I still had a bad taste in my mouth after the win. Should be 4 wins in a row, and now 3 of the last 4. Call me the ever pessimist, but splitting two games against a team missing two of their all-stars is unacceptable. At this point of the season, the Raptors should be dispatching these sorts of teams relatively easily.

They rebounded fairly well; boxing out is still suspect like womens tennis, but they did a better job tonight than usual. Bargnani grabbed only 2 boards, but it felt like more to me for some reason. The Raptors still got out rebounded on the offensive end, 10-7, but I can live with that margin. You’re not going to give up a lot of defensive rebounds when you popping like Ron Jeremy.

The Raptors shot a staggering 56.6% from the field, 77.2% from three, and 88.2% from the line. Sadly, that seems to be the only way the Raptors can eke out a win: shoot the bloody lights out. Sure the Wizards had almost 20 less shot attempts than last night, they turned the ball over 16 times (8 more than the Raps), but they also had 9 less offensive rebounds. They shot worse from the field than the night before. I am digging here for excuses as to why the Wizards lost to justify things to myself, but the truth of the matter is that Raptors should have pounded these guys two nights in a row, I mean for crying out loud, Bosh only played 19 minutes. He missed the entire 2nd and 4th quarters.

What upset me the most tonight was the realization that the Wizards get more out of Roger Mason Jr. (who get’s paid less than $1m/year) than the Raptors do from Kapono (who makes about $6m/year). We had Mason at one point, and all we had to do give up for him was Rick Brunson. Who else got that lil bit of trivia, I know I did, but I am full of useless information that serves me no purpose.

One last thing, I am really upset the Warriors landed Webber. I really think he could have helped the Raptors interior scoring and rebounding. The Warriors have no chance of winning a championship, which leads me to believe that they were the only team to show interest in the guy. Pisses me off that I didn’t even read a rumour about it. A freaking rumour, thats all I want.

Check out Arsenalist, he drops a better wrap-up of what went down tonight. For some reason, I am having a hard time churning out articles the last couple weeks, my bad, I’ll start drinking gingseng or something.

Now down to business:

1st Quarter:

• I’m feelin Smitch will put on a uniform and pull down 17 rebounds tonight.
• Calderon throws an alley-oop to Bosh.
• Bargnani hit’s his first jumper, looked good except for the fake.
• Calderon knocks down a 20 footer, Wizards call a timeout, they know the pain that’s a comin!
• Raptors steal the ball on next play, which leads to a Moon tip off a Missed Parker layup, 10-0 Raptors.
• Bosh blocks Blatche, Raptors possession, then Bosh tips in a missed jumper, 12-0 Raps.
• Deshawn Stevenson hits a 3 to stop the bleeding, dude looks like a black suicide bomber.
• Boy I wish Moon would stop shooting.
• Stevenson finishes an ugly broken play with a rather easy layup.
• Bosh gets stripped like a dirty ho in the paint, which leads to a Blatche dunk in transition.
• Calderon answers with a trey.
• Bargnani blocks Jamison in the paint.
• Parker hits a three off a Bargnani swing.
• Wizards still grabbing those offensive rebounds.
• Moon draws a charge on Haywood in a help situation. I love this play because he could have waited, and tried to block the shot, but chose to play defense instead.
• Bargnani doesn’t run down the ball hard enough…lame.
• Calderon feeling it from behind the arc.
• Anthony Parker’s jumper is so pretty.
• Boy I wish Moon would stop shooting. He missed a wide open Humphries on his left.
• Rasho hits a baby hook in traffic.
• Jamison is carving up the Raps from all over the court.
• Washington is right in the game, only 5 points back after that great Raptor run to start the quarter…I’m getting nervous.

2nd Quarter:

• Humphries goes to the stripe to start the 2nd, hits both.
• Parker steals the ball, but nothing comes of it.
• Roger Mason nails an open trey.
• Delfino hits a layup on the break off his steal.
• Mason hits another open trey.
• Kapono hits a pull up jumper off the dribble.
• Mason hits ANOTHER trey, this time in Dixons eye.
• Dixon answers with a long jumper.
• Kapono is on fire.
• Dixon steals the ball from Mason, which leads to a Bargani jumper in the paint, Wiz timeout.
• Wizards turn the ball over, nice to see it on the other end for once.
• Kapono gets called for two fouls in a row, they were fouls, but a bit weak.
• Bargs hits a trey from the elbow extended.
• Dixon follows up with a trey of his own.
• Delfino drops a trey off of Dixon’s penetration.
• The Raptors B-Squad has extended the lead in the 2nd with the starters sitting for the first 8 minutes. Gotta love that contribution.
• Mason hits another open trey.
• Rasho can’t catch passes with a little juice on them. How many passes with a little more on them have we seen him drop the last two seasons? Pisses me off.
• Rasho bumbles another pass with juice on it…I am going to start tracking this.
• Mason finally misses an open three point look.
• Bargnani draws a foul on Blatche taking it to the paint, hits both free throws.
• Man I hope the Raptors aren’t in the running for Stoudamire’s services - Leo hits the nail on the head talking about what Damons role will be if once TJ comes back.
• Chuck will do anything for $20 grand…whore.
• Rasho puts back a dunk off of Calderons missed layup attempt.
• Raptors take a 20 point lead into the half (61 points scored) with the starters sitting for all of the 2nd (Jose played 4 minutes).

3rd Quarter:

• Missed the first 3 minutes of the 3rd cause my dog was giving me that look that he had to take a walk…damn cold outside.
• Bargnani looking good on that pull-up jumper.
• Moon has his hands full with Jamison, but Antawn gets all the calls.
• Daniels scores his first points as Chuck declares he was scoreless up until now.
• Bosh gets robbed on a non-foul call, story of his life.
• Parker curls-stops-pops…a thing of beauty his shot is, looks something like mine does…serious, I got game baby.
• The Wizards have no energy; a bunch of limp noodles.
• Chuck: “what was the most creative dunk you have ever scene?”
• Leo: “Dr. J dunk on Mark Eaton?” give me a break…VC is the greatest dunker of all time.
• Chuck got out the Salami and Cheese on a Bosh jumper with 4:49 minutes left in the 3rd. First set of balls he has shown in his tenure with this franchise.
• Parker hits a butter trey in the corner over Blatche.
• Il Mago nails a trey at the top of the key. No hesitation, nothing but net.
• Moon steals the ball from Stevenson, and dishes to Bosh for an open dunk.
• Calderon breaks down the Wizards defense for a layup.
• Raptors take a 31 point lead into the 4th.

4th Quarter:

• Raptors start the 4th with the bench, and so I will wrap up the reporting save the play that requires my two cents.
• …and obviously no play required any special reporting. The bench played…like the bench

Technorati Tags: Andray Blatche, Andrea Bargnani, Antawn Jamison, Anthony Parker, Chris Bosh, Deshawn Stevenson, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Jose Calderon, Juan Dixon, Rasho Nesterovic, Roger Mason Jr, Sam Mitchell, TJ Ford, Washington Wizards