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It wasn't pretty and it wasn't easy, but the Raptors gutted out a two-point win over the Knicks last night to increase their win streak to four games. This team isn't typically going to win games where they give up more than 100 points, turn the ball over more than 20 times and shoot worse that 75 percent from the free throw line — but they made up for it by out-rebounding the Knicks 52-41 and shooting just under 50 percent from the field.
As expected, Chris Bosh and David Lee both put up monster boxscore lines (27/15 for Bosh and 29/18 for Lee) but the real star of this game was Hedo Turkoglu. He put up season-highs in both points (26) and rebounds (11) while showing an aggressiveness Raptors fans have been waiting for all season. Maybe he was pissed off because somebody messed up the toppings on his pre-game pizza, but he was uncharacteristically feisty last night — both during the game and in his surreal post-game interview.
This is the part where I'm supposed to say I was wrong about Turkoglu and that it was a great signing after all. While it's encouraging to see that he still has it in him to play like this, let's all agree to wait and see if he can bring it like this in the post-season. When it comes right down to it, we don't need Turkoglu to play this well every night to win — except, of course, when Bargnani goes 1-for-9 for two points and three rebounds like he did last night.
This, by the way, is why I'm still not ready to hang off Bargnani's nutsack like so many other Raptors fans and why it infuriates me when people try to claim that he's even close to matching Bosh's consistent excellence. I'll give him credit when he plays well, but he fucking sucked last night and it took a rare superstar performance from Turkoglu to make up for it. (Yes, I know Bargnani played with a hurt foot. If he wasn't up to playing at an NBA level because of it, he showed have sat this one out.)
As well as winning the battle of the boards last night, the Raptors also came out ahead in the battle of the benches. Toronto's bench went 15-for-23 for 36 points, while New York's bench went 10-for-34 for 34 points (12 of those points came from free throws). Guys like Al Harrington and Nate Robinson are absolute team-killers and Raptors fans should be grateful that they don't have to root for me-first chuckers like them.
I'll leave you with a couple of interesting statistical tidbits about this game. It was the first time this season that an NBA team's two starting forwards each recorded at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in the same game. The last pair of starting forwards to do that was Toronto's Bosh and Shawn Marion on April 13 at Washington when Bosh and Marion each had 25 points and 15 rebounds. The other thing I'd like to point is out is that this was the fourth game in a row that the Raptors fell behind by double figures before coming back to win. They trailed by 15 points against the Bucks last Friday, by 10 points against the Lakers on Sunday, by 13 points against the Heat on Wednesday and by 16 points last night. I wonder what the NBA record for that is? 
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