1/21/10
by: Scott
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If Chris Bosh ultimately decides to ply his trade elsewhere after this season, last night's game will be front and center in my mind among the reasons he made that decision. He was absolutely unstoppable — finishing with a career-high 44 points on 15-for-26 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds — but the rest of his team let him down in all facets of the game and the Raptors inexplicably wasted one of the best peformances of his career.
Check out these combined numbers from the other four Raptors starters last night: 121 minutes, 31 points, 13-41 shooting and 14 rebounds. Andrea Bargnani and Hedo Turkoglu were particularly awful last night. They were inept on offence and lazy on defence and the boards. Andrew Bogut and Carlos Delfino simply dominated them, combining for 49 points on 18-for-29 shooting and 20 rebounds. With all due respect to Delfino, if he's lighting you up like he did last night, your defence is terrible.
The Bucks, who have one of the worst offences in the NBA, have now scored 117 and 113 points in their two games against the Raptors this season. There's no single Raptor to blame for these repeated lapses. It's a team-wide lack of effort, execution and intelligence on that end of the floor. In too many games this season, their rotation and closing on D have but gut-wrenchingly awful — as was the case last night.
As good as this team usually is offensively, they showed last night they're not immune to stupidity on that end of the floor. God knows why Antoine Wright was even on the floor when the Raptors trailed 105-102 with 1:40 left in the fourth, but when Turkoglu passed to Wright in the corner and he jacked up a three with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, it took all my willpower not to yell "NOOOOOO!" and wake up my kids. Sure, he was wide open. BUT TEAMS LEAVE ANTOINE WRIGHT WIDE OPEN FOR A REASON. YOU KNOW, BECAUSE HE SUCKS.
I mean, hey, why would you give the ball to Bosh — one of the most unstoppable offensive forces in the league who is on his way to a career-best scoring night — in this situation when you can dish to Tony Brick-machine over there? That pass to Wright was wrong, Turk. But mostly, I blame Jay Triano for having him out there at all. I guess I can see the logic of using him in late-game situations when they're trying to protect a lead, but not when they're behind.
The bottom line is that this team shouldn't be taken seriously if they can't bring the necessary defensive and rebounding intensity it takes to win in this league. And I'm tired of reading lame excuses and defenses of Bargnani and Turkoglu when they have games like this far too often. Bosh's defensive ability will always be up for debate, but nobody of sound mind doubts his effort on a game-to-game basis. Bargnani still has a long way to go in understanding his role in team defence demonstrating that he considers rebounding to be an essential part of his role. As for Turkoglu, he just looks like he doesn't give a shit half the time. I think I might actually be starting to hate him.
This part from the ESPN.com game recap pretty much says it all in terms of what Bosh probably took away from last night: "It's a little frustrating," said Bosh, who can opt out of his contract at the end of the season. Kinda cute how they added that bolded part, isn't it? 
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