What I tell you about the Cavs game? Something didn’t seem right about the line, and although they gave it a go in the first quarter, the Raptors were able to storm back, win the 2nd quarter, then take the game. Wont be so easy tonight against Boston. Seems like we play the Celtics once a week or so doesn’t it? Fortunately this is the last match-up until next season.

The Celtics are coming off a huge win against the Spurs, where they went small ball and put the Spurs in their place. Small ball is actually an option that makes me nervous for tonight’s game since it nullifies Bargnani’s ability to put the ball on the floor and take his man off the dribble. Sure he will shoot over anyone from 18 feet out, but he doesn’t post-up enough when he has a defender on his hip enough  to punish the other team.

I checked in with Ryan DeGama from CelticsHub about the Celtics and the game tonight:

With so many injuries to start the season, and currently sitting 1st in the East, you guys must be feeling good heading into the second half of the season. Will anything less than a championship be a disaster this season?
Disaster’s a big word but if the Celtics drop another Finals to the Lakers, then it might be the right one. It would be disaster-level painful for most Celtics fans, who still aren’t really over the second half collapse in game seven of last year’s Finals.

The bottom line is this team was built to win championships and this might be the best team that Danny Ainge has put together for Doc Rivers, so expectations are sky-high. The fact the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce-Ray Allen core won one championship means they’ll be looked on favorably by history, however, a second would cement their legacies in Boston, where winning one title is only sorta, kinda impressive.

Who do you not want to play in the Eastern playoffs, and if you get there, the Finals?
Eastern Conference: Probably Miami. Also Chicago. And Orlando. The problem with this year is that to just get to The Finals, the C’s will have to go through at least two of those teams. Miami may be a year of frontcourt reinforcements away from being able to topple Boston, and Orlando may not have a true second star behind Howard, so, counter-intuitively perhaps, I’ll nominate Chicago. Rose is a matchup nightmare, and they’ve got an athletic frontline that can give Boston problems. If the Bulls can upgrade their 2-guard, they’re going to be a handful.

The Finals: The Celtics would probably be best served playing the Spurs but even though it’s a tougher matchup, I think everybody wants the Lakers (see also: revenge).

Rondo’s improved every year he’s played in the league, but to average 14 assists a game is very impressive. It seems to have come at the expense of his offense, but his improved shooting efficiency has made up for it some. What can you attribute to the big jump in playmaking for him this season?
To quibble, scoring numbers aside, I think his offense is actually a level beyond where it was last year. He has a newfound consistency of effort and result from game-to-game and he’s shooting a career high 44% from the mid-range.

His assist numbers are up for a number of reasons including: his natural peak-years evolution as playmaker, because Shaq has replaced Perkins in the starting lineup, and also because Allen and Pierce remain lethal shotmakers.

Perkins is a free agent after this year. What do you think he’s worth on the open market, and will be a Celtic come next season?
That first question may be above my pay grade, particularly with us all unsure of what the new CBA is going to look like, but as a blind guess, how about $8M per? Ainge has been reluctant to sign any player beyond 2012 except Pierce and Rondo but I think he’ll re-up Perkins to a multi-year deal after the season – lest he undercut the C’s chances for a 2012 run at the title.

Assuming there is a 2012.

(You can take that as a reference to either a potential lockout or the Mayan doomsday prophecy).

What’s going to be the plan heading into the game tonight against the Raptors?
Nothing you haven’t seen. Doesn’t it seem like these two teams are always playing each other in clusters? Over at CelticsHub, Hayes Davenport refers to it as Raptors Week.

As usual, the Celtics will test the Raptors willingness to play defense on multiple offensive options for 24-full-seconds and try to keep your athletes from crashing the offensive glass and getting to the rim.

Injuries

Toronto
Reggie Evans – Out
Peja Stojakovich – Out
Sonny Weems – Day to day
Jerryd Bayless – Day to day
Jose Calderon – Hurting but should play

Boston
Kendrick Perkins – Out
Kevin Garnett – Out
Delonte West – Out

Match-ups

Point Guard
Rondo’s back, and he’s playing like a champ again. Wednesday against the Spurs he dropped a magnificent 12pts 10rebs 22ast 6stl 1blk gem. Can he do it tonight against the Raptors? Yes. Will he? Probably. My preference is to take away his options and force him to hit some shots, but he’s been hitting those at a 53% rate…so yea…

Jose can regain some lost ground with another monster game, but Rondo is no Mo Williams or Ramon Sessions, and plays great defense. 20pts 17ast may not be possible, but something like 17pts 10ast will help fight the good fight.
Edge: Boston

Shooting Guard
I keep saying it and saying it, and nothing, but DeMar needs to study Ray Allen and follow his lead. Sure DeMar is super athletic, but so are most shooting guards in the league; degrees of athleticism isn’t really an advantage. Regardless, DeRozan’s been on a bit of a tear of late, with a bad game for him being 13pts 3rebs 2ast…I’ll take that. Tonight will be more of the same with Ray Allen inflicting a great deal of pain on the Raptors. Barbosa wont fair any better.
Edge: Boston

Small Forward
The Truth, nuff said. Would be nice to get Julian Wrights defense on him, but it wont help.
Edge: Boston

Power Forward
As much as I loathe Glen Davis, the guy is having a great season. Against the Raptors, he’s averaging 15pts 6rebs 4ast which makes my blood boil to no end (death by 1000 cuts). With Garnett out, there’s very depth at the 4, which is where the Raptors can make up some lost ground in the match-ups. Both Amir and Ed are playing very well lately, and will give Davis a run for his money on the glass.

What has me concerned is that Doc Rivers going small ball, which will see Marquis Daniels switch to the 4 and Davis to the 5. This could pose a lot of problems for the Raptors as Daniels plays about 15ft in, pulling Amir/Ed out of the paint making help defense and rebounding that much tougher. On the offensive glass, Daniels will do zero to counter Johnson/Davis though, so there is a silver lining with this strategy.

At the end of the day, any advantage the Raptors may have here will be far outweighed by the Celtics advantage at the wing. To close, here’s Glen Davis doing the dougie:

Edge: Toronto

Center
Shaq can’t cover  Bargnani for long stretches on defense, so we will see some interesting lineups thrown at the Raptors. Bargnani will have to deal with a combination of Shaq, Jermaine O’Neal and Glen Davis, each bringing a different challenge for him to deal with. If/when the Celtics go small ball, Bargnani will struggle with defending Davis on the perimeter and his bull-doggedness when he gets into the paint with his interesting post-play (always has these moves where I full expect him to flop to the ground and airball the layup, but it works). Unlike the power forward advantage the Raptors enjoy, if Bargnani puts up a 30+ point night, he might be able to keep things very interesting for much of the game.
Edge: Toronto

The Line

The gamblers have the Celtics as 9.5 point favourites with an over/under of 200.5. Unlike the Cavaliers game, the Raptors can’t spot the Celtics a 32-19 lead in the 1st quarter and expect to take the game. With the game in Boston, the Raptors will need to hit the ground running from the get-go and do all the little things to have a chance.

