The Raptors starters continue the fade of not coming out prepared for the game and it is looking very bad on Bryan Colangelo and Dwayne Casey as the last two first round picks before this year's draft are having a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the NBA. The Raps first round pick in '09 DeMar DeRozan even though he is the go to guy he is still have major problems finding his shot and is settling for jumpers instead of challenging the defense and going to the basket to get the opportunity to shot from the free throw line. Then the first round pick in'10 Ed Davis can work really hard on the glass from time to time but needs to get more consistent and he has no 5 to 10 foot jumper while pickups like Amir and James Johnson are inconsistent especially Amir because he can be strong on the boards and get easy baskets one game and the next be invisible while James has not found his shot just like his Bulls teammate Rasual Butler who can not hit a three to save his life.
So today against the Clippers the Raptors shot 25% from the floor in the first quarter and were outscored 27-11 with no chance at getting to the rim against the Clippers D and the Raps were changed with 12 fouls and the Clippers 1 as the Raps did not go to the line in the quarter and the Clippers went 14 times. In the second quarter the Raptors cut the lead by pushing the ball with the bench and getting it to 29-22 as the Raps went on a 11-2 run to open the quarter and ended up trailing 49-37 going into the second half. The Clippers starters lead by Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan opened the half on a 13-3 run to open a 22 point lead that the Raptors tried to claw back from but could not as the Clippers left their starters on the bench for the fourth and the Raps closed the lead to 12 @ the buzzer 103-91.
The Raptors bench outscored the Raptors starters 58-33 with DeMar being the only Raptor starter in double figures with 15 (4 of 19 from the floor and 7 of 8 from the line) while Kleiza (16 P and 4 R along with 3 A in 29 M) and Gray (6 P and 8 R along with 2 S in 15 M) in the front court out played Amar (1 P and 1 R in 7 m) and James Johnson (7 P and 2 R along 2 A and 2 S in 19 M). @ the point Calderon had only 4 assists to go with his 1 of 8 from the floor but only played 23 minutes as Jerryd Bayless was back and he played 18 and a half minutes had 5 assists to go with his 2 of 9 from the floor and got 3 of 4 from the line for 7 points while Barbosa had 19 to lead the Raps.
The Clippers got 18 points and 9 boards in 31 minutes from Blake Griffin and 16 points and 16 boards from DeAndre Jordan in 26 minutes and these two with the help of Caron Butler with 15 points built the lead and made it very hard for the Raptors to do anything offensively and really could not be stopped defensively. While Mo Williams off the bench went 8 of 15 from the floor, 3 of 6 beyond the Arc, and 7 of 7 from the line for 26 points in 27 minutes and Chauncey Billups even with a a 1 of 9 from the floor and 5 points still had 14 assists which is 2/3 of the Raptors whole team with 21.
Now the Raps head to face the Suns on Tuesday and maybe Bargnani who knows
Tom Mehegan
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