Originally Published: 2010-03-07

It has definitely been a hard couple of weeks for the struggling Toronto Raptors as they have been bitten by the injury bug with some of their key players out of the line-up. With some major talent out with injuries, including NBA all-star Chris Bosh, the Raptors are going on a four game slump, only winning two of the six games without him. Wins against the New Jersey Nets and Washington Wizards came easy for the Raptors, but it was against teams like Cleveland, Oklahoma City and Houston where hope was lost.
Recently, Jose Calderon was taken out of the line-up due to a cut on his right elbow causing him to take a seat in Monday’s game against the Houston Rockets where the Raptors fell 116-92. Hedo Turkoglu had a bad night as well. In the second quarter he stepped on Jared Jefferies’ foot on a drive to the basket causing him to hop to the locker room to tape up his left ankle. During the intermission he experienced more discomfort and his night came to a close. Toronto looked lost on the court as they struggled with their defense, something we haven’t seen much of since the beginning of the season.
The worst loss had to be against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb.26 at the Air Canada Centre as the game went into overtime only to end in a 126-118 loss for the Raps. The entire game the Raptors kept up with NBA great LeBron James, but when overtime came along it didn’t even look like the same team. Defensively, Toronto looked messy as they barely kept up with the Cavs. Point guard Jarrett Jack led the Raptors in points with 24.
With a big strain put on the Raptors lately, players are expected to play twice as hard if they want to make a statement since they no longer have Bosh’s 20 plus points to depend on each game. Players like Jarrett Jack, Sonny Weems, Antoine Wright, Amir Johnson and even power forward Reggie Evans have been stepping up as much as they can. In place of Jose Calderon, Marcus Banks got some playing time against the Rockets and actually led the team with 15 points.

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