We’ve got Twitter, Facebook and Live Chat. If you’re in the city and want to catch the game with other Raptor fans, head over to Sports Center Cafe at Yonge/St. Clair for Raptor Fan Fridays.

One love

The ovation Peja received when he checked into the game on Wednesday was legendary, the crowd may have been sparse, but boy do we love us some Peja; and to his credit, he didn’t disappoint in very limited minutes. Wednesday against the Sixers, the Raptors rolled off their 4th win in a row, in pretty good fashion. They got out to an early lead, Philly started to chip into it, came close, then the Raptors closed out the game after a scare. Good, done deal.

The fact that we’re heading into Boston on a 4 game winning streak, one of them came against Boston, shouldn’t be discounted. Look, we all know that this team isn’t a very good one, but they hustle, are active, and are fun to watch, but the Raptors just don’t have the horses. That being said, the East is an interesting situationt: 5 games separates 5th and 15th, so going 4-6 in their last 10 games has the Raptors half a game out of the playoffs.

Yes yes, I know it’s far too early to talk about the playoffs, but you need to consider that only a week ago this team was in a race for last pace in the East/League. Took a 4-game winning streak to climb 6 spots in the standings. Don’t think that this has gone unnoticed in the upper ranks either. All the moves BryCo has made have been both tactical and strategic. There are made with the intention of making the playoffs that year, but also providing flexibility should they not work out, and the Raptors are once again in that position to either blow it up and get as many balls in as possible to get a top 3 pick, or add a couple guys who can push them to the playoffs, and possibly not as bright a future since we wouldn’t be getting a lottery pick.

I’m straddling both sides of the moment: I’m always for going to the playoffs, but it would be nice to get a nice young stud in the draft to mold into a major part of this teams future. I have the luxury of flip-flopping back and forth though, BC doesn’t.

We get the Celtics for the 2nd time in a week, and normally I’d be saying this game is going to be messy. It still might, but the things that won the game for us at home last week, haven’t changed: namely Rondo’s injury and Toronto’s athleticism. The Celtics did take the Raptors lightly, but they lots of trouble running with us and keeping up. Two things happened last game that really made my day: 1) Garnett sat on the bench with a lost look on his face. He’s owned Bosh over the years, but Bargnani abused last week 2) Watching Glenn Davis roll around on the floor clutching his face in pain after getting a shot to the head, loved it.

Injuries

Toronto
Ed Davis – Wearing his warmup suit at least
Leandro Barbosa – Achilles, should play

Boston
Rajon Rondo – Hamstring, Out
Delonte West – Wrist, Out
Jermaine O’Neal – Out
Kendrick Perkins – Out

Match-ups

Point Guard
This match-up couldn’t be any better for the Raptors: Rondo/West are replaced by Nate Robinson/Avery Bradley, Bradley of the DNP-CD variety. Robinson put in a pretty good performance last week, but most of it came in the 1st quarter. While his shooting was hot, he wasn’t moving the ball around, and the offense became dependant as a result of him going one-on-one and hitting the shot. I’ll take that any day of the week since his shooting went downhill after the 1st quarter, and the rest of the Celtics were left holding the bag. It took a game, but Calderon found his rhythm after the Jack trade, dropping 16pts 9ast Wednesday against the Sixers. Bayless came out like gangbusters in his first game with the Raps, but I don’t expect to see him go 3-for-3 from behind the arc, and finish the game with 13pts. Keeping Robinson out of the paint, and chucking shots from the perimeter is the move tonight, I’d go with that.
Edge: Toronto

Shooting Guard
Ray Allen should be who DeMar DeRozan looks too for a role-model in this league. The guy doesn’t yap, keeps in primo shape, and shoots like an angel (he also moves and plays defense like one as well). So go down to the AV room, and get as many DVD’s of Ray-Ray doing his thing over the years, get into the gym and shoot 500 jumpers a day, and stay in shape. DeMar’s contribution during this winning streak has been negligible at best; averaging 7.5pts 2.8rebs a game. It’s actually very troubling considering he’s being counted on for so much. Based on recent history, I don’t see DeRozan contributing his due share tonight, but he can play hard, and get back on the right track with a strong defensive performance highlighted with with attacking the basket off the bounce (no jumpers, just drives).
Edge: Boston

Small Forward
Paul Pierce has a knack for killing you in slow motion. It must be such a treat for Celtics fan to watch dudes play ball with their heads like they are playing Risk. Pierce is one of those guys who kills you in the right way at the right time; last time against the Raptors, he got to the line 13 times hitting 9. Weems and Kleiza mint have some success defending him off the dribble, but keeping him off the line will prove tough. Staying in front of him, not falling for head fakes and making him take are what’s necessary to attempt to stop him, and even en he can kill you. At the end of the game, if we keep Pierce out of the paint and off the free throw line, I’ll be a happy camper.
Edge: Boston

Power Forward
Reggie is seriously playing himself out of town; come February, some playoff team is going to come calling for his rebounding and expiring contract. While he’s here, his work on the glass is protecting Bargnani far more than many of us would want to believe. Last week, Reggie out rebounded both Shaq and the big fat baby (the highlight of the win over Boston for me was Davis getting chopped in the face and rolling around the ground in pain; hate that guy) quite handedly. What would have changed in a week, especially after Evans pulled down 22 against the Sixers two-nights ago? Nothing, that’s what. I like Reggie to dominate the boards and hopefully catch Davis in that fat nose of his with an errant elbow or something equally unfortunate.

Amir’s athleticism and rebounding will be crucial off the bench. He’s had some foul troubles the last few games (even fouled out against the Sixers), but has been uber productive otherwise. Davis does a lot for a fat bastard, and Reggie will have trouble guarding him. I like Amir on Davis much better as a match-up. Shaq I’m not too worried about either way; he’s going to have a couple possessions where he’s unguardable, then he’s going to stink.
Edge: Toronto

Center
it’s not that Bargnani is a better player than Bosh for handling Garnett as he did last week, it’s that he handled Garnett like a little girl last week on-route to win over an elite team that’s the important thing to take away from that game. Il Mago is the perfect player to shut Garnett up: he’s long, athletic, shoots the crap out of the ball and pulls KG away from the paint and glass where he is most needed by the Celtics.

That said, I’m worried about this match-up tonight since KG can just decide to stick to Bargs like sauce on pasta, and not let him get going at all. This would absolutely change Boston’s defensive rotations and rebounding assignments, but could also prove the right recipe to shutting down the Raptor offense by stopping the one guy who can carry this team on his back; when he feels like it of course.
Edge: Even

Keys to the Game

Rebounding
A key to the win against the Celtics was grabbing 10 offensive rebounds, resulting in 5 more possessions. Without Perkins/O’Neal and Garnett out on the perimeter defending Bargnani, the Raptors need to crash the boards and clean up some of the missed shots. The Raptors scored two-thirds of their points on the perimeter, and need a couple of those cheap put-backs to compensate for the offensive execution the Celtics are going to ram down their throats.

