Raptors Royally Flushed

The Raptors came in off a solid but losing effort to the L.A Lakers. One of the questions I asked Paul Jones yesterday in the Starting 5 was how do the Raptors carry over that effort? Well early on in this game the Raptors answered the bell. Raptors started on a 7-2 run to open this game. The Kings would push back and make it a close affair in the 1st Quarter. Tyreke Evans made a move early on that showed you why many think he will be rookie of the year. It was a close hard fought first quarter that saw the Raptors lead 25-24.

The second quarter the Raptors were a bit better on defense in the quarter holding the Kings to just 16 points. The Raptors had a 45-40 lead heading into the half. This game had become even more important with both the Heat and Bobcats winning earlier in the night. The Raptors should have had all the motivation in the world to come out and continue to tighten the screws on the Kings and get a win on the second night of a back to back. In fact the mood on Twitter of the Raptors fan base was pretty good. Heck I even posted a video of The Rock singing a song where he rips on the city of Sacramento. Happy times.

Then something happened. I joked it was like what happened in the movie Space Jam where players lost their talent. The Raptors looked like they totally forget how to play the game. The Kings started on a 10-0 or was it 12-0 run. When the 3rd quarter was done so were the Raptors. Amazingly enough the Raptors gave up more points in this quarter than the entire first half. It was 43 points in all and the Raptors were dead in the water. Needless to say the mood of the fans on Twitter had changed. Many fans were left confused and searching for people to blame. There was lots of blame to go around. A lot of folks were focused on Jay Triano. As I joked on radio in Montreal after the game whatever Jay Triano said at halftime he should never say that again. The Raptors have had their share of terrible 3rd quarters this season but this was by far the worst.

To read the rest and also check out interviews with Paul Jones from Fan 590 and Tas Melas from The Basketball Jones as well at www.dinonationblog.com

Blog – 1 year, 11 months ago by Dino_Blogger to Basketball. 223 views.