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Carter injures jawMIAMI (AP) Toronto star Vince Carter the Raptors' game Saturday night against Miami after injuring his jaw in a fall. Carter was injured in the third quarter when he got tangled up with an official near the baseline and tumbled behind the basket after losing his balance. Carter stayed on the ground for a few minutes before being escorted to the locker room. Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Raptors, Bulls agree to dealCHICAGO -- Chicago and Toronto have agreed to a six-player trade that will send Jalen Rose to the Raptors for Antonio Davis, Bulls general manager John Paxson said Saturday night. The deal is pending league approval Monday. The Bulls will also ship Lonny Baxter and Donyell Marshall to the Raptors and get Toronto's Jerome Williams and Chris Jeffries. "We're giving up talented players," Paxson said, adding that the presence of Davis and Williams will help the Bulls on the inside where they have young and erratic prep-to-pros Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. "This is hard to do, but I think it's right for the organization right now," Paxson said. "It's been a long tough week in a lot of ways. I think we're in position now where we got a big basketball team. We've still got issues and I don't expect miracles right away, but I expect us to be a competitive team." Paxson fired coach Bill Cartwright last Monday after Chicago lost 10 of its 14 games. Then on Friday, he named Scott Skiles to replace him. The Bulls are 4-12 overall. Rose, a small forward in his 10th NBA season, is averaging 13.3 points -- third best on the team -- but has shot just 38 percent from the field this season. He would give Toronto, which has struggled to score points, an offensive punch. He came to the Bulls in February 2002 in a trade from the Pacers. The 6-foot-9 Davis, averaging nine rebounds and 8.6 points, presents a veteran inside presence "Antonio Davis can't help but be a good influence on the other guys and Jerome Williams hustles all the time. He gets up and down the floor," Skiles said. "Sometimes you have to give good things up for things that make more sense at the time. I think we've become a more physical and tougher team that can rebound and defend better," Paxson said. Marshall, averaging 8.7 points and six rebounds, said he got a phone call Saturday from Paxson telling him of the deal. "I feel a little in shock right now. I kept hearing about it for a week and a half now," Marshall said. "Usually when trade rumors go around that long, usually they're dead. I was laying at home getting ready to come into the second practice and my phone rang and it was Pax," he said. "I've been in this league 10 years. I know it's a business, I know you gotta do what you've got to do to make this team better. I guess it was a trade that both teams felt they got something good out of it." When asked about the trade, Raptors spokesman Jim LaBumbard said Davis and Williams wouldn't be in uniform for Saturday night's game at Miami and that they were "involved in trade talks." "We hope to have something done in the next 48 hours," LaBumbard said. He wouldn't comment further. The Bulls don't play until Monday night. Veteran Scottie Pippen, who returned to Chicago this season to provide leadership, said it's tough to see Rose and Marshall depart, but it's all part of the business. "Davis will give us some toughness inside and Williams has a lot of energy and enthusiasm," Pippen said. "We got veteran guys who know how to play the game. I think it should make us better." Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Raptors looking to upgrade inept offenseTORONTO (AP) Glen Grunwald has watched the Raptors score 65 points or fewer four times already this season. The Toronto general manager plans to do something about that _ soon. ``It's obviously an issue that we have to address,'' Grunwald said Tuesday. ``We've had some stinker games.'' The Raptors scored just 62 points in Sunday's loss to Milwaukee, lowering their season average to 76.6. Toronto is on pace to break the record-low set by the post-Jordan Chicago Bulls of 1999, who averaged only 81.9 points. In an effort to spark the offense, Grunwald has discussed a trade with the Bulls involving Toronto's Antonio Davis and Chicago's Jalen Rose. ``We've haven't done as well as we want,'' said Grunwald, whose team is 6-7 under first-year coach Kevin O'Neill. ``I've talked to a lot of players. I talked to them about the rumors.'' Grunwald has spoken to Davis about a possible trade, and he hasn't told Davis the deal is off. Davis has said that he would not mind being traded from Toronto. His wife and his 8-year-old twin boys live in Chicago. Davis was initially upset when he learned about a possible trade from relatives who heard it about it from a Chicago radio station on Friday. ``I'm glad Glen called and we talked,'' he said. ``Glen called me and we had a good conversation about a lot of different things.'' Davis, averaging 8.0 points and 9.5 rebounds, has tried to not let the trade talk affect his play, but he's noticed a different locker room since rumors surfaced Friday. ``There is a lot of silence,'' Davis said. ``I don't know what to say to them. They don't know what to say to me. It's really tough as teammates.'' O'Neill said his team hasn't been adversely affected by trade talk. The Raptors are 1-1 since Friday. O'Neill blames back-to-back games for the struggling offense. Toronto is 0-4 in the second of consecutive games. ``If you take away our four back-to-back performances, which are all sub-70 performances, we are not the worst,'' he said. ``Right now, we are not shooting the ball particularly well from certain spots, and that will get better as we play more.'' O'Neill spent last season with the Detroit Pistons where he oversaw a defense that allowed the fewest points in the NBA at 87.7. Michael Curry, a defensive specialist, started for the Pistons last year and is starting for Toronto this season despite averaging just 3.7 points. O'Neill said he won't change the starting lineup yet. Morris Peterson, Alvin Williams, Jerome Williams and Davis have struggled to score under O'Neill's controlled, halfcourt offense. ``I don't want to get into trouble, man,'' Davis said. ``We haven't gotten to the point where we can go out there and continue to do the things that we've been doing the last few years in order to put some points up on the board. ``We're all trying to buy into this system, and do as best as we can to listen to Coach. Until we figure out how to get our points in this system, we're going to struggle.'' Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Raptors Nov 2003 Archive
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