Stay Active
The Celtics really had a hard time with the Raptors athleticism all over the court. Without Rondo, they don’t a very key part of their team who can run the court, as well as play the half-court. Another problem with Rondo being out for the Celtics is that he was the first line of defense. Without him, and West, Nate Robinson is helpless against the Raptor offense. Toronto needs to attack every single possession, and just wear this team down, especially with no elite perimeter defender to stop the ball, and their defensive anchor getting schooled on the perimeter by Bargnani.

Dig a Little Deeper
You know what’s better than 4-wins in a row? 5-wins in a row. With the Hawks and Thunder both coming up in the next week, would be nice to have a little cushion, especially since we get the Wizards on Wednesday, and can extract some revenge after a brutally listless showing the last time they played.

The Line

The Celtics are 10 point favourites, which is absurd considering their injury situation and the fact that we already beat them…however…and I say this with conviction: this game can go terribly wrong for the Raptors quickly. If Garnett and Pierce are motivated tonight, it will get ugly. The Raptors don’t have an answer for the type of fire these guys can spit.

If I were Triano, I would look to Bargnani early to keep Garnett out of the paint, and hope the shots fall. A lot will rest on Calderon leading the break, and owning Nate off the dribble in the half-court, which he definitely can do. That said, I am not very optimistic about tonight’s game.

Photo Credit: Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images

Arse has been up since 7am doing laps, push-ups and cursing at the mirror in preparation for the Celtics today. You hate, them, I hate them, everyone hates this team accept people who live in Massachusetts. I actually don’t hate them anymore, I just hate Garnett. Everyone else is a classy player who acts like a man; Garnett is a bully who’s drunk on his championship.

Lots of action the last couple days in Toronto huh? Unavailable for tonight’s game are Jack, Banks and Andersen; hopefully Stojakovic and Bayless available. 77% of you think this was a good trade for the Raptors, and I have to agree. In one swoop, the Raptors got younger, saved some money, and have a big asset that should come into play as the trade deadline gets closer. Gotta give Colangelo some credit, this could have been the best trade he’s made in a while since we will still have Reggies expiring in play as well.

Just a quick recap of some assets as the trade deadline approaches:

Peja Stojakovic – $14.75mil
Reggie Evans – $5mil
TPE – $14mil’ish

That’s a lot of toys to be playing with, and with a lot of broke teams, and teams looking to add a dead-eye(ish) shooters, it’s very possible something good/big can happen by February. The only thing not acceptable for me is buying out Peja’s contract right now. I guarantee you Riley is whispering sweet nothings in BryCo’s ear to try to make that happen.

We have a game to get too…Raptors host the Celtics today. I had a chance to speak with Brendan Jakcson from Celtics Hub, and he had some really good things to say about this team:

He’s the man on the one of the three best teams in the league; at what point does the list of best point guards begin with Rondo and not Paul, Williams, Westbrook or Rose?
Many people believe that Rajon Rondo will not fully ascend to the upper echelon of premir point guards until he develops a consistent jump shot. I disagree. Friday marked the first time this season Rondo failed to record double digit assists (finishing the game with 7) and he say out for much of the fourth quarter with a hamstring issue. Ranking the league’s best point guards is usually problematic on the outset because no one really agrees on the criteria. Should they be the best passer? Best basketball player? Best decision-maker? Should they be better offensively? Should they be better defensively? At this point, if Rondo is not ebing mentioned within that group of aforementioned points, than the person doing the talking has not been paying much attention.

Are the Celtics more worried about the Heat or the Magic?
First and foremost, the Celtics are most worried about themselves. If healthy and focused, the Celtics feel they can beat any team on any night. However, those are two huge “ifs”. So far this season, the Celtics have handily beaten the Heat twice. At this point the Celtics cannot really say they are worried about the Heat. As for the Magic, the Celtics have yet to play the new-look Magic (Quentin Richardson has replaced Matt Barnes and Stan Van Gundy is actually playing Brandon Bass) but even the Magic do not stroke fear in the hearts of the Celtics. Kendrick Perkins is probably the best at defending Dwight Howard one on one which gives the Cs so much more leeway on the defensive end. Less cheating/helping begets better close-outs on shooters. Despite handily beating the Magic in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics have yet to play them this year. The easy answer is the fear of the unknown.

The Celtics lost a couple key guys (Tony Allen for one), added another couple (West and Wafer) and added two O’Neal’s who might be limping into the playoffs. Were these moves enough to even get out of the East, much less beat the Lakers?
The Celtics came out of the East last year with a far less complete team. As for the Lakers, the Celtics lacked the necessary size and length in the middle to compete with Los Angeles on the glass. The additions of Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’Neal will likely change that. The Celtics may still lose the battle of the boards but now they are more well-equipped to battle other players for rebounds.
Delonte West may end up being the most underrated move of any team this offseason. I do not blame teams for taking a pass on West but also totally understand why the Celtics did not. The Celtics’ bench lacked a necessary glue-guy last year as evident by how much burn Ray Allen got with the bench warmers. West changes that. He can play the one, two, or even the three if the Celtics go small.
Losing Tony Allen was a definite blow for the Celtics wing defense off the bench. Luckily for the Cs, Marquis Daniels appears to be hitting his stride (well, hitting it enough, anyway) to be a serviceable replacement for TA. Daniels is not a “lock-down” guy like Allen was for the Cs, but he’s still capable of spelling Pierce when necessary.

Speaking of Lakers, if the Celtics don’t win it all this season, how much sleep does Danny Ainge lose before breaking things up?
Danny Ainge actually did a brilliant thing last offseason by only singing players for two years. This way, whether or not the Celtics win this year they are poised to either go into battle with largely the same team intact or use the plethora of expiring contracts as trade bait. Win or lose, Ainge has options and with options a man can sleep easy.

What will the Raptors have to do to beat the Celtics tonight?
Catch them on an off night? No, but in all seriousness, the Celtics biggest weakness is athleticism. If Toronto can use their athletics wings (Sonny Weems, DeMarr DeRozan) to out run and jump the Cs, than it could be a long night for the men in green. Andrea Bargnani should also try to draw Kevin Garnett out of the paint for as long as possible to clear driving lanes for the Raptor’s more athletics players. If Garnett sags down to help, Bargnani can make him pay by hitting open jumper after open jumper.

Injuries

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

Boston
Rajon Rondo – Hamstring, Game time decision
Kevin Garnett – Elbow to the head (LOL), Game time decision
Jermaine O’Neal – Knee, Out
Kendrick Perkins – Out

Match-ups

PG – Calderon vs Rondo
His first case as the undisputed leader of this team, and he gets Rondo; it’s almost funny actually. If you haven’t been paying attenion, Rondo is the best point guard in the league right now, averaging 11.2pts 14.3ast 4.8reb 2.5blk in about 40min. Jose isn’t. To make matters worse for Calderon, Rondo’s defense is probably better than his offense. On offense, Rondo likes the paint/elbows. Jose can expect to be attacked a lot off the dribble.

