-The Toronto Raptors pulled off a huge upset on Friday night by beating the Boston Celtics. They upped the ante tonight by polishing off the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta, 102 to 86, their D League troops again dominating NBA vets.
-And yes I do mean dominate. Joe Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks' go-to scorer, was 2 of 12 on the night, and his club wasn't much better shooting 40 per cent from the field. The Hawks, much like the Celtics on Friday, seemed to have looked at the roster they were facing, and attempted to mail it in hoping for an easy W.
-As has been the case all season, opposing teams simply can't play that way against Casey's Raptors. Toronto used a 28 to 16 second quarter advantage to enter the half with a 14 point lead, and they really never looked back en route to win number 22 on the year, tying last year's win total but doing so in 61 games as opposed to 82.
-DeMar DeRozan and Alan Anderson were lights out in this one combining for 39 points on 14 of 24 shooting. We've been pretty hard on DeMar but he was great tonight, getting to the free-throw line 11 times and looking to attack on nearly every occasion.
-This wasn't just a two-man show though as Ed Davis had another solid outing, Ben Uzoh and Justin Dentmon were again solid replacing Jose Calderon, who sat out his second straight match, and James Johnson returned to relevance as well! Johnson had 15 points and 4 rebounds off the bench in his most effective outing in quite some time.
-So here's a question. What the hell does this mean? The Raptors were supposed to be dead meat in these final matches considering their personnel and the teams they were playing. But again, Dwane Casey had his troops ready to go and Atlanta, besides looking like they hardly cared to be on the court, to say the least, also looked lost at both ends.
-And suddenly tomorrow night's tilt becomes quite intriguing as the Hawks turn around and fly to Toronto for a rematch. Who knows if Jose will be back but regardless, we'll likely get a good idea after tomorrow night's tilt, whether tonight's match was indeed a product of a superior Raptors' game-plan, or the result of a Hawks team that already has its eyes on a first-round playoff match with the Boston Celtics.
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