Blake Serves Up The Raps On A Trey

Pre-game thoughts:
Welcome Home, Toronto. It was a painful road trip. I thought this would be a tough matchup against the young Blazers but the Blazers road record was 7-7 so Toronto had a chance. Bosh-Bargnani-O’Neal had a challenge against young Blazers Aldridge-Oden. And the way the Raps have been playing against Denver, Utah & LA, the opposing teams were killing the Raps on the inside. This was also a tough matchup for AP against Brandon Roy, Parker would need to play tough defense on the Blazers’ star. The last game between the Raptors-Blazers went double OT and this game looked to be somewhat of the same.

Round 1
I don’t know what the stats are on these Sunday afternoon 1pm EST games but the Blazers looked sluggish in the first. Raps looked good defensively and there offense was there, Chris Bosh actually nailed a 3 in the quarter.

Defensively, the Raptors looked good limiting the Blazers’ points in the paint, settling for outside jumpers. Raps jumped to a 20-8 lead, looking a lot better than their last few starts.

Joey Graham is coming around, he looked more confident and driving to the hoop. The Raps played great D holding the Blazers to only 37% from the field in the first quarter. Another aspect where the Raps were struggling were points in the paint and the Raps outscored the Blazers 14-2

Round 1: Toronto won it 31-20
Round 1 to Toronto!

Round 2
JO played really well today in the post. Even Jason Kapono played a lot better and it looked like he was getting more minutes. Bosh played good D on Aldridge, Blazers had a difficult time getting the ball to him.

Rudy Fernandez and Steve Blake hit some big threes and the Blazers battled back to pull within 2.

Chris Bosh had to leave late in the 2nd with a cut to the forehead.

Toronto handled the ball well with only 3 turnovers.

Round 2: Blazers outscored the Raps 28-19 only down 2 to the Raps at the half.
Round 2 to Portland

Round 3
Bosh came back with a band-aid on his forehead. Apparently he had to get stitches from an Oden elbow to the forehead.

Steve Blake continued to hit big corner threes even Larmarcus Aldridge hit a three. Lamarcus Aldridge is going to be a good player along with the rest of the young Blazers. Roy, Fernandez, Oden & Aldridge should all have great NBA careers. Blazers had extended their lead over the Raptors to 10.

Jermaine O’Neal had played extremely well in the third. The Raptors then made a run and Jose hit a big three to pull it within 2. After that, Jason Kapono hit another three to take the lead.

The play of the day?
Joey Graham facial on Pryzbilla HELLLOO! (Jack Armstrong style)

Round 3: Even though Toronto had the energy at the end, Portland outscores the Raptors 30-25
Round 3 to Portland

Round 4
Blazers continued to have the hot hand, hitting big j’s. I think the biggest mistake of the game was Bosh and then Bargnani shooting quick threes and they were only down 5? Not sure why they thought that it was the best play. Blazers were able to build another 10 point lead.

I was really enjoying the energy from Joey Graham, taking it to the hoop, not afraid to attack the basket. JO was clutch down the stretch hitting big baskets from the post. Raps made another run and Jose hit another big three and the Raps were back within two.

Brandon Roy hit a big basket with 48 seconds to go to tie it at 95 and then Bosh hit a jumper to take the lead with 27 seconds left.

The final play was nuts. Blazers final possession dealt with a lot of tips and then it was knocked out to Steve Blake who hit the dagger, hitting a three to put them up by 1.

Bosh had the ball With 8.4 seconds left, he drove in but no luck. Chris Bosh looked a little awkward and fatigued towards the end.

Round 4: Toronto outscored the Blazers 22-20 but Steve Blake had the dagger
Round 4 to Toronto, but Blazers took the win 98-97

Final:
It went all 4 rounds. It wasnt a game where it was over by the third and the Raptors competed until the end.

JO had a great game (24 pts, 8 rebounds and 6 blocks!), he just brings some defensive toughness for this Raptors team. Chris Bosh had a regular day scoring 19pts with 5boards but he looked sluggish while J.O. looked fresh today. The West Coast trip must have taken a lot out of Bosh. I was thinking he would have one of the “MVP”-ish like games and go for 40 but today wasn’t his day.

Raps played much better today and got a lot of bench production from Joey Graham and Jason Kapono. Triano said after the game that he was going to spread the minutes more, hopefully having the starters fresh for the 4th. You could really notice it today, since we saw a lot more Kapono and Solomon minutes. Anyhow, it was a good game but a loss is a loss. Raptors dropped their 4th straight. For a Blazers perpsective, check out bustabucket.com

Raps games this week: Cavs on Tuesday, Pacers on Wednesday and VC and the Nets on Friday.