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Toronto Suffers a Meltdown Once Again

No body expected the Raptors to make it to the playoffs this season, yet nobody expected them to be this bad either. The Raptors are currently 5-20 after losing yesterday to Philadelphia. The problem again has been maintaining the same level of play throughout the second half. For some inexplicable reason, the Raptors insist on self destructing during the second half. There have been a lot of games this season where the Raptors managed to stay competitive during the first two quarters, while letting the game slip away in the second half.

On second thought, the reason why this has been happening may not be so mysterious as I think. The Raptors have one of most inexperienced starting fives in the league. In their case, the instability is partly caused by the play of inexperienced players. Sam Mitchell feels it?s due to the team?s younger players and their inexperience showing. With Toronto giving significant minutes to rookies and younger players it?s hard for the team to match-up against veteran teams.

The only vet?s in the teams rotation are Jalen Rose and Mike James while Chris Bosh, Morris Peterson, Rafael Araujo, Joey Graham, Matt Bonner and Jose Calderon have a combined 16 years of experience in the NBA. With that in mind, one wonders who long it is before Mitchell throws Joey Graham and Charlie Villanueva into the team?s starting line-up with Jose Calderon, Chris Bosh and Mike James. If the team?s going to struggle this season why not let the young kids play? This would allow them to get most of their growing pains out of the way this season.