In front of a small pre-season crowd, the Raptors gave the paying customers a good show. A double overtime entertaining win over the Sixers 119-116. After a sub par effort the night before vs Chicago the Raptors bounced backed to show a lot of fight to knock off the Sixers. Jay Triano said pre-game that in these first four games of the pre-season he has just been letting the guys play and show the skills they have worked on over the summer. Hence the ever changing starting line-ups to a point. But Triano suggested that it was possible the line-up would change in terms of match-ups throughout the season. One thing the coach was not pleased with was how his team was beaten badly on the boards vs the Bulls. Likely more happy with a 55-50 advantage for the Sixers last night. Andrea Bargnani had 8 of those rebounds. He had 14 points as well to go with the 8 boards. Triano when asked about if he is concerned with the start of Bargnani, to which he predictably said no. He expecst that Bargnani will be able to get somewhere between 18-25 points per game this season. Never was asked or offered a rebound number. But did reference the need for everyone to be part of the rebounding effort even the guards.
There was a point where Andrea really did look like a superstar with them going to him 3 straight times to start the first overtime and converting. This was overall the best Bargnani has looked this pre-season. Jrue Holiday for the Sixers had a triple double with 18 points 12 assists and 11 rebounds in over 45 minutes of action. Triano despite the games close nature did not want to over play his guys as Bargnani was the top Raptor playing only 37 minutes. He said that he wanted to keep everyone healthy and used that as the reason for Jarrett Jack and not Jose in overtime. Jack lead the Raptors in scoring with 24 followed by Barbosa with 19. Both on the floor together seemed to work well and that was a lot of the talk in the locker room post game about their chemistry together on the floor.
Raptors understand it seems that they are now a team that has a very small margin for error and if they do not have 100% effort, they are going to be hard pressed to win basketball games. Sixers are a lot like the Raptors in that sense, after this loss they sit at 1-4 and you have to wonder if Doug Collins is going to miss working for TNT by about December or January. Raptors move to 2-2 and will be in action next on Friday.
As I was taking the train home last night after this one. I couldn't help but think there might be a lot of nights like this for the Raptors. Where they will have to fight and claw to get a win. It would have been easy for this team to say the heck with it. After all it was the pre-season and as Jarret Jack explained post game today is basically the first day the Raptors will have off since things got started for them in training camp. The Raptors earned the day off last night. A hard fought win against a team that when it matters will be one of the teams they have to beat in order to be successful.
Had a chance to catch up with Reggie Evans and Demar DeRozan pre-game so look for those mini interviews in the next few days.
Showing posts with label Jarrett Jack.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jarrett Jack.. Show all posts
10/14/10
3/6/10
An Odd Night At ACC Ends In A Win
This was suppose to be the return of CB4. Instead as things would turn out Bosh would not even see this one in a suit on the bench. About an hour before tip time a story broke that Bosh had been taken to the hospital with severe stomach cramps. It had been reported earlier in the day that Bosh had missed shoot around with an upset stomach. It was the start of a night that would see Raptors going in and out of the line-up. Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu would play in this one. They also had been out and now back. Hedo would leave the game and return later. Andrea Bargnani who like Bosh had been under the weather as was Amir Johnson. It was like a battle just to see who was healthy. Bargnani would also have to leave this game. Not for sickness but because a Johnson elbow whacked him in the head ans caused him to bleed. But he would eventual return as well.
Nothing about this contest was pretty to be honest about it. The Raptors despite all the adversity looked like the better team if only slightly at times. I mentioned the comments of Tracy McGrady in the blog prior to this one. It seems a lot of the folks at the game must have heard them as well. McGrady was booed loudly throughout the first half. Not the levels of a Vince Carter but loud enough you could notice on the broadcast of the game. T-Mac did not look good and playing at the point guard spot for the Knicks seems an odd choice for Mike D'Antoni. However that is where T-Mac played. He would get burned defensively by both Jack and Calderon. McGrady is no longer the athletic freak he once was and it showed. The Raptors had little answers for David Lee in the first half though as he was the guy doing the most damage for the Knicks. The Raptors had a lead of 7 points shrink to just 1 by halftime 53-52.
