Man, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith both had terrific games. Joe was literally lights out in the first half, he was hitting everything. We werent guarding him well enough. He had 20+ after the first half. That's a fact. Josh Smith was hitting his shots too, and attacking the rim.Jose was impressive again. His shooting touch has improved greatly. He still isnt a good 3 pt threat, but if he is open from1 8 feet, you better book it. Mo Pete finally had a good game, but it wasnt enough. Bosh struggled alot in the first half..This was dissapointing to me. I had this down as a win for us. Now we're under .500 going on a tough 4-5 game road trip.Good news is that Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Kenny Thomas wont be enough to stop Bosh. With Brad Miller out, Bosh should have his way with the Kings.
I going to start by saying that I am very harsh on the raptors. I have many problems with this team as a whole. I think that the raptors? running game isn?t good and their defense is still not good enough. Five games into the season and I notice a few bad habits within the raptors. On paper the raptors perimeter defense has improve but on the court the job is not being done. They gave up 4 open 3 point shots to Josh Smiths which killed their momentum. The wing men need to do a better job of contesting those shots because when an NBA player gets an open shot 80% of the time they will sink it. There is a lot of miss communication going on with the guards and power forwards which lead to easy baskets in the paint of the Hawks. They need to improve their communication and perimeter defense and it has to start with TJ Ford where team can play fast break basketball I see it a time but its not happening at a consistent bases. The one thing that I?m not see happening more often is run of makes and mostly misses. I know it?s hard to run, run and run but they say there are committed to it but I?m waiting for that 100% effort from them. The main reason they lost has to be the fact that they couldn?t make a shot if I was holding a gun to their heads and when they did start hitting their shots the hawks were able to do a good job of weathering the raptors? run.The next game against the Kings will show us if the raptors can bounce back or not because I think it?s the deciding point in weather they have a winning month or a losing one. Bosh did say he is tired of the losing so I expect a huge game out of Chris Bosh.
I agree. Our perimeter defense sucked that game. We werent contesting shots at all, and we were constantly giving them wide open looks, which they made. But like I said, Mo Pete and Calderon shot well. We got out of the gate slow, we managed to close the gap to 2 on one occasion, but we werent consistent at all.
Right now I?m just saying that the raptors aren?t a good team because good teams are able to make runs and at the same time get stops on the defensive end which the raptors weren?t able to do. That?s why they weren?t consistent.
I went to this game.. and from what I saw, Josh Smith have been working with his jump shot over the summer? I thought the Raps played very bad defense... both outside and inside. In terms of offense, I think Bosh didn't get the ball enough.. he had a pretty rough 1st half. To me, TJ is still one of my fav players to watch.. he's so quick with his penetration.. I love watching him. Garbo still needs more confidence or something, he seems to be struggling. Up next? Kings? B.Miller injured? Let's try to make this 3-3
Don?t get me started on Garbo. So far I haven?t seen this toughness that he supposedly brings to this team. His shooting sucks and the playing time he gets on the floor is a waste. Mitchell could be playing a player like Kris instead of him. I?m not impressed by Garbo and I hope he snaps out of it fast.
Garbo just hasnt been hitting his shots, and for the most part, playing terrible defense. I'd like to see Humphries get more time also. He hustles, rebounds, he can score inside, and his range is alright too. He's impressed me so far.
