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Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports:
Suns guard Leandro Barbosa will sit out for at least the remainder of this road trip, which continues Tuesday in New York and Wednesday in Cleveland.Barbosa sprained his left ankle in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 113-94 victory at Toronto.
Barbosa was fouled from the side by Toronto’s Marco Belinelli as he made a jump shot but his left foot landed on the foot of Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani, who was in front of him.
Friday night the Boston Celtics handled the Toronto Raptors, winning 116-103. And according to Rasheed Wallace, one Raptor provided some not-so-welcome acting during the matchup.
Frank Dell’Apa of the Boston Globe reports:
Rasheed Wallace was issued a technical foul 1:35 into the second quarter last night, but the Celtics big man believes the technical should have been called on Toronto’s Hedo Turkoglu – for flopping.
Wallace was whistled for a foul after clashing with Turkoglu, then referee Ed Malloy called the technical.
“I didn’t use no profanity, I just said, ‘He’s a flopper,’ ’’ Wallace said after Boston’s 116-113 victory at TD Garden. “And [Malloy] gave me a tech for that. The league should make that a rule – flopping.
“It’s not like I threw my shoulder into him, or it was a hard push, or real hard contact. Come on, now. Showing on a pick, I’m already there, he touches me – ‘Ohh,’ he acts like I shot him or something. ‘Ohh.’ That’s not basketball, man, that’s not defense, that’s garbage, that’s what it is.’’
Rasheed’s shot has been off (37.7% shooting, 29.0% three-pointers, 9.2 points per game) since joining the Celtics, but he was on target vs the Raptors and hit 6-of-11 for 15 points.
The AP reports:
Gerald Wallace broke out of his shooting slump with 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, helping the Charlotte Bobcats to the most lopsided victory in team history, 116-81 over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
Stephen Jackson added 23 points for Charlotte, which held the listless Raptors to 35 percent shooting. The sixth-year Bobcats’ previous biggest win was a 32-point rout of Indiana on Nov. 16, 2005.
While Wallace entered as the NBA’s third-leading rebounder, he was shooting 38 percent from the field and averaging only 13.7 points. But he took advantage of one of the NBA’s worst defenses by beating numerous defenders off the dribble.
The Raptors shot just 34.5 percent from the field in this game and hit just 4 of their 19 three-point attempts.
Toronto point guard Jose Calderon dished 8 assists, but the four other Raptors started combine for just three.
Hedo Turkoglu, the big Raptors off-season addition, brought nothing. In 22 minutes he shot just 2-of-7 for five points, two assists and almost nothing else.
The lone bright spot for Toronto off the bench today was Amir Johnson, who shot 6-of-9.
Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh tends to be left out of conversations involving top players in his draft class. He’s noticed, and gotten annoyed about it, and used the motivation to make himself better.
Doug Smith of the Toronto Star reports:
“It’s mentality, mentality,” [Bosh] said when asked where the numbers come from, a mentality buried and finally brought to the fore by being held out of conversations about the game’s greats.
“Was it hidden? Yeah, I guess so,” he said after Toronto had dropped a 104-91 decision to the Utah Jazz. “I always thought of myself as a good basketball player, but after a while I really wanted to turn the corner. I looked at all the other guys who are considered top guys and I was tired of not having my name mentioned.
“I wanted to do the necessary work to make sure I put myself in a situation to be successful.”
This season Bosh is putting up monster stats. In 35.9 minutes per game he’s averaging 26.8 points and 12.3 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field.
Share your Raptors opinion on the InsideHoops Toronto Raptors forum.
The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday they have been awarded forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu on a waiver claim. The 6-foot-10, 235-pound Mensah-Bonsu, who signed with Houston this past offseason, was waived by the Rockets on Friday. He appeared in four games with Houston, averaging 1.3 points and 3.3 minutes.
Prior to signing with the Rockets, Mensah-Bonsu, 26, averaged 5.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 13.8 minutes in 19 games with the Raptors. He was signed as a free agent by Toronto on March 6, 2009.
Mensah-Bonsu saw action in three contests with the San Antonio Spurs in 2008-09, averaging 5.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in 6.7 minutes. He appeared in 12 games with the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006-07 season where he totaled 29 points and 22 rebounds in 72 minutes. He also spent part of that season in the D-League with Fort Worth, averaging 15.8 points, 10.4 rebounds and 30.7 minutes in 26 games. He earned 2007 D-League All-Star Game MVP honours with 30 points and seven rebounds.
