Toronto Raptors lose to the Mavs as they also lose Bayless while the bench hurt them

Jerryd Bayless left the game for the Raptors @ the 9:08 of the second quarter when the Mavs were leading 31-25 and did not return in the game and the Mavs scored the next 4 points and it was 35-25. The Mavs got it as high as 12 @ 44-32 and that is when the Raptors went on a 12-0 in 3 minutes and tied the game @ 44 but the Mavs went on a 2 minute 6-0 run to make it 50-44 and they lead @ half 50-46.

The Mavs were helped out by their bench play that outscored the Raptors 56-26 with big games from Ian Mahinmi who had 19 points and Jason Terry had 17 points while the Raptors got 20 from Leandro Barbosa off the bench as the Mavs won their first game of the season 99-86 @ home. The point that it was at home was a huge thing because they still shot 44 % from the floor and were shooting just over 41% from the floor and they took advantage a very nice whistle as the Raptors were charged with 23 fouls and a number of them were simply bail out calls and yes I know that it does happen that home teams especially the more popular teams and the Raptors were hurt by a very slow whistle so they got pushed around and lost the ball and it was a turnover instead of a foul.

Andrea Bargnani played a very big game and went to the hoop more often then he usually does and was the reason the Raptors got to the line more than in the first two games this season as he went 6 for 8 from the line while the rest of the team went 8 for 10 from the line while he also lead the team with 7 of the teams 38 boards and finally put up 30 points as he went 11 for 18 but missed the last 5 shots he took. Jose Calderon had 11 points and 7 assists but I really feel that Jamaal Magloire because he was victim of two of the phantom calls as he was given a foul when Lamar Odeom went down on his with no contact and got the foul called because he just laid on the court until it was called and did not even leave the court after the call and then Ian Mahinmi went for a walk with the ball and instead of been called for traveling the play went on and Magloire was called for another phantom call played only 6 minutes and two boards.

For Dallas the team still does not look right but the Big Dirk was the one of two starters in double figures with with 18 points as Shawn Marion also had 12 points but big Dirk was not done as he had 4 assists, 4 blocks, and a steal. While Brendan Haywood had 9 boards in the game and 7 of them in the first half (all 5 of his offensive boards).

Now the Raptors head to Walt Disney World for New Years' Eve as they will be playing New Years' Day in Orlando and lets hope they have the same effort as tonight