Alabi: Are the Toronto Tornados still around? We might have a player for them in need of playing time.

Barbosa: step slow tonight and his shooting touch was as graceful as a bulldozer scoop coming down on an egg. Guess he can always blame that (cough) injury (cough).

Bargnani: any closer to calling this his team yet? While those turnovers don’t exactly make the medicine go down any easier, his composure goes a long way to saying yes. Pretty soon Jay is going to buy him an Admirals hat, give him some stripes and they’ll use it as the next big ad campaign.

Bayless: Nothing like hitting a 3 at the buzzer in the first to get 11,000 people on your side.  Can’t tell if the kid is cocky or just plum excited to be in the cold weather, but he looks like he just opened the door to Bay/Bloor Radio and was told he had his pick of the store.  As Ren & Stimpy said during the broadcast, smart move by Jay to put Jerryd and Leandro out there together for the first bit to allow the kid to get his sea legs. 13pts on 4/7? Jarrett who?

Calderon: Mr. Big Stuff with 16 and 9 to go along with more smiles than your grandmother had at the last Tom Jones concert. From the “backstage” camera pre-game to the post-game he was smiling and that had to be infectious to his teammates. For 3/4 of the game the team played loose and well, just like their quarterback

Davis: I hear the chicks dig to be taken to “A Taste Of Curry World”. Table for 4, Ed?

DeRozan: It would be easier to rip DeMar if Evan hadn’t shat the bed himself, but still…if your cover is having a horrible game while playing for a horrible team and you are supposed to be poised for a breakout season, shouldn’t you be able to muster more than what DeMar put forth tonight? Weak sauce.

Dorsey: DNP-NKWYA

Evans: Lawdy, if there were peaches put on top of the backboard before the game, all that would be there now are pits and Reggie would be sitting in the locker room rubbing his belly and smelling like peach juice. 22 boards, 12 points. 15 rebounds in the first half is a new Raptors record and continues a long standing tradition of downright ugly people owning records as a Raptor player at some point in time. (See: Earl, Acie)

Johnson: why do I get the sense that as he is running down the court someone in his vicinity is yelling “Squirrel”? I’ve seen longer attention spans on a cat in a basket full of yarn.

Kleiza: for those of you who still believe the world is flat, I think I may ask your help in finding one Linas Kleiza. He seems to have fallen off the edge of the earth and is no longer capable of, say, PLAYING BASKETBALL.

Stojakovic: What a life. Come from a country that is divided up in a war, hang out in California for a while, make it rich, spend some time in one of the party capitals of the U.S. of A. then come north to a siberian landscape full of like-backgrounded people, play 3 minutes of a schoolyard sport, score 7 points while doing so, have the home crowd go wild because of it, then head out to the CIBC cash machine to make sure your daily paycheque of $100,000 has been deposited in US funds. Once confirmed, head to Tim Hortons and hang with fellow frugal hound Matt Devlin to discuss the benefits of a red blazer.

Weems: tonight it seemed like the horse belonging to the Young Onez was tripped up, broke a leg and was shot. Weems checked out almost from the opening tip and was last seen acting as a human version of a LaZBoy. No oomph, no pop.

Wright: the guy reminds me of the door operator on the TTC subway. Years ago he meant something: he had a whistle he could blow, people listened. Now, he’s relegated to pressing a button that makes a freakishly garish chime sound that people could give a toss about. Kinda like Julian’s career.

Driving The Bus: Reggie Evans

Under The Bus: DeMar DeRozan

Game Theme :

Andersen: good production in limited minutes. Kind of like Crocodile Dundee.

Banks: DNP-TCKHRS

Barbosa: anybody been to any bars in Yorkville lately??  Just asking.

Bargnani: early on he made Hawes swear off calzone for life. Lately that would be enough and Andrea would cocoon. Tonight, though, he kept his foot on the gas, continued to drive the lane, demanded the ball and kept active. A stellar night from our main attraction.

Calderon: 12 8 and 5 from a guy that most of us continually write off as zombie like and having lost a step. Face it, he’ll never match his past (um) glory, but if he keeps his play up to this standard, he’ll hear his name in the starting lineup again.

Davis: Geno’s.

DeRozan: I tweeted during the preseason that Turner will be a better NBA player than DeRozan ever will be. After tonight, I feel vindicated. DeMar is the type of player who will aspire but will never attain. Plain and simple. He was exposed and held down tonight and should be embarrassed.

Dorsey: stayed on the bench and rightfully so. He needs a cage built around him.

Evans: coming back to his former home, Evans was packing the heat and a smile to match. 14 boards, the rallying cry of a banshee, and a knowing look toward the Sixers bench after every made free throw. Classic.

Jack: he reminds you of that guy at Christmas you almost feel forced to buy a gift for even though you know he is not deserving of your time or money. Well, Jack currently isn’t deserving of the starters role and should be removed immediately. Another sub-par performance tonight after leaving his heart in Miami on the weekend.

Johnson: I’m convinced he is Yogi Stewart redux. Big contract paid out on minimal talent that is being relegated to a towel waver on most nights due to poor decisions. FreeAmir my ass.

Kleiza: anytime you are a visitor and you have people cheering you IN PHILADELPHIA, well, you know you’ve done some good on this earth. While he had a horrible shooting night, he was all over the floor like a Roomba and making the Sixers think there were bedbugs in the building.

Weems: a man reborn lately, he continued on his tear tonight. DeMar needs to spoon with him on the return flight in hopes of whatever Sonny is bathing in, it rubs off on him. Another career night for a man who is becoming quite the commodity in fantasy leagues.

Wright: Dead. Weight.