The native of London, England spent two seasons overseas, playing with Benetton Treviso in 2007-08 and DKV Joventut in 2008-09. He averaged 9.2 points and 8.3 rebounds in 31 regular season games with Benetton. He saw action in just two games with Jovenut before returning to North America to play in the D-League.
A four-year athlete at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Mensah-Bonsu averaged 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds in his senior season leading the Colonials to a 26-1 regular season mark and a Top 10 ranking.
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The Toronto Raptors announced Thursday they have released guard Quincy Douby. Douby had been on the inactive list since October 28 and did not appear in any regular season games. He averaged 3.0 points, 1.7 assists and 10.5 minutes in six preseason outings.
Douby joined the Raptors on March 24, 2009 when he signed a 10-day contract. He appeared in seven games with the Raptors in the 2008-09 season, averaging 4.4 points, 1.0 assists and 10.4 minutes. The four-year NBA veteran has averaged 4.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 10.7 minutes in 143 games.
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The Toronto Raptors announced Thursday they have exercised the fourth year team option on the Rookie Scale Contract of guard Marco Belinelli. Belinelli is now guaranteed through the 2010-11season. In accordance with the league’s collective bargaining agreement, the Raptors had until October 31 to exercise their option on Belinelli. Per team policy, financial terms of the deal was not disclosed.
Belinelli had 10 points in 19 minutes in Wednesday’s season-opening win versus Cleveland.
The 18th overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, Belinelli averaged 8.9 points, 2.1 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 21.0 minutes in 42 games last season with Golden State. He registered four 20-point games during the 2008-09 campaign, including a career-high 27 points December 12, 2008 at Atlanta.
Through 76 career games Belinelli owns a .397 mark from three-point range (69-for-174). As a rookie he appeared in 33 games, averaging 2.9 points in 7.3 minutes.
Prior to joining the Warriors, the 23 year-old, 6-foot-5 guard from Bologna, Italy, played professionally in Italy for five seasons. In 33 games during the 2006-07 season with Fortitudo Bologna in Serie A, Belinelli averaged 16.4 points, while shooting .544 (99-for-182) from the field. In 13 Euroleague contests, he averaged 12.9 points on .438 (32-for-73) from the field.
The Toronto Raptors have a hot rookie shooting guard in DeMar DeRozan.
Aside from being extremely athletic, DeRozan has both a first and last name with two capital letters. Clearly an added bonus.
But is the kid ready to be a real starter on a team that hopes to make the playoffs? One writer says no.
Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun reports:
The starting five, which has four legit pieces, has a major hole at shooting guard, an area rookie DeMar DeRozan has yet to seize.
The kid looks like a keeper, but the kid isn’t ready.
Assuming his right knee holds up, the right move is to start Antoine Wright.
If Wright’s knee regresses and the Raptors are forced into force-feeding DeRozan into the starting unit, then the team is in trouble.
DeRozan needs time and now is not the time to thrust him into a role he is clearly not equipped to handle.
I agree that it’s better to give Wright the bigger role and minutes early on, while giving DeRozan more time to learn the ropes. Ideally, DD will be ready to handle the job a few months into the season.
Raptors forward Reggie Evans sustained a left mid-foot sprain during the second quarter of Wednesday’s game against Boston in Hartford, Connecticut. No timetable has been set for his return to game action, although it is likely that he misses the remainder of the preseason.
Evans has averaged 7.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 16.8 minutes in five preseason games. He had a high of 11 points October 9 at Minnesota and nine rebounds October 7 versus Philadelphia.
The AP reports: Louis Williams scored 17 points, Andre Iguodala added 15 points and eight assists, and the Philadelphia 76ers held on for a 107-98 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. Montreal’s Samuel Dalembert added 10 points and six rebounds for the 76ers, whose 23-point lead was cut to five in the fourth quarter. Andrea Bargnani scored 22 points for the Raptors, who played without All-Star Chris Bosh and offseason addition Hedo Turkoglu. Sonny Weems had 10 points, while rookie DeMar DeRozan, Marco Belinelli and Marcus Banks had nine apiece.
