Any match-up between the Raps and the Blazers is ripe with fresh storylines like Damon Stoudamire against the team with whom he made his name OR the bungled draft of 2001 when the Raps took Michael Bradley (0 ppg) two spots before the Blazers picked up Zach Randolph (20 ppg) OR the battle of the cousins between Lamond and Tracy Murray to determine who is the second-best Murray in the NBA or the whole Antonio Davis/Dale Davis thing OR whether or not Vladimir Stepania is the most awkward looking player ever OR even the grand return to Portland of Rick Brunson (DNP-CD, by the way) who was a Blazer on two separate occasions. Unfortunately, the only storyline worth noting is the offensive woes of the Raptors.

After 6 games have our expectations sunk this low? This "great" night of shooting came against the team with the worst field goal percentage defense in the league. Opponents of the Blazers had been averaging almost 49% shooting. By Blazers standards this game was a huge defensive triumph! The 80 points surrendered by the Blazers is the least amount scored against them this year. And it's not as if Portland has played a team of note as their six opponents before Toronto were Utah, Cleveland, Memphis, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Atlanta.

Raptors analyst and ass-suck Leo Rautins has mentioned in just about every broadcast that the Raptors are bound to improve on offense as they get into the groove of the season. By Leo's logic the Raptor defense is bound to get worse as other teams get into their respective offensive grooves. Thus the Raptors will still be in trouble.

To borrow a phrase from Emmitt Smith, Vince Carter was once again the diamond surrounded by trash. Carter's 33 points kept the Raps in it. Michael Curry exploded for 10 points (that's like 50 points for Carter), which was a nice surprise. On the other side of things Jerome Williams, Alvin Williams, and Lamond Murray combined to shoot 0 for 12 with a single point. Apparently all three were preparing their auditions for the remake of "The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight" before they got to Los Angeles today.

• With 8:09 left in the 3rd quarter Michael Curry took his first foul shot of the season.
  
• The Rick Brunson .com team will donate money to the Rick Brunson .com Purple Ribbon Campaign for Left Quadriceps Contusion Awareness for each DNP-CD recorded by Rick Brunson this year.
  
• I couldn't help but notice just how passively this Portland team plays. It's like they all smoked pot or something before the game.