Mirror Image: Jarrett Jack is Xzibit!

A picture is worth a thousand words right? These guys don't just look like brothers separated at birth, but rather identical twins separated at birth. If Jarrett Jack grows his hair and a goatee, you get Mr. X to the Z, Xzibit.

The Best Part About Jack's Confrontation

Let's go straight to the heated moment of the game and look at the Trevor Ariza - DeMar DeRozan incident:

First of all, that was an extremely cheap shot by Ariza. But I do personally think it had a lot to do with his frustration - his team's getting blown out, he didn't hit a shot, and he just got outplayed by a rookie who stole the ball him in a rather embarrassing manner - not an excuse by any means for that kind of reaction. After all, he swiped at the back of DeRozan's head with his elbow. Dirty play, but is Ariza a dirty player? I know he's had one other dirty play, and interestingly enough that also involved him swinging his elbow to connect with the back of an opponent's head.

If Ariza had connected on DeRozan too, who knows what would've happened? Most likely DeRozan would've been knocked out worse than TJ Ford was when he got nailed by Al Horford. And Jack's confrontation would've been much more aggressive; hell the whole team would've probably been running at Ariza, at least you'd like to think so as Raptors fans as we're used to our team not standing up for themselves.

So why was Jarrett Jack's confrontation so unique? Forget for a second that it was probably the first legitimate get-in-your-face stance a Raptor has taken this season for one of his teammates (the Bosh-Stoudemire incident seemed contrived). Jack's confrontation of Ariza was distinct because he didn't even have a clue as to what Ariza actually did! Jack stated:

“I actually didn’t see what happened. I was up running with DeMar (DeRozan) and when I turned around I saw the ref making the technical foul signal and I saw our whole bench standing up. I knew he must have done something. I’m going to have anyone’s back in that situation and stand up for them. No question.”

Jack didn't know what the hell actually happened, but just seeing his team's bench get riled up over a technical foul signaled by the ref toward Ariza was good enough for him to immediately get in Ariza's face. The speed of the reaction is what's really impressive. It's not like Jack took a minute to ask his teammates what had exactly happened and then decided to confront Ariza - that wouldn't have been half as impressive or gritty as him just gunning straight toward Ariza right away without even knowing what Ariza actually did. It's that natural and instantaneous reaction that really fills you with pride and joy and speaks of some form of toughness, which has been sorely racking, as we all know too well, being Raptors fans.

This is Why I'm Hot - Raptors Decimate Bulls while Jarret Jack Ties His Shoe

Jose loves himself a blowout win

That game was, in one word, I think Jack Armstrong said it best - "nirvana". After such a hard fought and emotional win last night, how would the Raptors respond on the second game of a back to back; something we've usually been brutal in, plus Chi-town was 5-1 at home before this game. Then we get off to a hot start - like we did in Washington - except this time take it WAYYY high and never look back. It was a blowout for the ages, just the fashion in which it happened. DeMar DeRozan's alley-oop with one hand, followed by his vicious slam past Brad Miler. We just never let up. Bosh putting 25 in 12..in 22 minutes! Then later on of course this happened:



As my friend Adit said, "I've never seen anything like that." And you know what, it was GREAT to see something like that. For once, the Raptors were on the giving end of a taunt - I mean, I highly doubt Jack meant to intentionally taunt the Bulls like that, but if you're the Bulls you can't take it as anything less than disrespect. Especially because it was in the midst of a blowout, and especially after LeBron James taunted them just last night by dancing silly. -> which by the way was completely uncalled for and unprofessional - I'm glad Noah stood up that bullshit.

• Did you see Chris Bosh, Jose, and the rest of the bench smiling and laughing? When was the last time we've seen that?
• Belinelli just looks weeeirdddd when clean shaven. My buddy noted "he looks like a mouse." Strikingly true.
• How about Nesterovic banging out there and running up and down. Dude was on.
• Even in a blowout and plenty of garbage time, Pops couldn't get a field goal - I was really rooting for him to get a bucket, poor guy even had his alley-oop jam rim out.
  
• DeRozan took a big step these past couple of games? Did you see his face as he came back up the court after dunking on Miller? Eyes of an assassin - stark contrast to his usually happy-go-lucky demeanour - glad Turk told his ass to sit down though when he was dancing in the fourth - especially in light of LeBron's antics.
  
• Triano did good. Real good. How freakin' good was his call to NOT change the starting lineup at all starting from the Wizards game last night? If we lost, people would be asking for his head. He didn't succumb to the pressure, so I give him props for that.
  
• Turkoglu's passes never cease to amaze me.
  
• Gotta grab that win against Minnesota on Monday. No ifs, ands, or buts.
  
• What do you think Chuck Swirsky was saying as the Bulls play-by-play man?
  Bring out the salami and cheese, this game was over in the first quarter.
  

Jack A Rap? Roko, & New Marcus Banks Nickname

The possiblity of Jarrett Jack becoming a Raptor just keeps on adding to the amount of presents that Raptors fans are getting this offseason. Colangelo sure isn't pulling any punches huh? I wasn't too sure of the proposed 4 years/$20 million offer at first but this could end up being another steal if not a solid deal in general. The Jack man is strong, can shoot, and play decent defense, and of course, most importantly, put our worries of struggling when Jose is resting on the bench at ease.

I like Roko, I really do - I probably like him more than most people, but I can't deny that he just hasn't shown enough yet - he's shown flashes of brilliance here and there, but he's definitely not stable enough to run a team given serious minutes. Plus his two summer league games have been subpar so far. But I am confident he will get there, so until then, it's good to have a proven point guard in Jarrett Jack who could arguably start on a lot of teams. Adding Jack should motivate Roko that much more.

And as for Marcus Banks, Jarrett Jack is now his torturer - Banks must've thinking he was so close to the possiblity of seeing court time this upcoming season but the possible arrival of Jack just kills it. Marcus Banks, just infuriates me now, thinking about it - what a deadbeat, his new name is Carcass Banks. He's useless, like a dead body .