Paul Jones

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

The Raptors made its last shot count for a win in Philadelphia.

It wasn't pretty, but nobody will remember how the Raptors won in Philly at the end of the year. It was a classic road win where the visiting team is down by double figures and does just enough to stay close and hang around. Suddenly, they go on a run and when the home team can't score, the visitors manage to do enough to nip the home team at the wire leaving them to wonder what happened.

The "what happened" was Toronto shooting 56.8 per cent in the second half while holding the Sixers to 40 per cent in the final quarter. What happened was also Andrea Bargnani scoring nine of his 23 points, on 4-of-6 from the floor, and blocking three shots in the final quarter. What happened was Bargnani and Chris Bosh scoring 17 of the team's 25 fourth quarter points with Bosh not settling for jumpers as he scored six of his eight points in the final period from the line. And, finally, what happened was Bosh driving the ball to the hoop with Toronto trailing by a point.

It was interesting that Philadelphia head coach Eddie Jordan chose not to double team Bosh and take the ball out of his hands. But then again, with the floor well spaced and help in the form of Bargnani, Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkoglu and Jarrett Jack (who can all make shots if there is a double team) one-on-one coverage may not have been a bad choice. Do you double Bosh and run the risk of the ball moving and giving them a clean look? Either way, it worked out well for Toronto as Bosh's drive and subsequent free throw gave Toronto the lead and its eventual margin of victory.

Bosh laughed in the post-game when I asked him about driving with his "weak" hand. I corrected myself and called it the non-dominant hand, but here is a tip for you youngsters out there. As a defensive player during my playing days (translation: the coach never trusted me to make shots) I learned that when most players drive with their strong hand, they will either go all the way to the hoop or occasionally pull up for a jumper. But when a guy puts it on the ground going to his weaker hand, expect a pull up jumper. The lesson and credo I went by was, strong to drive, weak to shoot and from that, I have always advised young players to make sure they can get to the hoop with the weak hand and finish with it.

The validation of that came as I walked to the front of the plane and talked to Hall of Famer, Alex English, who knows a thing or two about scoring having put up 25,613 points. English, who could score with anyone, said most of the time when he went to his left, he was stopping for a jump shot. So give Bosh some credit as he used his right hand against Philadelphia as Samuel Dalembert, dared him to do drive that way.

The Sixers really didn't get a good look at the end of the game, and as one Raptor mused as we were heading for the bus to the airport: You wonder if Eddie Jordan knows what he has and how to use it in reference to the final attempt to win the game.

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Allen Iverson was listed as a game time decision prior to Friday night's contest, but this will tell you something about the little man's competitive nature. I was in the Sixers locker room pre-game kibitzing with former Raptor, Jason Kapono, and there is AI a couple of stalls away. It's about an hour to game time and as he looks over, I ask him, "You gonna go tonight?"

He looks back at me and "hrumphs" as if to say, "Man, I did not come to the arena to sit here and watch."

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Good to see and chat with a couple of ex-Raptors, Ed Pinckney and Donyell Marshall in Philly. Pinckney, who jumped center in the first ever game in franchise history, is now working the games on TV as the analyst, while Marshall, who one fateful Sunday afternoon, March 13, 2005, ironically against the team who now employs him, and helped Toronto set the NBA record for three point field goals in a game, is now the analyst on the pre and post game shows.

The Raptor record has since fallen to the Orlando Magic but Marshall's name is still in the record books with Kobe Bryant as they share the NBA mark for most three-point field goals in a game with 12.

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Did you catch the Sixers PA announcer introducing Bargnani at the start of the game from Argentina? And, can one of the marketing gurus in the NBA front office colour co-ordinate events when rolled out for the fans to see. The new "NBA Fit" program is a great idea to promote a healthy lifestyle, but the last two games the Raptor players have worn the t-shirts in the warm up, then looked like they were suiting up for the other team. It reminded me of the Raptors wearing white t-shirts with green trim and a green clover in a circle on the front last year on St. Patrick's Day and hearing one of them say to the team's equipment manager, "Why am I wearing a Celtics shirt for the warm-up?"