Chris Bosh’s ankle is healed. Unfortunately, his stomach isn’t. Raptors fans had to sit through their seventh straight contest without their all-star and leader who was taken to hospital for further evaluation on his abnormal stomach pains.

Luckily for Raptors fans, the result was positive, a 102-96 win over the lowly New York Knicks -ending the recent Raptors slide. The Raps were lead by high-flyer Sonny Weems who poured in 20 points while pulling down 9 boards which earned him critical fourth quarter minutes. In a losing cause, the Knicks were led by David Lee who put up 23 while grabbing an astounding 18 rebounds.

The Raptors next play on Sunday afternoon when the Philadelphia 76ers come to the Air Canada Center. This contest will stand as another must win for the Raptors with or without Bosh as it is the last contest before a 4 game west-coast swing.

Raptors Player of the Game

Sonny Weems – 20 points, 9 rebounds

Fans Perspective

The win allows us to hold onto 5th for one more day.  If Bosh isn’t back for the west coast trip, I don’t think that position will still be possible.  Go Raps Go!

Side Note: I am currently out of town in Los Angeles and am limited to post my blogs on a public computer.  Unfortunately, these computers struggle with the posting of pictures so my entries will be pictureless until March 25th.

Fresh off a three day lay-off the Toronto Raptors will be back in action on Friday night when the New York Knicks come to Air Canada Centre. This will be the third of four meetings between the two clubs this season, the first to be held on Toronto’s home court.

The Raptors were victorious in both of their previous encounters, but the Raptors were also healthy.  Their is no guarantees on the availability of any Raptors just yet, but at the very least Chris Bosh is expected to be back and available -which is undoubtedly the greatest possible re-enforcement.

Their are some question marks in regards to the availability of: Hedo Turkoglu, Jose Calderon, and Andrea Bargnani -who missed practice on Wednesday due to illness.

This game is undoubtedly a must-win for the Raptors, especially if they hope to hold onto the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference.

Tip-off is at 7PM EST. Be sure to check back on Raptors Rapture for post-game analysis.

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No Bosh, no Calderon, and Turkoglu left early. Monday night marked the end of a disgusting 2-game road trip for the Toronto Raptors in which they were outscored collectively 235-191, including tonight’s ugly 116-92 loss to the Houston Rockets.

It’s times like this that it becomes terribly difficult to remain a loyal and true Raptors fan, but luckily the Raptors do have two positives to take from this experience: (1) they now have 3 days off, hopefully more than enough time to finally heal Bosh and hopefully Calderon, (2) all the teams below them are playing just as poorly.  Despite losing the Raptors managed to not lose any ground on either the Bobcats or Bulls who were also both in action and managed to lose, both on their home courts.

In this contest, the Rockets were led by both Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin, who poured in 28 a piece, against the zombielike Raptors defense.  The Raps were lead by Marcus Banks, who filled in for Jose relatively well scoring 15 in 24 minutes of action off the bench.

The Raptors next play on Friday, when the New York Knicks come to the ACC.  Whether Bosh, Calderon, or Turkoglu are in the line-up or not this game stands as an absolute must win for the Raptors, who have managed to make all their fans quite uneasy as of late.

Raptors Player of the Game

Marcus Banks – 15 points, 4 assists

Fans Perspective

Please for the love of God, Chris Bosh come back!

The Toronto Raptors are right back in action tonight when they take on the Houston Rockets, hoping to snap a three-game slide that has left the Raptors just a half-game up on the 6th place Chicago Bulls.  As expected Chris Bosh will not be in the line-up for the Raptors, with a Friday return versus the New York Knicks currently being slated as the target return date.

Without Bosh thus far, the Raptors have been 2-3 with the majority of their limited production coming from the likes of Andrea Bargnani and Jarrett Jack.  Tonight however, they take on a Rockets team that is fighting to stay in the race for the 8th seed in the Western Conference, currently 4 games back with their 29-29 record.

In their one prior meeting this season, the Raptors put on quite a show for their home fans winning 101-88, a win that at the time began to show some much longed for consistency from this Raptors squad.  Raps fans might also remember that contest as the game that featured the controversial elbow swing of frustration directed at DeMar DeRozan by Rockets forward Trevor Ariza.

Hopefully, the Raptors can scrap together a win tonight before their main re-enforcement hopefully returns for two winnable home games.  Tip-Off is at 8:30 PM EST. Be sure to check back on Raptors Rapture for post-game analysis.

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