Raptors Report Week 16: Bosh Who? Andrea Bargnani Sets Pace For Raptors

In Chris Bosh's absence do to an ankle sprain, Andrea Bargnani was the new man in town. He stepped it up big for the Raptors club this week, and the team has shown that they can live without Bosh for a few games.

The Raps let one slip vs Memphis Wednesday night, which was very disappointing. I was at this game and saw the Raptors five point lead collapse in 30 seconds to send the game into overtime. Other than that late slip vs the Grizzlies, the Raptors had a pretty solid week.

Record: 2-1

Performance on a scale of 1-10: 6.5

Positives

Andrea Bargnani was HUGE down the stretch of the game vs. Washington. He had three blocks in the fourth quarter and has just been great in the absence of Chris Bosh. Rasho Nesterovic has done a good job filling in for the injured Bosh as well, and this shows team depth. Hedo Turkoglu has been playing without his mask and appears to be starting to shape into form.

Negatives

The Raptors blew a five point lead in a matter of 30 seconds. That can't happen. Even though they won two games without Chris Bosh, they were against the Nets and Wizards. The Nets game wasn't really close, but the Wizards kept it close, which shouldn't be happening for them against the Raptors.

Overall, this week was above .500 and they need to keep up this kind of pace if they want any chance of catching the Celtics.

Chris Bosh has said that he will most likely play vs the Trail Blazers Wednesday evening. We'll need him. I haven't written a report for a while because of the All Star break, but down the stretch, if they are fighting for fourth in the East I might even do a report every game! That's all from me, be sure to check out the Raptors games this Wednesday vs the Trail Blazers, Friday vs the Cavs, and Sunday at Oklahoma City.

GO RAPS!

Next Report: Sunday, Feb. 28th