Bosh in the zone
The Raptors franchise player is locked in the kind of zone athletes -- who do pray -- must go home at night praying to find. Making things even more miserable for the defences trying to stop him is that every time they throw double and even triple coverages at him, Bosh unfailingly finds not just the open teammate but the teammate with the best chance to score and usually with the desired results.
The result last night was a dominant fourth quarter for Bosh, who scored 13 of his game-high 35 points, and a fourth consecutive home win for the Raptors who pulled away down the stretch for an 89-78 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
Johnson, who could be seen jawing at Calderon as teammate Marvin Williams took foul shots a series earlier, took drastic action as the Raptors were setting up their offence on the ensuring series. With Calderon's back to him, Johnson ran by and threw an elbow at the back of the Toronto point guard's head knocking him to the court.
The attack earned Johnson a flagrant foul-2 which brings an immediate ejection and an automatic review which could mean more punishment.
Calderon said he had no idea what prompted Johnson's anger. Asked about the seemingly heated conversation behind the foul line earlier, Calderon denied it was heated at all.
"We were talking about basketball," he said in rather unconvincing fashion.
Going easy on Horford
"First of all we don't feel we need to try and retaliate against the young man (Horford)," Mitchell said. "All that stuff happened in the heat of the moment. Mike Woodson (Atlanta's coach) came down to our locker room and he and I talked about it. I thought it was very gracious of him to do that and to come down and talk to T.J. (Horford) went to the hospital and spent two hours with T.J. T.J. is fine with it. I'm fine with it. Obviously we were all scared because of T.J's history, that's why I got upset, but afterwards you realize it was an accident. You realize (Horford) is a good young man ... so it's a non-issue."
Game Day
KEYS TO THE GAME
Andrea Bargnani has to do a good job guarding Samuel Dalembert and stay out of early foul trouble, that is, stay in the game. Given that tonight's game is the second in a back-to-back, someone has to come in (either Juan Dixon or Carlos Delfino) and do an effective job spelling starting point guard Jose Calderon.
The Star
Another big night for Raptors' Bosh
Bosh had another monster night, 35 points on just 18 field-goal attempts, as he helped rally the Raptors to an 89-78 victory over the Atlanta Hawks before a sellout crowd at the Air Canada Centre that witnessed Toronto's fifth win in its last six games.
Moon pulling out all stops, props in dunkfest
Moon, the fresh-from-the-bus-leagues rookie, is hoping for better against a yet-to-be-determined field that will reportedly include defending champion Gerald Green. And the heartening thing is that the first Raptor in eight years to vie for the title isn't going to New Orleans unprepared. He has assembled a brain trust that's been brainstorming his strategy. With the help of Jay Triano, the Toronto assistant coach, and Juan Dixon, his stylish teammate, among others, Moon has formulated a blueprint that he hopes will accentuate his prodigious gifts
