Raptors Pummelled Again - 114-87 Jazz

Unfortunately, Jay Triano's second career game as head coach (he filled in for one game last year) was a complete and utter disaster. The Raptors again defended like the French army and played with the urgency of a Pizza Pizza delivery man. Utah - a painfully slow-paced team that loves to utilize big men Carlos Boozer (who did not play) and all-around centre Mehmet Okur in the half-court, looked like the Showtime Lakers, piling up transition points with crisp passing and timely rebounds. The Jazz played the Raps' weaknesses perfectly, dominating the paint and glass and getting out and running in the open court.

NBA.com recap

Player of the Game:
Chris Bosh. One of the only bright spots. 18 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks. Played pretty well. Chris had one of his worse games this season and was still by far the best Raptor.

Notables:
Joey Graham - 13 points, 5 rebounds. Shot well (6-9 FG, 1-1 FT), but had four fouls and three turnovers. Good Joey (sort of) keeps showing up. Maybe give him a shot at starting, Jay?
Andrea Bargnani - 7 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks. Nice defensive game from Andrea. Needs to shoot better, he shot 3-12 from the floor, 1-1 from the line and missed all four threes. This team needs scorers. He's one of them.
Jose Calderon - 10 points, 8 assists. Yeah, played pretty well. But as much as we love Jose... we can't help but feel that he's just not the same since he's come back. For lack of a better word: it's as if he's missing his "onions".

Full box score

Stat(s) of the Game:
Where to start? We were minus-14 on the boards. Utah forced 23 turnovers, and put up 31 assists on 47 made field goals. And this must be mentioned: Kosta Koufos and Matt Harpring combined for 24 points and 10 rebounds in 17 minutes. Shudder.

Next game: Sunday, December 7th, 1:00PM vs. Portland Trail Blazers

Raptors Hope To Get A Win Off A Tough Road Trip

Raptors at Utah, 10:30. The game is available for your viewing pleasure on TSN and channelsurfing.net, and for listen on the Fan 590. So far through 2 games on their 3 game Western Conference visit, the Raptors are 0-2, losing by a combined 58 points in those 2 games. In this road trip, the Raptors have let go of their head coach, Sam Mitchell, but hey, at least Jermaine O'Neal returned to the lineup after 3 DNP's.
The Jazz are currently 12-8, while the Raptors are 8-9.

What to watch for:
- Jay Triano! Lets see if he can draw up a play, or tell the Raptors players to play defense.
- The Raptors catch a break tonight as Carlos Boozer will not play, and Andrei Kirilenko, who averages 2.8 blocks per game against the Dinos, is not 100%. This may enable the Raptors to get an advantage inside.
- Jason Kapono and Anthony Parker average 70% and 60% respectively from three point land in their career vs. the Jazz. Hopefully they will be able to lift them out of the shooting funk the Raps have gotten themselves into the past couple days. Last game against the Nuggets, the Raptors shot 36.6 percent, the worst of the season thus far.