Driving The Bus: Andrea Bargnani

Under The Bus: Jarrett Jack

Game Theme :

Fortunately for my sanity, I missed the game. However, there was a point last night where I glanced up at the TV, saw the Wizards up 79-59, did a double take, then proceeded to drink myself blind while some suit at the bar was shouting the most obscene things at the TV I’ve ever heard; turns out he was watching the Leafs, but whatever. How the f&@% do you lose to a Wizards team missing their best player? How the f&@% do you get out-rebounded by the worst rebounding team in the league?

I don’t have any answers to questions about the Raptors, seriously. This team beats Orlando on Friday, competes hard against Miami on Saturday, then they get thumped by Washington on Tuesday. Indulge me for a second: so I design software at work for a living. After interviewing clients to get what their pain points are, one of the reoccurring themes was predictability of cost. They want to know what they will be paying, for a certain amount of product over the course of the year.

I want the exact same thing from the Raptors, I want to know what I’m getting out of them every night; right now I don’t. We don’t know which incarnation of this team will show up from night to night. Really makes it hard to put other aspects of my life on hold to watch games where we lose to bad teams because of questionable things. On the flip-side, it does us a huge disservice when they beat a team like the Magic on the road, since achieving that usually means that everyone is carrying their own weight, and making the right decisions on every play. This team obviously isn’t in that vicinity, so it gets our hopes up.

One positive from last night is that, and I’m just putting this out there, but I think Weems has moved into the starting role. Kleiza did well off the bench, and I think his offense is better suited coming off the bench, and frankly, with Barbosa out, it is needed there more. A wing Jack/DeRozan/Weems makes me much more excited.

Sigh…

I had a chance to speak with Carey Smith, of Philadunkia.com about the Sixers and the matchup tonight:

Andre Iguadala hasn’t started the season as expected, with his numbers pretty much down across the board. This hasn’t stopped teams from expressing interest in him. If he gets moved, what will the Sixers look for him in return?
Thorn and Stefanski are going to ask for the world in return for AI9, because in my opinion they highly over rate his potential. Iguodala is a very athletic, very well rounded and overall very good player, but he’s a second or some believe a third banana on a title contending team. He is not, nor will he ever be a star as the Sixers front office believed he could become. If they deal him (which I don’t want the Sixers to do), I hope they go after cap space and a young big who can grab some boards.

It took a couple seasons, but Elton Brand seems to be getting back on track. He was having trouble meshing with the athletic wings on the team, what has changed?
What has changed about Brand is that he lighter, moving better and is in much better shape. This past summer was the first time since Brand has been in a Sixers uniform that he didn’t spend the off season rehabbing from a serious injury. He was able to concentrate on getting ready for the season from a conditioning stand point and work on his actual basketball skills. All that work seems to be paying off.

I was super high on Jrue Holliday coming into the season, and it seems as though he worked on his game quite a bit this summer. What is the kid doing right?
To be honest, Jrue is having a wildly inconsistent year so far in 2010-11. There have been some All-Star caliber games from him and some flat out bombs like the one against SAS the other night. You can read more about in a post by Tom Sunnegren.

How do you match-up with the Raptors? What will be the strategy for dealing with Bargnani and DeRozan?
Outside of our usual interior weaknesses, I believe the Sixers matchup well against the Raptors. I don’t see DeRozan, Kleiza or the Jack/Calderon PG combo as much of an issue for the Sixers to handle. As is typical of the Sixers this season, they’re going to get killed in the paint vs. the Raptors. Former Sixers Reggie Evans may have a career night vs. our weak frontline and Andrea Bargnani will do whatever he wants against the Sixers bigs. If we can slow Bargnani down, even just a little (he averaged 18 ppg. & 5.8 rpg vs. PHl last season) we should win this game.

Injuries

Toronto
Ed Davis – Out
Leandro Barbosa – Shoulder, Out
Linas Kleiza – Achilles, Should Play

Philadelphia
Andre Iguodala – Achilles, Should Play

Match-ups

PG – Jack vs Holiday
Jrue just turned 20 this summer, so he obviously has the experience to take it to Jack/Calderon all night. He’s also a mediocre shooter, who’s quick enough to get into the paint; so expect him to go 8-13 from the perimeter tonight, and 6-9 at the rim. He’s bigger, stronger, and faster then Jack and plays better defense. The Sixers are 11th in the league in assists, meaning they do a great job of moving the ball around; doesn’t bode well for a Raptor defense that doesn’t rotate or play good defense. At the head of the beast is Holiday who may not have great court vision, but does a good job of finding the right guy for the shot (if that made any sense at all). Call me out on this, but on the second night of a back-to-back, I have zero expectations tonight…zero. Jrue has a career game…fml
Edge: Holiday

SG – DeRozan vs Turner
It wasn’t that he had a bad night per say, but he took 9 shots. To put that in perspective, Jack took 14 and Kleiza took 11 off the bench. The kids doing a great job the last couple games, and you can’t get him the ball? Seriously? DeMar needs to keep Turner on the perimeter and tempt him with open-ish shots. Turner doesn’t have the athleticism to beat DeRozan off the dribble, or through the air, so he will pick his spots since he sees the floor so well. Honestly, DeRozan should win this match-up, the kid is still finding his way, and is in the zonew. I wont accept any other result.
Edge: DeRozan

SF – Weems vs Iguodala
AI is injured, and was only able to muster 19 minutes against the Spurs on the weekend (he still managed to put up 10pts 8rebs though). Achilles injuries affect movement, movement affects ability to do stuff, and if you can’t do stuff, the guy on the other side of the court should win the match-up. If Andre can’t go, expect to see more of Young and Nocioni. If Andre does go, and is injured, Money better drop 20pts, that’s all I got.
Edge: Weems

