Paul Jones

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

Oh boy! I bet the suicide hotline was flooded Monday night with Raptor fans as Toronto gave up a 23-point lead midway through the second quarter in a 105-101 loss to the Indiana Pacers. It was almost too easy as Toronto pushed the lead to 59-36 with 4:21 to go in the first half. But one of the toughest things to do is play with a big lead, kind of like people that win the lottery and then go broke. Sometimes, it's tough to handle prosperity.

Concentration and focus start to wander and the cavalier carefree attitude takes over leading to trouble later in the game. While some players did not think a lack of focus and concentration was the issue, others admitted that they may have taken their foot off the accelerator and coasted a little too soon.

To make matters worse, the Pacers are a team that plays the same way regardless of whether they are up 23 or down 23. They push the ball, shoot jumpers and keep the game moving. In short, the way they play you are never out of it if you're down and never safe when you are up and the latter point can be corroborated by the Raptors.

All in all, it was a bad loss for Toronto as they made only seven field goals in the second half and shot a meager 20.6% from the floor. OK so who's to blame? Well let say there is lots to go around. A team that plays on the perimeter like Toronto has to be true to its personality but also has to recognize when jumpers aren't falling they have to get the ball to the basket. Chris Bosh understood that as he had 20 free throw attempts with 16 of them coming in the second half. The others, I'm not so sure. But to answer the question in a way that some fans don't want to hear, yes, the Raptors just missed some shots.

On an individual level, Toronto needs to get better and more consistent play from Hedo Turkoglu. He is a skilled offensive player that has been good at times this season but in other instances he just does not seem to play with a sense of urgency. They need more from him consistently.

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OK folks, thanks for sending your questions to me and this one e-mail that I received is quite topical, particularly in light of the recent suspension of Gilbert Arenas. I thought, without telling too many tales out of school, I'd let you know a bit about what happens on the Raptors plane both currently and in the past.

Hey Paul, in the wake of the Wizards and Nets banning gambling on the team plane is this something you see that will eventually become league wide and do you think it will spread across all the major sports? Would you care to tell us what happens on the Raptor plane?

-John M. Toronto

John, that is a great question and you wonder if it isn't something that might be coming down the road. I've said this before, if Commissioner David Stern is the kind of guy that monitors what you wear to work, you can bet something like this, particularly in light of Arenas and the Tim Donaghy issues, will be a subject of discussion on his list at some point. I would not be surprised to see some sort of ban happen league wide during "team time or in team places" (e.g. on a plane, on a bus, in a locker room). As for individual teams, I think it depends on the composition of the team but yes, the move made to ban gambling on the plane the way that Washington, New Jersey and recently Miami have done, would just remove the temptation. Back in the day, and I haven't been in an MLB clubhouse lately, card games were sacrosanct and as a youngster in the media corps, I learned never, ever, approach a player or go near the table when there was a card game in progress. Could a ban spread across the major sports? I suppose so, but what would take its place, because you know the players would come up with something.

Jarrett Jack had the best take when he was asked about gambling debts in the locker room in Indiana. He basically said there are two rules, collect when you win, pay when you lose and since players are making good money, there really should be no issues.

As for the Raptors, in the early years, there were card games and competitive ones with the likes of Alvin Robertson, Oliver Miller and company but everybody paid their debts and there were no hard feelings. Hey that's why it's called gambling and if you don't like to lose, then don't play and some guys just didn't play. I can think of Carlos Rogers, Tracy Murray, Ed Pinckney, Tony Massenburg and a lot of the other players that just sat around and listened to music and chatted. Brendan Malone usually had game film on for those players that wanted to watch but the card games were not an issue. I don't recall any dice games being played but that was some 15 years ago.

In more recent times, there have been card games at the back of the plane but trust me, nothing with high stakes. Heck, when the games include one of the associate producers on the TV side, and an equipment guy on occasion, you know they are playing cards like the boys in the basement around the corner on a Friday night. Nobody is going home with winnings like they would in Vegas. There was the odd yell that we heard at the front of the plane when a timely card was overturned and an apparent winning hand was suddenly usurped, but with the nature of the team the last few seasons in Toronto, it didn't make for any grudges or hard feelings because there wasn't a whole lot of money involved. This season, it's more like a library at the back of the plane once it becomes airborne as movies, video games and books are the order of the day.