Making the jump

Great performance by the Raptors last night!! No, I am not going crazy; yes I watched the same game as you. I saw the Raps get smoked in the first quarter, I saw them shoot 41% from the field and get out rebounded…. again. I also saw a team learn something last night. They learned that you don’t need to give 100% for the whole game to win in the NBA. The Hornets were in the second half of a back-to-back, they got in from Philly late last night and simply aren’t as good as the Raptors. Toronto held out the victory for them and then snatched it away faster than a fat kid reaching for a smartie. For the last 3 minutes of the game Toronto clamped down on defense capping it off with a great block by Calderon on the smaller Bobby Jackson. They came back down the floor and Bosh willed in his 8th 3 pointer of the year and the rest is history.

It is the ability to change gears that separates the great teams and the great players from the rest of the pack. Dallas and Phoenix both have gears that haven’t even been tested yet. Jordan, Kobe and Wade could and can elevate their level of play to a point where they simply. Toronto doesn’t have a Dallas like nth gear, but they are learning and Bosh is developing his over-drive. He can sense when it is his time, he demands the ball and makes plays happen. Last night the fans got on Bosh for missing some free throws which I thought was a little premature and unfair. Bosh finished the night 12-18 and is sitting at 74.8% on the year; those are fantastic numbers from a guy who is 6-10. He also hit his frees at the end of the game when it really counted.

I was seriously disappointed by the Raptor fans at the game last night. Of the meager 14,173 who attended the game, most had left by the time Bosh changed the game. After Devin Brown hit a 3 half way through the 4th quarter the fans started streaming towards the exits and people at home switched over to the NHL All-Star game. Toronto fans, who are second rate at best, need to learn to have a little more faith in the team and stick out the whole game.

Looking around the rest of the league and we see the landscape changing. If a team can bring Pau Gasol to the East it would give them instant legitimacy. He is a great player who knows how to win and can drive a team. He has also been playing in the West against the best big men in the game, he would dominate the poor excuses that make up the centres and power forwards on most Eastern Conference teams. New Jersey isn’t going to win a single game on their west coast road trip and Phoenix isn’t going to lose on their east coast trip. I don’t think that Shaq is going make that much of an impact for the Heat and if Wade doesn’t get some help and get healthy, they aren’t going anywhere in the playoffs, no matter how good Flash is.