PF – Evans vs Brand
I’m totally biased towards Brand, he’s been one of my favourites since Duke (actually, I think he’s the only Duke player I’ve ever really liked). He’s made some nice progress since that ridiculous injury he suffered when he signed with Philly, but hasn’t regained his explosiveness that he lost as a result. Evans isn’t an explosive guy either, but has been playing smart, and controlling the boards the best he can without much support. One thing to note is that Brand doesn’t play big in the paint anymore, he’s a mid-ranger who doesn’t shoot a very high percentage. Evans can get at him and make him work hard on the glass, and for his points. Wont be an exciting match-up.
Edge: Even

C – Bargnani vs Hawes
Last night in Washington was Bargnani’s worse game of the season, which happens. I seriously don’t think I need to say too much about this match-up. Hawes doesn’t like to initiate contact in the paint, has some nice post moves but prefers to jack shots from the perimeter. After an embarassing performance against McGee and Blatche, Il Mago needs to throw down tonight.
Edge: Bargnani

Keys to the Game

How about some defense?
109, 109, 110, 101, 109, 97, 108, 125, 111, 81, 98
The Raptors have kept an appointment to under 100 points three times this season, it’s a bloody shame. Hustle and defense are distinctly different things; actually, that describes Calderon to a T. The Sixers aren’t a high scoring team, so hopefully we don’t make them look like stars.

Bench Performance
The Sixers have a nice mix of crafty players and athletes on their bench, that could really be a thorn in the Raptors side. Thaddeus Young seems to always come out to play against us, and always makes me nervous he’s going to have a big night. I’d like to see Calderon regain some composure after last night’s shit show, and lead this squad. I also look forward to Kleiza’s scoring from the bench, which is a perfect spot for the guy.

Show some pride
You lost a rough one last night, and have a chance to split this four-game road swing 2-2 with a win tonight against an equally brutal Sixers team. What’s at stake tonight is being the worst team in the East; but who knows, maybe having the most ping-pong balls is a good thing.

The Line

The gamblers have the Sixers as 4 point favourites with an over/under of 207.5.

Thank God the game finished. The only thing worse than watching a pre-season game, is watching a pre-season game go into overtime, then double overtime. It was worth it though; the Raptors pulled out a gritty win in a game that resembled what the regular season vibe will be. The Suns game couldn’t be taken seriously; the Celtics and Bulls are top-four in the East; but the Sixers are on about the same level as the Raptors.

There were a couple goals heading into the game:

• Settle on the starting lineup that everyone has already picked out (Jack, DeRozan, Kleiza, Johnson & Bargnani)
• Get Bargnani out of his early slump
• Manufacture some trade value for Evans
• Win a bloody game

So with our expectations tempered, this game provided a nice glimpse into what we can expect for the season, pardon me while I kick it a bit roll-call:

David Anderson – while he was a good pickup in the offseason, the fact that he jacks shots every single time he touches the ball makes me nuts. Even though Bargnani played heavy minutes last night on the second night of a back-to-back, I was floored when Anderson was inserted in OT. He did make up for the poor shooting night with some nifty rebounding though.

Leandro Barbosa – anyone else get the feeling that our 6th man is going to be our leading scorer? As Arse said, he comes as advertised. I haven’t been used to seeing a Raptor break down his defender off the dribble and take it to the rack with any semblance of consistency, but Barbosa has given us a few games of that. He chipped in 19pts (8-16FG) and 6rebs last night, which is about what I expect from him on the season. An added bonus is his ability to get off a pretty good look at the basket in pressure situations, which gives Triano another option (Bargs) in crunch time.

Andrea Bargnani – Best game of the pre-season hands down. While I don’t think he will be a 22+ point scorer a game this season (18-20 range), I wasn’t too worried about him finding his range. Bargnani misses all that space Bosh created for him to operate:

It’s just a matter of him trying to acclimatize himself with the new guys, a completely different offence than we’ve had in the past, which has been put in place for a specific reason. – Jay Triano

Early in the game his contribution was on the defensive end; switching between keeping Brand (12pts on 13 shots) and Thaddeus Young (8pts 5rebs) under control. When he was needed to hit a couple shots to close out the game, he flipped that switch (it’s so obvious when he’s motivated) and almost won the game on an offensive put-back off of DeRozan’s missed free throw at the end of the first overtime. It’s not all rosey for Bargs, but the Raptors pulled one out with a decent contribution from him.

Jose Calderon – I’m not sure what happened to the Calderon from the 2008-2009 season, but I want him back. This incarnation of the kid is painful. He threw three really sloppy (and uncharacteristic) passes to Johnson and Anderson that overshadowed (for me anyways) his 8 assists on the night. Look, he won the Forderon situation, but only because TJ went ape-shit. Looks like Jack should get the starting nod because Calderon’s talents are best suited on the second unit, where no-one not named Barbosa can score of his own volition. I’d really like to see him shoot the ball more, 5 shots in 26 minutes, when the ball is constantly in your hands, is almost not even trying.

DeMar DeRozan – Look, I like the kid, but we may have to be reserved to the fact that this might be the most to expect form him. He can help his own cause out by putting up 500 shots a day, everyday, for the rest of his life. 5-15 from the floor and 6-11 from the line? He’s a shooting guard, you don’t expect those sorts of numbers from a starting shooting guard in the NBA. What I did appreciate from him was that he was aggressive in take it to the rack and drawing contact. He cooly (?) hit the game tying free throw, but was off on the go-ahead basket. My biggest criticism for him was that his contributions were mostly scoring, but last night he chipped in 5rebs 2ast 2stl and a block, a pretty good all-around game.

Ronald Dupree – Got T’d up for showing emotion after he got called for a blocking foul (looked like he drew a charge to me). Terrible rule…errr…Dupree shouldn’t have played in OT, but whatever.