Rondo also gets a chance to welcome Jerryd to the Raptors, should be fun.
Edge: Rondo

SG – DeRozan vs Allen
DeMar has played very well the last week or so, and seems to have taken things up a notch in his game. This afternoon against Allen, he will have to leverage more than his athleticism to be effective. He’s going to have to take notes and do what Allen does. It will be fun to watch him chase Ray-Ray around, but he needs to return that favour in kind on offense.

Repeat after me: Don’t. Leave. Allen. On. The. Perimeter. For. Any. Reason. He will stick ‘em from the perimeter, and can finish at the rim. Good luck.
Edge: Allen

SF – Weems vs Pierce
I get that feeling that Weems athleticism wont be helping him as much as usual. Unlike Ray Allen who is able to run around, Pierce doesn’t, and for some reason, he seemingly doesn’t need too. To have any success, Weems will need to get out and make him run in transition. Run up the court, run around screens, run into the corner, fake rolling and pop out…just keep running. If Pierce is tired enough, he wont punish you on offense with that slow first step that has raped and pillaged defenses across the league.

Pierce likes to play in the paint, but his perimeter game needs to be respected. I feel like I should be putting more here, but I’m super tired.
Edge: Pierce

PF – Evans vs Garnett
I suspect there will be a switcharoo on defense were Shaq covers Evans and Garnett jumps out on Bargnani, but whatever. The only thing I’m hoping for today is when KG starts jawing at Calderon, Evans grabs him by the nuts and head butts him. That would make me very happy.

Edge: Garnett

C – Bargnani vs Shaq
The only match-up where the Raptors have an advantage, and I suspect that it will be mitigated with Doc switching Garnett to Bargnani for defensive purposes. Shaq has zero chance of keeping up with Andrea on the perimeter, we all know that. It’s not a secret weapon or anything. Garnett though…he can do it. Bargnani should be able to hang with Shaq defensively, but there will be moments where Shaq gets good position and puts it down. The one area where the Raptors have an advantage, and it’s an easy fix to get around it. Sucks is all…

Edge: Bargnani

Keys to the Game

Rebounding
The Celtics are the 2nd worse rebounding team in the league. Even though they a size advantage against almost every team, they can’t grab a rebound; which really baffles me. Regardless, the Raps need to get out in transition and get the Celtics running back on their heels, as well as keeping possessions going with an offensive rebound. The only way to do that is to have the ball, which means grabbing rebounds. Make sense?

Be Athletic?
I guess you are either or you aren’t. The Raptors are, the Celtics aren’t. The Raptors need to get the geriatrics running up and down the court pleading for the Bengay. The Raptors have to get them tripping over their knee braces and such to have a chance.

Hit your shots
This is more a plea than a strategy, but the Raptors have an advantage in this area, and they need to use it to enhance the other aspects of their game. If this boils down to a slow-paced halfcourt game, it’s over. But if speeds up and gets into an up-and-down match, the Raptors will give themselves a chance. That’s all we’re asking for, a chance.

The Line

The gamblers have the Celtics as 5.5 point favourites, which isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The Raptors just lost one of their most important players in a trade, and with the roster shaken up a bit, it could provide the fire to get after it a bit more than they have been to start the season.

Apparently, Bosh’s injury is worse than what Bosh himself suspected, and the team is just being careful with him. There wasn’t a lot of swelling, but he needs more movement. Heading into the stretch run, it is paramount that he is healthy and 100%. If that means sitting out a game against the best team in the league, then I can live with it. The fact of the matter is that even with Bosh, this game would be very challenging, no need to risk further injury.

On Wednesday, Portland forced the Raptors into their style of play: slow pace, keep folks out of the paint, and contest shots. Watching a team execute a plan like that to perfection was very frustrating. To make matters worse, the Raptors played far to loose with the ball, allowing 17 points off of 16 turnovers, not to mention allowing 20 fast break points. What a brutal game to watch, seriously.

Tonight the Raptors host the Cavs, who may have made the biggest splash at the trade deadline by shipping out Ilgauskas (who just got bought out and will be rejoining the Cavs in a couple weeks) for the stretch power foward they have always coveted to play beside LeBron aka Antawn Jamison; all without giving up JJ Hickson. This is a scary team from top to bottom:

PG – Mo Williams; Daniel Gibson; Sebastian Telfair
SG – Anthony Parker, Delonte West
SF – LeBron James, Jamario Moon, Daniel Green
PF – Antawn Jamison, JJ Hickson, Jawad Williams, Darnell Jackson, Leon Powe
C – Shaquille O’Neal, Anderson Varejao, Zadrunaus Ilgauskas (after the 1 month waiting period)

That my friends is a deep team.

This is the third game of the season against the Cavs, and the first with Jamison in the lineup. The season opener saw Bosh and Bargnani have monster games as the Raptors stopped the Cavs dead in their tracks a night after Boston did the same. The second game was a different beast, as Turkoglu registered one of his many no shows. The Cavs didn’t blow the Raptors out of the water, which was positive; but the Raptors were never really a threat to pull out a win.

Tonight has potential to be a rough one, especially if Bosh is out of the lineup again. Rasho has had a pretty solid three game run, but I don’t want to see him start the game. Bargnani is due to break out of his little funk (not really a funk, but with Bosh being out we expected a bit more). The benefit of starting Bargs at center is having Amir start at power forward, which is a better matchup with Jamison.

This front court tandem gives us a mobile, athletic duo that will force Cleveland to think about making adjustments.

You then counter Hickson and Varajeo off the bench with Evans, Rasho and some creative line juggling of Bargnani and Johnson. Whatever happens, Bargnani needs to give us 36 minutes of Dirk-level production or it all falls apart.

Hedo gets LeBron, and this isn’t a Hedo knock, but good luck. I say let him shoot all he wants, but don’t let him penetrate and create for others. At a minimum, if Hedo can be the scoring threat he was against the Blazers, LeBron will have to pay him special attention on defense splitting his focus. Wright has been getting more minutes as of late, and will be called on to provide relief off the bench.

DeRozan’s star has been fading a bit of late. The rook is by all accounts a gym rat who works hard and is hungry to improve, but has been seeing less and less action through the course of the game over the last couple weeks. For some reason, those minutes are going to Belinelli and not Weems, which I have absolutely no answer for. Of the two, Weems has clearly been the better, more consistent performer over the season.

I just want Jack to clothes-line Mo Williams at some point tonight. Mo hasn’t actually done anything for me to not like him, I just don’t. I’m also looking forward to Jamario Moon clanking a couple jumpers that breaks Cleveland’s offensive flow.

With Bosh playing, this would be an interesting game, with the Raptors having enough depth up front to give the Cavs some problems. Without him, I don’t like our chances. As long as we play tough and not fold, the Raptors can give themselves a chance to pull one out. The passing will need to be crisp, the ball needs to be protected, rebounds need to be grabbed and jumpers need to fall. Not so tall an order, huh?

