One night after notching a win against the Sacramento Kings, the Toronto Raptors (12-17) settled into Portland to play the Trail Blazers (18-12), who had won 3 of their previous 5 games. Toronto was searching for its first 3 game winning streak since the beginning of the season 3-0. Toronto is 4-11 in their last 15. After losing their last meeting against Portland earlier this month on a last second three pointer, Toronto was hoping for a better outcome this time around. Continue Reading

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After a big win over a depleted LA Clippers, the Toronto Raptors (11-17) continued their current western road swing on Boxing Day when they landed in Sacramento to challenge the Kings (7-22). The Kings, losers of 4 in a row and 14 of their last 16, settled in at home, hoping to upset the Raptors in the same fashion as the Oklahoma City Thunder did earlier in the week. History was also not I the Raps favour, since they have not won in Sactown in almost a decade. Continue Reading

The Toronto Raptors (10-14) finished their 3 game home stand against the 13-10 Dallas Mavericks. Toronto under Triano are 2-5 and hoped to catch Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard napping. Dallas, 2-2 in their last 4, was starting a 3 game eastern road trip looking to pounce on a raptors team that starts strong, but finishes weak. One thing was certain; the Raps would come out strong. But would the Raps have enough in the tank to bury the Mavs? Continue Reading

Three days after his worst shooting performance of hi career, Vince Carter (who was 0-13 Friday night for 3 pts in a loss to the Raps) and the New Jersey Nets (11-11) rolled into the ACC to play the 10-13 Toronto Raptors, who are 2-4 under interim coach Jay Triano. The Raps are 0-1 on this current home stand before heading out west for their trip of death. This game, for the sake of their season, is an important on to win. The Raps welcomed back Kris Humphries from the injured list, and had the services of newly acquired Jake Voskuhl, in uniform for tonight’s game. The question is: can the Raps win if Carter scores more than 3 pts and makes at least 1 field goal? Continue Reading

Two nights after recording their first victory in the Jay Triano Era, The Toronto Raptors (9-12) made a small road trip to New Jersey to play Vince Carter and the Nets (11-9) on Friday Night. Since their heartbreaking OT loss to the Nets 3 weeks ago, the Raps are 3-6, while the Nets have been 6-3. Toronto came into this game looking for some revenge against Carter, who typically lights ups Toronto, and Devin Harris, who combined for over 60 pts the last time these two teams met. With Anthony Parker still injured, Jason Kapono, who came off a 25 point night against Indiana, made his second straight start, as did Jamario Moon at the Small Forward spot in place of the struggling Andrea Bargnani. Continue Reading

Wednesday night saw the return of former Raptors T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic as Indiana Pacers for the first time since their were dealt for Jermaine O’Neal last July. In a matchup of last place teams (Toronto 8-12 last in Atlantic, Indiana7-13 last in the Central) The Raps were looking to end their current 5 game losing streak, while the Pacers looking to end their 3 game skid. Triano still looking for his first win as the Raps interim coach. Continue Reading

Think back Canadian basketball fans, way back, to the Australia Summer games. It was the last time we actually had a national basketball team that was competitive on the world level. Back then we had a couple of NBA’ers who were happy to wear the jersey (ya, that’s a shot at you Dalembert). Continue Reading

Turn out the lights, the parties over! Jay Triano started his coaching era with the Raptors Friday night with a game against the Jazz. To say it wasn’t a good start is an understatement. The Raptors came into the game after losing to the Lakers and the Nuggets and then losing Sam Mitchell as coach on Wednesday. After a short practice day Friday, the Raptors had to quickly regroup and play the Jazz without Carlos Boozer. Usually when a coach is replaced, the team responds with some passion or emotion or some sort of spark for the new coach for whatever reason, but usually the players will respond and step up their play for at least 1 game. As has become the norm with this group of Raptors, there was no passion to be found anywhere.

On a night when we found out what a big baby Glenn Davis really is after Kevin Garnett called him out for playing lousy defense while his Celtics were UP 25, we watched a team fall deeper into a pit of mediocrity. After an opening play dunk by Andrea Bargnani, the guys looked good moving the ball up the floor looking for the break a few times, but after getting a 10 – 5 lead, the Jazz ended the quarter on a 28 – 13 run. Deron Williams scored 10 in the quarter running past Jose Calderon at will. Mehmet Okur used every trick in his vast array of tools to school both Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Bosh from the inside out ending the game with 21 points in only 29 minutes of playing time. The Jazz early attacked the basket and found absolutely no defense being offered up by our inside guys at all. Anthony Parker and Joey Graham offered a little bit of resistance, but it was no where near enough to stop any of the Jazz players. Paul Millsap ended the night with 17, D-Will ended with 14, Andrei Kirilenko had 7 off the bench, Matt Harpring dropped 14 and added 7 boards, Kosta Koufos had 10 as the Jazz offered their consistently balanced attack to which the Raptors could offer NO defense at all.