Reggie Evans – It’s no secret I don’t think highly of the guy, but he had a good game…still could have done without seeing him shoot those three shots, but I’ll let it slide.

Jarrett Jack – If the first four games of the pre-season were an audition for the rotation, then Jack has secured starting PG duties in my book. He got into the paint and took good shots (shot chart below), got people involved protected the ball, grabbed as many rebounds as Bargnani and hit a massive three in OT to give the Raptors a 2 point lead with 40 seconds to go. Seriously couldn’t ask for anything else.

Amir Johnson – While he had 4 fouls in 27 minutes, the rate at which he picked them up didn’t affect how he played very much. 11pts 9rebs is a solid performance (considering Joakim Noah averaged 10.7pts 11rebs last season), but I’m always left wanting more. I want this kid to play more minutes, so he can score more efficiently and grab more rebounds. The Raptors might need to invest in bringing in a mentor for him, could be a thought.

Linas Kleiza – Foul trouble kept him out of the game, but frankly, I’m a bit disappointed. There was no reason he couldn’t leave his mark on this game, and looking through my notes, he wasn’t mention worthy in them at all.

Sonny Weems – Had a balanced game in my books, didn’t shoot too much, but attempted good ones. Like Kleiza, nothing really stood out for me though.

We got Boston again on Friday.

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette

Q. How did the Knicks do this off-season? Talk about drafts, trades and free agent signings as well as ownership/management changes.

Kevin McElroy: The answer to this question is necessarily relative to expectations. By any normal measure, this was the Knicks best summer since the mid-90’s. Their failed pursuit for LeWyane Bosh aside, the Knicks brought in Amare Stoudemire, a five-time all-star with three top-ten scoring seasons who also happens to be the active career leader in true shooting percentage. While concerns about the riskiness of the acquisition (especially those relating to Stoudemire’s injury history) are understandable, the rarity with which players of Stoudemire’s caliber can be had without forfeiting any tradeable assets makes the signing a worthwhile gamble. The David Lee trade — in which the Knicks gave up a player that they had already made redundant and received two valuable role players and a freakish athlete with world-class upside in return — was the best player for player(s) swap the Knicks have made since they brought in Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby; if Anthony Randolph develops, it will go down as even better than those trades.

I worry about Raymond Felton eating up valuable cap space, but I get the feeling that his signing was about keeping Amare happy enough to keep telling his buddies how great things were in New York — Felton’s contract should be moveable if he becomes the final obstacle to bringing in another star. I hated the Knicks’ play-it-safe strategy on draft night, but based upon the summers that Landry Fields and Lance Stephenson have had, my opinion on the matter has softened. Fields will hang around for 10 years and be a useful role player for the Knicks in the near term.

Q. Who came out the bigger winner AND loser in the Atlantic Division?

KM: I’ll exclude the Knicks from the conversation here since I’ve already discussed their offseason. I think the Celtics are the winners by default, mostly because they were the only Atlantic Division team good enough to focus their off-season on filling their remaining needs rather than blindly overhauling the team and hoping it would work out. I’m not crazy about their Shaquisition for the same reason I wasn’t crazy about it when he was Shaquired by Phoenix or Cleveland, but at the veteran minimum it’s a low risk move and they can always tell him to go away if he becomes a problem.

As for the biggest losers, the Nets’ mind-bendingly bizarre assortment of free agent signings gets the nod even in a division where Toronto lost their franchise leader in scoring and rebounding just as he was entering his prime. Better build that arena, Brooklyn, or Johan Petro will be plying his trade elsewhere!

Q. Last season we saw a dog fight from 5-9 in the East for a playoff appearance (the Raptors dropped from 5th to 9th rapidly at the tail-end of the season). What are your predictions for this upcoming season? Who are your dark horses to watch out for?

KM: Obviously the Heat jump out of that dog fight and into the top 3, arguably the top 1. I think this will be another season in which the Eastern Conference can be separated into pretty well-defined tiers. The Tier 1 teams — Miami, Orlando, Boston — seem fairly insurmountable at the top of the pyramid, although if the Celtics all get old at the same time, they could feasibly drop into Tier 2. For now, Tier 2 is Atlanta, Chicago, and probably Milwaukee, all of whom should qualify for the postseason comfortably and will be primarily concerned with finishing 5th or better and thus avoiding the Tier 1 teams in the first round. Tier 3 is where it gets a bit hairy: Charlotte has to be viewed as the 7th best team going into the year, but New York has much greater upside and is the only team outside of Tiers 1 and 2 with a chance to vault into the top 6 if everything goes right.

If things implode for the Knicks — and, let’s face it, why shouldn’t they — The Pacers, Sixers, and Cavs are all in the picture for one of the last two playoff spots. One more quick point that nobody is talking about: I will not be surprised if strength of schedule becomes a decisive factor in the Eastern Conference this year. The Bobcats have to play a whopping 15 games against the Heat, Magic, and Hawks, while the Knicks and Sixers will play each other five times and have 10 games each against the Nets and Raps. Could be enough to bump the Bobcats down to ninth in a tight East.

Q. Is what happened in Miami bad for the league? On the one hand, players are taking control of their own futures (as best as possible); but on the other, the rich just seem to get richer.

KM: I swore a lifelong oath of hatred against the Miami Heat the day that Pat Riley hopped the fence back in 1995, but the answer to this question is still “no.” In the long-term, this has to be viewed as good for the league, and not just because it will allow us to see something we’ve never seen before (which it will) and give other fan bases a unifying enemy (which it also will). The reason I’m glad it happened, and happened when it did, is that it has placed everything from cap rules to player tampering to the merits of “Superteams” at the forefront of the conversation, just before a watershed CBA renegotiation. This is the best way for basketball fans and writers to have any kind of a voice about the future of the league. Maybe I’m dreaming on that but, at a time when the NBA seems desperate to drum up demand for its product, it will have an unprecedented opportunity to gauge public opinion on nearly every issue that is likely to come up this summer. We may all be thanking LeWyane Bosh before this is over.

