Toronto at Orlando 7pm ET

The good news for the Raptors is they are down in Florida and far away from the snow and the fans. The bad news, they are playing terrible and they have to face Dwight Howard tonight without Cb4. If Charlotte could kill them on the glass and outscore them 32-0 in second chance points, what is D12 going to do? 30 boards? 40? It could be scary.

Bosh is going to miss the next few games because of the knee and that does not help out a club that is cleary missing him and struggling to do anything right. The last time the Raps and Magic played it was Bosh that was unstoppable with 40 points. Where will that come from tonight?

Jose Calderon maybe? He burned the Magic in the last meeting as well, scoring 19 points and handing out 13 assists. Calderon has struggled with his scoring since that game and is only averaging 8.5 points, but he has reached double digits in assists in his last two.

With Bosh out, Anthony Parker has taken on more of a scoring role. Parker, who averages 12.0 points, has scored 24.5 per game in his last two. I hope he can keep it up because the Raps need the scoring. I have always felt AP holds back for the good of the team but he has the skills to score a lot more. Run wild AP, run wild.

For the Raptors to steal a win tonight the likes of Ford, Kapon0, Bargnani and Delfino need to add something significant. I am not asking for All-Star numbers but at least their averages.

The Raptors have to get back to taking care of the ball. That will help out a lot if they can avoid stupid turnovers and not give up points when they do have breakdowns.

But in the end it is going to come down to the same issue. Rebounding. Who is going to go get them? Moon just jumps over people and does not box out, Bargnani hopes the ball comes to him and Humphries is so far removed from his great December I don’t even know if he will play.

I think Sam needs to tell Rasho and Primoz to use all six fouls tonight against Howard. Keep one of those two on him at all times and hope they can at least be a speed bump that slows him down a little.

Maybe the Magic’s threes won’t drop? Maybe they will play a stinker like the Raps have the last two? Maybe Joey Graham scores 45 points? Okay that one was a real stretch.

The Magic have a 3 1/2 game lead over Cleveland for the third spot in the Eastern Conference, and just began a stretch in which they’ll play nine of 11 games at home.

I don’t see how the Raps can win this one tonight and normally I would be able to accept a loss. The Magic are higher than them in the standings and the Raps are without their best player. But the Raps need to steal some games they are not supposed to win to make up for the ones they keep giving away.

This is a bad time of year to go in the tank and start losing strings of games. At least they got Miami tomorrow but these days that may not even be a good thing.

Orlando will take this one, 103-90. Booooooo.

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