Raptors

I'm on Chris Bosh's side

Of course fans have a right to boo. In fact, I think its a good thing to sometimes let your team know you're not very pleased with their performance. It's a little harsh, like kicking someone when they're already down, but it can even serve a purpose outside of just venting - its one hell of a wake up call.

Now, I didn't watch the game, because TSN2 might be the worst thing in Canadian sports media since Greg Millen. If Bosh was getting booed individually, I might argue that's a wee bit uncalled for. Sure, he's struggled recently, and maybe had his worst night of the year, but Chris Bosh isn't the source of Raptor fan's frustrations. He's rightly regarded as a hero in Toronto, and one bad game from a player who's been trying to carry the team on his back is not a valid reason to boo. But still, fans can do what they want, all I'm saying here is that I wouldn't be booing Bosh if I was there, even though he was having a bad game. If you want to boo, however, go right ahead, and I don't really think you should feel that bad about it.

What I am going to nitpick, however, is the bickering that's been going on after.

It's ok to boo. It's even ok to boo without adequate justification: I was at the game where AJ Burnett got booed off the field and flipped his cap at the fans, and even though I thought it was a bad idea and more than a little mean to a guy who's clearly just having a hard day, it was a bunch of drunk people who just had their Saturday ruined by a person who the newspaper always says is a bum. I get it, even when I don't agree.

But I think Chris Bosh was within his rights to be upset about it. And I like that he wasn't shy about saying so. Toronto being a hockey town and all, I guess the prevailing logic is that when you're booed by the hometown fans, your only classy response is to act sheepish, put your tail between your legs, and apologize to the fans for disappointing them.

Of course, this is complete bullshit. As Bosh said, the fans were booing when they were down 3 against the Dallas Mavericks (not the powerhouse they once were, but certainly not a team Raptors fans were assuming they would beat, right?). Bosh didn't like getting booed, and neither did the Raptors. There's a difference between saying "Its our right to boo you because you sucked tonight", and saying "We're going to boo you, and you're going to like it."

Frankly, I think its great the Raptors are mad. Going on a long roadtrip with that whole "us against the world"/"even our fans aren't on our side" mentality, a harsh wakeup call, and a warmup game against a doormat is just what a struggling underachieving team with confidence issues needs.

I bet they come back better than they left, I just hope it won't be too late.

Besides, are they really playing so bad?

They lost relatively close games against New Orleans, Dallas, and NJ. NO got some hot outside shooting, Dallas benefited from Bosh's worst game of the year, and NJ had one of those "no one can stop Devin Harris" nights. Other than getting blown out by the legitimately better Cavs, we've played pretty well in the last little while (our only other loss was that heartbreaker against Portland, another good team that we almost beat). But because of bad karma, low confidence, or whatever it is, we're not getting wins.

But in my opinion, the last couple weeks have shown that the Raptors aren't that bad. There's no reason the current lineup can't contend with the likes of NO, Dallas, and Portland - all mid level contenders in the stronger Western Conference.

There's two things I like about this. First, we're bound to start getting those wins eventually. Second, we might be a couple tweaks from being a very good team.

Closing Perspective

I know its easy to see the Raptors game as a continously worsening trainwreck. It sucks, and there's no way of getting out of conclusions that: a) we've dug ourselves a significant early hole if we intend to have a respectable record and playoff seeding at the end of the year, and b) the chances that this team becomes a mid to high level condender (as we all hoped at the beginning of thea year) are looking increasingly remote.

While those conclusions are beyond reproach, looking at the season as a continuous trainwreck isn't really accurate considering the nuances and context of our current situation.

The season started off pretty good, but not great. We were mildly disappointing, but showing signs of gelling, which is understandable since we lacked depth, and were relying heavily on a new star acquisition who's been injured the last few years. Anyway this looked like a .500 team who would be hard-pressed to beat the best teams in the league like Boston (albeit capable of giving them a scare every once in a while), beating bad teams, and being competitive with most of the better mid-level teams out there.

Then Vince Carter ripped everyone's hearts out on November 21st. This was one of the most spirit crushing losses I've ever experienced, and certainly the worst one i've ever seen in person. You could see the effect it had on the team later that weekend against Boston, and after a couple rebound wins at home, they started a diastrous road trip with JO injured and disaster swirling around them.

I don't want to talk about the road trip, but we got repeatedly blown out (albeit by some good teams), lost a coach, then lost a couple more big games peppered with our good loss against Portland.

After that, we've been half decent.

Without that horrendous stretch from the NJ game to the Cavs blowout, the Raptors haven't been that horrible. There's obviously some problems, especailly in close games, but we've been competitive against the teams we should be competitive with. After a few adjustments, and after getting some confidence back, I think the season could be salvaged.