Raptors Lose to the Thunder! 91-83 Thunder

Orange and blue streamers fell from the rafters tonight. Why? BECAUSE THIS WAS THE THUNDER'S FIRST HOME WIN IN OVER A MONTH. Of course, this had to come against our beloved struggling Raptors. Our team is now in a bona fide basketball recession, losing 4 straight and 9 of their past 11. They now sit unchallenged as the worst in the Atlantic Division at 10-16.
Hey, at least it can't get much worse than that, right? Wrong: Jermaine O'Neal left the game at half time with a sore left shoulder.

Player of the game:
Chris Bosh - 22 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists. 1 of 2 Raptors in double digits tonight. Chris grabbed 8 offensive boards and tried his best to put the Raptors on his back.

Notables:
Andrea Bargnani - 16 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist. The only other Raptor in double figures. Not much else positive to say about his game tonight... He made a three? He had an offensive board?
Joey Graham - 9 points, 9 rebounds. +6 on the floor. He kept bringing the energy that we are all becoming accustomed to.

Stat of the game:
The Oklahoma City Thunder give up 103.3 points per game. Tonight the Raptors scored 83. The Raptors were held to 36% from the floor and 2-17 from three point range. Simply put, the Thunder do not know how to play defense. People keep saying that the Raptor offense is fine, they just need to fix their defense. However, the Raptors have only made it to 100+ points in 2 of their last 13 games. Maybe getting back on the winning end of games involves more than just defense.

Raptors Hit Up Oklahoma

Tonight at 8:00 the Raptors play the newly moved Oklahoma City Thunder. The game is on TSN 2 (BOOOOO!), but regular people can listen on the Fan590 or watch on channelsurfing.net. Our beloved Raptors have lost 8 of their last 10, and made a mockery of their last home stand, going 0-3. The fans booed the Raptors off the court against the Mavericks on Wednesday, and Chris Bosh had some words. "Fans, whether they know it or not, they dictate a lot" and "If I wanted to get booed, I'd go on the road". Luckily for the Raptors, the Oklahoma City Thunder may be the only colder team. The Thunder have lost their last 8 in a row, and are 2-24 overall.

What to Watch For:
- Kevin Durant leads the Thunder in points per game, field goal percentage, three point percentage, and free throw percentage. Looks like the Thunder have a franchise player of their own.
- On Monday, the Raptors squandered a 10-point lead late in the third quarter in a 94-87 loss to New Jersey. Two days later, Toronto led Dallas by 12 points after one quarter, but went on to lose 96-86. Hopefully the Raptors will look to hold on to any lead they can get.
- The Raptors are about to begin a 5 game road trip, and they have lost 6 of their last 8 on the road. They need a good start to this road trip - each passing game becomes more of a must-win for our Dinos.