(Was that convincing? No? Darn it. I really hate the Heat.)

Q. Do you share the view that playing in Toronto is similar to playing in Europe, and not very appealing to American born players? What’s your take on the Raptors and Toronto as a destination for the NBA elite?

KM: I think there are five or six “destination cities” in the League right now — LA, Miami, New York, Chicago, maybe one or two of the Texas cities — and I don’t think Toronto is one of them. But I think it’s still a long way up from playing in Europe and doubt the Canadian border has much of a practical effect on players’ decisions. Most NBA cities become appealing destinations if and only if their resident teams employ players and executives that are appealing to NBA free agents, which the post-Bosh Raptors probably don’t. The problem is that Toronto’s previous attempts at building around a franchise player were based upon guys whose personalities were not conducive to being the first major building block on a team in a non-destination city. It only takes one super-talented, super-loyal star — think Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard — to attract top players to a place that once seemed to be on the NBA periphery. The problem, of course, is finding that guy. Clearly, Vince Carter and Chris Bosh didn’t fit the description.

Q. What’s your take on Bryan Colangelo and the job he’s done for the Raptors? Could he have held on to Bosh had he made other choices? Did he make a huge mistake by not trading him earlier? What about the type of team he is trying to build in Toronto?

KM: I think Bosh was always leaving — he’s a very good second option alongside an elite scoring wing with good court vision; now he gets to play with two of them. It’s interesting to think about how things would have played out for Toronto if Bosh and T-Mac had come along at about the same time — they would have complemented each other brilliantly, maybe well enough that they both would have wanted to stay. As for Colangelo, I think he was probably doomed from the start. His mandate was to focus singularly on the retention of a player who was 1) probably always going to leave and 2) probably not good enough to be the best player on a great team anyway. To the extent that this strategy has failed (in the departure of Bosh) or set the franchise back (due to the shortsightedness of some of Toronto’s acquisitions), that failure is more associated with the flaws of the mandate (which fall at the feet of ownership) than with any flaws in execution (which would fall at the feet of Colangelo). That said, Toronto clearly needs to dive head-first into overhaul mode and that necessarily involves a conversation regarding whether Colangelo remains the right man for what is now a very different job.

Seriously, the guy does not deserve to be a head coach in the National Basketball Association with so many capable guys working at TNT/ESPN, this is getting ridiculous. He single-handedly almost cost the Raptors the game today with poor substitutions, terrible decision making and continually insisting the Raptors play zone defense for most of the 4th quarter. What was a 17 point 3rd quarter lead, ended in a ridiculous overtime affair that was more work than it should have been, considering he Raptors play tomorrow against the Warriors.

So lets pre-face things by saying that the Raptors won a must-win game. Today represented the 5th straight solid effort (while today’s effort wasn’t a full 48, it got the win) the Raptors have given in a row, with the Raptors going 3-2. Philly is a tough match-up for the Raptors for a couple reasons: they are athletic and Triano doesn’t know what the f&#k he’s doing.

The 1st quarter started pretty brutal. It was about as bad as Calderon has played all season. He couldn’t find his range, wasn’t moving the ball around well, and couldn’t keep up with Jrue Holiday, who was looking to build on his last game against the Raptors when he put up 21pts 7rebs 6ast. Bosh was also invisible early with a turnover, when the ball finally got to him. It was all one-and-done for the Raptors, who had zero movement off the ball.

In the meantime, the Sixers moved the ball around until they got the best shot available, capitalizing on early Raptor turnovers (6pts). They opened the game on a 13-4 run assisting on every field goal (4 field goals on 4 assists). Iguadala was a BEAST in getting the Sixers going early. He either scored or assisted on 17 of the first 18 Sixer points.

After a Raptor timeout, the guys got their act together, and started to move the ball around to get good shots. Turkoglu and Jack entered the game and got right to work; Turkoglu drew a double and kicked to an open Jack for a trey, then buried a three of his own. Miraculously, the Raptors had about 6 scoreless minutes of play in the 1st, but managed to get out of the quarter with a 26-24 lead thanks to the bench, who outscored Phillies 12-0.

The second quarter was more of the same. Both sides threw defense out the window and tried to score each other into oblivion. The Raptors went 12-17 from the field on 10 assists, while the Sixers went 14-21 from the field on 12 assists. It was actually some pretty entertaining basketball after that brutal start to the game, spearheaded by Bosh who dropped 11 after a rough start. When he wasn’t scoring, he was creating shots for his teammates by drawing the double in the post then passing out to open shooters 4 times. Beautiful.

You know when Matt/Jack/Leo/Sherman have one of their love-fests for a Raptor to the point of making you want to vomit? Well last night it was Sonny Weems’ turn, but the kid delivered. He dropped 10pts 5rebs 2ast in the 4th, and was the reason the Raptors took control of the game in the quarter. The Raptors pulled away from Sixers with an 11-4 run (sparked by Calderon with 4pts 2ast) in the first three and a half minutes of the quarter, then another 8-4 run (Sonny time with 6pts 2rebs 1ast) in the next two minutes twenty seconds, then another 9-4 (Weems with 2pts 2rebs) run to give the Raptors a 17 point lead with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Then Calderon gets swapped out for Jack, and things start to get interesting.

