Raptors vs. Lakers Last Night Wasn't Half Bad... It Was All Bad.

Prior to tip off last night I was chatting with my man Chris O'Leary from SLAM Online, while we went off about our business watching the game and other things, we would intermittently get our Statler and Waldorf on, quasi live blogging the game.

me: so how do you think we're going to do?

Chris: i could be totally wrong

but this game has a feel to it that the one VC had in LA against the Lakers like 5 years ago

remember that?

kind of his coming out party

or part of it

me: yeah, if jose can pick up his shooting, i think we can do ok

Chris: i think they'll lose without JO

me: i have no idea who this guy is going around masquerading as joey graham though

Chris: whoever he is, keep bad joey locked up in the broom closet at the ACC

me: so far so good though, (at the end of the 1st quarter 32-29 Lakers)

Chris: bargnani seems better this year

all around better

me: agreed, more aggressive, bigger and confident

wow jamario dunked its been a while

Chris: better defensively too

lots of blocked shots lately

me: joey graham is back

Chris: old bad joey?

me: indeed

me: i'd rather have steven graham right about now

Chris: heather graham

me: lol, superstar billy graham

Chris: hahaha, i love the wrestling references

me: horrific viewing

Chris: this is not good

in any way

me: this score does not reflect what happened tonight

Chris: it reflects that the Lakers just waited until the fourth to put them away

I think

I would say those were the highlights, but as I said it was here and there, however I did find some time to stop by the liveblog at Raptors Republic too and was entertained.

The Raps didn't give up and stayed in it trailing 90-81 through the first three quarters, every time they would make a run, the Lakers would bitchslap them and remind them they're the best team in the league. Which is exactly what they did in the fourth quarter and ended the game early. The Lakers are in another zone right now, Ariza and Bynum are the difference along with Kobe's continued confidence in his teammates, they killed the Raps on the fast break tonight.

Looking to the positives, I liked the fact Jose didn't do the usual soft Euro player back down when Fisher tried to get at him tonight. Everyone played well, they just didn't play good enough really. When the game was long over even Hassan Adams got some PT and a bucket, but the end of the Raps bench made the last 4 minutes of the game horrible to watch, almost as horrible as watching this.

The million dollar question is, where is Chris Bosh in the big games? He is playing like the Most Valuable Player of the league so far this season, but he's been conspicuously absent in the games against last years NBA finalists. If the Raptors don't have him through 82 games and some solid support from his teammates, it's going to be another first round exit, and maybe even an exit in 2010.

*Looks over his shoulder for the psycho blogger*