Ben Uzoh had a triple-double in the Raptors season finale

The Raptors finished their 2011-12 season and ended it in style with 22 wins and it was a very easy game for the Raptors as it was like a playground game as the Nets did not show up for the game as they were shooting 29% through three quarters and in the third quarter the Raptors doubled the Nets in points as they lead 71-35 with 3:42 left in the quarter. In the 98-67 Raptors victory Dwayne Casey choose to play 7 players and really only played 5 players who all played over 40 minutes with Ben Uzoh who had the Raptors first triple-double in 11 years since Alvin Williams did it in 2001 and tonight Uzoh had 16 points, 12 assists, and 11 boards. Then Ed Davis put up a career high 24-points in the game to go with 12 boards while Solomon Alabi had 19 boards in the game with no Resistance from the Nets. Alan Anderson got 17 points in the game and Gary Forbes had 23 points and 6 boards as the only two other players to play were Jamaal Magloire who got a token start after taken the mic before the game and thanked the fans for their support and then James Johnson played 20 minutes. The Nets looked to get more lottery balls in the lottery as both teams came into the game with 22 wins and with the win the Raptors have dropped behind the Nets and the Raptors out rebounded the Nets 45-23 through three quarters and 58-39 in the game. It was positive season fot the Raptors Tom Mehegan

Raptors start strong but the Bucks find their D and win in the second half

The Raptors came out firing and really could not miss a shot as they abused the Bucks Interior defense in the first half as they outscoring them 24-6 at half time and shot over 50% in both the first and second quarter (first quarter 58% and the second quarter 50%) while shooting 54% at the half and lead by 5 (48-43). It continued in the third quarter as they hit their first 54 shots of the quarter and lead 61-47 with a 13-4 run and then something snapped in the Bucks as they just destroyed the Raptors as they ended the third quarter on a 15-6 run to close it to 67-62 and in the fourth Ersan Ilyasova took over for the Bucks he scored 13 of his 19 points in the last 6 minutes of regulation that went well with 15 boards in the gameand all his points in the second half as the Bucks outscored the Raptors 30-19 in the fourth quarter and strangely enough what might of lite a fire under their butts was that the Sixers had just won to eliminate them from the playoff picture with a win by destroying the Nets. The Raptors ended the game shooting 44.7% from the floor as the Bucks made it much harder in the paint after they were down 14 and they also got scoring from Brandon Jennings who had 25 points while Monta Ellis at the line going 8 of 9 and ending with 17 points. The Raptors were lead by James Johnson who had 22 points and 13 boards in the game and is the first really good full game he has played since being bench for two games for team issues while Amir Johnson who really has been a shell of anything since bring benched in Cali eariler this season and had another so-so game even though he got to start 7 points and 4 boards and is looking like a guy that may have a different address for displaying his talents next season. Ed Davis pulled down another 11 boards and if he could get more offensive boards and jam them home offensive boards he would be a keeper and if he brings more of the effort he has been shown recently he will be a great addition to the Raptors. Gary Forbes got 15 points while Kleiza (6 of 13 and 15 points) and Anderson (3 of 13 but 5 of 5 from the line for 11 points) both had 13 shots as DeRozan playing 15 minutes and putting up 5 shots (4 points and 3 boards). James and Ed had 24 of the Raptors 49 boards while the Bucks had 43 while it was a team effort to get the 26 assists (10 more than the Bucks( on 34 made field goals but it was there 21 turnovers that killed them as it was almost double the Bucks 11 in the game. Season finale Thursday Vs the Nets Tom Mehegan

