Now that's how you start a road trip! After a first half when it looked like Chris Paul might be able to almost singlehandedly lead his team to victory, the Raptors went off in the third quarter — outscoring the Hornets 34-14 and making a franchise-record eight three-pointers in the quarter. The Hornets never recovered and the Raptors coasted from there to a surprising 17-point victory in the first game of the toughest 10-game stretch in their schedule.
Let's start with the obvious: both Chris Bosh and Chris Paul were awesome. Paul already had a double-double at the end of the first half and the Raptors looked helpless to stop him from doing whatever he wanted on the court. He may be six-foot-nothin' but you can make the case that he is the best player in the world right now. It really is something to watch him toy with his opponents on the court — although it's not much fun when it's your team he's toying with. He finished with 21 points, 18 assists(!) and seven rebounds.
As for Bosh, if there's such a thing as a perfect game, he pretty much had one last night. He was a perfect 9-for-9 from the field (including his fourth three-pointer in four attempts this season) and grabbed seven rebounds in an impressive 30 minutes of play. The Hornets frontcourt of Emeka Okafor and David West were completely overmatched by Bosh, and he now has averages of 29 points and 11.8 rebounds after five games.
In the pre-game post, I suggested that the Raptors would likely have an edge with their second unit, but it was actually the non-superstar starters that were the main difference. Andrea Bargnani, Hedo Turkoglu and Jose Calderon all had superb games &mdash and Bargnani came within one rebound of his first back-to-back 10-plus rebounding games of his career.
Calderon's return to form last night was particularly welcome for Raptors fans. While he had as much trouble containing Paul as you would expect, he certainly didn't back down and he showed a confidence and fire that has been lacking so far this season. He finished with 16 points and eight assists and was featured in one of my picks for the sweetest plays of the game.
Sweet Raptors Play of the Game #1: At the 4:18 mark of the third quarter with the Raptors leading 70-60, Jose missed a 3-pointer and West grabbed the rebound. West passed to Paul at the top of his own arc, but when he turned around and tried to dribble up-court, Jose was right there, forcing Paul to stumble and fall and get called for a travel. Paul must have said something to Jose because he proceeded to talk some trash to both Paul and Byron Scott. Considering this outburst and last season's infamous interaction with Kevin Garnett, I'm starting to think that Jose Calderon is kind of a secret badass. He's not going to start any fights, but I get the feeling he won't back down from them, either. I like it.
Sweet Raptors Play of the Game #2: With 10:36 left in the 4th quarter and the Raptors leading by 20, Jose missed a wide open three at the top of the arc. The ball caromed off the rim and Bosh and Armstrong battled for the rebound, tipping it towards the left corner. Hilton Armstrong, Darius Songaila and Amir Johnson all fought for the loose ball, but Amir out-hustled them and then called a timeout while he was trapped in the corner, falling over. You always like to see this kind of hustle, of course, but it's particularly impressive when a player does it while his team is up by 20 in the fourth quarter.
This was easily the Raptors' best performance of the season so far and it was one of the better efforts by this team in recent memory. Without question, this is the right way to set the tone for the next string of games against very tough opponents.
