CANADIAN CONTENT: Week of 12/21 - How the NBA's Canadian Flavour performed last week

(Photo by P.A. Molumby/NBAE via Getty Images)

Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns (Victoria, BC)

18.7 PPG, 11.2 APG, 2.9 RPG
(Last week: 23 PPG, 9.8 APG, 2.0 RPG)
Steve Nash is Awesome.

Rainmen Blow Out the Ice Cold Frost Heaves - RAINMEN 128, FROST HEAVES 83

RAINMEN 128, FROST HEAVES 83
This wasn't a pretty game by any means for the Vermont Frost Heaves.  Vermont struggled from the get-go as they could only manage to put up 13 points in the opening quarter and weren't able to make a run to get back into it.  Vermont shot poorly in the first half (15 for 46) and by halftime, had a 29-point deficit to the Rainmen.  Halifax on the other hand, had their offense rolling with their 57% shooting which helped them land their third straight preseason win.

Rainmen 2-0 in the Preseason - RAINMEN 108, KEBS 90

RAINMEN 108, KEBS 90

The Rainmen came out energized as their high from Friday night's win spilled into Sunday afternoon's matchup against the Quebec Kebs.

Rainmen Rock the 'Rats in the Fourth Quarter - RAINMEN 101, MILLRATS 97

(photo credit: Bill MacLean)

RAINMEN 101, MILLRATS 97

In the preseason debut of the Halifax Rainmen at the '09 Holiday Classic, the Rainmen put together a 32-point fourth quarter to put away the visiting Manchester Millrats.  In what could be the highest attendance of a Rainmen game at the Halifax Metro Centre to date (due largely in part to Rogers giving away 10,000 complimentary tickets), the Rainmen-Millrats put on an impressive show.

The Halifax Rainmen '09 Holiday Classic starts this weekend!

Rainmen basketball is returning to Halifax tomorrow night, as the Rainmen kick off their Holiday Classic with three games this weekend at the Halifax Metro Centre:

December 19 vs. Manchester 7pm AST
December 20 vs. Quebec 2pm AST
December 21 vs. Vermont 7 pm AST

CANADIAN CONTENT: How the Canadian flavour of the NBA performed last week

(Photo: Canadian Press)

Toronto Raptors

Record: 11W-15L (Last week: 2W-2L)
Not a bad week for the Raps, pulling out two wins last week as they hover just below that .500 mark.  First up, they put away the 3-17 Timberwolves in Toronto, in their first throwback jersey night of the season.  The Raps sported the Toronto Huskies jerseys which paid hommage to one of the first professional basketball teams in Toronto dating back to the 1940's. The Raptors followed that win with a loss to rookie of the year candidate, Brandon Jennings, and his Milwaukee Bucks the next night.

CANADIAN CONTENT: How the NBA's Canadian content performed last week

(Photo by Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

Toronto Raptors
Record: 9W-13L (Last week: 2W-2L)
I told you this team was a roller coaster. Last week, the Raptors dropped two games: one to the lowly Washington Wizards (102-106) which followed up with an ugly, and I mean UGLY blowout loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The Raptors let the Hawks score 146 points and showed little effort on both ends of the floor. This caused a media frenzy as players were calling out the coaches and teammates for the lack of effort and intensity after the loss. This sparked the need for a closed-door team meeting before Friday's rematch against the Wizards, addressing the team’s recent challenges.

Whatever took place in the meeting yielded positive results. The Raptors came out energized with an improved defensive intensity as the Raptors defeated Gilbert Arenas' Wizards in OT. On Saturday, in the second game of a back-to-back (where the Raptors have struggled this season), the Raps came out guns blazing, blowing out the Chicago Bulls in Chicago 110-78.