Raptors lost a bowling shoe ugly game to the Pistons

The first half of the game was the lowest scoring first half in the 2011-12 NBA season as there was a combined 63 points (Raps 34-29) and the Raptors shot 13 of 38 in the first half (32.4%) while the Pistons were 10 of 36 (27.7%) but then in the third quarter the Pistons went 10 of 19 from the floor and scored 24 points in the quarter while the Raptors were 7 of 17 and they scored 16 points and the Pistons took a 53-50 lead and it was the march to 75 as the first to 75 was believed to win the game and the Raptors were 4 of 16 down the stretch and the Pistons would live on the line down the stretch and win the game 76-73. The Raptors had Alan Anderson take a three-ball with just under 9 seconds left in the game and the ball was loose for 2 seconds before Ben Gordon picked it and he was fouled and hit the first of two free throws and missed the second Solomon Alabi got the board which was his tenth of the game and Kleiza took the last second three which missed. The Raptors in this ugly game who shot 37.7% in the game were lead by DeMar DeRozan who was 7 of 15 from the floor with 16 points while the rest of the team were 15 of 52 and shot 28.8% from the floor. Kleiza was 4 of 10 from the floor and ended up with 12 points while Gray (7) and Davis (8) helped Alabi (10) with out rebounding the Pistons (45-40) in the game while there were 21 assists on only 29 made field goals in the game so the Raptors will diffidently figure out who will be the next true point guard after Calderon (assist first, score second). The Pistons got a good rebounding game from Greg Monroe who had 17 boards in the game but it was Brandon Knight (7 of 17 and 19 points) and Ben Gordon (6 of 11 and 19 points) did more than half their scoring while the rest of the team shot 13 of 43 from the floor and shooting 30.9%. The Piston lived at the line as they took a third of their shots from there (35 of 106) and still made only 22 of them (62.9%) while the Raptors only took 16 and made 11 (68.8%). It was a bowl shoe ugly game Tom Mehegan

Heat sweep Raptors as Raps melt in the second quarter

So with 5 and a half minutes left in the second quarter the Raptors were leading 39-32 and the Heat were without Bosh or Wade in the lineup so it looked like the Raps were going to play hard and keep it close and maybe even win the game but then the Heat heated up and took the Raptors to LBJ school as James had 9 points to end the quarter as the Heat went on a 17-6 run to take a 49-45 lead. The Raptors tied the game up with 2 and half seconds @ 49 but James sneaked past the Raptors and put up a tip-in @ the buzzer and the Heat took a two-point lead and LBJ scored more than the Raptors as he had 12 of the Heat 23 points and the Raptors had only 11 points in the quarter and the Heat without LBJ in the fourth quarter as he sat the fourth quarter and it did not matter as they still poured the hot water all over the Raptors as they outscored the Raps 22-12 and walked home with a 96-72 victory while the Raptors had only 23 points in the second half. The Raptors got a hot start from Alan Anderson who had 10 of the Raps 24 first quarter points and ended the game with 15 points and o for 8 from beyond the arc while James Johnson had 18 points and 6 boards to lead the team in both categories even though Solomon Alabi had 6 boards in 10 minutes. DeMar DeRozan had a very poor shooting night with 5 of 14 (just over 1 of 3) and ended up with 12 points while the rest of the team shot 43%. The Heat got help for James (12 of 15 for 28 points) from Mike Miller who was 3 of 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and ended the game with 13 points while Udonis Haslem had 7 boards as the Heat were plus 10 (41-31) on the glass and added 10 points in the game. So it was a tough almost 30 minutes of basketball and will need to learn from these tough lessons Tom Mehegan

