Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh is more a man of deeds than words.
His natural inclination is to make his point with his points, like the 32 he made in last night's 104-100 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats, and with his rebounds, like the eight he had last night.
"I'm not a talker by nature," Bosh said. "That's how I am naturally. I know that I have to step outside myself, because I really like winning. And that really helps it out. So whatever it takes, I'm going to do it."
He has learned how much talking while playing defence can help a team win, and in this respect, centre Rasho Nesterovic has been a good influence.
The first half was a little more offensive, and during the first quarter, the Raptors made 17 consecutive shots in one stretch.
Then Bosh and Nesterovic began to work the vocal cords as well as the shooting eyes.
"I've been trying to talk all the time, but when you have somebody that talks with you, it kind of influences you," Bosh said. "You want to continue to do it because it helps us out."
On offence, Bosh says about all that can be accomplished by talking is to say "Hey, I'm open."
But defence is a different matter.
"On defence, you can instruct everybody and I think it really helps us out," he said. "Guys are more aware."
Nesterovic said the reason the talking on defence was so important was to cut down on the second-chance points.
When the Bobcats defeated the Raptors 110-98 on March 2 at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, the Bobcats outrebounded them 50-37 and hammered them 32-0 on second-chance points. The Raptors did not have Bosh for that game.
Last night, the Raptors had a 39-38 advantage in rebounds and each team scored 11 second-chance points.
The other difference Bosh made is that he forced the Bobcats to send him to the free-throw line, where he converted 13 of his 16 attempts.
Nesterovic chipped in 14 points and 11 rebounds.
"Rasho and Chris were talking in the back and helping," head coach Sam Mitc said. "I can hear them talking on defence. Rasho is rubbing off on Chris as far as communicating in the back. Chris was good communicating.
"Rasho has been huge for us lately."
Anthony Parker scored 20 points for the Raptors, T.J. Ford had 16 and Jamario Moon had 15.
Jason Richardson scored 26 for Charlotte and Gerald Wallace had 20.
The Raptors, 38-36, were coming off a 118-111 loss to the NBA's Western Conference-leading New Orleans Hornets on Sunday at the Air Canada Centre.
The Raptors go on to Atlanta, where they will play the Hawks at the Philips Arena tomorrow.
The Bobcats, 28-46, were coming off three consecutive victories, against the Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle SuperSonics and Portland Trail Blazers, on a four-game Western swing.
"They beat teams we didn't beat out there," Mitc said.
"I thought at the beginning of the third quarter when they went on that 14-2 run, that really killed us for the game," Bobcats coach Sam Vincent said. "I'm not sure if it was fatigue that finally set in at that point, but we missed some shots that we usually make."
Before the game, Mitc had talked about how the Bobcats were improving.
Vincent said: "Our team has grown tremendously. The fact that we can come off an emotional road trip, still tired and a little jet-lagged and play a team with a player like Chris Bosh, and play them to the point where we really had a chance to win, it shows the growth in our team."
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