At the 70 game mark of the Raptors season, the local fans are getting restless. Boos can now be heard raining down in the ACC even when the Raptors merely fail to get off to good start in a game.
The once powerful Raptor offense has all but vanished and the oft maligned Raptors defense has been trying to set new lows.
For the first time this season, the Raptors have failed to average over 100 points for a 10 game stretch. And at 3-7, the team failed to go at least 5-5 for the first time since their second 10 game stretch of the season.
And Chris Bosh has played all 10 of those games.
But Bosh’s career year scoring the ball has tailed off since his return from injury and he has “only” averaged 21.3 points per game. That’s a far cry from the over 24 points he has averaged on the season.
To make matters worse, over the past 10 games the Raptors have given up over 109 points. Not quite as bad as that earlier slump when the Raptors went 2-8 giving up 116 points per game. But considerably worse than in their last 40 games and not good enough to deserve holding onto the eighth and final playoff spot in the East.
Not to single out any one Raptors player for a lack of defense, but Chris Bosh has not played up to his earlier levels. Specifically, Bosh is averaging 0.5 steal and 0.5 block less than his season averages. Not to mention the more than two fewer rebounds per game.
And Bosh does look like he is putting out an effort. Thus begging the question, Bosh may have returned from injury but are his injuries fully healed?
And in Bosh’s tenure with the Raptors, as Bosh goes, so go the Raptors.
Maybe Raptors fans should be feeling fortunate their teams recent collapse hasn’t been worse?
A .500 record is still good enough for a two game lead over the Bulls for eighth place.
| Games | Record | Points For | Points Against | Diff |
| 1-10 | 5-5 | 106.9 | 105.9 | 1.0 |
| 11-20 | 2-8 | 103.7 | 116.0 | -12.3 |
| 21-30 | 6-4 | 100.8 | 100.9 | -0.1 |
| 31-40 | 7-3 | 102.6 | 98.3 | 4.3 |
| 41-50 | 7-3 | 108.1 | 104.8 | 3.3 |
| 51-60 | 5-5 | 103.4 | 105.7 | -2.3 |
| 61-70 | 3-7 | 99.6 | 109.2 | -9.6 |
| total | 35-35 | 103.6 | 105.8 | -2.2 |
And 12 important games remain for the Chris Bosh and the Raptors to find their form of only a month ago.
And while five of those games are against very beatable teams. One thing is certain, scoring less than 100 while giving up 109 isn’t likely to be good enough to hold onto eighth. And even if it is, that isn’t going to restore the faith of the fans.
I think the denver game is crucial. If the raps mail this one in too, with the season on the line, that will pretty much be it. The nuggets are not playing good ball right now, so they might be picked off if the Raps start off flying in the 1st Q. Otherwise, hasta la vista.
Almost….
And the Nugs are beatable right now.
But the Raps could salvage things by winning the Miami/Charlotte B2B.