The Raptors win on Tuesday in Dallas was on the all-time shocker list.
As gritty performances go, the win in Dallas may top the all-time list for the Toronto Raptors. The short-handed Raptors went into Dallas, home of the second-best team in the NBA, and came out with a win. It was the first win in the American Airlines Centre and the first win for Toronto in Dallas since Dec. 30, 1999 when the Mavs were running at Reunion Arena.
Andrea Bargnani was not with the team, Sonny Weems did not dress, Jose Calderon dressed but didn't play because of a sore left foot while Amir Johnson and Leandro Barbosa were playing at less than 100% with a bad back and sore knee respectively. To make matters worse Linus Kleiza was ejected in the third quarter and at that point in the game he was Toronto's leading scorer. Jerryd Bayless injured his ankle in the first quarter and played through it as long as he could until he injured it again in the third quarter and had to be helped from the floor.
True, there was no Dirk Nowitzki, but this same Dallas team won on the road without Nowitzki a night earlier against Oklahoma City so I'm not buying the "no Dirk" reasoning. Give Jay Triano some credit, although he refused to accept it after the game, for double-teaming Jason Terry in the fourth quarter because "the Jet" normally doesn't see double teams in crunch time because of Nowitzki's presence on the floor. It sure helped the Raptors that the former MVP wasn't in the line up but Toronto still deserves full marks for the win.
As far as character wins go, and you can check with my man Doug Smith, the Star reporter who has been around the squad from "jump" as well, because he was going to look back through the years in his little black book, but trust me, this "W" is right up there and may even be at the top of the surprise win list.
I'm not going to use the book but instead will just go off the top of my head and recall those few wins that come to mind in the 'No Chance They Can Win' category. There's the win over Jordan's 72-10 title squad on a Sunday afternoon at the Skydome in the franchise's first season in front of 30,000 plus spectators.
There was a win over the defending Western Conference champion Seattle SuperSonics the next year at the Skydome on TNT's Game of the Week when Damon Stoudamire notched the franchise first triple-double.
The other unlikely win came on the road against Michael Jordan's Washington Wizards with eight guys in uniform including three players on 10-day contracts. That may have been tops on the "grit list" until last night. And yes, the win against Dallas is now on the list, and may rank in these eyes as the grittiest.
No, its not like the stretch of unexpected wins that vaulted the Raptors into the playoffs at the end of the 2001-02 season where they won nine straight and 12 of the last 14 to get into the playoffs but enough with the history lesson, the team needs to take a bow for the win in Dallas.
So I see where LeBron James has retracted his comments on contraction claiming that he had no idea what the word meant. In the words of the crew on Monday Night Football, "C'mon Man!" I think it's more a case of LeBron realizing that he may be hurting the union's bargaining position.
Birds fly, fish swim and wherever you find professional athletes with money, you'll find groupies. Yep, this is what it has come to now, "professional groupies" mapping out their strategy as they try to get their hooks into a pro athlete.