Highlights:

· Chris Bosh continues to lead by example, putting up 20-10 stats on almost a nightly basis.  After a 2-point showing against the Hawks, Bosh bounced back with a 31-point/16 rebound performance in the win against the Wizards
· Mr. Clutch, Hedo Turkoglu started to live up to his name in their win over Washington nailing the game-winner with 8.1 to play in OT
· The rook, DeMar DeRozan, is starting to flourish and is playing more aggressive, slashing to the rim and has already put together a nice collection of highlight reel dunks

Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns (Victoria, BC)
17 PPG, 11.1 APG, 2.6 RPG
(Last week: 19.5 ppg, 7.3 APG, 2.5 RPG)
Steve's Suns have started to make way back down to Earth, dropping three of their last four games failing to compete with the big guns, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers. It was only a matter of time that these Suns would cool off from their hot start. The Suns even struggled against their former coach, Mike D'Antoni and his New York Knicks, losing 126-99.

In their lone win last week against the Sacrmento Kings, Nash put up a season-high 32 points.

On another note, Steve Nash and teammate, Amare Stoudemire put out their one minute film entitled.....well, I'll just let you watch it yourself.

Joel Anthony, Miami Heat (Montreal, QC)
2.4 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.2 BLKS
(Last week: 3.3 ppg, 3.0 RPG, 0.7 BLK)
At the tail end of Miami’s four-game road trip, Heat coach, Eric Spoelstra, gave Joel Anthony the starting nod this past Sunday with Jermaine O'Neal out tending to a family issue. Anthony put up 5 pts, 6 boards and 2 blocks in 30 minutes.

Jamaal Magloire, Miami Heat (Toronto, ON)
3.7 PPG, 3.0 RPG
(Last week: 5.5 ppg, 4.0 RPG, 0.5 BLK)
Magloire was thrown into the rotation last week, picking up minutes against the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers last week. The Toronto native put in a season high 15 minutes against the Lakers to help match up with the Lakers’ bigs.

Samuel Dalembert, Philadelphia 76ers (Montreal, QC)
6.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.9 BLK 
(Last week: 4.0 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.7 BLK)
Slammin' Sammy can look forward to playing with a former All-Star teammate, as Allen Iverson has made his return to the Philadelphia 76ers. Iverson made his debut Monday against his former team, the Denver Nuggets.

Dalembert continues to do the defensive dirty work and had a monster game against the Dallas Mavericks. He finished with 6 points, a whopping 19 boards, 3 steals and 3 blocks.

Romy Aquino covers the pro basketball game (the Canadian Flavour of the NBA, the PBL's Halifax Rainmen) from a fan's perspective.  He also can be found at NBA hoops blogs, Hip Hoop Junkies (A Member of TheScore.com's Sports Federation) and Hoop Heads North.

Welcome, Halifax Hoop Heads!

Hello Halifax hoop heads, my name is Romy Aquino,  I have been a pro hoops fan for 20+ years and have joined the Haligonia.ca team to help cover the pro hoops game from a Canadian fan's perspective.  I have watched the NBA progress from the "Magic-Bird" era to the "Jordan era" to what we currently know now as the "Lebron James era".  Along the way, the basketball game in Canada has grown with the introduction of the two Canadian NBA franchises, with the rise of the Toronto Raptors and at the same time, the demise of the Vancouver Grizzlies.  As a resident of the HRM all of my life, I've also watched the pro game locally with the Halifax Windjammers as a kid,  to our current pro hoops team in town, the Halifax Rainmen.

At the beginning of the 08-09 NBA season, myself and a couple of friends started a hoops fan blog named Hoop Heads North covering the game that we were huge fans of.  We decided to take a unique approach to the blog, by covering the NBA game not only as Toronto Raptors fans but more as Canadian hoops fans, looking at the Raptors, the Steve Nashes, the Jay Trianos and the Jamaal Magloires of the league.  I have sinced moved around the NBA blogosphere and currently write for NBA hoops blog, Hip Hoop Junkies, which is a part of TheScore.com's Sports Federation.

CANADIAN CONTENT: Highlighting the Canadian Content of the NBA

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

The NBA regular season is less than a quarter way through but we've already had the opportunity to see a sampling of what Canuck ballers are capable of.  Not only do we have the lone Canadian NBA franchis in the league, the Toronto Raptors, but we also have a handful of  Canadians balling south of the border.

