Paul Jones

Paul Jones is the voice of the Raptors on the FAN 590 and writes regularly for Sportsnet.ca.

The Raptors go for five in a row Wednesday night against the Charlotte Bobcats and the main theme will be "payback". In the event that any fan has forgotten, because after chatter at Raptor practice yesterday, the team sure hasn't, the Bobcats pasted Toronto in November 116-81. The 35-point margin of victory was and still is, the largest winning margin in the history of the Charlotte franchise.

"When you lose by 40, I don't think anybody's going to forget that," said starting point man, Jarrett Jack. "I don't think any of us forgot the feeling we had at the end of that ball game."

Got to admit, it was a pretty somber locker room that night and even though Charlotte is only 12-17 with one more NBA win on the road than you and four of your boys who run it at the local school yard, Toronto owes them one.

Jack talked about his Indiana Pacers squad last season beat the Boston Celtics early in the schedule and even after reeling off a streak of wins, the Celtics were looking forward to playing the Pacers to avenge a loss. Such is the mentality of good teams and hopefully for Raptor fans, Toronto is developing some of that mental and physical grittiness needed to be a good team.

It will be about effort tonight for Toronto as the Bobcats, again not world beaters in any sense of the word, simply out worked the Raptors on November 25th in that blow out victory. Toronto will have to do a better job of protecting the ball as the Bobcats scored at will in transition that night as Raptor turnovers led to numerous fast breaks and situations where Charlotte had the numbers advantage on run outs.

That's what the Bobcats do best and how they put up a good portion of their easy buckets. Charlotte is second in the NBA in scoring points off turnovers, behind only the Golden State Warriors, putting up about 19 points a game. For a team that is ranked second from the bottom, 29th in scoring, points off turnovers account for almost 20% of its scoring.

With Charlotte being an energy team it will be a better test for the Raptors new found defensive prowess. Everybody wants to talk about offence with Toronto, but over the last five games Toronto is third in the NBA in opponent's field goal percentage allowing only 41.5% from the floor, 6th on opposition scoring at 92.8 ppg and 8th in opponent's assist allowing just under 19 per game. All of these stats point to a more concerted effort at the defensive end. But more important for Toronto fans, watch the effort, particularly on defence to see if the team is truly turning the corner.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did anyone else feel for the Atlanta Hawks last night? They are in the midst of a solid season and hanging with the big boys in the Eastern Conference. It's a packed house in Atlanta, that fact in itself had me looking outside to see if the comet was passing by, and LeBron and the Cavs are in town. It's time to show something to Cleveland who broomed you out of the playoffs last season right? Well, just as you settle in for a good finish with Cleveland leading by one point after three quarters, the Hawks lay an egg.

Atlanta misses its first 10 shots of the quarter and ends up shooting 29.4% from the floor in the final frame. They only scored 10 points in the final 12 minutes and the fact that they don't have a guy to throw it to on the block really hurts. But, as my man Sherman Hamilton says, sometimes a team just has your number. The good thing for the Hawks is they get the Cavs again tonight, it's not at home but still, it's a chance to show something.