The ACC will probably be dead seeing as the Canadian Mens Olympic hockey team is in the semi’s against Slovakia. Fortunately, we know a bar that is carrying the Raptors game tonight: come join us for Raptor Fan Friday at the Sports Centre Cafe tonight.

RFF UPDATE:

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s understanding given tonight’s circumstances.

Toronto Sun

They’re a tough matchup at the best of times, but catching the Cleveland Cavaliers now with the franchise — Chris Bosh — hobbled by a sore ankle and not expected to play, takes nightmare to another level entirely.

Say this for the Raps though: They sound eager for the opportunity.

“He’s a huge part of this organization and he has been carrying the load for us the whole year,” Raptors forward Hedo Turkoglu said of Bosh. “I know it’s going to be tough especially against good teams when you’re missing your best player, but it will be a good opportunity for other guys to step up. Hopefully as a group we step up.”

Whether it was Bosh himself suggesting “a miraculous feeling overnight” would be required or head coach Jay Triano hoping that “something happens overnight to make him available”, no one was holding out much hope that Bosh would be back in uniform for Friday’s game against the Cavaliers.

Bosh did some stationary shooting and a few movement drills but certainly no running on the ankle he sprained a week ago Wednesday.

“It’s feeling better, getting better day by day," Bosh said. “I did a little movement. We’ll see how it goes. I’m still not sure about (playing Friday) unless I have a miraculous feeling over night … which is possible. I’ve been here before and re-injuring things over again, you just don’t want to be in that position.“

Toronto Star

"We really didn’t get into any kind of rhythm," Antoine Wright said of the 87-point outing Wednesday. "Normally, with our team, we play inside and out and we never really established ourselves in the paint. In games like that, we tend to take more jump shots and we really couldn’t get our shots to fall.

"He’s the focal point of our offence but we have to figure out a way to stay in games when he’s not out there."

Bosh did a little bit more on his sore left ankle Thursday than he has since injuring it a week ago but not enough to pronounce himself ready to return, suggesting it would take "miraculous healing overnight" for him to dress against Cleveland.

And he’s not about to go out on the court unless it’s a full-blown miracle.

"I’m not going to force anything, that’s how you get in trouble and things don’t go your way for the long run," he said. "As good as (the Cavs) are, it’s only one game, we still have a lot of basketball to play and we play them again.

"I’ll look forward to it; if I miss this time, there’s always the next time."

Globe and Mail

“The triple double is a sign he’s an all-round player,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano conceded yesterday. “He defends, he boxes out, he rebounds, he can lock guys up when he has to.”

What is an opponent to do and remain within the bounds of the laws of the land?

“I don’t think there is a key to try and restrict him from getting 10 rebounds or 10 assists,” Triano said. “He is just a great player. You have to stay in front of him, make him give [the ball] up and you’ve got to make sure you close out when he does.

“He has a great group of players surrounding him and he’ll have the ball the majority of the time.”

If there is a glimmer of hope for the 31-25 Raptors, who sat four spots behind the Cavaliers in fifth place in the Eastern Conference before last night’s games, it is that the Cavaliers have stumbled a little since trading for Jamison nine days ago. They lost three games in a row after he arrived before beating the New Orleans Hornets on Tuesday.

Also, the Cavaliers will arrive for tonight’s game having played the previous night in Boston – although the Trailblazers did likewise on Wednesday and still had little trouble with the Raptors.

Stepien Rules

James kept the Cavaliers in it for three quarters on a night they lost Shaquille O’Neal to a first-half thumb injury. After the game, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said O’Neal will not play Friday’s game in Toronto against the Raptors.

National Post

"When you have Chris Bosh in the lineup, a lot of times you give it to him and he either creates or holds the ball and makes a play," Raptors head coach Jay Triano said. "Right now, we’re having to make more passes each possession down the floor to find ways to score. When you do that, there’s a better chance that guys turn it over."

Without Bosh, the Raptors’ margin for errors becomes slimmer. Turnovers must be limited. Against an elite team like Cleveland, the margin shrinks even more.

These are not the Cavaliers that the Raptors beat on opening night, a team that was struggling with working Shaquille O’Neal into the lineup. Yes, Cleveland is adjusting to life with another star, as Antawn Jamison was acquired at the trade deadline. But for the Cavaliers, Jamison, a multitalented forward, seems a more-natural fit to play with LeBron James than O’Neal. The get-to-know-each-other process is simpler.

"It took them a while to use Shaq the right way," Triano said. "They obviously have. Jamison’s a good player with very high basketball intelligence. He’ll find a way to fit in with that team."

Bleacher Report

Depending on where the cap falls, there could be eight teams with enough money to sign two players to maximum contracts. But Wade and James have both spoken of their desire to contend and not just cash in with new contracts.

So naturally Bosh has entered the equation. Will Wade and James take a pay-cut to try and include the 24-year-old All-Star in their plans?

We have a long way to go before we’ll know anything substantial about where the three superstars will go from here, but now is as good a time as any to break down their chances of joining forces for 2010.

CBS Sports

Even if Shaquille O’Neal’s thumb injury keeps the big center out for any length of time, the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t take long to prove they can dominate without him.

The Toronto Raptors could have trouble doing the same without Chris Bosh.

The NBA’s best team will be without O’Neal on Friday night at Toronto, but a bigger hole will likely remain in the Raptors’ lineup as the Cavs go for a third straight victory.

O’Neal scored 20 points in consecutive games for the first time all season before Thursday’s game, but he sprained his right thumb during the second quarter of a 108-88 win at Boston and did not return, with the team calling the injury "significant."

His absence didn’t slow down the Cavs, who trailed by eight at the half but outscored the Celtics 60-32 after the break, led by 14 fourth-quarter points from Mo Williams.

Canton Repository

James averages 27.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 23 career games versus Toronto. James scored his career high of 56 points at Toronto on March 20, 2005. O’Neal averages 25.7 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 26 career games against the Raptors. His 65.9 percent shooting against them from the floor is his best mark against any opponent. Antawn Jamison averages 22.2 points and 9.3 rebounds in 28 games versus Toronto, with the rebounding figure being his best against another team.

Everything Basketball

If the appeal is supposed to be getting a pair of individual superstars to come together and pool their talents on the same team, then the logical extension — and the biggest splash — is to make the same pitch to all three.

In Miami and New York, the appeal would be for the threesome to remember the bonds they forged while playing for USA Basketball, where D’Antoni served as an assistant coach, and the dominance that went into winning the Olympic gold medal at Beijing in 2008.  If that experience was fun, wouldn’t grabbing the entire NBA by the throat for the foreseeable future be a giddy delight?

Surely, they’d be able to do that even if every other player on the roster were a minimum salary player. And they would be.

The impediment, of course, is the money. Each of them would have to leave something on the table. And, so far, no maximum level free agent in the NBA has ever done that.

