New Feature - The IKTS WRR

As I mentioned it the last post its becoming hard to come up with idea's to write about. And then it struck me like sledgehammer to the pinkie toe (only less painfully), why not start a weekly themed column? On what I asked myself? While, why not your favorite teams? You could have 2 running columns, one on the Leafs and one on the Raptors. Genius I said to myself, pure genius. So without further ado I give you the inagural Ike Krizzule Talks Sports Weekly Raptor Report (or the IKTS WRR).

So for the purposes of this week I'll try and contain the main portion of my discussion to the week that was February 1st to the 8th, and contained the Hawks, Clippers and Magic games. In the future, now that I've planned out the idea of this column, I'll have better analysis of the games and whatnot. Right now its just me looking back and trying to remember, the future is in note taking during the games I see.

TORONTO 103 over ATLANTA 91
I managed to catch the 1st half of this game, then it was a Friday night and I went out to do Friday night type things. I wasn't worried about the game, though, the Raptors were up 63-46 and were clearly overpowering the Hawks. The Raptors have come together as a team over the past 1-2 months, while the Hawks continue to be a group of mismatched parts.

It looks like the Raptors eased of the accelerator in the 2nd Half, but that 1st Half was what I was waiting for them to do in the past in games against teams like the Celtics and the Hornets (w/o Chris Paul). They put the hammer down, they let the Hawks know early that they were outmatched, and they coasted to an easy win.

TORONTO 122 over LOS ANGELES (C) 110
Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of this one live (although I did watch the game in an hour), due to it being Sunday morning and me sleeping like a baby (that had to much to drink). From what I remember from the game in an hour, and what the box score tells me, the Raptors continued to run their unselfish offense (6 guys in double figures) and the Clippers didn't play enough defense. Both teams were on fire from 3, but the Raptors shot it much better from the field and the foul line to control the game. Still give these new Raptors credit, the Raptors of last year would have let the Clippers back into it in the 4th, and then struggled to close the game out or lost. These Raptors confidently made shots all game, responded to any Clippers run, and did what they had to do to get the W.

TORONTO 113 over ORLANDO 103
Finally a game I watched, start to finish, in regular time. This was a meeting of 2 very talented young big men, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard (more on this later), but also a meeting of 2 teams who look to be taking steps forward this year. In Orlando's defense they were without 4 regulars (Grant Hill, Tony Battie, Kenyon Dooling and Trevor Ariza. In Toronto's defense the only 1 of those 4 who might have made a difference is Hill, and if Orlando's banking on Hill to be healthy they are in big trouble.

It was one of those game the Raptors have been having lately where the other team hangs around, but the whole time you feel confident the Raptors are going to pull it out. The Raptors lead never got too big, and they rarely trailed, but you just felt that come the 4th quarter they'd put something together and win the game. It's a completely different feel than Raptors fans are used to, and I like it. The Magic hung around all game, Howard was a beast and other guys made shots, but the Raptors won the 4th by 9 and took the game easily.

Now like I said, it was a battle between 2 of the best young big guys in the world ... and they put on a show. Howard had a career high 32 points, on 13-14 shooting, to go with 9 boards. Bosh had a career high 41, to go with 8 boards. In terms of net results it looks like this one easily goes to Bosh, but its tough to say. Bosh had 2 fantastic point guards feeding him the ball (Ford and Calderon each finished with 11 assists) and a team that understood to keep feeding him the ball in the 4th. Howard had a team somehow unanaware that he was making every shot he took, and had to work much harder for many of his points. They are 2 different players, with different skill sets, so its difficult to compare them against each other. For me its much more fun to imagine what they could do on the court together.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• That Josh Smith is one heck of a player for Atlanta, he's better every time I see him play.
• Somethings wrong with the Clippers. I don't know what it is, but they don't look like the same team that almost beat the Suns in the playoffs last year.
• Darko Milicic could be a player if he could get some minutes somewhere. He's a RFA this summer, could be interesting to see if he can finally go somewhere that will use him.
• Garbojosa's jumper looks much improved lately. Its got more arc, and just looks better coming out. I still think he might shoot a bit too much, but at least I'm not yelling at him through the T.V. every time he shoots now.
• The Raptors are getting some exceptional PG play by sharing time with Calderon and Ford. It'll be interesting to see what happens when T.J.'s ankle is feeling 100%