Hey Raptors Fans!

I know this is late but better late than never!

Jevon and I went to the Raptors Red Party Remix back in late January, or as I would like to call it: my last encounter with Ed Davis as a Raptor.

The Ballroom Bowl had two floors of fun. The main floor had bowling lanes and pool tables. The upper level had a photo section, a ping pong table, the main stage and the big bar.

Matt Devlin came out with the welcoming address and the introduction of the players. After that, the boys went to each of their little sections that they were placed to entertain. Ed Davis was at the ping pong tables. Terrence Ross was at the pool tables. Amir Johnson, John Lucas III and Landry Fields were at the bowling lanes.

My personal highlight of the night was playing Ed Davis at ping pong. Honestly, I’m not that great at ping pong but I tried my best anyway! A clip of it will be in the video below! Many Raptors tweeters were out and about that night and it was great to see all of their faces:
@sarimb
@RyanJHTurvey + his lovely wife
@MegiMK
@_Up_N_Adam
@meggyc4
@magenta_3
@Liston
…and more!

Yes, the video includes a little bit about how we will be at the Raptors vs. Grizzlies game (which is already up in the blog) but our message is still valid! When we are at Raptors games we will be going around talking to the fans so if you are there and so are we, come and talk with us! We’d love to have more Raptors fans in our videos so come and be a part of the DNB Fan Zone!


We have a new You-Tube Channel to so subscribe there for all the latest videos from the DNB. We have big plans for adding lots more video stuff for the DNB so stay tuned.

It is always a pleasure for us to talk with Jack Armstrong. Today's conversation with Jack illustrates all the reasons we love having him on as a guest. We get the passion that Jack has for the game of basketball and the frank honesty that we have come to expect. We have lengthy chats about the addition of Rudy Gay to the Raptors. Talk of how things have gone wrong with Andrea Bargnani and his fractured relationship with the fanbase. Also talk of many of parts of this Raptors roster. It was a wonderful conversation that I have no doubt people will enjoy it. This really is one of my favorite interviews we have done with Jack and I am positive you will feel the same after listening. It is an in depth look at where the Raptors are at and where they are heading that I think you will enjoy.

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It is always a great thrill to talk with Jack and it is a pleasure to have him as a guest with us here in the Dino Nation Blog. It will be an interesting stretch to this Raptors season and at the end of the day, the Raptors are in the position where most people thought they would be. It has been a strange and whacky ride to get there. However it plays out, we will have Jack Armstrong back to discuss it and we are grateful for that. Raptors take on the Cavs tonight looking to bounce back from a terrible effort vs the Wizards.

We will be holding a party with the folks at St.Louis Wings on April 6th for the Raptors game vs the Bucks which could mean a lot if the Raptors are going to be in the playoff race. If not it will be our year end party. either way we would like to see you come out to 595 Bay St and join us for some fun.

This episode of the Starting 5 has literally been something we have been trying to do off and on for about two years. Sam Halako is one of the fine folks from over on Raptors Republic who I enjoy talking with and consider one of my friends in the blogging world. We have a lot of mutual respect for each other and actually over the years have shared a lot of the same opinions on the Toronto Raptors. Finally we were able to get are schedules to work to hook up to do a podcast together. We talk about a lot of general topics in the 20 minutes or so we chat. First and foremost the impact of Rudy Gay on the Raptors. Other subjects include the future of Bryan Colangelo, what to make of the current state of affairs with Andrea Bargnani and if the Raptors are indeed playoff contenders or pretenders at this point.

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If you didn't know already you can follow Sam on Twitter @Rapsfan and catch his work in the Raptors Republic as he does the Morning Coffee pieces with all of the Raptor news from around the net including on occasion from here in the Dino Nation Blog. He has been part of Raptors Republic I believe from almost the start and does great things for them. In addition, he has always been so kind to praise me for my hard work and dedication. The truth is all of us in the blogging community work very hard and I don't think any of us are getting rich from it. At the core we love what we do. It is thanks to all the great people that read our sites that make this something worthwhile to do at the end of the day. I look forward to doing this again and bringing the Madness and the Mania of the Raptors blogging world together again.

