The Raps are hurting with Jose Calderon still out and now Andrea Bargnani is also out with a sore foot and now they face the Chicago Bulls who have a 6 game winning streak.

First Quarter

The Raps are down 23-18 after first quarter and the Bulls are turning it over a lot more (6-1) and have taken a shoot less (20-19) which means the Bulls when they protect the ball they are shooting well and the Raps need to pass the ball around more (4 assists) and they have more steals too (3-1). The Bulls are lead by Carlos Boozer (9 points, 4 boards, and an assist) and Luoi Deng (6 points), Joakim Noah (6 or the 15 boards in the quarter), Derrick Rose (4 assists) also helped as well. The Raptors are being killed on the glass (15-8) and the Bulls are shootin 9 for 19 ansd the Raps are shooting 8 for 20 while Jerryd Bayless (a board and an assist) and DeMar DeRozan (2 steals) both have 6 points and Ed Davis has half of the Raps (4 of 8). OK the Raps had a good quarter and if the Raps clean up the boards they can have a good game and keep it respectful.

Second Quarter

RESPECTFUL please the Bulls got 40 points (16 for 23 from the floor) and shooting 59.5 in the half and out rebounded the Raps 13-3 (28-11 in the half) with 8 assists compared 2 for the Raps. The Bulls were lead by Carlos Boozer (12 points and 4 boards) and Kyle Korver (10 points and 3 assists) and Ronnie Brewer (6 points and 3 boards) while Joakim Noah (3 boards). The Raps were lead by Barbosa (7 points) and Jerryd Bayless (6 points) and they are behind by 19 at half trailing 63-44 and the Raps if they want to be competitive they need to start by getting dirty on defense instead of only caring about the glory of the offense and I do not care who is playing /who is not.

Third Quarter

The Raptors have 64 and the Bulls had 63 at half and the Bulls outscored the Raptors in the quarter 28-20 and are trailing 91-64 and the Raptors need to play with more passion and get dirty on De-fense and the Raptors were lead by Joey Dorsey (7 points and 4 boards and a block) and Barbosa (4 points, a board, an assist) while Ed Davis had 6 boards in the quarter. The Raptors had 3 assists and the Raptors out rebounded the Bulls 14-10 but the Bulls were 11 for 19 from the floor and the Raptors were 10 for 27 from the floor and the Bulls were lead by Caarlos Boozer (14 points, 4 boards, 2 steals, and an assist along with a block) while Joakim Noah (5 points and 2 boards) along with Derrick Rose (6 assists).

Fourth Quarter

The Raptors started 16-4 to begin the quarter and down 15 points and it is the bench players doing all the damage lead by Joey Dorey while Kleiza who had a bad 11 minutes in the other 3 quarter and Ed Davis (4 points) has a double-double along with Joey Dorsey (8 boards and 2 points) and Barbosa (10 points, 2 boards, an assist). The Raptors had 10 assists in the quarter and 9 in the rest of the game lead by Sonny Weems (3 of his 5 assists in the quarter) and they also out rebounded 12-9 (Tai Gibson 5 boards) in the quarter while out scored the Bulls 29-19 (Loui Deng with 9 points).

Final Thoughts

The Raptors need to bring more passion especially on defense and if bench players are getting to start and get destroyed like Bayless (9 for 15 from the floor, 20 points, only 4 assists) and no decision making ablity yet and Amir Johnson with 3 boards it is a real bad sign because bench players should want the opportunity to start and should show it on the floor. Carlos Boozer (34 points and 12 boards) and the other starters had 32 points and the Raptors could not stop him eventhough nobody was close to his production because Loui Deng was second with 19 points (9 in the final quarter). Barbosa (21 points ) lead the team while Sonny Weems ( 5 assists compared to 4 turnover with 7 points where he was 3 for 10 from the floor) but Dorsey (13 boards and 12 points) and Ed Davis (10 points and 10 boards) with double-doubles. The Bulls had 40 points and over 70% shooting in the second and if you want to win you can not have these kind of quarter and the Nets are visting on Friday snd they need to play much better.

Better Lucky Friday,

Tom Mehegan