The first half of the game was good offensively for the Raptors with 61 points with 16 points from Andrea Bargnani with DeMar and Barbosa both with 9 and Weems with 8 points in the half. The Suns are staying in the game with long distance as they are 6 for 15 from 3 with Boo Carter was 3 for 6 from 3 and had 11 points while Aaron Brooks was 2 for 3 from 3 as he has 11 points too but the Suns are really hurting as Grant Hill is injured and is likely done for the game while Mickael Pietrus is questionable with an injury and Robin Lopez is sick and is done for the game while Captain Canada sat most of the first half with only 6 minutes on the court but he is likely to play more in the second half. The Raptors had a run of 15-5 to take a 19-11 8 point lead while a 11-3 run gave the Raptors their biggest lead at 10 in the first half but then held strong with a 6 point halftime lead @ 61-55 but will need to get up on 3-balls and play tougher in the second half even though they led in boards 26-23 and assists they are tied at 13.
The Raptors came out and scored the first 6 points in the second half and took a 12 point lead @ 67-55 and then they went back and forth with the Suns and the top of the mountain for the Raptors tonight was 84-71 with 3:21 left in the third quarter and the Suns went on a 15-2 run with Steve Nash on the bench for the last 2 minutes of the quarter and the game was the same as it was @ tipoff tonight tied and this time it was 86-86. So the fourth quarter begins and just like to open the half the Raptors scored the first 6 points of the quartero and then the Suns come back with 9 straight points as Channing Frye had 7 of these 9 points and after Barbosa hits a 3-ball to tie it up @ 95 with 6 minutes left it was anyone's ball game. With the Raptors getting 6 more points while the Suns got only 2 to have a 9-2 run to open up a 6 point lead again and they were feeling really good about themselves but then the Suns turn over the Raptors bus and the Raptors were not heard from again as the Suns close the game with a 17-3 run to win the game 114-106 and these are the guys who played not 1, not 2, but 3 overtimes against Kobe and the Lakers last night.
The Raptors got on them early and often in the game as they tried to end the 14 game losing streak the Raptors are on against the Suns where the last time the Raptors beat them Mo Pete and Vince Carter were lead the charge for the Raptors and now Vince was on the other sidelines as a Sun and Mo Pete may not be in the league if he is he is out the end of someone's bench not seeing the court as a high price stiff. The Suns did a very good job of using their bench because Channing Frye was the only starter playing huge minutes in the game as Boo Carter played 20 and Nash played 22 and Robin Lopez played 15 and the 3 ball was huge for them as they hit 12 of 28 of them and like usually the Raptors were a step slow in recovering so they had very good looks most of the night. Aaron Brooks had 25 points and Steve Nash had 16 points in his 22 minutes on the court as he only played the second half as they had 8 assists in the game while Marcin Gortat had 8 boards to led the Suns to go with his 15 points. The Raptors were led by Andrea Bargnani with 27 points (10 of 22 from the floor with 6 free throws made) to go with 4 boards and 3 assists and DeMar DeRozan had 19 (9 of 20 from the floor and 1 free throw) to go along 8 boards (very good) and 4 assists but these 2 put up 42 of the Raptors 97 shots and hit 19 of the Raptors 47 buckets so the rest of the team had a lot higher shooting % than these 2. Ed Davis had 9 boards to led the team as the Raptors out rebounded the Suns 49-42 and Jose Calderon had 13 assists but the Suns got an extra assist while the Suns also had 10 more free throws 22-12 which is extremely low on the Raptors part. The surprising stat of the night is that Barbosa took 11 shots in 22 minutes which is 1 every 2 minutes on the court and it is usually 1 every minute and Reggie played 15 minutes and had 6 boards as he had foul trouble in the first half.
Warriors Friday lets see what happens
Tom Mehegan
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