New Leisure Blog

Bargnani currently ranks 97th in usage rate, 10th as a center. He is 90th in shooting percentage in the league, but 27th overall as a center.
He has a turnover ratio of 8.2, which ranks 6th as a center.

What do these numbers mean?

Let’s look at the good things first. It’s definitely easier for a guard to have a higher usage rate, since they have the ball more and if they can’t pass the ball to the bigs, the bigs would never get a chance to create. So as a center, you are more dependent on a teammate to getting you the ball. Bargnani ranks 10th in terms of usage rate as a center.

The Raptors are back on a roll after beating both the Knicks and the Mavericks in convincing fashion on the weekend. Tonight they are in Cleveland on the first night of a back-to-back against the Mavs. I always thought that the win we had over the Cavs was a disservice to this team because it made a lot of people think the Raptors were better than they actually were. The fact of the matter is that Cleveland was playing the second game of a back-to-back, the first of which was an intense season opener to the Celtics.

While it was a quality win against an elite team, it by no means meant that the Raptors were destined for 50 wins and such. All it meant was that we were able to take advantage of a tired/oldish team who were playing their second game in two nights while trying to integrate a new piece (Shaq) into a team that didn’t know what to do with him. Since that game, the Cavs have gone 30-10, and are sitting pretty at the top of the East.

Don’t think they’ve forgotten about the beating we laid down on them earlier in the season. When asked about tonight’s game, Mo Williams said:

We’re playing at a different level. So are [the Raptors] — 10 of their last 13, they’ve won. They’re playing well. But, at the same time, we feel like we owe them. They handed us a loss, and you always want to use that as motivation. That’s what we’re doing.

A motivated Cavs team scares me, really. This will be a redemption game for the Cavs who are playing some great basketball, 7-3 over their last 10 and 31-11 on the year. Of their 11 losses, 5 of them are on the road to .500+ Western Conference teams; and 2 of them are against the Bobcats who seem to have their number for some reason.

You might remember the Saturday loss to Utah where some dude named Sundiata Gaines hit the games winning three with no time left on the clock.

Tonight, the Raptors need to bring a lot of what they had in the first game, namely an aggressive Bargnani. With Bargnani playing the way he has been, the Raptors front line has a big advantage in terms of speed, quickness and outside shooting. Shaq/Ilgauskas have no chance in hell of covering whoever Varajeo isn’t. If the Cavs send the double, the Raptors will kick it out and share the ball like they did against the Mavs.

The high pick-and-roll becomes even more important in this scenario since neither has a chance in hell of doing anything but getting called for a foul. Varajeo is the only person on that front line who makes me nervous, and he has been having a great stretch over the last 10 games, posting 9.7pts and 9.2rebs on 36-71 shooting, all those shots coming inside 8 feet.

When it comes to LeBron, you just hope you can keep him on the perimeter and let him shoot the Cavs out of the game. While he had a triple-double that last game against the Raptors, he was 7-19 from the field (1-5 3pt) and 8-14 from the line. Hardly the kind of the line that would force you to defend the shot. I say let him shoot all he wants, bait him to shoot but provide heavy coverage on drives, this way he wont be able to get into the lane then Hit Parker/Williams/West with a kick out for an open jumper. Easier said than done of course.

As far as Hedo goes, 8pts 4rebs 6ast on 2-9 shooting isn’t going to cut it. While those are decent numbers and got us a win over the Mavs, a guy making $10mil should be providing more, and with LeBron probably notching another triple-double, Turkoglu needs to really step up. We can only hope he doesn’t have pizza for lunch today.

I’m looking for DeRozan to continue his strong play from the Dallas outing where his shot was popping. I’d liked to see him take it to Parker and try get the old mans legs weary. Run through the lane and around some low pics for a catch-and-shoot around the elbow.

The Cavs are -9.5 favourites with an over/under of 203. This is another test for the Raptors, but not a must win. We can only hope that if the game is out of hand by the 2nd half, that Triano will rest the starters (and Jose) in hopes of being as fresh as possible tomorrow against Milwaukee.

Oh, I can’t wait to see Jamario Moon jack a couple bad jumpers when he should have swung the ball. That really makes me happy.

My life just got 30% better with the season starting today. The Raptors host the Cavs, who just came off a 95-89 loss at the hands of the C**tics last night. Seeing Anthony Parker in a Cavs uniform was unsettling for me. For those of you who didn’t want the guy back, just remember, he is starting for a team that has their designs on a championship, dude can play.

A few things happened in that game that has me feeling good about the Raptors chances of winning tonight:

• First of all, the Cavs look lost offensively with LeBron on the bench. They have no one to carry the load, no one! LeBron only sat 3 minutes, dude played 45 minutes on opening night, this shouldn’t bode too well for them.
• Shaq out gunning on all cylinders, but that didn’t last too long. By the 3rd quarter, he looked old and slow(er then usual).
• No Delonte West

Matchups

Calderon vs Williams
We finally have an injury free Calderon, who looked better as the pre-season went on. With some of creating burden being passed on to Hedo, Calderon should be good to spot up for some open 3s. Williams isn’t much of a defender, and considering he played 35 minutes last night, he wont be playing as aggressively as Mike Brown would want him too. He will be attacking Calderon on offense, but the two should cancel each other out.
The Edge: Even

Parker vs DeRozan
Parker is one of my favourite Raptors of all time. It was good to see him play well along side LeBron last night, but he played 40 minutes. He didn’t shoot great from the field (3-9), but he hit some timely 3s and some solid defense on Ray Allen. He now has to chase DeRozan up and down the court on the second night of a back-to-back. DeRozan needs to attack him from the tip, and keep going at him. This could be a long night for Parker in his return to the ACC.
The Edge: Even*

Turkoglu vs LeBron
Doesn’t matter how good Turkoglu plays, LeBron is LeBron. In 45min last night, LeBron dropped 38pts 4rebs 8ast. You can’t beat that. You only hope that Turkoglu gives up more jumpers then drives. If he can keep him out of the lane, and force LeBron to shoot deep jumpers, I can live with whatever happens.
The Edge: LeBron

Bosh vs Varejao
We know how this will turn out, Bosh will win the overall match-up, but Varejao will win every single hustle play. The guy leads the league in ran down rebounds (errr, yea, he runs down rebounds more then anyone else). He isn’t a threat to score, but that doesn’t mean Bosh should ignore him. The guy is the consummate garbage man. It will be a long night for him though, Bosh looks good to start his max-year campaign tonight.
The Edge: Bosh

Bargnani vs Shaq
Shaq can’t cover Bargnani on defense, and Bargnani can’t cover Shaq either. This match-up comes down to who is going to grab more rebounds, and play better defense. Bargnani should have the advantage, as he will force Shaq out from the key on defense, opening up some space to maneuver. Should Shaq cover Bosh on defense, the same situation will happen as Bosh likes to play from 18ft in. Factor in Shaq played 30min last night, and looked worse as the game dragged on.
The Edge: Bargnani

Bench
With Delonte West not even wearing Sean John on the sidelines, the Cavs have a pretty bad bench. Amir Johnson will neutralize Ilgauskas, Jack will neutralize Boobie, Wright will own Moon. In fact, looking at the Cavs bench, I am hard-pressed to think how this is a championship calibre team, they need to get healthy quick!
The Edge: Raptors

Injury Report

Raptors
Reggie Evans

Cavaliers
Daniel Green
Leon Powe
Delonte West

The Line

The line is set at Cavs -5.5 with an over/under of 191.