To a man, the Raptors looked emotionally drained and showed no emotion as the Jazz just kept taking shots in the key all night long. Whether it was a layup, or 7 footer, the Raptors just stood there helpless. What I saw last night has little to do with coaching. First, the few highlights for the Raptors. Joey Graham continues to show he deserves more time on the floor with a solid game and 13 points and 5 rebounds. He picked up 4 fouls, but at least he was engaged defensively and showed some intensity. If he continues his improvement and can cut down the fouls, he should keep the pressure on to put him on the starting lineup soon. Roko Ukic seems to grow with each passing minute on the floor. He looked more composed and very comfortable on the court and his 7 points point to his improvement as he scored most on layups or breaks. His bringing an up tempo style to this team will be critical as we look to over haul the team from the top to the bottom. Will Solomon added 7 and seems to have begun to control the ball with only 1 turnover. I am not saying he is ready to play heavy minutes yet, but I think he knows what it is he needs to do to play at the NBA level.

As for the starters, well that is another story. Chris Bosh has probably heard the last of his MVP calls this season as he has developed a nasty habit of not playing defense at all. He is considered the leader of this team and if that is the case, he needs to leave it on the court every minute he is on the floor. He is NOT a 3 point shooter. His game is taking the ball to the hole and creating mismatches and causing defenses to over rotate on him and kick the ball out. He has lost confidence in his team mates like Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono who look lost at both ends of the floor and have given up playing on the defensive end all together. Jamario was a shot blocker when he entered the league and with his talent and overall athleticism, he should be a much more able defender, but he has stopped attacking the hoop and has begun to stand around the 3 point line hoping the ball comes to him. The problem is, teams leave him alone because they know he offers no real threat anywhere on the floor in a set offense. He looked much better when the tempo was pushed and as that becomes more a part of our offense, I hope to see him return to form as he can be a real asset to this squad running the floor.

Andrea Bargnani continued his solid play on defense and was truly the only real bright spot defensively with 4 blocks and 6 rebounds on a night when we got destroyed on the glass, again. We know he won’t have many 3 – 12 shooting nights so right now, I feel he is our most consistent player at both ends over all. Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon have decided that defense is no longer an aspect of the game they have any desire to contribute to and Jermaine O’Neal has become a sideshow on this team offering little on offense and not much on defense. IF he is hurt to that extent, then keep him off the floor and let the other guys figure out what to do without him. The problem is, he was brought here to provide that solution and he has not been able to perform at a level required to do so the past 3 weeks. The Raptors have struggled greatly since that Nets game and that horrible foul he suffered the injury on. Anthony Parker seems unable to defend anyone at this point and grabbed no rebounds and only 8 points against the Jazz. An over all terrible effort by him at both ends of the floor last night that can’t continue from here going forward.

So, what do we do now? Jay Triano and Bryan Colangelo have a huge amount of work to do with this team. It won’t be easy to fix without a major over haul and perhaps some player movements that won’t be popular. Right now, all of our resources were moved when we gave up Rasho Nasterovic and T.J. Ford to the Pacers for Jermaine. It is becoming clear that the plan has not and will not provide the solutions it was designed to bring. That leaves us very little resources to make any real trades with that don’t include what most would consider our “untouchables”. I will discuss this issue in my week in review to come later.

Technorati Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Andrei Kirilenko, Anthony Parker, Bryan Colangelo, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Glenn Davis, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Jay Triano, Jermaine O’Neal, Joey Graham, Jose Calderon, Kevin Garnett, Kosta Koufos, Matt Harpring, Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Sam Mitchell, Utah Jazz

Jay Triano becomes the 7th head coach in the history of the Toronto Raptors after they releaved Sam Mitchell of his duties early Wednesday morning after a 132 - 93 defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Here is a brief biography of the first ever Canadian born head coach in the NBA.

Jay Triano (born September 21, 1958 in Tillsonburg, Ontario, raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario) is the current NBA head coach with the Toronto Raptors. Triano, gained wide attention during his long years of coaching the Canadian Olympic basketball team. He is also a former National basketball team player, who competed in two Summer Olympics, starting in 1984. Continue Reading

The last 7 days for the Raptors have been difficult to say the least. Physically and mentally they have been taken to both extremes. In a week where they played both of the top 2 teams in the league, the Raptors were looking to find out if they were ready to acquit themselves at the highest level of play in the league. Here is how I saw those games. Continue Reading