Raptors Recap - The "another one gets away" edition

The game was on TSN 2 again last night so I didn't watch the entire thing. Streaming a game on the internet isn't what I'd call a good experience. What I saw when I did watch last nights game was a team that lacked energy again and took 2 1/2 quarters to get going.

Andrea Bargnani played his 9th great game in a row scoring a career high with 31 points and also hauled in 10 boards. However they didn't look for him late in the fourth quarter. A series of bad decisions late in the game by the one and only Will Solomon lead to a very close finish. Triano finally learned his lesson and went with Ukic to finish the last couple of minutes and that gave the Raptors a chance to win.

With the ball in his hands and down 2 they gave the ball to Chris Bosh. He tried a pump fake spin on Jokim Noah which was blocked, rather easily I might add.

This sequence to finish the game just illustrates the glaring need for this team.
They need a guy that can create his own shot. Chris Bosh can carry them an entire game but in the dying seconds he cannot get the shot they need.

I'm beginning to think the "diamond in the rough" that Colangelo found last year in Jamario Moon might be to blame for all of this. Moon played just well enough for BC to think he didn't need to address that position in the off season when Colangelo had the Chips to make a deal. Instead they went for Jermaine O'neil and are now saddled with his horrible contract and potentially another TJ/Jose type feud once JO is back healthy and looks to start at center.

The season is half way through and I'm beginning to think that it can't end soon enough. They can't win the easy games, they can't win the close games, they can't win the hard games, they can't win at home.

They are now 8 games below .500 and are the 4th worst team in the East ahead of only Washington, Charlotte and Indiana. They are 40 games into the season and will have to go 30-12 just to reach 46 wins which is what the 6th seed is projected to have. The 6th seed! That would still mean a playoff with Orlando, Boston or Cleveland!