Land of the Leaf

Four wins in a row!  The Raptors are rolling, too bad it wasn’t December when the games mattered.  Although they started playing some serious Sam Mitchell ball in the 4th quarter and allowed Chicago to get back in it (way back in it), Sunday’s 134-129 OT win was one of the best performances by the Raptors this season.  At least when looking at individual contributions from their stars.  Bosh and Bargnani both gave should-be Raptor John Salmons a lot of trouble in the post, and on the boards.  Jose Calderon showed a renewed sense of finding his open teammates, and even Shawn Marion managed to put up 16 points.

It’s not like the Raptors are giving their fans much of reason to care anymore, but we can all admit that a strong finish to the season would help their chances of retaining, re-signing, and attracting any free agents that aren’t plucked from Europe or the NBDL.  Bryan Colangelo intimated to Elliotte Friedman that he was happy with Jay Triano’s work as head coach, and that he’s prepared to handle the Bosh situation this off-season. Triano will most likely be back for next season.  I can’t think of anything that would deter Colangelo from sticking with him, unless Mike D’Antoni somehow falls out of favour in New York.  Stranger things have happened in Knicks land.

You can get full post-game analysis and more on Colangelo from Arsenalist at Raptors Republic.  I’m happy Chris Bosh showed some emotion… on the court.

It wasn’t as though they didn’t put up a fight.  That makes 7 straight losses for the lost cause struggling Raptors.  Despite a very strong effort from Bosh and Calderon, the Raptors took a tough 99-95 loss in OT to the Pistons.  Just call it another loss, definitely don’t call it frustrating if you’re talking to Chris Bosh.  After being asked if last night’s loss was particularly frustrating, Bosh replied in a huff:

“Stop using that word ‘frustrating’… Jesus Christ, where do you all get that word, use another word, you all got a thesaurus around?  I’m not upset. You compete, you play the game, you play to win, if you come up short then that’s what it is. Nobody’s frustrated around here. When you lose a game, of course you want to win, but it is what it is.”

Pops Mensah-Bonsu continued with his hard working ways, and chose his words much more carefully after the game as opposed to his work-ethic tirade from Wednesday’s loss:

“It’s tough to have some players going hard, some not. I’m not trying to pinpoint it on anybody, but that’s the reality. I’m watching tonight and it looked like the Sixers didn’t want to play. They’re not 20 points better than us, but it’s tough to win games when you don’t have a lot of energy and effort.”

He’s got a point, and one look at the guy’s game and you can understand his frustration, he’s rarely outworked.  The Raps host the Indiana Pacers tommorrow at 12:30 at the ACC, something has got to give.