Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors Have Stopped Scoring!

Stephen Brotherston — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:46:01 -0500

What has happened to Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors?

The Toronto Raptors started out better than anyone’s reasonable expectations this season. The team faced a difficult opening schedule, but started 5-5 and scored an average 106.9 points.

Chris Bosh was a big part of this success, averaging an impressive 27.7 points per game, taking 17 shots, and shooting 50 percent from the field.

But, since then, life hasn’t been so easy for Chris Bosh and the Raptors, and, over the past six games, things have gotten downright discouraging.

Over the past six games—four of which have been at home—the high-scoring Toronto Raptors have averaged less than 100 points per game and lost five of them—continuing a disconcerting trend of the Raptors scoring disappearing.

The loss of the normally-reliable offensive production from Chris Bosh has been a big part of the Raptors' demise.

Over the past six games, Chris Bosh has shot 41.7 percent from the field, taken 18 shots per game, and averaged 21.3 points.

In some games, Bosh’s shooting has almost completely deserted him, averaging just 33 percent over four of them.

Bosh has a career shooting average of 48.7 percent, the recent drop is something worth noting. Hopefully for the Raptors, this shooting drought doesn’t last.

For most players, averaging 21.3 points is good. But the Raptors have come to rely on efficient scoring from their star player.

If Bosh were to become more of a volume shooter, the Raptors—as presently constructed—could be in a lot of trouble.

In the recent 106-102 loss to Washington, Bosh shot just 7-22 for 22 points and was just 1-6 in the fourth quarter, scoring his last basket with 11:44 left in the game.

On the other side of the ball, Antawn Jamison shot 12-22 for 30 points and went man-on-man against Bosh all game.

In the fourth quarter, Jamison went 4-6 for 10 points, as the Wizards outscored Toronto in the fourth 34-25 to earn the four-point win.

Perhaps Bosh was worn down from defending the very good veteran Jamison over the course of the game? (Not an encouraging suggestion.)

Another note to the Wizards' game was use of the duo point-guard lineup to close out the fourth quarter by Jay Triano.

With the game tied at 85, Jay Triano substituted in Jose Calderon to play with Jarrett Jack for the final 7:26.

This lineup has not met with much success this season, but it is hard to fault Triano for going to it on this night—as both point guards were having strong games and his three shooting guards were not.

Unfortunately for the Raptors, Arenas went off for 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Also on this night, Turkoglu bettered Bosh’s poor shooting, going 1-7 in the fourth quarter with two turnovers, and only making the last-second three-pointer to end the game.

And who did the team forget about?

Andrea Bargnani shot 8-14 for the game and 1-1 in the fourth. One shot! While Bosh and Turkoglu combined for 2-13.

Somehow Jay Triano should have been able to get Bargnani involved in the offense down the stretch of this game. But this has become a trend in the recent string of Raptors' losses.

The Toronto Raptors have a lot of offensive talent on their team, but not every player is going to score well every night—and they shouldn’t have to!

It’s up to the coach to recognize who has the hot hand on a given night and make sure the team takes advantage.

If the coach cannot figure out how to use the lineup he has, there will be more games like the one against Washington.

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Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors Have Stopped Scoring!