<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>What's historically been a weakness has suddenly become a strength as the Raptors have turned into a group of Rodman-esque rebounders.Led by Chris Bosh and with a solid contribution from Kris Humphries, the notoriously poor rebounding team has dominated the boards in the last couple of weeks, a vast improvement that can only help as the NBA playoffs approach."That's been one of our weakest spots, but when we control the boards, I think that makes us that much tougher to beat," said Bosh, who is up to 10.7 rebounds per game. "It either keeps us in the game or keeps us with a pretty significant lead."A lot of the time, teams beat us because they shoot 50 per cent but on our initial stop, they may shoot 30 per cent but they get a lot of second-chance points."The numbers, of late, have been impressive. In Toronto's current three-game winning streak, Bosh has averaged 16 rebounds a game and Raptors out-rebounded Charlotte, Washington and Miami.They had their best rebounding game of the season against the Heat, grabbing 53 boards and limiting Miami to just 35. Bosh had 18 in that game, as the message that's been hammered home by coach Sam Mitchell for years is being heard."To their credit, we talk to them about it but they have to make the effort and make up their minds to go do it and they've done it, they have to continue to do it," Mitchell said yesterday. "You have put the effort in, the concentration in, put a body on somebody and then you've got to go get the ball. You've got to want it."Chris has rebounded for us great all year but the other guys have to help him and I'm sure those guys understand that. They're smart guys. They understand that Chris can't go get them all. They've got to get in there and help him," said the coach.Humphries' emergence in the absence of Andrea Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa has certainly helped. While it remains to be seen how much Humphries plays when Bargnani returns, likely next week, what he's done of late, along with Joey Graham, has given the team a boost."Their mentality is to get on the boards, they're a little bit more physical than other guys," Bosh said."They love to go get the ball, they love that battle. They've helped us a lot on the boards because they know that's what they have to do to keep playing."That is the carrot that Mitchell dangles. He called out Graham, Humphries and others for their lack of effort in a disheartening loss in Boston last week and they've responded."When you have more than one guy crashing the offensive boards, it makes it easier on both guys," Bosh said.</div>http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/198789Raptors haven't always been a great rebounding teams, but the Raptors have suddenly been getting the rebounds they need. Like Kris Humprhies and also Chris Bosh who have both been rebounding machines as of late and when Jorge went down with the injury
Yeah I remembering hearing in our four game winstreak we were leading the NBA in rebounds...good stuff.
