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Raptors head coach Jay Triano joked before yesterday's game he wasn't going to look left or right, preferring to focus on the five guys on the floor. His bench, decimated by injuries, including to Jermaine O'Neal who missed his second game in a row, was just hard to look at.
The Raps also were without Jose Calderon (right hamstring) and newly injured Kris Humphries. Humphries bruised his right shin Sunday forcing the Raptors to dress rookie Nathan Jawai.
GETTING CLOSER
It was little more than an hour before game time and Jawai was down the corridor from the team locker room talking on his cell phone.
Triano yelled down: "Hey, there's no one up at this hour in Australia," said Triano, guessing his big Aussie rookie was calling home to inform the folks and friends he was about to dress for an NBA game for the first time in his young career.
"It's my lady," Jawai said, unable to stop smiling.
His girlfriend lives in Denver and the late notice meant there was no way she was going to get to Atlanta in time.
Chances of Jawai playing were slim anyway and got slimmer when the game went down to the wire. Jawai never did take off his warmups, but it got him a step closer to a game, and where Jawai is concerned steps are everything.
Having been selected by the Raptors 41st overall in last year's draft, Jawai didn't get past the pre-training camp physical before encountering his first hurdle.
A heart ailment, the nature of which has been kept quiet, required further tests before he could step on a court. Two and a half months later, Jawai was finally cleared for physical activity. For the past month he has been a demon in the gym and on the practice court, working his way back into playing shape. His opportunity to dress yesterday was more about a lack of bodies than his actual readiness to return.
