Bosh Gets Pounded, Wonders Why His Teammates Don't Care

Celtics great Paul Pierce is nothing if not proud, and that showed in the third quarter blotting of Raptors star Chris Bosh seen above. Pierce got whistled for the taunt, but not the knee to the groin. And while the dunk got a (literal) rise out of the Celtics, who met Pierce at midcourt, none of the Raptors seemed to care much. And that bothered Bosh.

Bosh told reporters the lack of reaction from his teammates bothered him. Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star reports that while Raps guard/Bosh friend Jarrett Jack helped the forward up after the painful defeat, and his coaches stood up arguing for a whistle on Pierce ... nary a player on the Toronto bench stood to check on Bosh, or to send a message to a celebratory Celtics team.

"I look at their bench and they're all up standing at half-court, and nobody from their team was down on the floor. I think we would react better to just be out there for one another and just stay together."

In the end, this is the problem with the Bosh-Andrea Bargnani tandem: there is little muscle there, and the top teams in the East all have a lot of muscle. Boston is a perfect example. To beat them, the Raptors have to shoot the lights out and pray the Celtics have trouble hitting their own attempts. That's not a winning formula, in November or in April. That's why Reggie Evans had been seen as so important to this team -- he's a burly beast unafraid to mix it up on the floor, on the boards and on defense. But Evans hasn't played a second this season owing to injury, and Bosh (as amazing a player he is) and Bargnani (a fantastic shooter) just have no answer for the Pierces, the Dwights, the LeBrons, the Horfords.

Bosh seems to understand this, later telling Feschuk he's tired of talking about toughness. He seems to realize that this team will never be tough, not with this line-up. I hate to transmute a bit of November frustration into a prediction for the future, but there is a bit of resignation in Bosh's reaction, and I'm sure you can completely discount that when looking at July 1.