Raptors Weekly Report: The Beginning of the Race for Eighth Place

So as the Philadelphia Flyers losses are growing and frustrations with that team mounting, my attention is slowly turning towards a Raptor team, that, with two straight wins over the weekend, somehow found themselves 7th in the Eastern Conference despite a 13-17 record. What does this prove? For one, it proves the imcompentence of the Eastern Conference, but in another air, the records prove that currentky, Toronto is better than eight of its fellow Eastern foes. With us standing at the thirty game mark of the season, that is pretty good.

What is not good is that Toronto has yet to prove they can beat a top notch Eastern Conference team, something they failed miserably at on their Florida road trip last week. Both performances against the Heat and Magic were miserable. In Miami, Chris Bosh's 28 points was the only thing that kept the Raptors from being totally thrashed. Losing 115-95 when your big name player scores nearly 30 points and shoots 9 of 13 is very bad news in my mind. A lack of defense led to 28 points from, not Dwayne Wade, but Michael Beasley and an easy Miami win.

The Magic had little trouble defeateing Toronto either, with a 118-99 victory. Bosh again had 20+, again shot over 50%, the Raptors played msierable defense again, Hedo Turkoglu shot jsut 2 of 7 in hsi first game back in Orlando, and it was very much the same story as the night before. At least Vince Carter scored just 12.

Then the weekend and return home came and Toronto looked like a different team in that they were winning. They finally played New JErsey for the first of four times this year and led a ridiculous 70-35 at halftime. 59% shooting, eight players in double digits, and DEFENSE for once. They also outrebounded the Nets (barely, 37-34).

OK, big deal, a high school JV team can beat the Nets. However, the Raptors beat another West team, New Orleans, on Sunday 98-92. What's that, we won WITHOUT scoring 100 points??? Yep, they actually played defense, shutting down leading scorer Chris Paul, holding him to ten points, 3 for 13 shooting. Toronto CONTESTED shots for once and held the Hornets to 38.9% shooting. Bosh came up big with 25 points and the Raptors won a crucial West game against a .500 opponent.

So now Toronto is on the inside of the early playoff hunt and the goal is to remain there. To do this, they need to play defense like they did against New Orleans every night and Jarrett JAck needs to continue to hold his own at point guard until Jose Calderon returns from his sore hip, which will hopefully be before the New Year.

One question remains, and that is, would it be worht it for the Raptors to sneak into the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed and have to play a powerhouse like Boston or Orlando? I say yes. Take the Boston-Atlanta quarterfinal series fro mtwo years back where the Hawks nearly pulled off the upset of upsets. If you're in the playoffs, anything is possible and this is a Toronto team that could sneak in and surprise. I'd take a playoff berth over a lottery spot any day.


My Raptors Picks this week
Hey, I was a perfect 4-0 with my picks last week, of course this games were pretty easy sans a solid pick for the win over the Hornets.

This week we have a home and home with the Detroit Pistons spanning before and after Christmas in what is a VERY short week. This is the second and third meetings this year between the teams with Toronto beating them back in early November in Toronto. The Pistons have lsot five straight and are sitting at 11-17, in other words, this isn't your LArry Brown Champion Pistons anymore. Still, most of those game were against stellar West teams and I'm going to throw the Pistons a bone for tomorrow night at the Palace, give them the upset. Toronto rebounds at home after Christmas with a win to split the home and home.

Last Week- 4-0
This Season- 7-5

Wed. at Detroit LOSS
Sun. vs Detroit WIN


Thoughts Across the NBA
Atlantic- What a mess in New Jersey. I watched the majority of the NEts-Raptors on Friday and though Toronto played well, the Nets look like a bunch of kids learning to play basketball. It's been quite a while since I've seen a team this bad (I do remember the old Vancouver Grizzlies having an etraordinaryly bad team like this about ten years ago) and at 2-26, they are taking their best shots and futility. Two pieces of good news: Yi Jianlien is expected to return by the weekend and the Nets host Minnesota tomorrow night. That is must-see basketball if you want to learn how NOT to play the game.


Central- Poor Chicago is fallign to pieces. They were lousy in a loss to the Knicks tonight and blew a 35 POINT LEAD against Sacramento last night. They are now in danger of slipping to last place in a joke of a Central Division. Not good for Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, and company.


Southeast- The Eastern Conference's strength teams all lie in the Southeast, where three of their teams sit in the top five in the conference. The Atlanta Hawks are off to their best start n frnachise history and it's STILL not good enough to overtake Orlando for first in the division. Even fourht place Charlotte is 8th in the playoff picture right now, a team that is very feisty and full of energy.


Southwest- Let the panic begin in New Orleans. What I thought would be a solid team this year is turning into trouble as they slip to last in the tough Southwest Division and 11th in the West. The Hornets depend too much on Chris Paul and simply looked disorganized on Sunday, but stayed in the game thanks to equally porous Toronto shooting and rebounds. This won't slide in the Western Conference and when you lose games like they did to the Knicks last week, you're in big trouble.


Northwest- Going to the medical bench, the Trailblazers have lost center Joel Przybilla to a ruptured patella tendon, he is out indefinitly. Now Przybilla just took over for big man Greg Oden, who is also gone for the year. This leaves Portland in a pickle, according to their depth chart, the ancient Juwan Howard is next in line. God help to good fans in Portland.


Pacific- Christmas Day is Friday and that means ABC will be showcasing their usual doubleheader, one game of course which always features Kobe as he goes up against fellow protege Lebron James and the Cavs. I have two comments on this game: one is that this is a million time more appealing then the first game between Boston and Orlando in my opinion, two is I hope Kobe shows LeBron who's boss.