The teams battled to a virtual stalemate in the 3rd quarter with both scoring 25 points a piece. The Raptors defense in this one was not great in fact at times it was far from good. It was not Hedo or Bargnani that would save this team. Although Bargnani would hit a big shot late. But Jose Calderon, Sonny Weems off the bench and Jack and Amir Johnson from the starting unit were the big keys. Weems lead the team off the bench with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Calderon had 16 points and 6 assists in his return. While Jack and Amir both had 14 and Amir had 5 offensive rebounds among his 8.
While all this was going on apparently Bosh was getting an IV at the hospital. But his Raptors whether he was watching or not escaped the ACC with a 102-96 win. The Knicks just have a terrible time winning games at the ACC. They now fall to 4-17 at the building. The game also ties the all time series at 28-28. But for the Raptors it snaps a 4 game losing streak. On to Philly with a early tip time of noon. That does not leave much time for CB4 to recover from whatever this bug is that has entered the Raptor Locker Room. Lots on time to clean the room up after Sunday as the Raptors will be on the road for 4 games on the West Coast next week.
I am heading down to cover the game with the Sixers and Raptors on Sunday. So the Dino Nation Blog will be in the house working hard. How hard the Raptors may have to work will depend on who is healthy enough to play. I am not even going to guess on that. But you would have to figure just logically that Bosh could be doubtful for that game given the lack of recovery time. But will see.
Next Stop for me is the ACC.
Nothing about this contest was pretty to be honest about it. The Raptors despite all the adversity looked like the better team if only slightly at times. I mentioned the comments of Tracy McGrady in the blog prior to this one. It seems a lot of the folks at the game must have heard them as well. McGrady was booed loudly throughout the first half. Not the levels of a Vince Carter but loud enough you could notice on the broadcast of the game. T-Mac did not look good and playing at the point guard spot for the Knicks seems an odd choice for Mike D'Antoni. However that is where T-Mac played. He would get burned defensively by both Jack and Calderon. McGrady is no longer the athletic freak he once was and it showed. The Raptors had little answers for David Lee in the first half though as he was the guy doing the most damage for the Knicks. The Raptors had a lead of 7 points shrink to just 1 by halftime 53-52.
The teams battled to a virtual stalemate in the 3rd quarter with both scoring 25 points a piece. The Raptors defense in this one was not great in fact at times it was far from good. It was not Hedo or Bargnani that would save this team. Although Bargnani would hit a big shot late. But Jose Calderon, Sonny Weems off the bench and Jack and Amir Johnson from the starting unit were the big keys. Weems lead the team off the bench with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Calderon had 16 points and 6 assists in his return. While Jack and Amir both had 14 and Amir had 5 offensive rebounds among his 8.
While all this was going on apparently Bosh was getting an IV at the hospital. But his Raptors whether he was watching or not escaped the ACC with a 102-96 win. The Knicks just have a terrible time winning games at the ACC. They now fall to 4-17 at the building. The game also ties the all time series at 28-28. But for the Raptors it snaps a 4 game losing streak. On to Philly with a early tip time of noon. That does not leave much time for CB4 to recover from whatever this bug is that has entered the Raptor Locker Room. Lots on time to clean the room up after Sunday as the Raptors will be on the road for 4 games on the West Coast next week.
I am heading down to cover the game with the Sixers and Raptors on Sunday. So the Dino Nation Blog will be in the house working hard. How hard the Raptors may have to work will depend on who is healthy enough to play. I am not even going to guess on that. But you would have to figure just logically that Bosh could be doubtful for that game given the lack of recovery time. But will see.
Next Stop for me is the ACC.
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