Raptors Can't Get Over the Hump - 99-91 Hornets

The Raptors were in the game throughout all four quarters today, but when it came to crunch time, the Raps could not come up with stops or scores when they needed them. This helped highlight a very poor shooting performance from the Raps: outside of Jose Calderon (perfect 8-8 FG, 5-5 3FG, 1-1 FT), Jermaine O'Neal (7-10 FG and 5-6 FT) and Joey Graham (2-4 FG) every Raptor shot well under 50% from the floor, notably Jason Kapono going 3-14 overall and 1-7 from three and Chris Bosh needing 17 field goals (making six and missing his only three-pointer) and his 13-15 from the line to score his 25 points. Not the efficiency we've come to expect from this team.

NBA.com recap

Player of the Game:
Jose Calderon stepped up tonight and continues to shine against tough competition, tonight's being a matchup with Chris Paul. As noted earlier, Jose did not miss a shot, going for 22 points to go along with 7 assists and 3 rebounds. A very effective game from Ho-say.

Notables:
Jermaine O'Neal - 19 points, 7 rebounds. At times Jermaine was dominant down low, abusing Hilton Armstrong especially, but when guarded by the 6'8" James Posey he had trouble scoring.
Chris Bosh - 25 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists. Despite Chris' tough shooting night, he still put up stellar numbers, and moved the ball exceptionally well against a swarm of Hornets defenders (nice wording, eh?).
Jamario Moon - 7 points (2-7 FG, 1-4 3FG, 2-2 FT), 8 rebounds, 2 blocks. Jamario was active again, shooting poorly but affecting the game positively on the boards and on defense. Another solid performance.

Full box score

Stat of the Game:
The Raptors' stellar defense of the previous two games was nowhere to be found today, allowing the Hornets to shoot 48% (36-75) from the field 36.4% (12-33) from three. The Raptors need to get back to defending if they want to get back to .500 - they proved when they defend, they're tough to beat.