Solomon Alabi had an audition as the Hawks return the favor

Solomon Alabi played almost 22 minutes which is 2 minutes longer than he had played in the other 9 games he has played in this season and he looked like a guy who has not played serious minutes against the opponents starters in a 109-87 Hawks blow out win. He should that he not aware of where he was late in the third quarter and he was in the restricted area and stood there and had a chance to move forward and take the charge but instead he stood in the restricted area and wait for Joe Johnson to come to the hoop and when he did Johnson put his knees into Alabi's chest and slammed home a dunk and then went to the line for a free throw which he did not make. He also had teammates reminding him to keep his arms up on defense to make it tougher for the Hawks to put up points and he still put up 8 points and 9 boards and after this game it was nice that he got a chance to show what he can do but I still think it is extremely unlikely that he will be on the Raptors next season or even in the NBA because if he had shown anything he would of gotten more of a rub or the last two seasons. The Raptors were still in the game @ halftime even though they had 11 turnovers and the Hawks had 13 points of those turnovers but they were only down 3 @ 54-51 but the Hawks took another 8 turnovers leading to another 7 points and they outscored the Raptors 55-36 in the second half. The Hawks only turnover the ball 10 times but the Raptors scored 17 points of those turnovers and the Hawks put up 28 fast break points which is the most the Raptors have given up this season to an opponent and they shot 48.8% and made 25 free throws while the Raptors shot over 55% @ half and ended up shooting 44.3% and only made 13 free throws as the Hawks hade 20 more free throw attempts (36-16). The Hawks were lead Jeff Teague who had 18 points, 10 assists, and 6 boards in the game and Joe Johnson after a 2 for 12 game last night was 6 of 13 from the floor and had 18 points. They also were lead by Ivan Johnson in points with 21 points and also 6 boards which was one less than Josh Smith who had and added 15 points as well and the Hawks had 28 assists which was 8 more than the Raptors. The Raptors who only had 5 fast break points where lead by DeRozan who had 21 points while James Johnson had 18 points but it was Ben Uzoh could find his shot as he 2 of 12 from the floor and instead he getting boards (10) and assists (8). The Raptors actually out rebounded the Hawks for the second night in a row by collecting 46 boards which was four more than the Hawks 42 in the game. It was interesting to see Solomon Alabi get heavy minutes Tom Mehegan

The Raptors clip the Hawks' wings in the first of a tradition home and home series

In the first night of a traditional home and home series the Raptors went wire to wire with the lead and when the Hawks made a run like in the first quarter with 4 minutes left they were up 21-11 and the Raptors were only leading by 2 @ 25-23 and then the Raptors were leading @ half by 14 points (53-39). In the third quarter the Hawks cut the lead to 9 after three quarters (73-64) and then the Raptors took control of the game in the fourth and got it up to 24 points before garbage time and still won 102-86. The Raptors were lead by DeMar DeRozan with 23 points and went to the line 11 times and had 4 b 4 boards (all boards in the first half) and Alan Anderson had 14 points in the first half and ended up with 16 points. Kleiza and Gray lead the team in boards with 7 each as the Raps were plus 4 on the glass while James Johnson did not take a shot in the first three quarters and then went 6 of 8 in the final quarter and had 15 points in the quarter. The Raptors shot the lights out with 55% (41 of 74) shooting after shooting 58% in the first half and the Hawks shot 40% in the game (29 of 72) but were shooting 34% at the half. The Hawks had one shining light who was Josh Smith was 11 of 20 and had 26 of the Hawks points and the rest of the team went 18 of 52 which under 35% including Joe Johnson who was 2 of 12 and 6 points after averaging over 20 in his career against the Raptors. The Raptors broke another long losing streak as they won their first game in 7 against the Hawks and have not won in Atlanta in years including the famous clock issue that won a game for the Hawks and in exchange they are losing more lottery balls. I feel changing the culture is better than getting another top pick and be back at the beginning like they were with VC and CB4 and they could of kept Traino and gotten a lot of lottery balls but then they would have Mike D'Antino instead of Dwayne Casey as the Raps were not the only team looking at him. Raptors and Hawks again tomorrow Tom Mehegan

