Toronto Raptors vs LA Clippers Feb.08/08

The Toronto Raptors' game Friday had all the makings of an entertaining affair _ the Raptors were playing their 1,000th regular-season game in franchise history, T.J. Ford was making his triumphant return to the Air Canada Centre, and the Raptors were facing a seemingly weaker opponent in the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers thought otherwise. Corey Maggette scored 35 points to lead Los Angeles to a 102-98 win over Toronto, spoiling the Raptors' celebration of their milestone game, plus Ford's first game back at the ACC after missing eight weeks. "They just beat us," said Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. "They just beat us, they deserved to win and we did not deserve to win. We are not good enough to just look at team's records and show up and play." Chris Bosh had 29 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out with 17 seconds left to top Toronto (26-22), while Jamario Moon finished with 16 points, and Andrea Bargnani and Carlos Delfino had 14 apiece. Jose Calderon had 11 points and 14 assists. Ford, who was welcomed back with a standing ovation from the ACC crowd when he entered the game to start the second quarter, finished with two points and six assists in 13 minutes. "It definitely felt good," Ford said of the warm welcome. "I was just excited to be able to play in front of our fans, it definitely made me feel good inside to know I'm appreciated, and I just wanted to come out and give them as much excitement as I could and show them I'm back to myself." The popular point guard played Monday in Miami in his first appearance after missing 24 games with a neck injury suffered in a frightening crash than left him questioning his future in the game. The return of Ford, though, was the lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal game. "We just didn't play good defence today, plain and simple," said Bosh. "We can't win many games not playing good defence so we have to take this as a learning experience. Defence wins a lot of games, and I think if we had played just a little better, it really would have helped us out." The matchup seemed a winnable one for the well-rested Raptors, who were coming off a 114-82 romp over the Heat in Miami on Monday, and were facing a struggling Clippers squad that's floundering in fourth last in the Western Conference. The Clippers (16-31) were also missing starting guard Sam Cassell, who was serving a one-game suspension for a flagrant foul against Boston's Rajon Rondo, and played all but the first quarter without forward Tim Thomas, who left the game before the start of the second with a sore lower back. The Raptors led by as many as 12 points in the third quarter and looked headed for victory. But the Clippers rallied late in the quarter and took a 78-77 lead into the fourth. The Clippers sunk their teeth in, holding the Raptors scoreless for more than four minutes to start the fourth, and led 87-77 before Bosh finally connected on a pair of free throws with 7:43 left. Bosh converted a three-point play with 49 seconds left to cut the Clippers' lead to 98-96, but a miss by Calderon and then Parker sealed the victory for Los Angeles. "We didn't do the things we have been doing, we didn't move the baksetball as well as we have been and we doidn't guard," Mitchell said. To make matters worse for Toronto, the Clippers practically gift-wrapped the game for the Raptors, coughing up 29 points on 21 turnovers. "It was a good game for us, our guys played really hard," said Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy. "We turned the ball over a lot, but I think in the second half we did a much better job defensively. We got a big lift from our rookie Al Thornton." Thornton and Cuttino Mobley finished with 19 points each, Thornton scoring nine points in the fourth quarter and beating Bosh a couple of times on drives to the basket.