Toronto Raptors
Record: 7W-12L
Welcome to the roller coaster we like to call the Toronto Raptors.  So far this year's Toronto Raptors have shown glimpses of greatness and then glimpses of mediocrity.  First off, the Raptors are one of the top offensive teams in the NBA averaging 104.9 ppg.  With a starting five that includes the likes of Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon, they've definitely have some offensive weapons that can shoot the ball.  So all this offense is impressive, right?  Well, on the other side of the coin, the team is also one of the worst defensive teams in the league, where opponents are averaging 109 ppg.  And the latest trend has been their struggle to compete in the second half of contests.   Although the Raptors have added a defensive-minded coach, Marc Iavaroni and some defensive stoppers, Antoine Wright and Reggie Evans, the Raptors have failed to display that  they can stop teams.   So we're 19 games in,  and this team is struggling to find their identity with nine new faces on the roster.

The highlights from this Raptors' team? 

• Chris Bosh is having a monster season in his contract year averaging 25.4 points/game and 12.2 rebounds/game (2nd in the league)
• The Raptors have depth on the bench, which is an improvement from last year.  The Raptors have some new additions with guys like Jarret Jack, Rasho Nesterovic, Antoine Wright, Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems and a crowd favourite from last season in Pops Mensah-Bonsu.
• The Raptors also added highly-touted free agent from the offseason, Hedo Turkoglu, who has yet to make a consistent impact on this team.
• Lottery-pick, DeMar DeRozan is slowly making an impression with the Raptors.  Jay Triano has given the Compton kid the starting SG spot but he's also given the rook limited playing time.  He averages approximately 18 minutes per game, 6.7 ppg and 2.8 rpg but Raptors fans have to give him some time to develop, in two-three years, this kid will be special.

Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns (Victoria, BC)
16.4 PPG, 12.1 APG, 2.7 RPG
The Phoenix Suns lost Shaquille O'Neal to free agency in this past offseason but apparently it's been nothing but a blessing for the Suns.  The Suns are running again, with 35 year-old, Steve Nash leading the way. 

The Suns sit at the top of the Western Conference with their 14-3 record and have been one of the biggest surprise teams so far.  With veterans like Nash, Grant Hill and Jason Richardson, the Suns are proving their doubters wrong.  Nash has been outstanding and already has two 20-assist games this season.

Joel Anthony, Miami Heat (Montreal, QC)
2.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.3 BLKS
The 6-9 backup centre has been putting in quality minutes for the Heat, playing behind starting centre (and former Raptor) Jermaine O'Neal.  Anthony recently made a visit to Toronto when the Heat played the Toronto Raptors on November 20th.  While in the city, he participated at a Canada Basketball event promoting the new Canada Basketball t-shirt collection.

Jamaal Magloire, Miami Heat (Toronto, ON)
0.0 PPG, 1.0 RPG
"Big Cat" has played in only one game in 5 minutes of action  for the Miami Heat.  The former All-Star was brought onto the team to provide centre experience and veteran leadership for the Heat bench.  He has recently been in the news as he is considering putting on the Canada jersey to help the Senior Men's national team at the World Championships in Turkey next year.

Samuel Dalembert, Philadelphia 76ers (Montreal, QC)
6.3 PPG, 7.7 REB, 1.9 BLKS
Dalembert returned as the Sixers' starting centre this season doing what he does best, grab rebounds and block shots.  Dalembert had a season-high six blocks on Friday in their loss to the Atlanta Hawks.  The Sixers have been a disappointing 5-13 this year and are rumoured to be looking to sign the so-called "retired" Allen Iverson.

Romy Aquino covers the pro basketball game (the Canadian Flavour of the NBA, the PBL's Halifax Rainmen) from a fan's perspective.  He also can be found at NBA hoops blogs, Hip Hoop Junkies (A Member of TheScore.com's Sports Federation) and Hoop Heads North.