Raptors hold on to beat the Celtics in a big comeback

The Raptors did not start very well as they only 13 points in the first and 30 points in the first half and shot only 23% in the first half and were only down 36-30 @ halftime. Then in the third quarter the Raptors just owned the Celtics outscoring them 27-11 (tied for the least amount of points in a quarter by an opponent this season) and they shot 8 of 15 from the floor as DeRozan had 13 of his game high 22 in the quarter. The fourth quarter was easy early for the Raps outscored them 15-10 if the first half of the final quarter and then the Celtics D got very tough as the Celtics outscored the Raptors 18-4 and they could not breath on offense with both of their point guards on 10 day contracts and it was 76-75 Raptors and then DeRozan hit four from the line in the last 27 seconds of the game as he was 13 of 13 from the line in the game. Kleiza salted away the game with four free throws in the last 13 seconds of the game as apart of his 17 points as the Raptors were 11 of 11 from the line in the fourth and 27 of 31 in the game on their way to a 84-79 victory as they split the season series since the creation of the big three. The Raptors out rebounded the Celtics 50-37 behind 5 players with at least 8 boards and were lead by Ed Davis who had 12 boards. Paul Pierce had a Celtic high of 18 points and Avery Bradley had 15 points while Kevin Garrnet quietly got a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards. The Raptors will be without Andrea Bargnani for the rest of the season as he will be sidelined with his calf muscle injury in what was a great season when he was healthy and lets hope he can rest his Calf in the off0season and be ready for a normal 82 games season next season. Tom Mehegan

The Sixers painted the Raptors black and blue

The Sixers pounded yhr paint like there was no tomorrow as they went into the time after time for easy and it was easiest in the fourth quarter where they shot well over 50% in great parts to getting 20 of their 58 points in the paint in the fourth quarter and they used the easy baskets to drive up their shooting% to 53.2% after shooting% like 47% going into the fourth quarter. The Sixers had 41 made buckets from the floor and 29 of them were in the paint so it looks like when a team decides to inside on the Raptors it is like easy pickings and the Raptors need to get tougher inside and the Sixers were sharing the rock sd they had 27 assists on those 31 buckets which is 67% of the time as they painted the Raptors black and blue to the tune of 73-75 and pulled away in the fourth with a 30-20 advantage. The Sixers did not dominate the boards (as both teams had 42 in the game) or even on the offensive glass (as the Raptors had a 8-4 advantage). They were lead by Thaddeus Young who had 17 points (8 of 12 from the floor and a made free throw) and 5 boards along with Nikola Vucevic who had 12 points, 5 boards, 3 assists. Elton Brand had 11 points and 6 boards while Jrue Holiday had 8 points, 7 boards, 7 assists and the Sixers had 9 of their 10 players they used were at or over 20 minutes so it was a great group effort from a team that diffidently needed a whole team effort as they had lost 10 of 14 before beating the Nets and have now won two in a row. Talking about being black and blue that was Jose Calderon who took another hit and had to get more stitches and had 7 points and 4 assists in 22 minutes while Kleiza went down hard with an injury. DeRozan had his second straight game under 15 points and only took 9 shots and went to the line one times and had only 11 points but it was Ed Davis who had another big game on the glass with 13 boards and tied Alan Anderson for most points with 13 and it would be nice if he was more consistent on a game to game basis. Four loses in a row and the Celtics on Friday with Bargnani insight Tom Mehegan

