Well the won last time I started a thread, so why not again?

The papers are full of articles about how easy our next five game stretch is... predictions say 4-1 over those games. Needless to say, if we can't win tonight against a team whose only road win was against the Bulls, well...

I got the Raps winning by 8 in a game that's much closer than it should be

This game has a tinge of desperation.

A loss would not be the slightest bit shocking.

Blowout tonight. Raps come to play when they are dominating in talent. If the opposing team is simlar in talent or above. The Raptors cowar and shy away. You will see Jose and CB on the bench laughing and doing there gay impressions of the players who are on the court in garbage time. CB4 annoys me. Why do i care if he has a Tatoo? This guy tries soo hard to be branded.

The bottom line is if the oppositon has good 3 point shooters we lose.. That is why we are so affective against the Bulls. Soon as teams start hitting threes that is when the defence falls apart

I agree 3 point shooters kill us, but there are so many other styles of play that the Raps cant compete with. I think number one on the list is teams who show toughness.

They will win tonight cause they always come out and play hard after 1 or 2 horrible embarrassing failures. Wouldn't want to have a shot at John Wall of course. If we did manage to lose tonight it would at least be entertaining in that the "fire someone/trade someone" machine would go into overdrive.

Raptors win followed by "this might just be what we needed", "We bought into Jay's system" and pretty much all the bullcrap we got after the Houston win.

While the Nets have the potential to build a solid foundation on Harris and Lopez over the next few years, especially if they draft well in 2010... tonight they look like they could lose to the Washington Generals.

The Raps have definitely been bringing the hustle tonight, and the 53-21 score as I type this bears that out. The fact that haven't been bringing that effort anywhere near consistently is maddening.

Now if only the Raps were to play the Nets 30 more times! Wow the Nets are horrid. So as bad as the Raps can be at least they are not the Nets! Was sweet to see the Raps play with confidence & get out in transition.

BUT if the Nets get the #1 pick (aka John Wall) & the Raps sneak in as the 7th seed & give up their 1st round pick & lose in 5games... Or the Raps just miss the playoffs and end up with a pick in the 8-12 range... Which team has the better future??

Who bloody cares....let's see if they can get a win in one the first 3 games of the new year. Beating on the Nets....wow what an accomplishment.
This season went down the tube pretty fast...

I definitely care. It's not about the accomplishment, and it's not about being so bad that we have to prove we're good enough to beat on the Nets. It's about the W. We are now 5-4 since the "meeting" with 4 winnable games on the horizon. If we go into January with a 5-game win streak, we'll be one-game shy of .500. I'll take that no problem.

It is about inability to even compete with quality teams. Wins against NO and DET don't mean that much even if we get them. These are the same games we compete in for the past 3 years. No progress. This team doesn't have young raw talent that you can look at and say,boy when they put it all together they will be scary good. They cant go anywhere with this core. There is no promise here. Milwaukee has a better upside than us. This is the same treadmill bs.

I completely disagree. Wins against any team mean the exact same when you're at the end of the season and trying to get into the playoffs. The only time wins against certain teams mean more than others is when your record is tied with another team from your conference for a certain seed - in which ase wins against Detroit certainly have meaning.

"They can't go anywhere with this core" you don't know that. I don't want to make excuses, but I will: our schedule was by far the toughest in the NBA. Especially earlier on in the season when we had 0-1 days rest and other teams would be facing us with 1-3 days rest/preparation. You can say that scheduling is all part of the NBA, and you're absolutely correct. What you're missing though is the other 2/3rds of the schedule where it gets significantly easier (check out our February schedule).

Sorry but that is a homer perspective. I am not talking wins/losses, I am talking about where the team is at power ranking wise. the schedule was tough. OK that explains the losses. It does not explain the string of blowouts. If they can't even tickle the likes of Atlanta and Orlando than it is going to be a terrible season.