Toronto Raptors vs Atlanta Hawks Jan.19/08

Chris Bosh believes he's playing the best basketball of his career right now.

With yet another superb performance Friday night, it's tough to argue.

Bosh poured in 35 points and added nine rebounds to lead the Toronto Raptors to their third straight victory at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, with a 89-78 win over the Atlanta Hawks.


The Raptors all-star said his confidence is at the point now where he believes he can score every time he has the ball.

``I feel like that. I've been saying that for two days now. . . well, three or four or five days now,'' Bosh said with a laugh. ``I'm feeling good, I feel very confident, I think everything is just opening up for me. I'm finally at 100 per cent.''

Anthony Parker finished with 18 points in the game that marked the first meeting between the two teams since T.J. Ford suffered a neck injury in Atlanta on Dec. 11. Jose Calderon added 13 points and nine assists for the Raptors (22-18), who won for the fifth time in the last six games.

The Raptors took a 67-60 advantage into the fourth quarter of the back-and-forth affair, but broke the game open with a solid performance in the final few minutes, holding off a brief Hawks rally.

The young Hawks pulled to within two points with just over five minutes left in the game after a three-pointer by Tyronn Lue. Parker responded with a three _ one of four he had on the night _ and Jamario Moon followed followed with a slam dunk to stretch Toronto's lead back to seven.

``They made some tough shots,'' said Joe Johnson, who topped the Hawks with 25 points. ``I think pretty much every three they hit in the fourth had a hand in their face. I thought we played pretty good defence, they just made tough shots.''

Moon had a huge block on a shot by Johnson the next time down the court, and then Bosh was fouled on a layup and connected on the free throw to put Toronto up by 10 with 3:30 to go. It was all Raptors to the final buzzer, as Calderon had two baskets and Bosh added a layup to pad the lead in front of a capacity crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre.

Josh Smith added 24 points for Atlanta (17-19).

The night was yet another in a string of solid performances by Bosh, who has been improving every game out after his early-season struggles _ the product of a foot and knee injury. Bosh shot 12-for-18 on Friday, and went 11-for-14 from the free throw line.

Mitchell joked that he didn't want to talk about how well Bosh is playing for fear of jinxing it.

But Parker would.

``I'm voting for him for the all-star game. I got a T-shirt ready, I'm going to bring it out,'' Parker said. ``It was one of those games when I looked at the end of the game and he had 35 points. He does so many things out there, and he exerts so much energy.

``He's just put us on his back the last couple of weeks not, and that's a huge reason why we've been able to string a couple of wins together.''

What pleases Mitchell most about Bosh's play is his ability to find his teammates when he draws a double-team.

``Chris does not have to score the ball, he just has to command a double-team,'' Mitchell said. ``Chris is just trusting his teammates and getting the ball out.''

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Toronto
• Raptors
• vs
• Atlanta
• Hawks
• Jan.19/08

[halosvr]

moon is gonna win the dunk contest yo

[hasnaindude]

WHAT THE HELL! he doesen't take steroids. who ever told you that knows nothing about raptors or NBA. thats just retarded

[JimmySticks90]

@ceina18 cant keep playing well with the amount of roster changes that go on. consistency just stinks because they dont have a roster that stays together for a while...plus they dont play D without Parker or Moon

[kylekory423]

geeez that's crazy son! yooo monuow, do you jump high enough to dunk? You need to take a look at this if you can't - (50 inch vertical [dot] com)

[johnnylogan60]

monuow I'm 5 6 and I can do some crazy dunks. Honestly, anyone can do it, just do the right workouts with the right nutrition. I used the training at | 50 inch vertical [dot] com | but any workout could be followed if you are sure they generate results

[Silentzenomaru]

If Moon played like this everyday and stop taking the threes he took before, i would have kept him anyday

[ceina18]

what went wrong with raptors this year. i hope bosh doesn't leave at the end of the season. and moon needs to stop being a punk and drive in, hes the reason they lost to atlanta some days ago

[daveca87]

moon is the reason they loose every game the other team does not even guard moon they leave him open and let him shoot and he really really needs to stop smiling

[adnantheman05]

Raptors just blew them away. They were better last year.

[chrome381]

isnt that the game where bosh dunked on josh smith?

[GEORGEIO111]

payback for what al horford did to tj bosh sent a lil message dont fuck around