Built Ford Tough

Has Bosh ever had a 20/20 game in his career? I don't recall one off of the top of my head. He is flirting with it tonight with 22/18. Losing Beasley hurt the Heat big time in this game. He is a bad matchup for whichever Raptors big is guarding him, whether it is Bosh or Bargnani. His shooting touch and ability to create off of the bounce creates problems for the Raptors bigs. Losing B-Easy definitely had an impact on this game. I get the feeling that Wade is going to put the Heat on his back and carry them to a victory here. With the Raptors lackluster defense, it always scares me to see them play in close games against superstar players.

What, truth hurt?

Belinelli is showing Calderon how to pass. What a sick pass to Amir there. I didn't realize that Bosh had so many boards. What is he at right now, 17? Calderon with two bad passes in a row. I like the aggressiveness he is playing with, but he needs to reel himself in a bit more.

O'Neal played really well in the first half. He was giving them great production down low and was absolutely torching Bargnani. He has been MIA (no pun intended) since then though. Wright has given the Heat a nice lift off of the bench. Hit a huge three at the end of the 3rd and has really used his length well. Him and Wade always seem to work well with each other and Wade does a good job of getting him good looks, at least from the games that I have watched. Haslem has been pretty disapointing in this game (well, disapointing for Heat fans). He hasn't played good defense at all and his normally rock solid mid range jumper has been off tonight. I wouldn't say it is Wade vs. Raptors, but Wade definitely has not received the help that you would hope for if you are pulling for the Heat.

I'm sorry, you are right. It has nothing to do with the Raptors and everything to do with Chalmers. The Heat are such a ridiculously superior team than the Raptors that they decided to put Chalmers into the game just to give the Raptors a chance. I mean its not like the Raptors are a half game back in the standings and have already beat the Heat once this season. Or is that because of Chalmers too? Homers. I know that I can be a homer as well, but at least I give the other team credit where it is due, not just blame it on my teams whipping boy.

There is nothing to argue about if you Heat fans would've actually gave credit for their vastly improved play rather than dismiss it because your whipping boy was in the game. PS: I call this the Hedo Turkoglu effect. Turk comes back into the game and Jermaine O'Neal goes off, even though Turkoglu isn't guarding him, it is still his fault.

Damn that Chalmers for forcing Wade to make a terrible pass. Oh yeah, what terrible defense by Chalmers on Belinelli. It was defintiely CHamlers fault that Belinelli made that jumper. [expletive]ing Chalmers allowing Johnson to get an And 1. This Chalmer's effect is really killing the Heat.

Notice how the Raptors stopped turning the ball over and played more intense defense? But no, it is all due to Chalmers. The Raptors saw that he was on the court and decided because of it that they would start to take care of the ball and start to hit their shots.

So you are saying that it is on Chalmers and has nothing to do with the Raptors actually showing up and playing basketball? Right...

Lets give some credit to the Raptors players as well. They actually decided to take their heads out of their asses and start playing ball. Nice, the Raptors are actually having a former player that you can understand guest commentate (Doug Christie). That was a pretty weak technical foul call. JO was underneath Johnson, what do you want him to do, come down and land on JO? Even then, he barely hung on the rim or barely did a pull up on the rim. Weak, weak T there.

Not really. He went up for an ally-oop and was tripped up a bit before he even really got off of the ground and landed on his knee/rolled an ankle a bit. It looked like nothing and I would be surprised to see him not come back in this game. Start of the 2nd half at the latest. Matt Devlin is so weird. You can't help but laugh at the stupidity of some of the crap that he says. Calderon and Belinelli have brought som nice energy off of the bench. That was a pretty dumb shot by Belinelli right there, but oh well.

This is what I hate about the Raptors. They are playing the biggest game of their season so far, coming off of the biggest win of their season, and they come out with no energy or intensity at all. This team drives me nuts. LMAO at Beasley. I don't think that I have heard a guy swear so loud before. That was priceless.

To add even more to this, they haven't lost when hearing these jerseys since 1996. Granted it has only been 3 games, but saying "all the way back to 1996" sounds so much more impressive.

I thought the same thing at the beginning of the season, but to be honest, I think that Triano has done a really good job of handeling DeRozan. He isn't giving him a lot of minutes, which is obviously hurting his numbers and what not, but it has helped prevent DeRozan from hitting the rookie wall. Not only that, you can see that DeRozan has gotten noticably better since the beginning of the season. When the season started he couldn't hit a jumper to save his life, no matter how wide open he was. Now, he has much more confidence in his mid range jumper and is hitting it fairly consistently. He couldn't create off of the dribble at all when the season first started, but now he has takes his man off of the bounce a couple times a game, he doesn't always finish at the hoop or get a good shot, but at least he has improved his handles enough to be able to do it. Triano has done some questionable things with his rotation, like the "Cack" lineup (Calderon and Jack together even though it hardly works) but he has done a really nice job of handeling DeRozan as far as I am concerned. Sure, I would like to see him get a few more minutes in the 4th quarter when he is playing well, but aside from that, I really cannot complain about Jay's handeling of DeRozan.

DeRozan isn't playing tonight. Weems is getting the start. Raptors are wearing the throwback Huskies jerseys tonight. They are undeafeated in them so far this season, granted they haven't exactly played the best competition either, lol.

