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TORONTO — His teammates were in the midst of dissecting a disappointing 122-111 loss to the Indiana Pacers at the Air Canada Centre when the details of the dismal showing became secondary.
That's when Chris Bosh returned to the dressing room without any obvious limp and a favourable report on the status of his sore right knee, which caused the club's franchise to pull himself from the game late in the first quarter and head for a magnetic resonance imaging test at Mount Sinai Hospital.
The findings, according to club spokesman Jim LaBumbard, showed no structural damage and just minor swelling.
Bosh put it in more plain language.
The Pacers' Stephen Graham pulls in a rebound against the Raptors' Anthony Parker Friday night in Toronto. The Pacers won 122-111. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
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"It's all right," said the 23-year-old, who leads the team in the scoring and rebounding. "It feels good walking around and stuff, but walking around and playing are two different things.
"But they're optimistic about everything and I hope everything is all right."
Bosh missed 12 games last season because of problems with his left knee and was out for nearly three weeks in training camp, again with problems with his left knee.
Bosh injured his right knee in a collision with the Cleveland Cavaliers' Zydrunas Ilgauskas in his rookie season, but hasn't had any problems in four years since.
He said he first noticed a problem with it after Raptors win in Indianapolis on Monday, but was well enough on Wednesday to play against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He said his knee was bothering him on Thursday, but he thought he'd try it last night.
"It was good during warm-ups, but I guess during the game running back and forth and moving laterally kind of bugged it," said Bosh, who scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in just less than 10 minutes of floor time.
It wouldn't be right to pin the Raptors' loss on Bosh's absence.
The winners of five of their six previous games, the Raptors were trying to extend their modest winning streak to four games before starting a stretch in which they play eight of 10 on the road.
But even though the Raptors beat the 23-36 Pacers on Monday in Indianapolis, they got jumped on early by the visitors as Indiana ran up a 32-22 as Toronto gave up easy dribble penetration for layups or kick-outs for open threes.
Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell tried to adjust by going to perhaps his smallest lineup all season, as he played Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford together in the backcourt and at one point had 6-foot-7 Joey Graham playing centre.
"We were just trying to put people in the game that could keep people in front of us," Mitchell said of his small lineup, which helped Toronto cut the lead to seven at halftime.
"We just got beat at every spot. It's tough when they beat you off the dribble and they come to help they hit a three. Once a guy gets a couple of threes, guys become reluctant to leave their man [to help] and it just breaks down."
The beneficiaries were Pacers forward Mike Dunleavy, who tied his career best with 36 points, including six three-pointers, while Kareem Rush scored 23 points, including four three-pointers.
The Raptors were led by Andrea Bargnani, who scored 27 points on 12-for-25 shooting. Anthony Parker matched his season best with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting.
The Raptors surged in the third quarter as two three-pointers by Bargnani sparked a 15-0 run by Toronto that pulled them to one point behind with four minutes to play in the period, but Dunleavy scored 13 points in the final three minutes of the quarter to push the lead back to 10 and the Raptors were never any closer than six points the rest of the game.
The Raptors will play in Charlotte tomorrow. Bosh expects to be on the trip, but doesn't know whether he'll play. He said only he won't return until his knee is healed, though he was optimistic it won't be long.
"I don't think this is as serious as anything I've seen before," he said.
"So that's one thing that makes me kind of happy."
