Wow, another difficult loss to swallow.

After an incredibly embarrassing loss at home, the Raptors started off their game against the Bobcats with a lot of zeal. Rasho Nesterovic provided a much needed spark with some solid inside post moves, while keeping the rebounds in check. He didn’t do it alone as Andrea Bargnani gave him some additional help blocking out potential rebounders. Bargnani struggled to slow down his pace and get his offensive game going . Going 0-3 from beyond the arc, Bargnani seemed to press the issue all night in order to try and step up in the absence of Chris Bosh

For the second game in a row, the Raptors relied heavily on Anthony Parker to provide on both ends of the floor. Parker managed to become the de facto scoring option in the absence of Bosh by scoring from just about everywhere on the field. In addition, Jason Kapono had a strong shooting percentage for the night, hitting every single shot while he was on the floor. However, with only two Raptors in double digit scoring by the end of the contest it was a minor miracle that the Raptors nearly made 100 points.

There was little need to focus on the offensive side of things, as the Raptors scored above 50% from the field. Superior ball movement and shot selection choices against a bad defensive team like the Bobcats should have allowed the Raptors to carve up Charlotte. However, 17 assists and poor three-point shooting (29%) didn’t aide the Raptors’ cause. Once again, though, they allowed an opposing team with an under .500 record to score easily and without much effort. The Raptors allowed the Bobcats to get a shocking 20 more attempts from the field, so that despite the fact the Raptors shot a high percentage on the floor, they managed to lose by double digits.

How did the Bobcats manage to decimate the Raptors? Turnovers were once again uncharacteristically high and coming from unexpected sources. Jose Calderon has had a bad few games now and turned the ball over four times. In fact, over the past six games, Jose has averaged an assist-to-turnover ratio of about 2.4 per game. For an average point guard, it’s fairly good, but compared to his seasonal average of 5.1, it’s quite shocking. Perhaps the Raptors are expecting too much from Calderon at this stage of the season as he is averaging the second most minutes on the team behind Chris Bosh.

Nevertheless, the most disturbing statistic is that the Raptors once again came up incredibly short on the rebounding front. Questions continue to arise from Sam Mitchell’s substitution patterns especially, as he continued to trot out a small lineup throughout the game even with the obvious problems with rebounding. It’s understandable that Mitchell feels the need to bring out some shooters to compete with the likes of Matt Carroll and Jason Richardson, as both scored almost at will from inside and the outside. With 45 points between the Bobcat’s starting SF and SG, the pair managed to attack the Raptors’ wing players by slashing, driving, and bombing the team. Nevertheless, there’s just no excuse for the monster game Jared Dudley managed to post. With 17 points and 10 rebounds, Dudley posted a double-double as the Raptors just could not find a body to keep up with him in the post.

At the end of the night, it wasn’t just Okafor who smashed the Raptors on the glass, but Richardson and Dudley’s presence as a secondary rebounders that ultimately did the Raptors in. With Sam Mitchell’s continued usage of a lineup consisting of “one big with four smalls”, it wasn’t all that surprising that a 13-rebound discrepancy was created, as it was just too much to ask one big man to box out two prepared rebounders.

One final bright spot came in the form of Primoz Brezec. Entering the game in the third quarter, it was Brezec’s energy that looked to help the Raptors gain some traction. As he entered the game in the second half, he was able to get some rebounds, get the team to play with a sense of urgency and exert himself on the floor. Brezec’s fight was obvious as he was playing one of his two former teams of the year. His zealousness was obvious as he picked up four personals in about nine minutes, but there’s no denying that he managed to change the pace of the game. His presence as the Slovenian Junk Yard Dog cannot be denied as that change of pace is precisely what the Raptors continue to need from the bench play down the stretch.

There’s enough blame from both this loss and the Indiana loss to go around. However, at the end of the day, the excuse that “Chris Bosh was unavailable” is inadequate. The Bobcats were without their most prolific inside presence and rebounder in Gerald Wallace and yet, the Raptors still could not pull out a win with their supposedly deep lineup.

It’s disheartening to many fans who can see the difficulties of the team and continue to question Sam Mitchell’s substitution patterns. If rebounding is a problem, how is going small supposed to solve the problem?

There are many more “winnable” games coming up this week against sub .500 teams, but if the same mistakes continue to occur, there’s a good chance the Raptors will end up 0-4 for this week. Their next game against the Magic would have been a test no matter if they had Bosh in the lineup or not. However, a year ago, a team without Bosh managed to pull off a win in Orlando thanks to the strong play of Andrea Bargnani. If the Raptors need to look for inspiration, they only need to look at their recent past.

Next Game: Raptors @ Magic