Considering the fact that if either one of these two made it into the ASG it would be because of one of the two wild card spots, I definitely think that Jackson's ASG possibility would interfere with Jamisons's consideration. Jamison isn't getting in as a primary backup forward, with or without them putting Bosh at center, and Jackson isn't getting in as a primary guard either. That leaves the two wild card spots.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2010/1/27/1272703/gilbert-arenas-suspended-for-rest Not that this should surprise anybody. The only way that it should be somewhat of a surprise is if you thought he should have got more than just the next 38 games, which chould be argued (although I wouldn't agree with it, as this is fair imo).

As the titles says, who should take the last shot on each of the 30 teams in the NBA. Lets say that you are down by 1 so that you don't necessarily have to get a 3, which opens the door for big men to get a touch. Atlanta - Boston - Charlotte - Chicago - Cleveland - Dallas - Denver - Detroit - Golden State - Houston - Indiana - LA Lakers - LA Clippers - Memphis - Miami - Milwaukee - Minnesota - New Jersey - New Orleans - New York - Okla City - Orlando - Philadelphia - Phoenix - Portland - Sacramento - San Antonio - Toronto - Utah - Washington - I'll post mine later.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ak36sQnPKK4Du6cL9qmD9JU5nYcB?slug=aw-stoudemirespurs012610&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Not that I think that the Spurs would land either one of these two, but for arguments sake, who would be a better fit on the Spurs, Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh?

From what I have heard on TV and read on other forums, it seems like Sonny Weems will be getting the start in place of DeRozan tonight (they want to keep Belinelli off of the bench due to the lift he has given the team over the past two games) and DeRozan isn't going to make the trip to New York either, so I would assume Weems will start again tomorrow night. If Weems [expletive]s the bed tonight against Miami, I would imagine that they will go with Antoine Wright instead. [expletive]ty news. Then again, as long as Weems isn't chucking up jumpers then I'm alright with it as at least he has the athleticism and length to bother Wade a bit defensively (although I won't hold my breath).

From Doug Smith's latest blog entry: http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2010/01/no-kiddies-allstar-game-for-derozan.html Here are DeRozan and Jerebko's numbers with per 36 minutes in brackets: DeRozan 8.2 ppg (14) 2.9 rpg (5) 0.7 apg (1.1) 0.6 spg (1) 46.4 FG% 21 mpg Jerebko 8.4 ppg (10.9) 5.4 rpg (7) 0.7 apg (0.9) 0.6 spg (0.8) 47.4 FG% 27.8 mpg Jerebko's rebounding numbers are obviously going to be higher as he is a 6-10 forward while DeRozan is a 6-7 guard. The Pistons' leading rebounder is Ben Wallace at 9.4 while Bosh is grabbing 11.1 a game (Bargnani's 6.5 is more than Charlie V's 5.5 as well), so naturally there are less rebound oppourtinties for DeRozan considering he is a guard and is playing with somebody like Bosh. Everything else is a complete wash, at least statistically, and that is with DeRozan playing 6.8 less minutes per game. Obviously I would take DeRozan being a Raptors fan and all, not to mention the fact that he would make the game way more exciting than Jerebko would. Seeing DeRozan running around in a fast paced game like this would surely lead to a few highlight reel plays. To be honest though, I don't really care either way. In fact, if DeRozan's ankles are still bothering him I would rather him not play in the game or do the Dunk Contest as I don't really care about these things all that much. Is this just homerism on my part, or does DeRozan deserve to be their more than Jerebko?

And what, the Raptors trade Bosh for Collison and Ollie? No way would I trade Bosh to OKC if I wasn't getting Harden + both of the Thunder's picks in this draft at the very least.

I'd do it in a heartbeat. I like Evans, but he really isn't going to give the Raptors anymore than what Amir Johnson gives them. Evans isn't nearly as good as some of us Raptor fans have made him out to be. Something in that article that I just posted summed it up pretty nicely. I don't remember for sure what it said, but it was something along the lines of "I don't think a player has ever gotten this much better during an injury" which is very fitting in regards to Evans. He is a 20 mpg, gritty player at best and really won't give the Raptors much more than Johnson does. A little more rebounding and some more toughness, but it won't make or break the Raptors. So yeah, I'd be all for trading Evans. Powell wouldn't cut it considering Evans makes around $4M more than him, but I would be happy to trade away Evans and his $9.5M or so over the next two years if it means getting a 1st round pick with it.

Well considering the Raptors broadcast team consists of two New Yorkers and a Canadian guy, I fail to see how they have Boston accents. Like I said, Armstrong is from Brooklyn and Devlin is from Syracuse. Whatever though, I'm not trying to say that you are wrong in what you heard. I don't really care what kind of accent you heard was, and I could be wrong and Jack Armstrong could have a Boston accent despite the fact that he is from Brooklyn. It doesn't really concern me one bit. And I meant Rockets, not Knicks. I don't know why I, but I had Walt Frazier on my mind instead of Clyde Drexler.

Its an Insider article, so I'll just post his winners and honourable mentions. Most Improved Player: Luke Ridnour HM: David Lee, Josh Smith, Carl Landry, Kevin Durant, Kendrick Perkins Sixth Man of the Year: Carl Landry HM: Jamal Crawford, Manu Ginobili, Luke Ridnour Rookie of the Year: Tyreke Evans HM: Brandon Jennings, Omri Casspi Defensive Player of the Year: Anderson Varejao HM: Ron Artest, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Josh Smith, Kendrick Perkins Coach of the Year: Larry Brown HM: Rick Adelman, Lionel Hollins, Phil Jackson Most Valuable Player: LeBron James HM: Kobe Bryant, Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade As you can guess, he bases many of his explainations off of PER, win shares, plus/minus and many other of his favourite stats.