Spurs Kick Raps While We're Down - 107-97 Spurs

Well, Tony Parker played pretty well. 24 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds - not bad. He led the Spurs to a franchise-record-tying 16 three-balls in destroying any semblance of Raptor perimeter defense. Well... the Raps' record ia 10-17. Hope of a turnaround to this season is becoming dimmer every day. Well, here goes the player awards...

NBA.com Recap

Player of the Game:
Jermaine O'Neal put up pretty stats. 24 points on 12-20 from the field, 10 rebounds. But hey, it seems these days it wouldn't be telling the whole truth to ignore that JO didn't get to the line once in 36 minutes and had 5 of his 8 missed field goals blocked. Sigh...

Notables:
Chris Bosh - 17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists. Bosh's numbers are solid - he's too talented to have bad games, but teams are learning to key in on him, and his numbers are plumetting. He must be getting very frustrated by now.
Jose Calderon - 16 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists. Even the most efficient point guard in the league is having difficulties conjuring up offense in the anemic Raps system. It's a sad state of affairs.

Full box score

Stat of the Game:
Plain and simple: Perimeter defense. The Spurs jacked up 35 three-pointers, making an astounding 16 of them, for a 45.7% clip. The Raptors responded with 4-12 for 33.3%. Jason, Anthony, Jose, Jamario, Joey - put a hand in the face and move your feet. Please?

The Rose of the NBA - A Friday Night Ramble

- This weeks Friday night ramble features Derrick Rose, who broke the ankles of supposed "above average" point guard Andre Miller. Take a look. Rose, as a rookie, is lighting up the NBA. He is averaging close to 19 points, 6 assists, and 4 boards. Too bad, Kirk...
- The Spurs' big three are back in action, as Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker are both back from injury. They have won their last 2 games, and now stand at 10-8 after their dreadful start. Watch for underrated rookie George Hill as well.
- Yesterdays dunk of the night featured Tyrus Thomas. Apparently the rim did something to piss him off. Watch Tyrus soar.
- Dallas’ Jason Kidd made a 3-pointer Thursday night, the 1,386th of his career, tying Antoine Walker for ninth in NBA history. Even Kidd, a career .337 three-point shooter, did it in over 200 fewer attempts than Employee Number 8.
- Philadelphia forward Elton Brand will miss Friday’s game at Detroit with a strained right hamstring. Brand had an MRI on Thursday and did not travel with the Sixers. He is listed as day-to-day. Just a friendly reminder to all those who disliked the Jermaine O'Neal trade due to his past injuries, yet rejoiced at Elton Brand coming to Philly.
- Rockets' guard Rafer Alston was shocked to hear that the Raptors fired coach Sam Mitchell on Wednesday. "We had our issues, but we allowed other things to seep into our relationship, and that's where the problems got out of hand," Alston said rather incoherently. If that weren't enough, Rafer went on to contradict himself by saying "I know (the Raptors) haven't been happy with the way they have played this year, but this shocked me." Its good that Rafer took the time out of his busy schedule of bribing 2K sports to get him rated 79 overall in NBA 2K8 and flexing in his mirror to talk to the presses about Sam's firing.

Very Funny Moment from Spurs-Suns

This has nothing to do with the Raptors (possibly the first such post on this blog) but I couldn't resist posting this video. Frequently this summer Shaquille O'Neal complained about the Suns using the Hack-A-Shaq strategy in their playoff series. Watch as Gregg Popovich calls for the Spurs to foul Shaq about five seconds into the game - professional basketball needs more moments like this! It's just a game, remember?