If you are unable to listen or download this here then head over to our podcast home and listen or download it there on Itunes or other formats.Tomorrow another edition of The Starting 5 with.....Jack Armstrong.

We stressed how important it was for the Raptors to win the games they are suppose to win if they are to truly become part of the playoff race. It didn’t happen last night at the ACC. It started with a first quarter in which despite being close made you want to find the remote and see what else was on. It was 17-16 Wizards at the end of the first.

The Wizards would pull away a bit during the second quarter as the Raptors offense was still in a deep freeze after shooting just 33.3% in the first it was not much better in the second. Rudy Gay had been made to disappear by the Wizards. So much so that Andrea Bargnani who had been scoreless in the last two games had more points than him on the night.

Gay would finish with a 1-11 night from the field and just 7 points as Bargnani had just 8 points going 4-11 from the field. Aside from DeMar DeRozan few other Raptors showed up to this rare Monday night affair at the ACC. He had 25 points on the night and Lowry 18 as the only Raptors to reach double digits. Amir Johnson benefited the most from all the Raptor and Wizards misses with 13 rebounds.

The fans had started talking playoffs as the Raptors had climbed their way up to ninth in the east entering the night 4 games back of the idle Milwaukee Bucks who the Raptors will see on the weekend.

It was an uninspired and lacklustre effort on the part of the Raptors losing 90-84 to the Wizards. They did come alive in the second half to score 52 points. They lacked the lockdown defense to go with it as the Wizards would score 50 themselves in the second half.

For long-time Raptor fans they come to expect as typical, just when you start to give the team some credit they come up with a performance like this. Raptors will need to figure it out as they travel to Cleveland for a game tomorrow with the Cavs who are cellar dwellers like the Wizards.

A couple episodes of the Starting 5 coming up for your listening enjoyment in the next 24 hours. Jack Armstrong will be one of the guests and the second will be on of my fellow members of the blogging community as Bryan Colangelo likes to call us.

So another week in the books and what a week it was. We had Matt Devlin get a feud with a Rapper. Andrea Bargnani face the music of boos at the ACC. Raptors win 2 out of 3 this week a long the way and than news today someone on the roster is going be a dad. Far from your typical week in Raptorland for sure so let's get too it. Myself and Josh Lewenberg for your listening pleasure.

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Josh referenced his contribution to an article on TSN.CA here is a link to that if you care to check it out. Also, as I mentioned Jack Armstrong will be joining us in The Starting 5 and another video from Jerrica and Jevon looking back on the Raptors Red Party will be out this week.

As always if you have trouble listening or downloading here you can head over to our podcast host and do so there. Raptors in action Monday night vs the Wizards.

I have been saying for a long time that the Dino Nation Blog was going to get more into audio and video. The process to that has been slow but it is finally starting to take shape. We have been doing This Week In Raptorland our weekly Podcast with myself and Josh Lewenberg. Which I hope people are enjoying I know we are in doing it for you.

Now this is another step in that road to a more multi-media DNB. Raptors took on the Grizzlies at the ACC on Wednesday and Ed Davis #1 fan Jerrica was not going to miss that one. To keep her mind off the fact Ed was in another team's jersey we sent her out to talk to some of you at the game and get your thoughts on the Raptors. She is joined by her camera man Jevon as they found some folks to talk with. So have a look.

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That was pretty good job from our DNB crew. They also were wondering around the Raptors Red Party and will have that video for you next week likely on Tuesday. This is just the start of hopefully a lot more video stuff we will be doing going forward. You may even see my ugly mug. We also will try and do some stuff with Candice too. We has some plans in the works and we hope to get a lot of them started this season and build on them for next year. So be on the lookout for us at Games and Raptors events and come be a part of the shows. I am very excited to get this stuff finally going. I hope it is just the start of exciting new things for the DNB.

