant for the team)!
the raps are owned by a pension fund. the same one that owns the Maple Laughs. they want to maximize profit, not win a championship. this team is put together like all the leafs teams over the past decades….a quasi ’superstar’, a bunch of over-rated role players with over-priced contracts, and no fit as a team in terms of winning games or going deep in the playoffs. but the toronto media pumps them up unrealistically and everyone thinks this is the year it will be different….only to be shocked and surprised when they fall flat on their face, again. wake up people. wake up!!!! stop donating your hard-earned cash to this investor scam.
do you really think this raptors team blew the game to the celtics B-team….or does the team just suck eggs? why didn’t they even try to foul with 35seconds left and down 5points? every playoff team is licking their chops to face this team in the first round, yet i hear raps media & fans saying how this team is ‘dangerous’ and a ‘playoff wildcard’…stop beleiving this propaganda in the media…its not true…the organization just makes sure lackeys in the press write the positive spin. the same organization blocked another hockey team from southern ontario because they don’t want competition, even though they make the most profit in the league. this is why the raps sell themselves as canada’s team with the maple leaf on the back and all….so why didn’t they make a real run at nash…a free agent and greatest canadian baller ever?
bosh is as gone as the wind. the org knows it. if they were really trying to win they would trade him now and get something of value….but they probably won’t because its more profitable to have him around to sell tickets and merchandise for the rest of the year, and then when he leaves it will allow management to keep losing for a few more years while cashing in. and the press (run by the team) will cast him as an evil villain and they will sell even more tickets for games when he comes back to TO just so the fans can boo.
break the cycle…..revolt against the raps ownership!!! take back the raps!!!
i dedicate this post to doug gilmour, the only man who nearly toppled the evil empire from within in 1993. respect.
You seem pretty bitter bud. You find yourself complaining about a lot of different things?
LOL. Apologies for the buzzkill. Just had to get all that off my chest…..decades of being a leafs fan is enough to make any fan bitter.
Wish all the best to the raps and their fans….but that org has gotta get right from the top down….the fans deserve better….they are the ones who really ‘own’ the team and can drive change. Yes we can :)
And Doogie was thinking about joe the fan was he???
Maybe the Raptors “Softness” starts with the COACH.
As the Raptors were abused by the Celtics and then further abused by the bad calls and missed/lack of calls from the officials – Jay Triano just sat there on his hands saying NOTHING!
Why wasn’t JT is the officials faces all night? Doc Rivers was!!!