Game Simulation

This is a new feature we are running with this season, our boy Jeremy Visser from That’s What I’m Saying, Guy… will drop a simulation every game-day with complete boxscores and highlights. You can hit him up on twitter @jeremy_visser. We’ll be keeping track of them here.

LeBron James led the way for Cleveland in the NBA 2k10 opener, recording a triple-double (28 points, 13 boards and 16 assists) to lead the Cavs past the Raptors 117-98. Toronto hung tough, trailing by just six points entering the fourth quarter, before King James & co. put them away with a late run.

Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 20 points and nine rebounds. Chris Bosh, limited all night by foul trouble, finished with 19 in just 19 minutes. Hedo Turkoglu struggled in his debut with Toronto, finishing with 10 points of 4-of-14 shooting.

Aside from James, the Cavs got a strong performance from all-star Mo Williams, who scored 29 and added six assists. Shaquille O’Neal scored 19 in his second game as a Cav.

Boxscore

Keys to Winning

• Hit the glass – the Cavs have an active front court, and need to be containted
• Limit LeBron – easier said then done, but if we can limit his options, and make him beat us one-on-one on every possession, will get hard to carry the load
• Pick-n-Roll – I know I don’t have to say it, cause that’s all the Raptors do, but between Shaq and Ilgauskas, the PNR defense is wanting.

Prediction

The Cavs will be tired, but pissed off. The Raptors don’t play defense like the C**tics, but if they can run the Cavs around, and not let up, it will be a long night for the LeBron et al. I called a Raptor win earlier in the summer, and unless LeBron drops 50, I like the Raptors to represent.

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Normally, RuPaul would respond to being called Bosh “sashay shante“, but he’s in Bush country and you can’t blame him for looking over his shoulder. We know how dem rednecks like dem der colored transvestites…they don’t. The Mavs rolled out the welcome wagon with a 109-98 spanking. Bosh put up a lady-like 28pts and 10rebs, all from the out-side, best part – he didn’t break a nail.

Normally, when a cornerstone of your franchise goes down for the year, the team packs it up. This season, we have seen the Bucks and Rockets play arguably better. I have watched a few Rockets games over the last couple seasons, and always found that they play a better brand of ball with T-Mac out of the lineup. Call it Iverson-syndrome, or the fact that karma is a b*tch, but since McGrady shafted the Raptors, his career has been nothing but cashing pay-checks ever two weeks.

This Rockets team is loads better without McGrady IMHO. If I were Daryl Morey, I would be trying to move McGrady for a couple pieces that would solidify the bench. Over the last 10 games, the Rockets are 8-2, with their two losses coming against the Bucks (what I tell you?) and the Bulls (a furious rally in the 4th). Their most recent game came at the hands of the Timberwolves, which doesn’t really count seeing as Jefferson is out for the season.

Backshot girl.

The Raptors on the other hand is 4-6, in the  middle of a 2 game losing streak that could stretch to 7. Marion is out with a flu, Bosh is the laughing stock of the league and each day we realize that this team is damned if they do, and damned if they don’t with their current management team in place. The last time these guys met earlier in the season, the Raptors managed to spank these guys 94-73.You might remember that game, the Rockets played some of the ugliest basketball, going 7-27 from the 3pt line.

They aren’t as well endowed as the Mavs cheerleaders, but we have ourselves a winner (and not by default). Her name is Julie, she takes pride in how far she has cum, and lists ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ as the greatest movie ever. There’s no accounting for taste, but she’s damn hot.

Injury Report

Raptors
Kris Humphries
Shawn Marion – questionable

Rockets
Tracy McGrady

Match-ups

Calderon vs Brooks
The Edge: Brooks - Calderon sucks. Brooks was a non-factor the first time they played this season, but with Rafers exile to Orlando, and Head being waved, he has been thrust into the starting role: 22pts 10asts? Raise of hands, who thought Calderon would put those numbers up this year? LOL

Parker vs Artest
The Edge: Artest - Ron-Ron will be having a big night for the Rockets, unless Marion is healthy enough to go, which wont change the outcome, but could keep Artest in check…to a degree. There is a possibility that Parker will cover Battier and Graham on Artest, that would a better match-up for the Raptors, still don’t like for either of them though.

Graham vs Battier
The Edge: Battier - How big a contract will Joey Graham get this off-season? I suspect a 3yr/$10mill type deal. I say this because we really don’t know what we have in this guy. Is he playing for a contract, or did Smitch really have it in for the guy? I’m leaning to the former, but who knows. Battier is easily the best player in the match-up, and easily will win this match-up for one reason: he does what he needs too. If he needs to play defense for the Rockets to win, he will and they will. If he needs to hit treys for the Rockets to win, he will and they will. The guy is a pro, he can play for my team any day.

Bosh vs Scola
The Edge: Scola - Does dropping 28pts 10rebs while losing mean you won the match-up? Statistically yes, but not where it matters, in the W column. I suspect RuPaul will put up solid numbers, but Scola will do 15pts 10rebs and the Rockets will win. He gets the nod.

Bargnani vs Yao
The Edge: Yao - It’s a sweep. Yao will dominate in the block, Bargnani should dominate on the perimeter. Yao will win the battle on the boards, Bargnani will hit more treys. Yao will win the game, Bargnani wont.

Note - Von Wafer is someone to watch out for. He lit us up for 18pts the last time around, and is averaging 17 a game over the last 5 games (since McGrady has gone down I believe, I wonder how he feels that every time he goes down, the team plays better?).

The Line

VegasInsider.com has the line at Rockets -8.5

Prediction

Go with the line, Raptor suck and the Rockets are jockeying for 2nd round home court advantage.

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Free Ukic .

And resign Bosh to a max deal or this team is in dire straits (or just ship RuPaul out for a few young QUALITY pieces).

The Mavs are an interesting team. I wonder how Cuban wakes up every morning after pulling that trade last season for Kidd. He got a lifeline the first time around when Stackhouse opened his big stupid mouth, but he failed to see it as a sign, and mortgaged the future for no real good reason (it’s not like they are a contender anymore).

Dallas is coming off a pretty solid win over the Thunder, where Nowitzki dropped 41. They hold a 2 game lead for the 8th spot in the West (ahead of the Suns no less). Seems like they win the privilege of meeting the Lakers in the 1st round as Stoudemire has been lost for the season with a detached retina. They are 6-4 in their last 10, but sport a 21-8 home record.

