Hard to keep interested when New Orleans got every shot they wanted, and hit em. The Raptors made a game of it in the 4th with a serious run. The second unit got the Raptors within 10 points, the Hornets called a timeout, Byron Scott Countered with Paul, Peja, Chandler, West and James; Smitch left Bosh on the bench.

What do you think happened then? Raptors cut the lead to 6, then the Hornets starters took over; West hit a hook in the paint, and Paul lobbed an alley-oop to Chandler for a dunk, and that was that, another Raptors loss.

I honestly thought the Raptors would give a better showing then this, my expectations are clearly too high. The Hornets were on the tail end of 4 games in 6 nights on the road, and the Raptors were playing with some assemblage of normalcy. The stage was set for an upset, but that’s all, it was an opportunity that the Raptors couldn’t didn’t take advantage of.

IBM Winning Strategies:

1. Get to Paul early
2. Quick to the shooters
3. Rebounds

The Raptors did a good job on the boards, but the rest was out of control. The Hornets won because the Raptors can’t play defense. They got every shot/look they wanted, and hit every/shot they got. Hard to blame the Raptors for this showing, the Hornets outplayed the Raptors at every position.

Couple of thoughts:

Kapono Starts:
I honestly didn’t see this coming. At this point of the season, why the f*ck is Smitch starting Kapono against an offensive team? Starting Rasho and TJ was obvious. That change needed to be made earlier in the season. But Kapono, are you kidding me? I got indigestion when I saw that. If he wanted to mix up the substitutions, start Delfino, at least the guy plays defense…ridiculous.

Defense:
I’ll say it for the third time: the Hornets got every shot/look they wanted, and hit them. Clearly man defense wasn’t working. West worked Rasho in the 1st quarter. Smitch didn’t put Bosh on West until West hit the 2:37 mark of the 1st, 6.5 minutes too late. Then, the Hornets hit trey after trey, the double-team’s weren’t working, the defensive rotations were non-existent….zone defense maybe? Anything else, bring in Mop Girl and and The Raptor, and have them run amok on the defensive end. Nothing, status quo = 118 points

Morris Peterson:
MoPete kissing the floor during his introduction actually gave me goosebumps. What a bad calling BC made letting him walk, and bringing in Kapono and Delfino for double the cost. MoPete plays defense as good as Delfino, and much better than Kapono. He is as streaky as shooter as Delfino, but Kapono isn’t being played well enough to have his better shooting stand out from MoPete’s. A step back if you ask me in the sense that we could have kept MoPete for about $4-5 mill/year, saved $3-4 mill in salary and have another roster spot for a weak euro to run around avoiding contact and jacking shots at will.

Anyways, I really want to know what you guys think about this game, as I have decided to minimize my emotional detachment (or attempt too) until the offseasons where big changes are expected, at least this blogger expects big changes. On to the PBP:

1st Quarter:

• Bosh didn’t even jump for the tip-ball, wtf?
• Bosh gets the ball, and takes it to the rack without holding it, and draws a foul - hits both!
• TJ takes the hand-off from Bosh and pops from the corner.
• Leo: “how comfortable has TJ been as a starter Chuck?”
• Kapono swings to Rasho in the corner for a jumper.
• Rasho tips in his own brick-layup.
• West answers with a turnaround J.
• Chandler fights 3 Raps on the offensive boards.
• West is left alone at the top of key for a J.
• Bosh hits a deep jumper with Chandler in his grill.
• Bosh beats everyone down the court for a dunk, from TJ’s lead pass.
• Peja left open for a trey.
• Chandler tips the ball over Bosh for a put-back.
• Ford sticks a J as the clock expires over Paul.
• West hits another jumper at the top of the key.
• West hits a layup (Bosh should have got that charge call), Raptors timeout.
• Kapono bricks a jumper out of the timeout.
• West takes the hand off from Paul for a jumper from the foul line.
• Paul penetrates and kicks to MoPete for a trey.
• Ford recovers the bad inbound pass from Kapono to Nesterovic for a jumper in the corner.
• Paul hits a jumper over Ford.
• Bosh gets the ball and takes it to the rack and lays it up with the right hand.
• Leo: “Chuck, we both might have made a big mistake there.” when talking about MoPete and Moon as their x-factors, lol.
• West hits a baseline jumper over Bosh. 6 minutes too late to put Bosh on West.
• West blocks Bosh on the baseline to start to break; Paul dishes to West for a dunk in transition.
• Parker gets the ball for the first time in the game, takes it baseline for a reverse layup.
• Bargnani takes to it West on drive, and draws the foul - hits both from the line.
• Bonzi Wells schools Moon in the paint.
• The Hornets are on fire, the Raptors need to try something else, maybe a zone.
• Bargnani hits two from the line.
• Peja pump fakes, takes a step and nails a trey.
• Bosh takes Andersen to the rack, and dunks on him like I hit my boston cream donuts from Timmies.
• Bargnani fakes the trey, penetrates and dishes to Bosh for a dunk.
• 37-28 Hornets lead at the end of the 1st.

2nd Quarter:

• Bonzi takes Moon to school with a drive from the post.
• Bosh fronts West, the lob pass gets through, West lays it up + 1.
• Bosh forces a bad J over West, he misses.
• Moon steals the ball.
• Delfino takes it to he rack, lays it up in traffic with a sick reverse.
• Bosh takes it to West and draws the foul, hits both from the line.
• West returns the favour on Bosh, hitting both from the stripe.
• West pops a J over Bargnani.
• Calderon comes around the high pick for a jumper inside the arc.
• Delfino draws a foul on Pargo.
• Pargo finds Chandler in transition for a layup on the break.
• Moon shoots a contested trey.
• Peja returns the favour.
• Calderon swings to Delfino who whips it to Rasho for an open layup.
• Calderon penetrates and kicks to Delfino for a trey in the corner.
• Bosh hits a turnaround J in the block.
• Paul takes it back the other way quickly.
• Rasho tips in TJ’s missed layup.
• West takes it to the rack and gets fouled, hits both from the line.
• Calderon lobs a back door to Rasho for a weak dunk/layup.
• Paul finds Chandler for a layup under the rim.
• TJ takes it baseline, and hits a layup over MoPete.
• Rasho hits a jumper from the foul line.
• Peja hits a turnaround J over TJ as the shot clock expired.
• Bosh holds on to the ball too long, and jacks a contested J.
• Calderon drives the paint and hits a layup.
• Calderon penetrates and kicks to Bosh for a trey.
• West draws the double and kicks to Paul for an open trey.
• 69-58 Hornets lead at the half.

3rd Quarter:

• Parker hits a trey from the corner from TJ’s swing pass.
• Kapono bails out Paul with a foul as the shot clock was expiring.
• Paul penetrates and kicks it to a WIDE OPEN Peja for a trey in the corner….
• I can’t take notes anymore, sorry guys.

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