Andrea Bargnani rests as the Raps are thunder stuck

Til was going to be a very messy at the best of times tonight for the Raptors as the Thunder came in with a three game losing streak and are percentage points behind the Spurs but when Jose Calderon who has a nasty black under his right eye is the only Raptor shooting well as he was 8 of 12 (19 points) from the floor while the rest of the team was 21 of 66 from the floor (31.8) and they were 15 of 59 (25%) before going 6 of 7 down the stretch to finish the game. So in the game DeMar DeRozan was 6 of 22 from the floor (16 points) and only 1 for 8 from the floor in the second half and this after Andrea Bargnani left the game with a tight calf with 4 minutes left in the first half with 1 of 3 from the floor and 5 of 6 from the line for 7 points and took a seat for the just of the game and maybe diffidently a question mark going into tomorrow's game against the Indiana Pacers and Barbosa. The Thunder who were lead by Kevin Durant with 22 points, James Harden had 17 points, and Russell Westbrook had 15 points along with 6 boards & assists gave the Raptors a chance to stay in the game as they 6 of their 16 turnovers in the first quarter and the Thunder went on a 12-4 run to open the second quarter and take a 13 point lead and the Raptors found their shooting legs late in the quarter as they finished the quarter on 6-2 run to close to 50-43 @ half. The third started well for the Raptors as they outscored the Thunder 12-8 in the first half of the quarter but then the wheels came completely off as they were 0 for 8 from the floor and 0 for 3 from beyond the arc and got outscored 12-0. It continued into the fourth quarter where they were 0 for 1 from the floor and 0 for 2 from the line until DeRozan scored a bucker with just over 9 minutes left in the game and the Thunder scored the first 12 points in the fourth quarter and in just under 9 minutes the Thunder scored 24 unanswered points and took a 82-55 lead on their way to a 91-75 victory. This game really showed if a couple of scoring parts are missing in Bargnani and DeRozan it can be a tough night at the office and when the Raps offense goes dry then it really can go dry as they allowed the Heat to score 20 unanswered points as well and with Alan Anderson and Gary Forbes were third on the team in scoring with 8 points each it really says who weak can be. Also having 14 assists on 29 made fields is not good enough and more than 20% of your shoots are from beyond the arc (16 of 78) it is not a winning formula and that to go with the Thunder shooting lights out themselves as they hit 10 threes on 23 shots and the Raps hit 6 on 16 shots. The Raps will come out with a much better effort tomorrow against the Pacers and James Johnson finally after two games got out of coach Casey's dog house and was 2 of 11 from the floor Tom Mehegan

Raptors come up empty in the fourth

With Jose Calderon's eye swollen shut yesterday and unable to play tonight and Gary Forbes injured the Raptors are going with two point guards who are both on 10 day contracts in starter Ben Uzoh and off the bench they have a brand new 10 dayer Justin dentmon. It was working ubtil the fourth quarter when it showed that the the two player offense died a horrible death as the Raptors were outscored to start the fourth quarter 24-5 lead by the Raptors fourth overall draft pick in 1998 just before he was traded for VC, Antawn Jamison who had 15 of the Cavs first 19 points in the fourth quarter as he had 16 of the Cavs 33 fourth quarter points and also had 5 of 8 boards in the fourth as well. Lester Hudson had 8 of his 23 in the fourth quarter and was truly the only Cav on the floor that could shot from the line as he was 11 of 13 from the line while the rest of the Caves were 18 of 27 and the Raptors were an even worse 15 of 24 and 7 of 8 from DeRozan made a real different as the rest of the team were 50% from the line. In the 84-80 Cavs win that stopped the Raps three game win streak and winning 4 of their last 5 was looking like Wednesday Sixers game as the Raps took a 42-39 lead into half time with Bargnani having 13 of his 19 in the first quarter and in the third quarter when the Raps took a 63-50 lead into the fourth DeRozan had 11 which was the same as the Cavs in the quarter as the Raptors outscored them 21-11 and he ended up with 19 of his 28 points in the second half while Bargnani who started hot hitting first 6 shots then only made of his final 16.Not having a real third option or Jose Calderon hurt them in the final quarter with Ozoh next with 9 points and it also did not help only having 13 assists on 31 made field goals in the game. The Raptors out rebound the Cavs by 10 (49-39) and it was a group effort as Justin dentmon was the only Raps player without 4 boards and 4 of the other 8 had at least 7 boards and Kleiza lead the team with 8. So it maybe a bad day for the Raptors on Easter Sunday in OKC *just saying) Tom Mehegan

