The Lakers played garbage ball for almost 40 minutes last night but brought their game out for the final eight, and that’s all he needed.  Damn you Kobe, I stayed up way past my bedtime thinking we had this game in hand.  If clutch knew how to bleed it would ooze from Kobe’s pores.

On Starting his career in Toronto:

“It was tough.  I was 18 years old, and I wasn’t even legal when I came up here. I think the legal age was, like, 19. But I was up here, just me and one of my buddies, in a foreign country not knowing anything about this place.”

On Bosh:

“I’m not speaking (for) Chris Bosh, I’m just saying (for) the individual that wants to move on. There’s different reasons why a guy wouldn’t want to play here.”

On why players want to leave Toronto:

“Some guys do it for different reasons,” McGrady said. “He’s been here for quite some time now, and he’s personally been successful. The team really hasn’t done that much.”

So other than the fact that some media types love to push former Toronto athletes when they come back to town, you can chalk McGrady’s comments up to his own selfishness and struggle with lost stardom.  He’s an idiot, as evidenced by his continuous injury drama, celebrating a second round playoff birth prematurely (and eventually failing to make it), and that his teams generally fair better after he’s gone.  Tracy McGrady would like nothing more than some attention tonight, and if fans decide to boo him he’ll probably show up.

Despite having switched teams twice since departing Toronto, some Toronto fans love to lay it on this guy when he’s in town.  They’re probably Leafs fans, but that’s beside the point; Tracy McGrady is a waste of talent and washed-up has been.  Don’t afford him the luxury of relishing in all of the attention he desires.

I still think Bosh is good as gone, though.

Hat tip to the always timely Andrew Bucholtz of Canuck Puck and Sporting Madness for the video.

Bosh finished Sunday’s game with 26 points on 57% shooting, while grabbing 15 rebounds, and picking up seven assists.  Bosh’s inside dominance was accentuated by his efforts on the defensive end, too, where he had two blocks.  CB4 has had at least 13 rebounds in each of the Raptors’ last four games.

Another victory over the Pacers will push the Raptors another inch closer to the Boston Celtics atop the Atlantic Division.  Boston has the night off before hosting the Miami Heat on Wednesday, whom they’ve handled rather easily in two contests this season.

DeMar DeRozan will miss his fourth straight game as he is still listed as day-to-day with a tweaked ankle.  Sonny Weems, Marco Belinelli, and Antoine Wright will once again be relied upon for extra minutes.   It should be a tighter contest, but I think we’ve got this one.

Bold Prediction: Reporters opt not to talk to Turkoglu.  A huge night for Bargnani offensively.  Raptors win.

This post-game interview with Hedo Turkoglu might challenge hockey players for the title of worst ever.  And you thought his Pizza Pizza commercial was bad…

The Raptors are clearly past the point of even considering a Chris Bosh trade.  CB4 pulled down a season high 18 rebounds in support of his 24 points, and Bargnani led the Raptors in scoring with 27.

Dwayne Wade was the winner on the fantasy score sheet, he finished with a double-double for the third time in four games.  Wade led all scorers with 35 points and 10 rebounds and threw this dunk down, uncontested:

Sonny Weems filled in nicely for DeMar DeRozan in the starting lineup, picking up 10 points in his first career start.  Antoine Wright put the game out of reach with a late 3-pointer on a dish from Jose Calderon.

Paul Shirley Hates On Haiti, Loses ESPN Gig

You’re excused if you have trouble remembering former Chicago Bulls bench body Paul Shirley, he was less than excellent in a couple of 10-day stints.  Shirley moved on to writing about sports after his playing career was cut short by suckage, he even had a nice freelance spot with ESPN.  Shirley’s writing career may be coming to an abrupt end, too.  Shirley was let go from his gig with ESPN after posting an essay detailing why he would never give “a cent” to Haiti.

The “essay”, is still up at flipcollective.com if you’re interested in reading it.  One notable excerpt is this nug:

Dear Haitians –

First of all, kudos on developing the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Your commitment to human rights, infrastructure, and birth control should be applauded.

As we prepare to assist you in this difficult time, a polite request: If it’s possible, could you not re-build your island home in the image of its predecessor? Could you not resort to the creation of flimsy shanty- and shack-towns? And could some of you maybe use a condom once in a while?

Stay classy, Paul Shirley.

Reporter Makes Half-Court Behind The Back Shot, Left Speechless

Wade is coming off of a 32 point, 10 rebound performance in a loss Monday versus Cleveland.  The Raptors have had the last couple of days off, having not played since Sunday’s upset of the L.A. Lakers.  Hedo Turkoglu’s clutch free-throws, Andrea Bargnani’s sharp shooting, and Chris Bosh’s continued dominance helped carry Toronto over Kobe Bryant and the Lakers; they’ll need a similar concerted clutch effort from their big three to slow down the Heat.

Toronto currently sits .5 games behind Miami in the Eastern Conference standings, and could grasp a piece of fifth place with a win tonight.  The Raptors will be without DeMar DeRozan for the game, who left yesterday’s practice with a tweaked ankle.  DeRozan had started all 45 of the team’s games, no official word on how many games he may miss.

Go Raps!

The first half of the season hasn’t been without its highlights, though.  Chris Bosh is putting up career highs in both rebounding and scoring, and he’s well on his way to a massive pay day at season’s end… from somebody.  Andrea Bargnani has continued to improve his game on both ends of the floor, and has been the team’s best player on more than a couple occasions.  Jarrett Jack, too, has been a pleasant surprise after a slow start.  While he’s no ideal solution at point guard for the long term, he’s been a more than adequate stop-gap while Calderon figures out his woes (or management figures out what to do with him).

