Toronto 88 Charlotte 94

Miscues at the waning seconds of the ballgame prevented the Raptors to end their losing streak as the Bobcats beat the Raptors 94-88.

Mike James led all scorers with 32 pts . Noteworthy was Loren Woods who garnered 10 points and had 5 block shots in 22 minutes of play.

The last few games of the season usually give a chance for benchwarmers like Woods to showcase their talents. In college , Woods was a star like fellow Arizona Wildcats alumni Richard Jefferson of the Nets , Gilbert Arenas of the Wizards and Lakers' Luke Walton. How he became a benchwarmer we don't know. He even held the record for block shots (4) in the NCAA finals game before Joaquim Noah broke it with his super performance in the last championship against UCLA.

Mike James , interviewd after the game, acknowledged
that Woods' strong presence at the center helped the team.

Woods does not belong to the bench. He can perform given the chance . Besides , the bench now is not really a bench . It's not even made of wood. Woods belongs to the hardcourt floor. Until the NBA switches to synthetic or rubber floor.

Vince's Line

New Jersey refused to lose 2 games in row by beating Milwaukee , 95-83 . Vince scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds . The Nets will likely meet the Bucks in the first round of the playoff.

Raptors Nom De Guerre

Last time , I wrote about the nicknames of some NBA players from other teams and the reasons they are called these. The Raptors got their tags for different reasons . Chris Bosh is called by Chuck Swirsky as CB4 which was a combination of his initials and uniform number. While Morris Peterson is referred to simply as Mo Pete - a shortened version of his names.
The Smooth name is for Charlie Villanueva because of his smooth moves to the basket despite his size. Jack Armstrong was opposed to Chuck's use of this name as he thinks it denotes softness which is not exactly a desired trait for a rising star. Of course , the smooth name did not exactly hinder the careers of ex Lakers Jamaal Wilkes and Sam Perkins who were called smooth before Chuck's use of the term. Smooth does not necessarily mean soft in the same manner that monster means a beast of the hardcourt. The Brazilian Beast, a name coined by Chuck for Rafael Araujo , is not exactly a terror on the boards for Toronto. Unless Chuck was referring to to the lovable Cookie Monster of the Sesame Street fame when he called Hoffa the Brazilian Beast.
Chuck refers to Matt Bonner as the Red Rocket which is only half correct as while red is the color of Matt's hair , rocket like he is not . Maybe the fact that Matt still takes the public transportion is the reason. Toronto's streetcar is nicknamed red rocket . What's next ? Chuck will perhaps call the Spanish baller Jose Calderon as Bandido . After all , Calderon has been missing or deadlike in his performance lately. I agree with Chuck , especially if the speculation regarding the 8 dead bodies found near London proves true.