Raps Roll Into Motor City

Raptors will be busting out those ugly green uniforms tonight. I have never been a fan of those. Makes them look like the Celtics. If it made them play like Celtics I would be in favour of them. The Raptors and the Pistons are both going through hard times. Earlier this season Detroit had a revolt against it's coach and he only played 6 players in a game in response. Can we hope for another revolt tonight? Probably not. Amir Johnson the former Piston has remained back in Toronto. He tweaked his other ankle in practice according to reports. He is doing a nice thing for you fans that have supported him this season though. He has organized a pretty cool contest for 50 fans to hang with him. Check out the details here. He has really embraced Toronto at a tough time to do it. He deserves a lot of credit for that as much as he does for being a warrior for this team this season. When Amir Johnson isn't playing in a game, people because of knowing type of guy he is, never question it for a second.

The Basics: Raptors 18-48 (Lost 13 in A Row on Road) Pistons 23-44 (16-17 at Home)

When Last We Saw Them: Raptors battled with the Bobcats but off nights from Andrea Bargnani and Demar DeRozan was just to much for the Raptors to over come. Reggie Evans tried to will the team to a victory but they fell short and Bobcats got an important win for their playoff chances.

Key Match Ups: Good rookie battle with Greg Monroe the former Hoya taking on Ed Davis the former Tar Heel getting the start for the injured Amir Johnson. Monroe is having a good rookie year averaging 8.5 points and 7 boards a game. Davis in less games has averaged 7 points and 6.8 boards per game. This will be a good test for Davis with someone at the same level as him in Monroe. Whenever Tracy McGrady sees those old Raptor uniforms it tends to fire him up. Maybe the green jerseys will throw him off. He makes up the back court with Richard Hamilton who has been living in the Dog House in Detroit. He was rumoured to be heading to the Nets in the Mello deal that never was. He has been benched for many games this season racking up more DNP-CD's than points at times. It makes for an odd match-up for the Raptors. I am not sure I want Jose Calderon guarding T-Mac. So perhaps we see DeRozan on him. Some people (I being on of them) see a lot of McGrady's game in DeRozan.

Other Things of Note: We are having fun with March Madness on Yahoo and on The Score.com with Bracket Buster. Once you have signed up on The Score join our group DNB Madness the password is dnb4life. As for Yahoo, if you have a Yahoo account already just click on the link and join are group. If not make a Yahoo account and then just click on it. I love March Madness. I will share a couple personal stories with you as to why. When I was little back in the old days the only games we would get in Canada were the late games on Thursday and Friday. They started at 11:35pm well past my bedtime. But every March Break, I would go spend time with my Grandmother, and bless her heart she would make all my favourite snacks and go to bed and let me stay up and watch. March Madness always reminds me of her as a result. In modern times it has become a family tradition for my mom (Who knows nothing about College Basketball) to fill out brackets and try and beat me, who does know some things about College Basketball. She did win one year based on an incredible run by the LSU Tigers led at the time by current Celtic Glen "Big Baby" Davis. We don't have any prizes it is all for fun. So join in the fun and sign up.

Update: Had a chat with our Friends at St Louis Wings they are coming up with something for the winner of our Yahoo Bracket Pool. I did it for that one because The Score one does have prizes from The Score available. I will share details on what you can win in blog tomorrow or if you can't wait that long when I find out will tweet it as well.

Where Is It On? TSN 2 (I screwed up on this one and that is no joke)