Utah Jazz and Millsap Rip Raps

Wake me up when this string of games are over. The Raps stunk up another one but in fairness to the Raps, Triano was trying to implement new offensive/defensive schemes with one day's practice. Just when you thought they would come out and compete, the Raps showed off their weaknesses again losing 114-87. Paul Millsap did a fine job filling in for Boozer with a monster double double with 17 pts, 11 reb, 7 assists.

J.O. had foul trouble with three fouls in the first quarter and the Jazz were able to roll over the Raps in the getting 33 points in the first. The Raps offensive game was pretty bad going 7 for 20 in the field. By the end they shot 36 for 82 (43% from the field)



Joey Graham had another good game scoring 13pts and 5 boards. He also a sick jam on Mehmet Okur. CB had a double double with 18&11.

Jack Armstrong hit my point last night talking about the Raps having to limit teams to under 100 points. The Raptors are 1-8 when teams score over 100 against them. But the D was still terrible allowing 64 points to Utah at halftime. The Raps are giving up an average of 119 ppg on this road trip.

If you watch the highlights of last night's Jazz-Raps game, all the plays that you'll see are defensive breakdowns and the Utah Jazz scoring easy layups. Utah had a whopping 66 points in the paint to the Raps 44 and the rebounds were in Utah's favor (55 to Toronto's 38). The Raptors have to close the lane more and stop these easy baskets. Also, Jay Triano is trying to have the Raps run more but this led Toronto's 23 turnovers. These turnovers lead to even more easy baskets. Raps have a lot to improve on defense and have to handle the ball better in order to compete with these Western Conference teams. Overall, the Utah Jazz exposed the Raps defensive weaknesses and had no problem taking care of the Raps.

While watching the other NBA highlights at halftime last night, I couldn't stop laughing at Big Baby being a Big Baby, crying on the Celtics bench last night. He is never going to live this one down.

Raps take on the Blazers on Sunday. Another tough matchup with Brandon Roy and Bosh/J.O. matching up with Greg Oden/Lamarcus Aldridge.

Photo Credit: (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)