The Raptors came into the game against the Chicago Bulls who had been averaging opponents to 43% shooting and the Raptors shoot 58% in the game while the Bulls had kept their opponents to 93 points a game and the Raptors put up 118 points (118-113) against the Bulls tonight and the Bulls had only given up 19 assists a game and the Raptors had 29 assists in the game. The Raptors had good defensive stops in the game as the Bulls started 2-8 from the floor and in the second quarter the Raptors were down 8 points and then the Raptors got 9 defensive stops in 11 Bulls possessions and the Raptors took a 1 point lead but the Raptors defensive stops were in spurts as the Bulls had huge stretches of baskets in a row and put up lots of their 113 points in a few small sections of the game which made a good defensive game into a very high scoring victory. James Johnson the guy that the Raptors got from the Bulls yesterday for the Heats first round pick in the 2011 and he came in and like Joey Dorsey and Jullian Wright before him and had a very aggressive game especially on defense that set the tune for the Raptors defense in the game and lets hopr he does not get into Triano's dog house like the other 2 seemingly have found themselves. Even Andrea Bargnani had great defensive stops in the game too as the Raptors held the Bulls to just under 44% shooting from the floor in the game while the Raptors went 32 of 34 from the free throw line in the game. The Raptors were lead by both Andrea Bargnani (8 boards and 4 assists) and DeMar DeRozan (3 boards and 4 assists) while Amir Johnson had 17 points (8 for 8 from the floor and 1 for 1 from the line) and had 4 boards, 2 steals, and 3 blocks in the game. James Johnson had 9 points, 5 boards, and 3 blocks so he was all over the place and Jose Calderon had 17 of the team's 29 assists and had 3 steals along with 6 points. The Bulls were lead by Derrick Rose who had 14 points in the first three quarters and then had 18 points in the fourth quarter along with 10 assists of the Bulls's 19 in the gamewhile Joakim Noah had 10 of the Bulls 11 boards in the game and finished with 16 boards in the game of the Bulls's 36 with 9 on the offensive glass of their 16 offensive boards. The Bulls also got help from Carlos Boozer (24 points and 6 boards) and Luol Deng (19 points) and for the first time in the last little bit it is the Raptors opponents that can not get defensive as the Raptors take down their first over 500 team since beating the Mavs in Dallas with basically no one playing for the Raptors.
In the end the Raptors rallied around James Johnson's energy especially on the defensive end and put together a very good game but now what the Raptors need to hope for is that Johnson continue this kind of play against a team that had not just been spurned by and that the Raptors continue to rally around his energy and I know it is hard to beleive but the Raptors defense before the All-Star break had becoming better. Even though I do not know if the defense is much better or that the Raptors defense most of this season has been like the worst in the league but leats hope the D continues to get better because D wins games more than the O wins games.
What a game tonight
Tom Mehegan
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