Watched first half
Let out that deep breath from last games win, and prepare to take in another huge breath and hold it because the rest of February isn’t looking any easier. Although six of the remaining seven February games are at home, they are against SA, Portland, Clips, Heat, Bulls, Suns and Mavs with the road game in Charlotte. Hopefully the Raps can steal a couple of these games but they’re not really going to playing teams of similar records any time soon.
Barbosa was back after missing twelve games and added some much needed punch on offense for the Raptors other than DMDR and Bargs. DMDR finished with 18, Bargnani with 22 but the Raps only totaled 74 points in the loss. Five Bucks scored in double-digits and Bogut held down the middle for the Bucks with 5 blocks, providing a solid presence in the paint, on the glass and an intimidation factor on defense (something the Raps desperately need so they can slide Bargs over to power-forward). Start of another losing streak? or can the Raps put on a winning mentality and start playing spoiler for some teams.
Game 53 – San Antonio (L 111-100 / 14-39 / streak L2) Wednesday February 9, 2011
Watched fourth quarter
Sometimes Bargnani either looks lost on defense or clearly isn’t applying himself and hustling for the ball, looking to defend his man or playing effective helpside defense. Sure, he can get his points and finished with a game-high 29, but he finished with only 2 rebounds. Bargs should be able to score naturally as a seven-foot shooter who is the focal point of the offense, but to be a winner must focus on defense. DeMar played well and had 25 points, Barbosa added his one-dimensional scoring with 20 points, and gritty Amir Johnson picked up the slack with 12 points, 13 rebounds.
The Raptors were up by one in the fourth quarter and were maintaining an even ground with the NBAs best team. If I could quote my father, “Nice finish to the half. Didn’t expect it to be only 4 points at this stage. I expect they’ll be a little tired and fade away late.” I taught him everything he knows… the Raps indeed have a snooze-fest of a 4th quarter and are outscored 30-16 in the final frame. They were tired, outworked, and simply outplayed by the best team in the league who knows how to win and put teams like the Raptors away in the fourth quarter. The Spurs also were able to lean on the strong play of their bench, DuJuan Blair had a career-high 28 points with 11 rebounds and the mighty Spurs wrap up another win. At the end they kindly allowed the Raps one more bucket for fan pizza at 100 points.
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