There’s been some highs (i.e.- beating Cleveland, San Antonio, Dallas, and the Lakers), and some lows (i.e.- losing to Washington and Indiana, Turkoglu, Calderon).  From an individual, fantasy production standpoint, here are Jurassic Hoops’ midterm report cards:

Chris Bosh:  A

Bosh could and possibly should be awarded an A+ for his efforts thus far, but there’s been far too many nights where his big numbers have been meaningless.  There’s no question that we’re witnessing his abilities come full circle, but with all due respect some of his monster performances have been the laziest 25-and-14 efforts since Shawn Kemp was a Cavalier.  Bosh is in the midst of setting career highs in points and rebounds, while hitting 52.4% of his shots.  His career high was 50.5% in 2005-06.  Bosh is also getting to the charity stripe at a career best 9.2 times per contest.

Make no mistake, Chris Bosh is going to be rolling in piles of money when his deal is up.  He continues to keep his team competitive in the shallow Atlantic Division, thus making any attempt to trade the all-star seem all the more unlikely.  Watch for Bosh to keep piling up the numbers regardless of the team’s performance.

Andrea Bargnani:  B+

It’s been a long road to respectability for the former first overall pick, but he’s just about there.  Bargnani endured a few struggles early on this season, but found his game early in December and has established himself as the number two option in Toronto.  Il Mago is enjoying a nice spike in statistics in just about every category, holding career highs in points, rebounding, and blocked shots.  The blocks are nice, but his average of 6.4 rebounds per game leaves a little more to be desired of the Raptors’ center.  Brandon Roy will haunt the draft day dreams of Raptors fans as long as he’s in the league, but Bargnani’s ceiling hasn’t yet been set.

Hedo Turkoglu:  D-

If it wasn’t for an increased intensity and great passing plays from this past weekend versus Milwaukee and the L.A. Lakers, I’d have maliciously given Turkoglu an F.  Night in and night out, Turkoglu has been painful to watch.  In all fairness, he’s had a few good-to-great games, but he’s lacked any semblance of consistency from one game to the next.  Colangelo’s prized free agent acquisition is currently averaging 12.5 points per game, his lowest total since 2003-04 when he averaged 9.2 per contest.  What’s worse is his shooting percentage; 40.1%, bad enough for a career low.  The one bright spot in Turkoglu’s game has been his passing.  Not just because he’s averaging 4.5 assists per game, but he has truly made some highlight reel plays and might be the best natural passer on the team.

We’ll see what the second half holds for Hedo Turkoglu, but could very well fail to make much of any impact until the playoffs roll around.  Which is to say, I hope they can make it.

Jose Calderon:  D+

Calderon manages to grab a D+ because at least he’s kept his mouth shut since being demoted to the bench.  Maybe that’s where he’s destined to be anyway, he did after all have his best season when T.J. Ford was starting in 2007-08.  Calderon appears to have lost his starting gig for the foreseeable future to Jarrett Jack.  Since semi-establishing himself as a top tier fantasy point guard a couple of seasons ago, it’s been a steady decline for the Spaniard.  At over $8 million per season, Jose Calderon could prove to be one expensive role player unless he gets his game right soon.

Jarrett Jack:  B-

I don’t want to imagine where this team would be had Jarrett Jack not stepped in as floor general when Calderon first went down.  It’s not as though he’s been a model of consistency, some nights he runs the floor like Damon Stoudamire circa 1997 and the next game he’s Darrick Martin, but Jack has exceeded any and all pre-season expectations.  It’s not fair to look at Jack’s stats and judge him just yet, if he continues keep a grasp on the starter’s job then he could set career highs across the board.  Right now he’s still compensating for a woeful start to the season, statistically speaking.  Regardless of how he finishes the year, Jack was one of the best waiver wire pickups of the first half.

DeMar DeRozan:  C+

It’s hard to give DeRozan a poor grade when you consider the strides he’s made to improve his all-around game since being drafted 9th overall.  While he hasn’t provided much fantasy value, DeRozan continues to round out his defensive game and has shown a tremendous improvement in his jump shot.  It’s quite possible that DeRozan takes his game to new heights down the stretch, he flew under the radar at USC until elevating his play late in the season last year.  He’s got some keeper value, but at this point he gets a pass based on development.

Marco Belinelli:  C-

Here we are just past the halfway mark and I’m not sure I’ve seen Belinelli take a set shot yet.  His percentage is low at 40.9%, well below the 44.2% mark he set with Golden State last season.  There are nights when Belinelli makes the most of his limited minutes, but there’s been far too many games where he’s failed to make a shot (seven).  Some of those highlight reel passes are worth another look, but inconsistent defensive efforts and erratic decision making have left Marco Belinelli on the outside looking in on most fantasy squads.

Amir Johnson:  B

That’s a high score for somebody logging just 17 minutes per game, but it’s almost justified given the energy and hustle displayed by Amir Johnson in his limited role.  Only his 4.7 rebounds per game really jump off the stat sheet, but it’s that explosiveness that makes him a legitimate defensive force and gives him the capability to provide short bursts of scoring.  I’ll say this; Amir Johnson was the best offseason acquisition made by Bryan Colangelo, when you consider the return on investment.  At 22-years old and already four NBA seasons under his belt, we might not have seen everything Johnson has to offer.

Bosh finished with 12 rebounds to go along with his 44 points, and he received little scoring support from his teammates as it appeared to be a night off for the rest of the starting four.  Despite an increased defensive awareness and a semblance of consistency as of late, Andrea Bargnani was all but invisible on both ends of the court.

On a positive note, Jose Calderon turned in a solid defensive performance while guarding Brandon Jennings.  They needed it, Jarrett Jack struggled to keep up with the rookie and nary provided a challenge for him on offense.

The Raptors (21-22) will get a shot at redemption on Friday night when they host the Bucks (17-23) at the ACC.