Brandon's Blog
Monday, December 29th 2008 2:20 pm
Raptors wrap up another Heartbreaking loss....
It's after 2:00 am on Monday night, the 29th has come and gone and the 30th is staring us straight in the face. I find myself late at night like this exasperated by another Raptor loss, this team is the team that I root for above any other across any sport. I'm not the super duper fan boy who says we when referring to the team or is decked out in Raptor gear every day but I love this team.
And that's why this year has been so hard and such a disappointment in so many ways. I was worried going into the season, but felt this team if everything feels right had a chance to have the best starting five the raptors have ever had. I hoped that O’Neal could stay healthy and be the intimidating destructive force he once was and free up Bosh. I hoped Bargnani would take the next step, or even a step. I hoped Parker would be Parker, Moon would grow into his role and Jose would be Jose. Past that I prayed.
The Backup point was a joke coming into the season; Roko and Solomon aren't the answer. The Wing positions offer little threat of scoring, or defense, and the overall depth of the team is obviously down from a year ago.
But I was sipping the cool aid a little and put on a brave face, believing that somehow Bosh, the best player the Raps have ever had could will these guys through. Even knowing what I knew and seeing what I'd seen my heart wanted these guys to push through and get through to the next round of the playoffs.
I watched the whole Raptor game tonight, from the heart of south Florida thanks to the greatness of the NBA Ticket and come away with the same feelings, of disappointment and frustration. Things have changed a lot from the start of the season, sure but the on court problems remain the same and when you play a bad team more than a good team these flaws are amplified. I say this, even though its thought by most the other way is true but it’s not when playing the best the rest almost always look bad, but when you play a team of equal or lesser talent is when you find out what is what.
In a better world the Raptors should beat a team like the Warriors almost every time out; even without O'Neal they should win a game like this. But unfortunately this Raptor team just ain't that good right now, good teams beat bad teams in the NBA every time out no matter the circumstances. Good teams find ways to win, unfortunately at the moment Toronto is not a good team. A prime example is the final two minutes of this game where the Raptors missed 5 open 3 point shots that would have given them the lead in the span of 25-20 seconds.
Instead of the go ahead shot, what happens Golden State grows there lead to four and then a few possessions later seals the game. Another frustrating and exacerbating Raptors loss and it follows one of the familiar Raptors scripts. Play decent at first, then fall behind by more than 10 points during the middle quarters and rally in the late 3rd and 4th to rip my heart out. AWWW it kills me every time, even when I know it’s going to happen and tonight against Golden State was no different.
In fact this may have been the worst with the teasing 5 missed threes at the end. But that's enough with the Raptors, just had to get this off my chest and that’s sort of what this blog is going to be about discussing sports, some web related issues, design, marketing and maybe even some movies.
Thanks for reading Brandon |
