Just do it. Just get it done. We need this win to restore our confidence and set the ship sailing in the right direction. New Jersey was bad, real bad, last place in the division bad, lowest point of the season bad, but the good thing is that if we turn around and get a win against the C*ntics, the pain of the NJ loss will seem like a distant memory and be replaced by the feeling of beating the most hated team in the NBA. It would also be a sweet measure of revenge after what happened 10 days ago when Garnett and Pierce willed the Celtics through while we appeared intimidated and out-of-place. We’ve had four “test” games so far this season: Philly, Detroit, Boston and Orlando. We’re 1-3 in these games with the only win coming against a Philadelphia team that beat us soon after. No matter what the talk coming out of the Raptors camp is there has to be a certain amount of doubt in the players of whether they can compete with the elite. A win here and a lot of that doubt disappears.
The Raptors announced that Jermaine O’Neal’s got a “strained left knee”. He’s got no structural damage and will be okay. I think I can speak for all of Raptors Nation/Country/Republic/Town/County when I say, whew. He did not practice on Saturday, his status is listed as day-to-day and he’s questionable for the Boston game. I figure given O’Neal’s competitive streak he’s not calling in sick for this one unless he’s in actual discomfort. Sam Mitchell says the Raptors are ready if he can’t go:
“We’ve already made contingency plans if he can’t go”
Right. You have to think that Kris Humphries figures a lot into that contingency plan. He’s played well in limited minutes and we’ll be counting on him to matchup against Leon Powe, Baby Davis and even Kendrick Perkins today. He’s got the goods to matchup with any of them, hold his ground and then some. Humphries always plays hard if not smart, you know that he’ll box out, take care of the defensive glass and crash the offensive boards. He gives up an inch to Perkins and about 50 points to Davis but its nothing Hump hasn’t made up for throughout his career.
The big difference in the lineup since the last time we played them is obviously Andrea Bargnani at the #3 spot. He’ll be up against the scum known as Paul Pierce, needless to say its Bargnani’s first real test on defense. Marion didn’t bug too much, Hedo had one good quarter and it wasn’t even against him and Bobby Simmons deferred to VC and Harris, but today Paul Pierce will be featured as Exhibit A, B and C. Win this matchup and we win the game, Garnett without Pierce is like Siegfried without Roy, Dharma without Greg, Larry without Balki, Grace without Will…you get it. Bargnani should make his 5 inch difference count against Pierce and we should look to establish him early. Even if the first possession fails, go back to him over and over again. Remember, early struggles don’t mean we lose the game, we’re at home and will have the crowd behind us, if we light the right spark under Bargnani it could be a delightful game.
Matt Devlin’s blog talks about how the Raptors struggled against the Nets’ zone defense and how the bigs’ rebounding was affected by dribble penetration. This reminds me, we can’t let Rajan Rondo go off on us, Calderon has to keep him in front of him at all costs. We’re already outmatched in a number of positions and can’t afford to lose the point-of-attack battle. If anything Calderon has to be the one to penetrate the Celtics defense and create for Kapono, Bargnani and Parker who will be waiting and ready on the perimeter. When I say “penetrate” I don’t mean use the pick to go three feet deep and kick-out to Bosh at the FT line, that ain’t penetration, that’s a glorified pick ‘n roll that has the same effect as a reset.
Chris Bosh is a competitor and knows that he came up short against Garnett last time around. He’s got to be mentally ready to challenge Garnett and not settle for inciting a double-team and kicking out. Yes, it’s a noble thing to setup a shot for your teammates by attracting an extra defender but this is the #1 defense in the league and you’ll be counted on to score when it counts, passing it up to Parker for a missed jumper just isn’t good enough. No decoys this time around. Kevin Garnett will cover him one-on-one and Bosh needs to go right at Garnett, maybe pick up a couple early fouls on him, get in his head for a change. It should be a battle, a great one at that too. Let’s go Chris, redemption is at hand.
The Raptors need to show two things in this game that have bee lacking this season – poise and mental toughness. We can’t let the occasion make us nervous because a nervous basketball player is a choking basketball player. We need to match their intensity and physicality. If KG starts trash talking, let him know how you feel about it by talking back and getting in his grill. Give a hard foul, get in someone’s face. After you rip down a contested rebound, swing an elbow or two. Put a sign in the locker room which says “No easy baskets”. If Paul Pierce crosses over Parker let him know its not the end of it by sending him to the line making the foul count. Pressure Rondo, he’s still their weakest link and susceptible to pressure. Get the ball out of his hands and make Paul Pierce bring it up and set the offense. Bump Ray Allen on the screens, grab his jersey if you have to and make life as miserable for him as possible. Set a goal for the game, “We will outscore them on the break” or “No offensive rebounds” and so on. Just win this one.
Needless to say our rotation needs to be playing at a high-level for us to pull this out. This means contributions from Kapono, Parker and even Solomon/Ukic. We can’t have a letdown in any area of the game. When Calderon goes to the bench it shouldn’t mean an automatic -6 in the next two minutes. If Solomon and Ukic come in and have trouble on offense, make up for it by sticking to Eddie House like white on rice. If Kapono is in the game he should be spreading the defense out for Bosh to operate or hitting the shots created for him by our guards or Bosh double-team kick-outs. Many of the Raptors have a habit of being total non-factors when playing significant minutes, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker and Andrea Bargnani have all been guilty of that. Example: If Bargnani’s not being passed the ball on the perimeter, either crash the boards or make sure you get back on defense to prevent leakouts. If your’e doing neither than you’re a detriment to the team. Same goes for Parker and Moon, when a shot goes up you have a responsibility of more than just watching it go up.
Bryan Colangelo has asked the league to review the Flagrant 1 foul by Sean Williams which injured Jermaine O’Neal. The league automatically reviews all flagrant fouls anyway so I don’t know what Colangelo’s hoping to get out of this one. Does he honestly believe its anything more than a Flagrant 1, if that? I say just let it pass, its obvious that there was no malicious intent on Williams’ part. Am I the only one wishing the Raptors committed more of those types of hard fouls?
Quick site news. I finally figured out how to get the podcasts up on iTunes. You can now subscribe to the feed through iTunes and get any new episodes delivered right to you. Or you could just check the site. Whatever suits you.
Download the Opening Tip here. We’ll have a live blog going at 12:30PM EST and I promise not to forget to start it.
Enough talk, this post went too long, it really should’ve been four words: Let’s go you Raps!!!