I want to start this recap by giving some credit to Paul Jones who I spoke with via twitter in the afternoon. He said this would be a close game and he was right. I thought we would see a hungry and determined Knicks team. We did see that but it took till about the mid-point of the third quarter for that to happen.

What I did have right is that the Raptor fan base would make their thoughts perfectly clear on how they feel about Andrea Bargnani still being a Raptor. Boy did they ever booing him at every single opportunity he gave them to do so. Even in some where he really didn’t. This is not going away, so for those of you that choose to not accept this fact be my guest. That said, tonight was probably the worst it will be. Assuming he is not back to start next season. If he is that might be worse…in fact much worse.

I will not deny it does nothing to help the situation with Bargnani and any hope of his improvement. That said, this is freedom of speech and the paying customer making a comment on the product they are being presented. Maybe it is because of my love of wrestling that I understand this more than many of my respected media colleagues I am not sure. Still, some media and fans like the WWE does with John Cena refuse to accept that a majority of the audience does not accept him. That is the simple reality.

Where the comparison stops is Cena also has a loyal fan base that cheer him and try with all their mite to be louder than his detractors. Even the supporters of Bargnani are not foolish enough to try and lose their voice or waste it. Bargnani’s reaction to this has been to produce next to nothing. He scores 0 points with 0 rebounds in just 12 minutes on the floor. It proves a point for both sides. For the people that boo him they see it as see this is why we boo this bum. The people that support him see the bad people booing him as part of the problem. Which they are in fact right, Andrea Bargnani has had 6 years to win these people over and he has failed miserably. The fact some people feel sorry for him based on all of this is silly to me. This is the same guy that makes 10 million a season and said this team at start of the year was the worst in the league. Funny, how they are not anymore, with little influence from him on the club and its fate. Maybe that is part of why they are booing him too. The other reason is they can’t really boo who ultimately is responsible beyond Bargnani and that is Bryan Colangelo.

However, B.C might be saving his job and his reputation with fans by his move to acquire Rudy Gay. This guy is a lot of things Andrea Bargnani is not. At the top of that list is a leader. He fully accepts and embraces that role. Another one he embraces is being the man down the stretch of games.

The Raptors led this game for most of the night until the third quarter where a 13 point lead was established and would eventually vanish into thin air. If this was a game in November before Gay came on the scene there would be a collective sigh and here we go again. This is not the case anymore. The Raptors still had fight in them and would not just let this thing slip away. That effort was led and inspired by Rudy Gay.

This is what a leader does. Fans have been sold a bill of goods for years about Bosh being a leader and than Jose Calderon...Andrea Bargnani and even DeMar DeRozan. None of them were and Rudy Gay is.

Kyle Lowry feeds off this too and his hero act works far more effectively with Gay along for the ride. Lowry would make a big bucket down the stretch as a switch from Gay making the majority. Another guy feeding of this is DeMar DeRozan who has benefited far more from Gay’s presence than Andrea Bargnani’s spacing.

Oh and all those fans that were so mean booing the hard done by Andrea Bargnani, know how to cheer too and did so down the stretch of this game. I saw many comments on Twitter about the great passion from the fans in the forth. Passion is a two way street. That same passion is in boos sent in the direction of Bargnani. So please try not to be too much of hypocrite if you praise the fans for being so good for the forth quarter and so bad for booing Bargnani. You want passion that is the price you pay for it.

The Raptors would pull it out in the late stages powered by in a sense Andrea Bargnani and Vince Carter’s replacement Rudy Gay with 32 points going 11-23 from the field. DeRozan had 18 and Lowry 15 in support. Jonas Valanciunas had just 3 points but hustled to get 10 rebounds. This is part of the problem with Andrea Bargnani if he doesn’t score he basically does nothing else to help his team win. He is essentially a dead man walking on the floor.

In the end it was a spirited night at the ACC and the good guys won the game 100-98 and have earned at least a season series split ironically enough with the Atlantic Division leading and second in the Eastern Conference New York Knicks.

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