Chris Bosh welcomed his new teammate with 20 points in the first half, but the Raptors suffered third-quarter defensive lapses and fatigue may have got the best of them.
"I thought they played well together and we got a little glimpse of what they’re going to be able to do," Raptors coach Jay Triano said.
"I don’t think (Turkoglu) is real comfortable yet, but still he got five assists and I thought he played better as he played more minutes. I’m not disappointed at all."
Raptors coach Jay Triano said he hopes to hear good news soon regarding small forward Antoine Wright, who did not travel to Hartford because of a sore right knee. "Hopefully he’ll be able to play (today) when we head back home,” Triano said. "I know he’s itching and ready to go. He had a good training camp but he has yet to play in a game. He hasn’t been rewarded for his hard work yet.”
The Raptors play home exhibition games tonight against Houston and Sunday against Boston.
Turkoglu, despite missing all three jump shots he took in the first half – a couple of them went horribly awry – made an otherwise solid Raptors debut Wednesday night as Toronto lost 106-90 to the Boston Celtics.
In 14 first-half minutes, all played alongside Bosh, Turkoglu went scoreless but dished out five assists, acting as the point forward that Toronto has never really had. He made all three shots he took it the third quarter, when Toronto let the game get away with some bad transition defence, and he finished with six points, five assists and a rebound in 21 minutes.
Bosh? He was the main beneficiary, scoring 20 of his 21 points in the opening two quarters, working at times seamlessly with his new teammate.
After missing a reverse layup early in the third quarter, Bosh vehemently protested to referee Tre Maddox after no foul was called. Later in the quarter, Bosh had some words for referee Jaimie Morales after picking up his fourth and fifth fouls in a 10-second span.
“It was for a moving screen,” Bosh said. “I told them I have to actually move into somebody to get a moving screen. You know, it is what it is. … It’s pre-season, it’s practice for everybody.”
Raptors vs Celtics hilights
Raptors vs Celtics hilights
Said Garnett: “Tonight was a flow night. Every time we step on the floor, it is to get better and, chemistry-wise, I thought we did just that.
“It was a little bit of a slow start. I say a slow start just because rhythm-wise, trying to figure out Toronto – it’s a new team. We haven’t seen them this year. Once we settled in and got our schemes together, I thought we played with a real nice rhythm.’’ The Celtics (4-1 in the exhibition season) and Raptors (2-3) will be rematched in Toronto Sunday afternoon.
The Toronto Raptors will be a very skilled basketball team this season. But they have not been ‘blue collar’ tough in a while. The Jermaine O’Neal Experiment proved to be ill advised. They have gone in an entirely different direction with the acquisition of Hedo Turkoglu. Quicker tempo and ball movement will prevail.
Kendrick Perkins…The game got physical. It got too physical for them, and I don’t think they can keep up.
Rockets coach Rick Adelman said he would like to use a regular-season style rotation tonight, but he did not know who would play up front because of matchups with the Raptors and their use of 3-point shooters Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani, and the uncertain availability of Hedo Turkoglu.
“We’ll see who they play,” Adelman said. “A lot depends on who they play. I don’t know if they’re going to play their main guys a lot tomorrow.
“The big guys, for instance, I would like to play four guys each game.”
It makes no sense to buy him out and send him packing, like the Knicks did with Stephon Marbury when they grew tired of his act. Jackson is still a near-elite player, and some team will become desperate and trade for him.
If he wants out, Jackson must come back, act right and hope a team is foolish enough to want him. Right now, teams are standing back and observing. One of those is the Raptors, who are interested in unloading Chris Bosh for the Warriors’ Andris Biedrins. Jackson could be part of a package deal.
Brothersteve’s Green & Red Raptor Blog
Of course anyone who actually spends money to buy Raptors TV would never consider watching the Raptors play on the internet instead of watching what MLSE chooses to broadcast that evening? I’m sure that this decision made sense to someone trapped in their ACC cubicle.
If MLSE won’t show the game, I guess there is no reason to complain about Ontario’s other sports channels that chose darts? horse racing? and rerun programming? instead of picking up the Comcast-NE broadcast.
You got to give Bryan Colangelo credit for making so many changes within an off-sesaon. As a result, the team is deeper, the offense should be better. The defense is a question mark, so far they have shown they are more active in the pre-season games, but that could be fool’s gold. If Bosh can have a big year, then the team could win 50 games.
09-10 record: 45-37, 5th in the East. If Bosh has a big year and the Raptors win 45 games or less, then it’s not good news for a Raptor fan.
For those of you who missed tonight’s game, which should be most of you, unless you have Comcast Sports Net at home or watched an online feed, the Raptors debuted their new and improved starting five. With Hedo Turkoglu making his Raptors pre-season debut, the projected starting lineup of Calderon, DeRozan, Turkoglu, Bosh and Bargnani played together for the first time.
As fate would have it, the new-look Raptors were in Hartford (of all places) to take on the star-studded Boston Celtics, minus Rasheed Wallace. The Celtics started with their regular top-four of Rondo, Allen, Pierce and KG, with Perkins in the place of ‘Sheed.
Here’s a quick, and hopefully informative, recap of what you missed.
Twice (that I counted) he found Calderon for a jumper after drawing his defender over on a drive. Caldy’s never had a wing that commanded help on the drive before and I think he’ll thrive as a spot up shooter. Having someone that could consistently get into the lane and create defensive switches was something we sorely lacked last year and I think Hedo will fill that role perfectly.
His shooting was a mixed bag. From midrange, he looked great, drilling two pull ups from the elbow. From outside though he was awful. He missed all three from outside 20 feet by a mile including two deep covered threes that left me shaking my head. Maybe those weeny FIBA 3 point lines messed up his range. I kiddd but seriously, he did not look comfortable hucking those up.
The Raptors managed to get their first win of the pre-season against the Minnesota Timberwolves last week. Today, the match up series focuses on the aforementioned Wolves team with a preview provided by Zach.
Reggie Evans sprained his left foot while going for a rebound in the 1st QRT of last night’s game between the Raptors and Celtics.
He hobbled to the locker room and did not return to the game.
He’ll have the foot re-evaluated in T.O. some time later today.
The Raptors are in an enviable position, and one that they’ve never been in before in franchise history. They will have four possible All-Stars on the roster that could end up in Dallas this February. Bosh is a four time All-Star, both Calderon and Turkoglu have been mentioned before in All-Star conversations (some say Turkoglu got shafted last year), and Bargnani is in the enviable position of being an above average center in a conference devoid of above average centers- one could say a league of them, as well. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’ll actually send any more players than usual.
Since I couldn’t be at the game for you guys tonight, I enlisted the help of my friends over at Celticsblog.com to get some answers on the Raptors 106-90 loss to the Boston Celtics. Yes, I went to the "enemy" and yes, they agreed to help me. Much love to Tom (@celticsblog) for helping me out here, because he came through HUGE with some stuff for you. After the fun of practice and games, I’ve been hard at work for you Raptor fans, trying to set this up in each city. I can’t make any promises, but please know I’ll try my best!
