A win tonight could heal a few scarsDownload the Opening Tip here.
Beating the Magic tonight won’t make up for last year’s playoff boot but it’ll give the team a real shot in the arm, just like a win in Boston would have . This game will serve as a very good measuring stick as to how well this Raptors team is capable of hanging with the big boys early on. So far we’ve basically won the games we should win and lost to the teams that are considered at par or better than us (Boston, Atlanta and Detroit). Aside from the Philly split we haven’t pulled an “upset” this year and that’s what we’ll be looking to do tonight. Jermaine O’Neal was signed for matchups like this and after last year’s humiliation at the hands of Howard, we’ll see how well our enforcer handles their power player. Finally, we’ll see if Sam Mitchell has figured out how to use Andrea Bargnani to the team’s advantage and whether we finally have enough weapons to slow down their wings and stop the dribble penetration that tore us apart.
Chris Bosh is glad that we’ve got Jermaine O’Neal to matchup with Dwight Howard so he doesn’t have to:
“We can matchup with him better, we got bigger bodies. I can wrestle with him but not for too many possessions because that starts to wear me down. Jermaine’s bulit for that a little more than I am.”
Makes sense, Bosh has a leaner body that isn’t built for continuous physical contact, O’Neal’s a much better banger since he’s heavier and stronger. The tale of the tape reads like this: O’Neal and Howard’s listed height is the same at 6’11” and Howard carries 5 more pounds than O’Neal. If you put the two side-by-side it’ll hardly look like it and that’s because Howard is the team’s second-heaviest player but has the fourth-lowest body fat percentage. If you’re into physical fitness you’ll understand that that’s a simply insane occurrence. We’re counting on O’Neal to do a better defensive job than Rasho did last year (4.6/2.6) and make life uncomfortable for Howard by pushing him away from the rim and not letting him get those team-deflating dunks off of offensive rebounds that leave you with a sense of hopelessness.
Jermaine O’Neal can be seen quoted as saying a lot of the same stuff in Grange’s piece which looks back at the Magic series. The key is for Jermaine is to stay in the game and not pick up cheap early fouls, something that’s been a real problem. It’s hard to have an impact from the bench and if Howard manages to get him out of the game in the first quarter, suddenly the roster looks a lot like the one that got killed last spring. We also need to be very selective when providing O’Neal help by doubling Howard, last year unnecessary soft-doubles 18 feet out cost us a lot of three pointers. If you’re going to double, double hard and make him make a tough decision. As for the Lewis/Bosh matchup, Chris is saying all the stuff that we fans want to hear:
“I have to make Rashard work. I have to make him play defense, make him guard the post. Try to wear him down. I have to be aggressive attacking the basket, Dwight goes for a lot of block shots so maybe that’ll leave Jermaine open for offensive rebounds and even dunks after a short pass.”
That sounds like a damn fine game plan to me but just keep in mind that Jermaine likes to do the exact same thing as Howard on the other end. Lewis and Bosh are both 6’10″/230 but Lewis has a quickness advantage over Bosh and we like to think that Bosh is the stronger player that can have success in the post. Last year Lewis caused havoc by head-faking Bosh at the 3-point line, inviting the double and then finding Bogans, Evans and Nelson at the wings. Lewis isn’t going to torch Bosh one-on-one, it’s the shots that he creates that become the problem. If Bosh can prevent Lewis from creating for others off the dribble it’ll close down a lot of scoring avenues for the Magic.
Andrea Bargnani is likely to get the start in the same arena where the first iteration of the SF experiment failed in spectacular fashion. That was a terrible move at the time as it shoved Bargnani into a position he’d never played in the midst of a pressure-packed playoff environment. It backfired and made Sam Mitchell look like a fool. He tried again in Game 2 and once again the team got off to a miserable start. When he switched back to starting Jamario Moon, things evened out and we were still in the game past the first quarter. So what will Mitchell do now? Is Bargnani’s good game against the Heat enough to warrant a start against the demon that his Hedo Turkoglu? I say, why not? After all this is the regular season and we got to find out exactly what Bargnani is made of and whether there’s been any real improvement in his wing defense. Tonight we shall find out, where’s your money at?
The Bargnani at the SF experiment worked nicely for one game and I’m glad it did, but I’m frankly embarrassed that a great analyst like Jack Armstrong is even mentioning McHale, Bird and Parish in the same sentence as Bosh, Bargnani and O’Neal. They’re flat out saying that they’re not making the comparison but……..they are, otherwise they wouldn’t have said anything.
Rebounding is going to be a big deal here and we would all greatly appreciate it if Bargnani grabs more than 5 rebounds (season high). The Magic are 8th and we’re 28th in that department, a full -6! Hopefully O’Neal didn’t use up his rebounding quota against Miami and can help out with 10-12 tonight. Lewis is likely to move Bosh away from the rim leaving O’Neal and Howard to duke it out for any loose balls and Bargnani (and the guards) have to step in there and clean the defensive glass or suffer throw-downs that’ll make Bill Walton proud.
Stan Van Gundy’s pre-game talk revolves around counting on matching a motivated Raptor team’s intensity and going big against our bigs:
“They’re different. It certainly changes things, but we can go a little bigger now against them. Our guys have to understand where the other team is at. They have most of their guys back and we eliminated them from the playoffs. I know how we felt getting beat by Detroit [the last few seasons in the playoffs]. After being in five games, it’s a big deal.”
Jose Calderon is once again questionable for the game and given how well Will Solomon played against the Heat, I don’t think Mitchell should rush him back. Now, this isn’t Mario Chalmers he’ll be up against, it’ll be Jameer Nelson who’s simply a better player. It’s a much tougher challenge and don’t kid yourself if you think Stan Van Gundy isn’t going to test Solomon’s ball-handling abilities early in the game. We need to withstand any pressure and not turn the ball over because the Magic are very good at converting turnovers to fast-break points.
I really think we need this one to snuff out some of the negativity that’s going around these areas, there’s a fine line between realism and blatant pessimism, or between homerism and supporting your team. I’m glad that we have readers who are both ends of the spectrum because it makes the discussion that much better. But remember this: We are all Raptors Fans and that’s why we’re here so give each other a handshake. And if you need a conversation starter how about Eric Smith and Paul Jones in a Motel 6 with a Hi8.
One last thing, we’ve been getting a lot of “Raps” lately and have decided to pick one from the lot and highlight it on the front page along with its author and call it Rap of the Day. It’s a way of motivating people to write thoughtful comments and not one-liners which I personally consider to be the death of a message board. We appreciate your Raps and if you’re just browsing the site without saying something (and the stats say that you are), throw in your opinion. We dig any feedback you might have regarding the site, the content, the writing and just about everything else – just give us a shout at info at raptorsrepublic.com. Also, while my colleagues are busy canceling their season tickets, I’m dying to go to games, so before you tear your tickets in disgust, just let me know so I can take them off of you.
We’ll try to put the stream up again on the front page of the site since the response was so well-received last time. We need this win tonight. Really do. Let’s go you Raps!!!!