Jose Calderon is Rocky as the Raps are rolling

Jose Calderon took a shot in the middle of the second quarter and had to head to the Sixers locker room to get stitched up and he returned and was gone for the rest of the first half and then returned at the beginning of the third quarter with stitches over his eye and added to his 7 points and assists in the first with 5 points and 6 assists in the second half. DeMar DeRozan left the game late when he stepped on a Sixers foot and fell awkwardly and left the game and may be sidelined for a couple of games and he still had 18 points, 5 assists, and 3 boards. The game against the Sixers was a real track race with little to no resistance for either teams offense as the Sixers shot 58% from the floor and Jrue Holiday was 8 of 8 from the floor and one was from beyond the arc and had 17 of his 20 points while Elton Brand added 14 of his 20 points in the first half. The Raptors were shooting 52% with Bargnani having 13 of his 24 points and DeRozan had 11 of his 18 while in his first start in six years Alan Anderson had 10 of his 13 points in the first half as the Sixers took a 56-55 lead into the second half. The Second half was a complete disaster for the Sixers as they were outscored 44-22 in the hal and were booed a number of times during the fourth quarter where they shot 3 of 20 from the floor as they scored only 7 points and when they scored late in the game they got a bronks cheer. They shot 6 of 16 in the quarter and shot 25% in the second half after shooting 25 of 43 in the first half and the Raptors out rebounded the Sixers 15-6 in the fourth quarter as they really out worked the Sixers as their fans told everyone and Ed Davis had 14 of the Raps 46 boards as they out rebounded them by 15 as they only had 29. The Raptors and the Sixers are headed in different directions as the Raptors who have no chance of the playoffs have won 4 of 5 and have 20 wins while the Sixers who have been in third spot in the conference as the division leader have now lost 8 of 12 and are holding onto seventh in the Eastern conference with a 29-25 record. Win environment is a good thing hope it continues next season Tom Mehegan

Bargnani and DeRozan help the Raps finally beat the Bobcats

The Raptors were shooting over 52% at half and was leading 53-46 and the Bobcats were shooting 39% and got 14 of their 46 from the line but the Raptors were lead off the bench by Kleiza who was 5 of 8 from the floor and 4 of them from beyond the arc to give him 14 points and Andrea Bargnani had 15 points in the first half and they hit 6 threes too. In the third quarter the Raps shooting went south and so did the Bobcats as the Bobcats shot under 33% in the quarter and the the Raps shot just over 40% and both teams got 18 points and if it was not for DeMar DeRozan the Raps would been of buried deep going into the final quarter as he 10 of the Raps 18 points in the quarter and Bargnani had 4 more points in the quarter. In the fourth the Raps kept them at bay until the Bobcats went on a 8-2 to get within two points @ 81-79 with 2:44 left and got within a point @ 88-87 with 40.9 seconds left but Bargnani got 4 of his 11 fourth quarter points in the last 30 seconds of the game to help give the Raptors their first win in over two years against the Bobcats and the first back-to-back wins in 2012 as they won 92-87. The Raptors got 30 points from Andrea Bargnani, 20 from DeMar DeRozan, and 18 from Kleiza while Calseron had only a tech foul point but had 11 of the Raps 25 assists on 35 made baskets. The Raps beat on the boards by 8 (46-38) as the Cats got 14 from Byron Mullens who also lead them in points (20) as well but the Raps still got 9 from Arron Grey and 7 from Ed Davis. The Cats also made one less free throw (21) than the Raptors attempted (22 and made 15). In the end it was nice to see the Raptors break another long losing streak to a team this time to the woeful Bobcats who had won 6 games in a row against the dinos and winning back-to-back games @ the ACC since winning 5 of 6 @ the end of 2010 and every bad trend the Raptors can end going into the 2012-13 season is a great thing to change the losing stagnant that the Raptors have had since winning 47 games and 30 @ the ACC in the 2006-07 season. I hope a winning culture gets the team into the playoffs next season Tom Mehegan