I couldn’t decide between the 4 of them.

The Raptors just ended a two game winning streak with a drubbing at the hands of Shaq and Amundson. Uhm, this is the 2nd game of a possible 6-8 game losing streak for the Raptors which will all but drop their 2% chance of making the playoffs to 0% and we can look ahead to next year for yet another season of resentment, second guessing and wasted time.

On the bright side, the Mavericks cheerleaders are damn hot. The first thing we all notice is that they are all well endowed, I assume we probably have Cuban to thank for that. Thanks man. It was a hard choice, and I couldn’t commit to only one girl here, they are both high quality babies. May I introduce to you Jody and Jessica. Jody (the one on the left) is a rookie dancer who wants to one day own her own cajun restaurant and boasts Jason Terry as her favourite Mav. Jessica on the other hand is an Oasis fan, and loves her some Manicotti, interesting Stackhouse is her favourite Mav.

Injury Report

Raptors
Kris Humphries
Joey Graham – questionable

Mavericks
Jerry Stackhouse
Jason Terry
Shawne Williams

Match-ups

Calderon vs Kidd
The Edge: Kidd - Calderon sucks. Kidd is old and slow, but he is a warrior. I have been taking this match-up for a couple years now.

Parker vs Wright
The Edge: Parker - Parker was luke-warm last night, so it can swing either way, but Wright sucks and is only getting burn because Terry and Stackhouse are out of commission.

Marion vs Howard
The Edge: Marion - This is going to be a nice match-up. Both are premiere 3′s in the league, and will be trying to bring it. Marion has been a beast for us on the boards and in the paint. His perimeter defense has been solid as well, which will come in handy as Howard likes to pop J’s from 15ft out.

Bosh vs Nowitzki
The Edge: Nowitzki - The guy is a Raptor killer he put up 27pts and 10rebs the last time around, and I don’t see it going down much differently, especially with most of the offensive load being on his capable shoulders with Terry out. Bosh will have a big game, 23pts 9rebs, but Nowitzki gets the nod here.

Bargnani vs Dampier
The Edge: VL - VL had a pretty solid showing against Shaq last night, and Dampier is a super watered down version.

The Line

VegasInsider.com has the Mavs at -6.5.

Prediction

The Mavs don’t need Terry and Stackhouse to beat the Raptors, they will protect home court and win by 9.

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Q: What do you call the Suns when they are missing both Nash and Stoudemire?

A: Good enough to beat the Raptors.

This marks another occasion (last time being against the Bucks) that the Raptors couldn’t take advantage of a team missing its star. Sadly, the Suns are missing their two stars, which speaks loudly about the state of the Raptors: THEY CAN’T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LIMPING TEAMS. Much like AltRaps’ gangsta roll when he goes to the Lower Rail, this game was ripe for the taking. In fact, this game went down like a standard night for Alt at the Rail:

1st Quarter:

Alt – Casually strolls into the joint. Casing it out, and looking for his spot to make the move. He takes a seat at the corner table across from the stage and beside the bar. It’s strategic because he knows he can get his drink on and it’s hard for the girls to get to him. When he pays for that beer, he makes sure that the waitress sees the stack of Sir Robert Borden’s, the word gets out slowly…

Raptors – Bosh and Bargnani are casual to start. With Amare out, and Shaq the only big of consequence available to Gentry, it is imperative they attack him and get him to pick up a few early fouls. They are aggressive on the offensive end, and grab a few boards, but don’t take it to Shaq. In fact, not only does Shaq not pick up even 1 foul, he manages a steal and 3 dunks. Weak these guys are in the paint, weak.

2nd Quarter:

Alt – After 3 $7 beers, Alt is feeling good about himself. One of the girls manages to squeeze her way through the crowd, and plops down right beside our man. He keeps her talking while getting the strategic rubs, smiles and compliments; all for free, before popping the drink offer. She grudgingly accepts, knowing full well that $20 that just went to the annoyed waitress should be getting stuffed into her purse at the front dance area.

Raptors – Marion leads the charge, playing aggressively in the paint with that sweet baby hook from 8ft out. The man is crashing the boards ferociously on the offensive glass, leading to easy put backs. The best part: he is pushing on the break. In fact, I would argue Marion is better at orchestrating the Raptors on the break then Calderon is. Kapono takes advantage of some lazy ass perimeter D, turning good looks into really good looks with some fancy footwork and pump fakes. Amazing what being active will getcha.

3rd Quarter:

Alt – After a couple drinks and rubs, my man is get ornery. She put in the work, and it wasn’t easy, but he agreed to one dance, with the condition that she starts earning when Savage – Swing is played.  She agrees, knowing full well that as soon as she’s got him in the room, he’s going down.

Raptors - Kapono keeps up the strong shooting, and Parker decides to contribute a little. Jose is still nowhere to be found 6pts 5asts 4tos, in fact, it’s so bad Banks got some burn. The Raptors couldn’t make a stop, but were matching the Suns basket for basket for much of the quarter. They trail the Suns by 4 heading into the 4th, dangerous territory.

4th Quarter:

Alt – He didn’t know what hit him. Between the $8 beers (price goes up as you get more intoxicated) and $20 dances, our boy wonder was left with squat. Slowly but surely, the Lower Brass took little pieces of him until there was nothing left.

Raptors - The wheels fell off. For all the great work by Marion, and the wasted efforts of Bosh, Bargnani and Kapono, the Raptors were out-worked, out-hustled, out-classed and out-lasted by an aging team, missing their stars. At the end of it all, some dude with a pony tail dropped 20pts and 10rebs on the Raptors, and was the difference in the game as the Raps lost by 20.

Since it was a TSN2 game, I had to catch a stream, and got the American feed. The commentators were lame, but thankfully I didn’t have to endure Leo at all. The commentators did say something funny, after Shaq put down another dunk in the 4th, they said that was the easiest 38 points he has scored in his life. The funny part was that he went on to drop another 7 to finish the night at 45.

Shaq went 20-25 from the field, 5-8 from the line, grabbed 11 boards and even dished out a couple assists. Can we all agree that Triano is probably the worst coach in the league? The strategy last night had to be to attack Shaq and get him out of the game, but sadly that’s not what went down. In fact, the Raptors conceded 90 points in the paint (40 of which were from Shaq). Which means that 45 of the 55 made fields goals were layups, dunks or short jumpers (within 8-10ft). Only 10 of the 55 shots were jumpers, LOL. That would explain how the Suns shot 56.1% from the field.

Didn’t seem like there is any rhyme or reason to what is going on out on the court. The guys are running around with no real purpose. Bosh and Marion are busting their chops on both end of the court, but the rest of the guys aren’t, or are seemingly not giving it their all. Much like when AltRaps leaves the Rail with his head down and pockets empty, reeking of alcohol, fruity-body spray and shame.

While I’m at it, WTF was Roko doing attempting a trey with 6+ seconds left in the 3rd? Get the ball to someone who can hit the ball man. Jebus.