Raptors Devour Bobcats 98-79

Carlos Delfino and Kris Humphries, each scored 17, Joey Graham scored 13 and Jose Calderon added a dozen as the Toronto Raptors just put a beating on the Charlotte Bobcats Monday night 98-79. The game was Charlotte’s sixth straight loss and the Raptors fourth win in a row at home. Toronto accomplished the feat despite their three top scorers, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, and T.J. Ford were all sidelined with injuries.

The Raptors took control of this game in the first quarter and just kept stepping on the accelerator. They had the Bobcats down 27-16 after the first quarter, and 54-33 at the half. Charlotte was able to cut the lead to 17 points, by the end of the third quarter, but it was too little too late. Charlotte started off the season surprisingly well, securing some early upsets. It seemed like that with a nice nucleus of players, and the addition of Jason Richardson, that they had a successful game plan in place. Sam Vincent their new coach was new to the coaching ranks, a former NBA player who was a draft pick of the Boston Celtics. Vincent’s role was always as a bench player, and eventually his career took him to Chicago where he became a teammate and eventual friend of Bobcats part owner Michael Jordan. But after the promising start, it has not been a good few weeks for Charlotte.

Monday night a lot of the problem stemmed from starting point guard Raymond Felton. Felton shows potential, but is inconsistent, at best. He was so ineffective that he played just 20 minutes with 0 points, going 0-8 from the floor, with just 3 assists, and 2 rebounds. If you are a NBA point guard who is having problems scoring you better have double digits in assists, Felton failed miserably. Veteran Jeff McInnis took over at the point, and was quietly effective, in about 30 minutes was 2-5 from the field, 4-4 from the line for 8 points, 5 assists, 1 rebound.

The Bobcats shot a tepid 33.3% from the floor yet still had five players in double figures! Gerald Wallace led the way with 19, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, Jared Dudley 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals. Richardson, and Matt Carroll each had 12 points, while Emeka Okafor scored 10 for the Bobcats. Calderon had a game high 9 assists, for Toronto, and Rasho Nesterovic had a game high 12 rebounds. The Raptors also had two other scorers in double figures as Anthony Parker scored 11 points, and Jason Kapono scored 10. Toronto improves to a 10-8 record, while the Bobcats are now 6-10.