There were a couple of trends that continued in tonight's game. First, the obvious one: the Raps got outrebounded. Big. Tonight was 47-37 in favour of Dallas. The other is not as obvious but has presented itself often in the recent string of games: the Raptors again coughed up a double-digit lead and were unable to mount their own rally. Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry poured in 27 apiece in busting the Raptors' defense down to size (in this case, our size is XXL), and Josh Howard added a solid 20.
Raptors recap
Player of the Game:
Jermaine O'Neal had a pretty nice game down low, going for 19 points on passable 7-15 from the field and perfect 5-5 from the line. He added 7 rebounds and an impressive 3 blocks, and was the best Raptor big man tonight by a long shot.
Notables:
Jose Calderon - 11 points (5-12 FG, 0-2 3FG, 1-1 FT), 10 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 turnovers. Jose had a beautiful game again, but his scoring efficiency, besides that perfect game, doesn't appear to be as deadly as before his injury.
Jamario Moon - 13 points (5-7 FG, 3-3 3FG), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, one block. Jamario was once again in the running for Player of the Game. He's been doing the little things right, playing good defense and not forcing his offense. That's all we can ask from him at this point; he'll really never carry this team.
Chris Bosh - 12 points (6-20 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-2 FT), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals. Chris has had an off month in December, but when was the last time he had a legitimately bad game? No, it wasn't tonight as he contributed nicely all-around as usual... but 6-20 shooting? That's bad. He even missed a dunk. And let's face it, if we aren't all that successful when Bosh is putting up MVP numbers... well, you finish that sentence.
Full box score
Stat of the Game:
What were you expecting? Rebounding, people. We again got destroyed on the boards, 47-37. But hold on, maybe the problem isn't as bad as people think. The Raptors shot 42.9% (36-84) from the field, missing nine more shots than the Mavs (who shot 50%, 39-78). That means that all the Mavericks had to do to outrebound us by ten is grab all nine of those missed shots and beat us by one in offensive rebounding. Lo and behold, this game was practically even on the offensive side of things: the Mavs had 8 offensive boards to the Raptors' 7. So maybe it's not just that "this team can't rebound". Don't think I'm making excuses for this team, though - rebounding is crucial to this team's success - but it's pretty clear (at least in this game) that maybe shooting is more important than just raw rebound numbers.
A Guide to Reducing Your Opponents' Total Rebounds, by this humble blogger:
Step one: Put ball in hoop.
Repeat.
Next Game: Friday, December 19th, 8:00 PM at Oklahoma City Thunder
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