A large Canadian low

Which, as Al Sleet, your hippy-dippy weatherman, will note, is not to be confused with a Mexican high.

We're still Peja-less and West-deprived, and tonight Byron Scott tapped Rasual Butler to fill in for the Mad Serb. No doubt Scott pointed out that the Raptors were only one game out of first place, carefully not mentioning that first place in the Atlantic before tonight required only a 5-8 record.

Didn't matter. Toronto played it close when they had to, and then opened it up when they didn't. The ever-unpopular Third-Quarter Drought™ turned a four-point halftime deficit into a thirteen-point hole in a mere twelve minutes, and things actually deteriorated after that. Final: Raptors 94, Hornets 77.

Andrea Bargnani, the Raptors' hotly-hyped rookie, justified the hype. Okay, he did pull four fouls, but he scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

On the upside, Marcus Vinicius took his first shot — a trey — and sank it. Not much of an upside, but we'll take what we can get. Tyson Chandler is earning his keep as a rebounder: he got 17 boards. And Chris Paul did manage a double-double (16 points, 11 assists). But 40-percent shooting wins no games against a fast-break team like Toronto. "A regular industrial-strength tail-kicking," said the ever-polite Russ Eisenstein.

No game until Saturday Friday, when the Bulls come to town, but a scary road trip starts next Wednesday, and it's followed by a scary homestand.

Posted at 9:17 PM to Net Proceeds