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WASHINGTON — The Toronto Raptors hope to rebound tonight from last night's 108-104 overtime loss as they complete a home-and-home set against the Washington Wizards.
Oops, there's that word again. Rebound.
It's not something they do awfully well.
But if they hope to rebound from last night's loss, it will help if they do it better than they did last night.
Carlos Delfino lays up a shot as Washington Wizards' Andray Blatche defends. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
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- Toronto Raptors
- Washington Wizards
- Andray Blatche
- Chris Bosh
- Caron Butler
- Antonio Daniels
- Antawn Jamison
It wasn't a particularly good effort by the Raptors overall, but Anthony Parker's three-pointer at the buzzer created a 95-95 tie and forced the overtime after the Raptors had trailed by 12 points in the fourth quarter. Parker had eight points for the game.
"I just couldn't get it going," he said. "If I hit a couple of shots we're not in that position," he said.
The key to last night's game, played before an announced crowd of 12,905 at the Verizon Center, was that the undermanned Wizards had a 19-12 advantage in offensive rebounds for the entire game and a 4-0 advantage in the overtime.
It is a far too familiar story for the Raptors.
Overall they were outrebounded 9-2 in the overtime and 57-44 in the game.
"We've got to find a way to box out and win the ball," head coach Sam Mitchell said. "Hey, we're not doing it. We let people come over backs. I don't know if they're fouls or not but if the official doesn't call it, it's not a foul."
The Wizards deserve some credit. They are 21-14 since their star point guard, Gilbert Arenas, last played on Nov. 16. He is out with a knee injury that required surgery.
Last night they were without forward Caron Butler, who suffered a hip flexor strain in Sunday's overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and is not expected to play again tonight when the teams meet at the Air Canada Centre.
The Raptors were led by Chris Bosh's 37 points — 21 in the first half as his team built a four-point lead — and 12 rebounds. They had 23 points and 13 assists from point guard Jose Calderon. They had 16 points and four rebounds from Kris Humphries. They didn't have much else.
Meanwhile, Butler's replacement, Andray Blatche, was superb despite playing late in the game with five fouls. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds and scored nine of those points when the Wizards began the second half with a 14-0 run.
Antawn Jamison, who forms a formidable forward tandem with Butler, scored 24 points with 20 rebounds and DeShawn Stevenson scored 20 points for the Wizards.
After it was done, the Raptors were left to mutter about rebounding.
"We're not going to be a good basketball team until we can box out," Mitchell said. "We've been playing good defence but if we're not going to get the ball it's going to be tough. … Any time a team gets 14 or 15 more possessions than you do it's hard to win. You've got to shoot a very high percentage."
"Get the ball," Bosh said. "That's the only solution to defensive and offensive rebounding, you've just got to get the ball. We have to do a better job of putting the body on guys obviously. I think we have to have more confidence in our rebounding. If we do that, this game is probably a lot different."
"Nothing has changed," Parker said. "Rebounding is going to continue to haunt us until we get better at it. It is something we need to continue to get better at. Games like this can come back and bite us."
When Butler comes back, he will be working on a string of 70 consecutive free throws. Calvin Murphy has the NBA record of 78 consecutive free throws, set in the 1980-81 season. Over two seasons, Michael Williams holds the record of 97, including the end of the 1992-93 campaign and the beginning of the 1993-94 season.
Butler has been averaging career highs in points (21.9), assists (4.3) and steals (2.4) a game. With Jamison he forms the NBA's highest scoring forward tandem at 43.2 points a game.
Marcelo Gallardo, the attacking midfielder from Argentina, was at the game and was shown on the scoreboard TV. Earlier in the day he was introduced as the new designated player signed by D.C. United of Major League Soccer.
