khandor’s sports blog

FINAL SCORE: Raptors 99, MAVERICKS 108
Complete Game Info

Down by 7 points at the half, the Raptors quickly closed the gap on the Mavericks to open up the 3rd quarter scoring on 3 of their first 4 possessions:

Full Play-By-Play

At the 10:36 mark, however, when Joey Graham [SF] was called for his 4th PF and was then replaced by Marcus Banks [OG/PG], the Mavericks responded by inserting James Singleton [F] into their line-up, replacing Eric Dampier [C]. After pulling down 5 Rebounds in the first half, Singleton collected 9 more in the 3rd quarter, which allowed the Mavericks to match-up successfully with the Raptors’ “small” line-up and still retain their Rebounding superiority.

LINE-UPS & INDIVIDUAL MATCH-UPS 3rd QUARTER
Time	Team	PG	OG	SF	PF	C	Start	End	Diff
12:00	Tor	Calderon	Parker	Graham√	Bosh√	Bargnani	53 60	59 62	+4
	DAL	Kidd*	Wright	Howard	Nowitzki*	Dampier*
10:36	Tor		Banks	Parker	√		59 62	64 66	+1
	DAL	*			Singleton*	Nowitzki
08:24	Tor				√		64 66	66 75	-7
	DAL	*	Terry		*
06:05 T-out	Tor			Kapono	√		66 75	68 79	-2
	DAL	*			*
04:38	Tor	Ukic			√		68 79	72 83	0
	DAL	*			*
02:42	Tor				√		72 83	75 90	-4
	DAL	*			*	Bass
LEGEND: Bold – Player was subbed into the game; Italics – Player was shifted to a new position. √ – Solid Rebounder for the Raptors at this position; * – Solid Rebounder for the Raptors’ Opponent at this position.

 

When the Mavericks then replaced Antoine Wright [OG/SF] with Jason Terry [OG/PG], to further spread the floor, it was Toronto that could not match-up successfully with Dallas, as the home team opened up a 9-point margin … on the strength of [i] 2 Fts by Jason Kidd, [ii] a putback dunk by Singleton, and [iii] consecutive jumpshots by Dirk Nowitzki [one 2FG & one 3FG] … that it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

 

When the Raptors then chose to end the quarter with the following line-up:

 

1/Ukic + 2/Banks + 3/Kapono + 4/Bosh + 5/Bargnani

 

[i.e. Chris Bosh plus 4 non-Solid Rebounders]

 

any hope of a 2nd half comeback was eliminated, as the lead then ballooned to 15-points [75-90].

 

If/when you compare [B] where the Raptors could/SHOULD have been with their player roster for the 2008-2009 season and [A] where they stand today, in relation to a team like the Mavericks:

 

[A] RAPTORS’ CURRENT ROSTER	MAVERICKS’ CURRENT ROSTER	[B] RAPTORS’ SHOULD HAVE BEEN ROSTER
Calderon, Jose Parker, Anthony Marion, Shawn Bosh, Chris Bargnani, Andrea	Kidd, Jason Wright, Antoine Howard, Josh Nowitzki, Dirk Dampier, Eric	Calderon, Jose Jamario, Moon Graham, Joey Humphries, Kris Bosh, Kris
Ukic, Roko Banks, Marcus Kapono, Jason Graham, Joey Voskuhl, Jake	Barea, JJ Terry, Jason George, Devean Singleton, James Bass, Brandon	Parker, Anthony Carney, Rodney Delfino, Carlos Bargnani, Andrea Nesterovic, Rasho
Jawai, Nathan O’Bryant, Patrick	Green, Gerald Hollins, Ryan	Ivey, Royal Hibbert/LRMAM/Dorsey/CDR
Humphries, Kris [inj.]	Stackhouse, Jerry	Croshere, Austin

 

it’s quite stunning just how much the talent level of this team’s overall roster has declined this season.

Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Antoine Wright, Austin Croshere, Brandon Bass, Carlos Delfino, Chris Bosh, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devean George, Dirk Nowitzki, Eric Dampier, Gerald Green, Jake Voskuhl, Jamario Moon, James Singleton, Jason Kapono, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse, JJ Barea, Joey Dorsey, Joey Graham, Jose Calderon, Josh Howard, Kris Humphries, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Marcus Banks, Nathan Jawai, Patrick O'Bryant, Rasho Nesterovic, Rodney Carney, Roko Ukic, Roy Hibbert, Royal Ivey, Ryan Hollins, Shawn Marion

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Basketball, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.