Game Recap: Raptors 105, Timberwolves 82

Published by Kinnon Yee on February 11, 2008

Some days, a writer can loathe writing about the Raptors. There are days when the team doesn’t play well and you’re just stuck there, wondering what the heck happened. There are days even when the team just completely mails it in and you’re just not sure what’s going to happen for the future. On really rare occasions, they beat a team badly, but do it in a way that leaves little to be said because they should beat the team that they played.

As fans love this team with a passion, it was undoubtedly heartwarming to see Raptors fans come down from all over to watch the Minnesota game live. One of the most memorable moments from last year was watching Chuck and Jack try and do a post game interview with a group of rabid fans sitting behind them during the post game interviews. This year, there was a little less rabidness, but a much more convincing win. However, against the Timberwolves on one of their worse defensive nights, is it a win that we can be all that happy with?

Undoubtedly, there were a lot of areas of this game that were fun to watch. The show that was TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, and Jason Kapono was very interesting indeed. If those three can continue to be productive off the bench, it’s going to cause teams a huge headache as scoring looks to get pushed up with the second unit thanks to Kapono’s variety of offensive skills and TJ’s dribble penetration. For the past few games, Ford’s shown to me that his dribble penetration is a better fit with the second unit as he’s a much better creator-off-the-bounce than Calderon is. Add in nine rebounds from Delfino thanks to the shoddy wing play of the Timberwolves, and you had a pretty good night all around. Bargnani continued to impress with some major offensive rebounds in the second half as his timing got a little better, and his aggressiveness remained high. As a casual observer, you can see the bounce getting back in his step as he looks to get into lower stances and move his feet more. Finally, with the game well in hand, the Raptors managed to rest most of their starters for the Spurs game the following night.

However, there has to be questions, especially since this is a very disorganized Timberwolves team that cannot shot the ball very effectively from the field. By keeping the game close throughout the first half, the Timberwolves made the game more interesting than it had to be. A lot of that effort has to go to Al Jefferson, who single-handedly looks to keep the team afloat. Others like Marko Jaric, gave decent contributions, but without any kind of bench and very streaky shooting, the Timberwolves were just simply outmatched against a superior Raptors squad in every area. The Raptors wanted to move without the ball and the Timberwolves let the Raptors create pockets. On the other end, the Timberwolves often chewed up their own shot clock, allowing the Raptors to wait them out and play “good defense” for one night as Chuck and Jack called the game.

Which gets me to the dilemma… how does a person quantify this victory? The Raptors were never seriously tested and while there were many different positive aspects to take from this game, they were against the worst in the west. In this month, the Raptors were seen to be able to make a lot of headway towards the end of the season because of the rough March coming up. As a tune up, this game allowed the Raptors to gain some confidence, but real measures of strength will come in the next two before the All-Star break. As is often the case, fans are left wondering if this was just a good night, or the Raptors playing an inept opponent.

But I guess we should be glad that this game didn’t turn out like that Clippers game.

Next Game: San Antonio @ Toronto