Your Toronto Raptors!

On Sunday and Monday the inevitable happened - the Toronto Raptors lost both ends of a home and home against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. When you looked at the schedule two weeks ago you assumed those two losses were coming, but then the Celtics 19 game winning streak came to end, they lost 7 of 9 including a game to the Charlotte Bobcats, so did the Raptors had a chance, well they were supposed to.

On Sunday at ACC the Raptors allowed the Celtics to get into paint and score at will. Not even Jose Calderon who returned from injury, for 3 quarters, could control Rajon Rondo who posted numbers better than his season averages in points and assists. The key to stopping the Celtics is to not allow Rondo to drive and then distribute the ball to Pierce and Allen who can hit wide open jump shots. The teams that beat Boston recently, stopped Rondo by putting big, athletic players on him on the defensive end instead of guards. Raptors coach Jay Triano did not believe in this theory and allowed Calderon and Soloman to get beat off the dribble all day.

Monday in Boston was a different story. The Raptors shot well, committed less turnovers and played tight defense and actually led going into the 4th quarter in front of a shocked Garden crowd. Then the game started to fall apart for Toronto. Turnovers, missed shots and a hot Paul Pierce allowed the Celtics back into the game. Eventually the game would reach overtime where the Raptors turned it over on the first three possessions of the OT period. Unfortunately, in the short 5 minute extra time this was too much to overcome. The one good point to come out of the overtime was that the Raptors did not stop hustling. Down 4 with 10 seconds remaining Jason Kopono stepped in front of the inbounds pass and actually got the ball back behind the 3 point arc, but an off balance shot clanged off the basket, rebound to Boston and the clock expired. Not sure this kind of work was something we would have seen under Coach Smitch.

What is the best way to fix a season that has "lottery pick" written all over it - blockbuster trade! NBA.com had this beauty today bringing a Canadian basketball God to Toronto;

Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa and Robin Lopez to Toronto, while Phoenix would acquire Jose Calderon, Andera Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Jason Kopono and maybe even Jamario Moon (to equalize salaries) from Toronto.

Now, this would bring some more cache to Toronto and most casual observers of roundball in Canada would love this to happen. Unfortunately, this would another Bryan Colangelo miss. Steve Nash is an aging guard with health problems. He was at his best in a "Seven seconds or less" offense, which isn't something the Raptors currently run. What the Raptors currently need is a back-up guard incase Calderon goes down - like he has, by giving him up and acquiring Nash, Toronto would still be searching for that missing piece when Nash inevitably misses games.

From the Raptors side, they are giving up on the number one pick in the draft after only two and a half seasons. Bargnani was mostly mis-used by the former coach and since Triano has taken over his game has improved. There is something to selling high, but Andrea is still rising.

The Raptors have a tough schedule to finish out January with games against Chicago (twice), Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix among others, the All-Star break can't come soon enough.