Raps Big Win Comes At A Big Price As Ford, Calderon Injured

The Raptors needed everything they had to escape the Air Canada Centre with a victory in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series against the New Jersey Nets. Whether they’ll have anyone left to play when Game 6 goes Friday back in the Meadowlands remains to be seen.

Toronto ‘s two point guards, T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon, both visited the hospital after suffering injuries in the 98-96 victory Tuesday night that cut Jersey’s series lead to 3-2 .

Ford suffered a “stinger” after Vince Carter fell on top of him in the final seconds of the first quarter, and was taken to hospital for precautionary measures. The Raptors’ starting point guard has a history of neck and spinal injuries, but he returned to the bench in street clothes later in the game to watch his team eke out the victory.

Calderon, who led the Raptors with 25 points in the must-win contest, rolled his right ankle after being stripped by counterpart Jason Kidd in the final minute of the game.

He was also taken in for diagnostic testing, and little-used third-stringer Darrick Martin had to ride it out until the final buzzer.

The good news for the Raptors is that they don’t play again until Friday and thus have two full days of rest. The bad news is, nobody’s sure if that’ll be enough.

“We’re going to need these couple of days between games,” Raptors coach Sam Mitchell admitted.

“We’ve got some guys banged up, but hopefully they feel a little bit better by Friday, and hopefully they feel well enough to go.”

Ford’s tests came back negative, but the speedy former first-round pick is still experiencing a tingling sensation in his arms, something he hardly needed considering he was already battling a stomach bug and couldn’t even practice Tuesday.

But Ford’s early exit opened the door for Calderon to step into the spotlight, where he recorded a career-high in points and added eight assists before his ill-timed injury.

Both players are integral to the team’s on-court success, but if worse comes to worse, the Raptors will have to start Martin Friday.

The former UCLA Bruin is more of an unofficial coach than he has been an on-court contributor, but in 11 years the veteran has plenty of experience in big playoff games.

Most recently in 2004 he started three games in place of an injured Sam Cassell for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference final against the Los Angeles Lakers. He may need to draw on every ounce of that experience if the Raptors are planning to force Game 7.

“I’ll be ready to play,” the 36-year-old said.

“It’s that simple, I’ll be ready to play. It’s something I love to be in and something I’ve thought about since I was a kid.

“Any time you get a chance to be in the playoffs and get an opportunity to play, it’s special for me because I get a chance to play for (coach and former teammate) Sam (Mitchell) and an organization I care about. I’ll get some extra work in the next couple of days and be ready to go.”

Resilience through injuries is nothing new for this Raptors team.

Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford, Anthony Parker, Andrea Bargnani, Morris Peterson and Jorge Garbajosa all missed seven or more games with injuries during the Raptors’ franchise record-tying 47-35 campaign.

“We’ve done it all year, I think we can continue to do that,” Bosh said.

“T.J. went down and Jose stepped up. Jose went down we had other guys step up.

“We’ve had guys who have stepped up all year. I think it’s very characteristic of us to keep doing that.”