The Raptors start to show a bit of zone, but without the defense. They were just standing in their spots without doing much of anything. It was actually pathetic watching it with March Madness going on and those kids putting on clinics on playing an effective zone defense. Iguadala recognized the pathetic display, and just went for the jugular. In the last 3 minutes, he dropped 8pts 1ast by putting his head down and attacking off the dribble (5-6 from the line). Had Bargnani not hit that hail mary trey with at the end of the quarter, it would have been a 9 point Raptor lead heading into the 4th.

With the momentum clearly in the Sixers favour, Triano reacts to the Sixers (who are playing small ball) and fields a lineup of Calderon/Jack/DeRozan/Turkoglu/Bosh. After a great 4th quarter by Weems, he was nowhere to be found, and the Raptors struggled to score since we had three players (Calderon, Jack and Turkoglu), who need the ball in their hand to be effective, on at the same time. People were just standing around hoping for the best. The Sixers meanwhile were attacking the hell out of our zone defense, and cut the Raptor lead to 2 points in the first 3 minutes on a 10-0 run.

So just to recap, over a 6 minute span between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th, the Sixers went on a 23-8 run, because the Raptors had the wrong people on the court, and were playing zone defense. Clearly Bosh was dogging it and didn’t want to win the game, otherwise he would have grabbed that clipboard, and beat Triano with it until he cried and ran off the court with his arms flailing. It got so ridiculous that Jack Armstrong belted out:

From there on in, the two sides went tit for tat; Calderon tied the game up with a clutch three, and Bosh had a chance to win the game for the Raptors going baseline on Dalembert, but he missed the reverse layup. In overtime, we saw some stone cold shooting from both sides. There was even 4 straight possessions where the Sixers hit a three, then the Raptors answered with a three of their own on the next possession. Bargnani was huge in overtime, and had a great game overall.

The Raptors kept the Sixers scoreless for the last minute of overtime, but Iguadala had a Stephen Jackson moment, and put up a ridiculous 3 point shot with 26 seconds left on the clock and the Raptors up 3. It was the same situation as in the Bobcats game, the Raptors put themselves in a situation to win the game, but it wasn’t written until the other team had a brain fart and made a stupid.

So to the Raptors credit, this was a must win game that they won, but Triano was the reason this game went to overtime. Sonny Weems sparked the Raptors to a 17 point lead with scoring, rebounding and playing making; but when the Raptors were struggling to score points, the guy rides pine. You insist on playing Hedo Turkoglu who wasn’t doing anything. You insist on giving Jack crunch time minutes when he was having a terrible game. You go with a cold DeRozan to start the 4th. Yet you don’t play the guy who was having a great game. I don’t understand…

Then for your encore, you play zone defense at a professional level for extended periods of time; shenanigans I say. Who does that? You mix it up for a possession or two to throw the other team off balance; not incessantly for a whole quarter while you watch your lead evaporate and let the other team back in the game. Jay you suck, and you are giving me freaking ulcers.

Seeing as Jay is having trouble with what’s going on, I have some advice for you, I’ll even use small words so you can follow along:

• Play the guys who are having a good game.
• Please don’t use the zone defense for more than 2 minutes a game.
• Get yourself down to Harry Rosen and pick out a couple nice suits.

We got the Warriors today, pre-game will be up around 1pm.

We have a weird 1pm game time for the Raptors/Sixers game today, ruining my day since it’s right smack in the middle (yet another way the Raptors are ruining my life besides the copious amount of time I spend watching/talking/crying/assuming fetal position because of them) of the day. It’s not even like we get to see a great team today, the bloody Sixers man…sigh.

With 8 games to go, the Raptors have made a giant change to the rotation, and it has worked out over the past two matches. The hardest part of the rotation change was getting the buy-in from Turkoglu to come off the bench, which to his credit has been a non-issue, at least in the media. As we all know though, it’s not who starts, but who finishes, and Triano has said that he expects Turkoglu to be out there in crunch-time regardless of his starting status. Ok great, I’m not going to say it took our head coach 74 games to put together a rotation costing us some games/playoff position in the process and giving all of us ulcers, but I really should.

Today’s game should be the third win in a row for the Raptors, who are coming off of two solid wins over the Bobcats and the Clippers. It’s go time, there is two weeks left in the regular season, and these sorts of games should be look at-as wins. Even though IMHO the Sixers should be one of the teams fighting for the playoffs given the players and coaching they have in place, the reality is they just don’t have it.

Over the last 10 games, the Sixers are 3-7, and are seemingly going through the motions. They need to be taken seriously though, since they have

Keys to the game

• Keep Lou Williams in check: the guy has averaged about 21 points over the three games against Toronto this season. He averages 14.4pts for the season.
• Keep Thaddeus Young in check too: he’s dropping 21.7pts and 6.7rebs this season on the Raptors. Both above his averages for the year.
• Maintain focus: The Raptors could have very easily be heading into Philly on a four game winning streak had Melo rimmed out and just one more minute of effort was squeezed out against the Heat. We’ve seen these guys play down to their competition this season; the Raptors need to NOT do that today and bring it.

Before I end this lame pre-game, I want to point out how questions about Bosh being checked out have all but died; and all the Raptors had to do was win 2 games. Even though he’s been producing at the same levels, with essentially the same usage and shots and minutes and bla bla bla, folks were saying he was mailing it in when the Raptors were losing, but win two games and it stops. Fickle bunch we are, that’s all I’m saying.

The Raptors are 1-0 during this must win stretch, which goes till the last game of the season against the Knicks. When I said that every game is a must win from here on in, I meant that each game must be approached as if they are. With Toronto and Milwaukee currently tied for 5th, and the Raptors ahead of of Charlotte (9th place) by 2.5 games, there is no “you just have to let this game go and concentrate on the next.”

