2/25/09
by: Scott
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With last night's 118-110 Raptors win over the Timberwolves, that makes two straight games where Andrea Bargnani was able to take advantage of the fact that nobody on the opposing team could guard him. His 26-point performance (on 10-of-15 shooting) last night wasn't just the most fun I've had watching him so far in his career — I think it was probably the most exhilirating Raptors performance of the season.
Before I go on, here's a video of his highlights from last night. If you missed the game, make sure you watch this for reference.
In that video, I counted six baskets by Bargnani that were either layups or dunks. Now, this wouldn't be unusual for many seven-footers, but I'll be shocked if anybody can provide evidence that he's taken it to the hole with such authority and success in any NBA game before this one. Granted, this is the horrendous, Jefferson-less T-Wolves he did this against — but the old Bargnani still would have settled for outside shots. In this game, only three of his 15 field goal attempts were outside 15 feet. Who is this guy and what did he do with Andrea?
If Bargnani's exhibition wasn't entertaining enough, the Raptors finally displayed the kind of "Phoenix East" run-and-gun style that everyone theorized Bryan Colangelo was going to bring to Toronto. They were sluggish out of the gate and got down by 16 to the Wolves in the middle of the second quarter, but then they cranked up the defensive intensity and started flying down the court after each defensive stop. If I remember correctly, all of Toronto's 17 fast break points came after that 16-point deficit.
Another aspect of last night that reminded me of the Mike D'Antoni's old "showtime Suns" is that Jay Triano only used eight players, with all five starters playing at least 35 minutes. It must have felt like the good ol' days for Shawn Marion — who wasn't a significant scoring factor but was still very active on fast breaks and the boards and continued to set an example for smart ball movement. Late in the third quarter, the Raptors were in the halfcourt and the ball came around to an open Marion at the top of the arc. Like Jack Armstrong said himself, Jamario Moon probably would have jacked it up right there. Marion saw that Anthony Parker was also open behind the arc, to his right. Understanding that A.P. is a better shooter, he dished to Parker who promptly buried his shot to give the Raptors a 76-73 lead.
I'd also like to show some love to our recently much-maligned All-Star, Chris Bosh, who battled through a tough start and some extremly annoying defense by Minnesota's Brian Cardinal to put up a workmanlike (for him) 26-point, six-rebound, two-block performance. CB4 displayed a heretofore unseen mean streak on a couple of occasions last night, mixing it up with Cardinal without letting that scrub get inside his head.
(I know this is a bit of a cliche, but Cardinal really was the perfect example of that annoying guy at the "Y" who really doesn't have any skill except for maybe a decent J, and he tries to compensate for that by playing obnoxiously physical on defense. He really should have rocked the high socks, headband and goggles to complete the effect.)
But let's get back to the star of our show, Il Mago. He faces much tougher opposition in the Raptors' next five games against Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Utah. All five of those teams have big men with significant size, strength and skill advantages over the guys he's faced in his last two games, so it will be interesting to see if he reverts to his perimeter-based offensive instincts — or if he has the stugots to keep taking it to the rack against the likes of Shaq and Yao. 
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