The Raps Would Demolish Their Opponents If Only They Played...DEFENSE!

As the pundits have said, it is pretty clear that the Raptors can score and I mean score. They have scored 100 points or more in EVERY SINGLE game that they have played. In ANY other world, scores of 100-130 points would be a guaranteed win. If you can score that many points in 48 minutes all you need to do is play basic, and I mean basic, defense. Nothing complex, just get in the way and don't foul too much. If you do that, the other team is absolutely screwed unless they are having an "angels in the outfield" night on offense themselves (it is possible to play very good defense and still get scored heavily on - sometimes people just hit their shots no matter what you do - it just doesn't happen very often).

Now the Raptors, I think, overall, have played quite well this year. They have faced some tough teams in the early going and for the most part have kept it close (except against Dallas) and come out with a few surprising wins. They have generally equalled or out-rebounded their opponents, something that they have not been able to do before (San Antonio an exception, offensive rebounds killed them). Bosh is playing like a man possessed, Bargs is scoring well but more importantly is getting better rebound numbers, Turk is filling his role well, the bench is doing okay and Calderon is picking it up. Only DeRozan disappoints me so far, although at least he is trying, he is just young I suppose. Most importantly though they have showed they can played stifling defense if they put their minds to it.

However, I will put great emphasis on the word "can" because there is no doubt that they can play defense, they just don't half the time. And really, losing 131 to 124, thats just inexcusable. You CANNOT excuse that, you just can't. All they had to do was play basic defense and they would have demolished San Antonio. In my basketball days if we lost a game like that in regulation my coach would have had us running suicides until...well lets just say it would have been a VERY LONG time. This time too, Bosh cannot blame the lack of skill that surrounds him, he is one of the worst offenders on defense, along with Calderon and perhaps Turk.

The Raps played terrible defense last year and they are playing even worse defense this year, except for a few games where they are stellar in that regard. Just because you can score doesn't mean the other side can't either, however if you can score you have to do a A LOT less on the defensive end but you still have to do something. What are us fans supposed to think? You can but you won't, what the hell... If you play defense (like you did against Cleveland and New Orleans) Raps you will get 50+ wins without any difficulty, if you don't (like you did against Dallas and San Antonio) you might not make the playoffs, simple as that.