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Well that win was... unexpected. OK, to be honest, in spite of my latent fantanking instincts, that was pretty much my favorite Raptors game of the season. I watched last night's 99-95 win over Orlando with my dad and we were pretty much losing our mind over the last few minutes. Surely, I wasn't the only one saying "Here we go!" when Marion missed those two free throws with 10 seconds to go and the Magic only down by three.
Of course, Anthony Parker grabbed the rebound after Marion's second miss and that was the ballgame. Chris Bosh's 22-footer right in Dwight Howard's face with 23 seconds left was probably the most "NO! NO! YES!" shot that a Raptor took this season. I still think it was a terrible shot but, hey, it went in, so what can you say?
All five of the Raptors' starters played well last night — and they pretty much had to in order to pull off this upset. Along with his clutch final basket, Bosh finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Jose Calderon dominated Rafer Alston in the point guard matchup, continuing his recent excellent play by scoring 21 points on eight-for-13 shooting and dishing out eight assists. And Shawn Marion was the MVP of the night as he scored 17 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and dropped six dimes.
As great as the starters were, I thought the real star of the night was Raptors coach Jay Triano. Look, we all like to pile on coaches when we feel they screw up so it's only fair that we give credit when it's due. I thought Jay managed the game brilliantly last night — particularly his gameplan for Dwight Howard. Howard still got his 30 points and nine rebounds, but Triano clearly instructed the players to foul D12 with reckless abandon and do whatever it took to keep him from getting easy baskets.
The end result was that the notoriously bad foul shooter missed 11 of his 21 free throws. I especially appreciated his decision to put Joey Graham on Howard in the fourth quarter when Bargnani when Andrea Bargnani (who admittedly had a tough time with Howard last night) was sitting out with foul trouble. Graham dutifully fouled Howard when he got the ball in the post, kept him from getting an and-one, and Dwight only made one of the two resulting free throws.
Doug Smith wrote in his blog that it was an "ill-advised gamble" for Triano to bring Bargnani back in the game with five fouls and seven minutes left to cover Howard. And yes, Bargnani fouled out on the very next defensive possession. But you know what? When you're on the road against a team like the Magic and you have a chance to win, I don't believe you should play by the book. I liked the gamble last night and I still do. Just because something doesn't work out, that doesn't mean it was necessarily a bad idea — just like Bosh's last shot was a bad idea even though it went in.
If I have one criticism about Triano's coaching last night, it's that he didn't call enough plays where Calderon exploited his clear advantage over Alston. As always, Jose was unselfish to a fault when it was blatantly obvious that Rafer didn't have a hope in hell of stopping him from pretty much scoring at will. I spent a good part of the fourth quarter yelling at the Raptors to set screens on Rafer so Jose could keep draining open shots.
This win puts me in a weird frame of mind about the Raptors because I suddenly feel like I don't know how good they are, anymore. It was easy to dismiss their previous four wins at home against subpar teams. But when you combine those wins with this triumph, maybe this particular group of players is starting to form a cohesive, somewhat potent unit — albeit too late in this season for it to really matter.
Looking at the Raptors' remaining eight games (Knicks, Knicks, Hawks, Pacers, Wizards, Sixers, Wizards, Bulls), I could see them easily winning six of those games. Can I really dismiss a team as hopelessly flawed if they win 11 of their last 13 games when one of those wins came in Orlando? Not as easily as I have the last few months, that's for sure.
If the rest of the season pans out the way I just predicted, I don't think I'll be upset if Bryan Colangelo signs Marion to a reasonable contract, doesn't replace Triano as head coach (unless Lawrence Frank becomes available) and doesn't trade Bosh this off-season. Let's face it, the Raptors wouldn't have won last night if they didn't have a healthy Calderon, if Bargnani wasn't playing at his current level, and if they didn't have Marion. This team is an entirely different animal than what we suffered through before this winning streak.
For the first time in months, I don't hate this team as it's currently comprised. Of course, that doesn't change the likelihood that you'll hear me yelling "FUCK!" from my living room if one of the teams that the Raptors pass in the standings this month ends up winning one of the top three picks in the draft lottery. 
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