They did just that against the Knicks on Friday, sans Bosh, who was out with a stomach flu or something (he did practice yesterday and is expected to play today, which is crucial.). Triano went with Amir in the starting lineup, and Sonny Weems had a career game. Bosh did practice yesterday and is expected to play today, which is crucial.

Sonny is our new Jamario Moon, except that he’s good. He is averaging 13.3pts over the last four games. It’s great to see a young/hungry player get an opportunity to contribute, and actually sieze the moment. The best part is that his $850k option for next season will be picked up.

The Raptors are 2-0 against the Sixers this season, and even if Turkoglu doesn’t play (since he is a game-time decision) they should take this with Bosh in the lineup, injured and all. The Sixers are just not very good, and when Eddie Jordan is saying things like “Iguadala is not the kind of player who can carry a team,” how good can things be?

A positive note for the Sixers is that Iverson is done for the season, who has done nothing but shatter my love for him. His absence means more burn for Jrue Holiday, which is also positive news for the Raptors, who can take it to the rookie. Calderon had a solid game Friday against the Knicks, with 16pts 3rebs 6ast; there is no reason to expect otherwise today.

Amir will be playing another big role today, regardless of Bosh’s status. The kid played 31minutes of inspired/controlled ball on Friday, in a starting role. Johnson matches up well with Dalembert, Speights and Young who may be a bit too quick for Evans.

After today, the schedule get’s very difficult for the Raptors. 8 of their next 12 are on the road: the next 4 is a Western swing; 6 are against teams with 35 or more wins…can you say another must win?

In this episode of LCN, our host Colin Alschotz hooks up with hardcore Raptors fan-addict at the final Raps game before the 2010 All-Star break and celebrates the official Raptors debut of Reggie Evans against his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

To honour Reggie “Ball Grabber” Evans’ first regular season game as a Raptor, we question whether he would play more minutes than former Raptor Jason Kapono. In preparation for the All-Star Dunk Contest, we find out whether Raps fan-addicts think Demar DeRozan is a better dunker than Andre Iguodala. We also ask fans to give us their rating of the job Raps President/GM Bryan Colangelo has done in building this team. Finally, our mystery question relates to the craziness that happens at the annual mid-season spectacle that is NBA All-Star weekend!

We want to give huge shout-outs to everyone that contributed to the making of this series, especially: Colin Alschotz for the on-screen presence; Birdman for the directing and editing; D&L Productions for the original music; LyNx for the graphics; BigMac (Rexdale) for the game footage, and MLSE for putting the product on the court.

Raps fans get ready cuz we’re making LOUD CROWD NOISE!!!

You know that Turkoglu commercial that looks like it’s been shot with an iPhone where he’s chomping pizza? I honestly think that’s how he is in real life, just too bloody laid back. At the tail end of a 0-assist stinker he had two chances to be the hero but faltered, luckily for us the two cornerstones of the franchise made two massive plays – one offensive, one defensive – and the Raptors overcame a lethargic and inexcusable start to beat a struggling Philadelphia team. Despite playing sloppy basketball and trailing for most of the night, you just had the feeling that the Raptors had another gear in them, and if they would just shift into it for 6-8 minutes this game was in hand. They did, and it was.

Jack Armstrong called it a “trap game”, one which follows a euphoric win and is almost too easy to look past. The Raptors are rudderless when it comes to leadership and it’s the reason we came out the way we did. We were sloppy and passive on offense, lacking energy in transition and gave Philly (10-25) a perfect opportunity to run at us and get themselves out of the rut they’re mired in. Lazy passes at the top were being picked off for transition scores and they were pushing us after makes and misses. Jack couldn’t get a handle on the pest-like Lou Williams and Hedo Turkoglu wasn’t doing much of anything. With the two creators ineffective, the Raptors through the process of elimination went to Bosh isolations and he was hampered by the length of Dalembert and ended up with 6 turnovers on the night (18 in the last 4 games), many of them costly in terms of momentum.

Bargnani’s aggressive drives weren’t rewarded enough but the center didn’t let that affect his defensive game and was a stalwart all night long. He picked up a technical after the refs looked the other way on a clear goaltend and as if to say f**k you to them, delivered on the very next play with a drive and dunk. Other than that and few DeRozan drives, the offense was too perimeter-oriented and stagnant.

Iverson’s quick, hesitation-filled drives were giving DeRozan a lot to chew on as the Hall of Fame guard was in rather vintage form, getting scores and assists with seeming ease. The rookie finally responded and soon became the lone bright spot for the Raptors as he used Bosh screens well to get himself to the rim on a few occasions. However, whatever little the lethargic Raptors managed to muster on offense, they gave right back because of poor transition defense and a 32-23 first quarter deficit flattered their play. Philly’s 34-16 edge in fastbreak points is indicative of how they seek out easy points and the Raptors defensive game-plan hadn’t accounted for it.

The second quarter was played closer to parity with the bench coming in and providing a quick lift; Jose Calderon took advantage of rookie Jrue Holiday but it was on the defensive end that the problems lay. The inability to keep the usually inefficacious Philadelphia offense in the half-court meant we were back-tracking on defense and thus struggling to defend without fouling. Philadelphia was sensing blood as Andre Iguodala’s ferocity in transition was continually fueled by their backcourt’s desire to get something on the cheap. Despite all this, Philadelphia wasn’t able to blow us out as they missed several chances in transition, partly because of some great defensive work from Bargnani who refused to give up on plays in transition. Even though the Sixers were +5 in offensive boards, they were only +1 in second-chance points.

