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.