After a pair of hard-earned DeRozan FTs, a couple foul-hunting drives by Bosh and a step-back jumper by Jack, the Raptors had manged to slash the Philly lead to only 5 with a 1:10 left in the half, not a bad position to be in considering the energy level. Philly’s ensuing 6-0 run can be largely credited to lazy Turkoglu ball-handling and wastage of shot-clock. Down 11 at the half and conceding 60 points to a team that averages 101.9 ppg isn’t something to hang your hat on, but you knew this game was there to be had if we only played right. The rookie had a good game (12/6/1 in 24 min) but didn’t see the floor after the 3:47 mark of the third as Triano went with Belinelli who had meshed well with the second unit. A win’s a win but if we had lost this game rest assured that this would’ve been a huge talking point.

Bosh’s stat-line at the end of the night read 29/9/6 (6 assists = good passing out of elbow-double) but you wouldn’t have known it watching the game, especially given his first half display after which it was hard to believe he was the leader in points and rebounds. I suppose good players are effective in mysterious ways and I don’t know how he did it, but he made up for his six big turnovers. Triano’s message at the half had to be about energy because the Raptors were the aggressor to start matters in the third. The defensive intensity had picked up and Bargnani and Jack nailed two huge threes to get the bench out of their seats. Lou Williams continued to be a thorn in our side, he discovered his outside shooting in the third and was giving Jack, and later Jose, fits. Trading punches with Philly had us chasing the game by 9 with 3:19 despite the second unit forcing 9 Philly turnovers by pressuring their suspect 3/4/5s’ whenever they had the ball.

In a role-reversal from the first quarter, the Raps went on an 8-0 run where they were the aggressors on defense and got the transition points that oh so frequently change momentum. With the lead slashed to 1 thanks to Belinelli and Weems’ aggressive play on the break and a bad-shot-good-shot Bosh jumper, Philly was rattled. Marco Belinelli’s +14 isn’t a throw-away stat, in both his stints he pushed the issue on defense against Iguodala and Green, and hit a massive three which tied the game with seconds left in the third. This was in sharp contrast to Turkoglu’s play which can best be described as passive.

Bargnani’s defensive effort has been absolutely rock-solid the last few games, his three blocks (including a late one on Iguodala) show up in the boxscore but the number of shots he alters are also on the rise. His increased agility and awareness has also helped his ability to recover on defense and you see him challenging shots even after conceding position or rebounds. He wasn’t put in compromising defensive situations on the perimeter so he was more or less at home defending the offensively-challenged Dalembert or the smaller Young. It’s good to write that there is no questioning his defensive effort of late.

Triano, with good reason, stuck to the second unit majority of Calderon, Bargnani, Belinelli, Johnson and Weems to start the fourth. Calderon had played well against the rookie Holiday but once matched up with Williams, the difference in offensive creativity was visible as Williams had little trouble breaking his defense. Still, the Spaniard was doing his best to keep the ball moving in the face of pressure and his efforts led to Bargnani knocking down a huge three early in the fourth as the Raptors held a modest three point lead. The decision to keep the subs on midway through the fourth quarter had worked, Johnson had 3 rebounds in 13 minutes but managed to make a stamp on the game with his strong defensive play against Dalembert and Young, Belinelli continued his strong defense up until Iverson burned him for four, but most importantly the energy was maintained.

With the smaller two-guard lineup of Jack and Calderon in a switching scheme was adopted and the main threat for Philly had become Lou Williams who was coming at them every time. I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t play a better defender like DeRozan in that situation since Jack was reduced to standing on the perimeter for most of the fourth, at least DeRozan would provide a slashing factor. After Williams propelled the Sixers back to water level at 95, then came Turkoglu’s first major contribution to the game. After Bosh was doubled on the strong-side, he had the presence of mind to recognize Turkoglu in the weak-side corner (something we don’t do enough) and he nailed a three. After that Bosh had made up his mind to not be seduced by the jumper and went into drive-mode, earning himself 4 trips to the line and restoring the lead. It was short-lived as Williams again moved well without the ball as an aggressive Raptors double paid the price by conceding a three; the deceptive guard then drove down the lane for a dunk as the Raptors help defense failed in every regard.

Nursing a one-point lead, Chris Bosh had a chance to put the pressure on Philly but his sixth turnover of the night had Philly back on the break. Bargnani’s massive block on Iguodala saved face. We had another chance to ice the game but Turkoglu managed to make a muck of the possession and on the missed shot Philly ran it back textbook style for the lead with 19 seconds to play. Down by 1 on the road, Triano gave the ball to Turkoglu but the offensive set was stagnant and the pass to Bosh on the left-block seemed like a last resort. Bosh, being pressured by Dalembert, held the ball for too long and it looked like this one would end in tears, but a voice in his head yelled “DRIVE!” and he did. And1. Raptors escape. Triano later explained that the idea was to get a two-man game going and that he had anticipated Hedo being forced to give up the ball.

We tried to get Chris and Hedo in a two-man game, use the screen or don’t use the screen. They overplayed it as they’d been trapping Turkoglu for most of the game so Chris slipped and went down to the low block. They recovered, we tried to get him in an iso at some point and that was it, we preferred more at elbow so they woudnt double. They didn’t double and he was able to take Dalembert to the basket for the And1.

The bench led by Calderon provided the defensive spark in both stints and they supplied that crucial 8-0 run at the end of the third. They outscored the Philly bench 25-16 and turned the game on its head so that the starters could do their job in the end. Who knew that the biggest reason not to start Calderon would be his great play in the second unit and not Jack’s in the starting lineup. With the way the bench is playing being under him, it’s going to be hard to justify a change at this point. Reminds me a lot of the 2006-07 season when the bench was a great strength of ours. The attitude and effort with which we started the game was very disappointing, but the way we ended made up for all of it. I’m willing to attribute the Jekyll and Hyde show to growing pains.