Game-Day Preview - Raptors vs. 76ers

I know exactly what you mean by cringing when they take those weak jumpers. I do the same thing, and I can't take when people in the room say, "Oh well, he made the shot". It doesn't matter, its really a lucky hit, and not a high percentage shot. Bosh can hit the outside jumper, but he needs to take it to the hole as much as possible. TJ needs to look for the open shooter rather than falling away over a usually taller opponent. However, the Raptors are playing great basketball, they just need to close out games and keep their leads, they seem to let games be closer than they should be.

Andre Iguodala. It makes me sick to see highlights of him, knowing that he should be a Raptor. He's exactly what the Raptors need too - an athletic wingman who can guard people on the perimeter. What was Babcock thinking? I guess I can always dream about Corey Brewer slipping into the second round (fat chance - he may go as high as third overall).

Well, best not to rehash that old argument. The Raps are going to have to be careful tonight because Philly has come together since the Iverson deal. Andre Miller's actually a much better fit as a true point guard. Still, they're far from being a great team and it's a game the Raps should take.

You wonder if Philly is shooting themselves in the foot with this late resurgence, given that this is a stud draft. I guess they figure that if you're getting a top ten pick this year, you're getting a potential star, even if it's not Oden or Durant.

I hate how people talk about those final two shots in miami as if the defense wasn't there. Watch it again, look at who's on who, think about who the worst defender on miami - and remember the heat won a championship with a defense that forces other teams into low percentage shots (or the cavs/miami game last night -exact same strategy they used on us, except it was lebron james who was the goat). With that coverage, anybody else's shot would have been just as "forced".

I cringe and yell too when they're impatient and take bad shots during the game, but only if there's TIME to do something else. If a game comes down to the wire and the defense is there, someone's got to gamble on a tough shot and who does it depends on the matchups. TJ made his move, miami didn't help, nobody else was open, what else can he do?

any stats on what the Raps record is when Bosh gets to the line 10 or more times?

Everybody better obsessed with the 3rd seed in the East better watch themselves. It is very conceivable that Washington drops to 7th. Their next 2 games are against New Jersey and it is entirely possible they drop both of them along with the 5 games they have after them.

it sucks that the one team the raptors could assuredly beat healthy is the one that implodes with injuries.

this team succeeds because of bosh. toronto can't beat detroit because rasheed wallace can contain bosh better than anyone in the league. he is the hardened convict and bosh is the fish.

no one on washington is able to do what sheed does to bosh. my question: is there a particular player on cleveland or chicago who can negate bosh? or more generally, which team plays bosh better? the answer to this is the team that the raptors should want to play.

i think deng is the bosh-killer on chicago.

maybe varejo on cavs just because he's so good at blocking out and rebounding

Blaxx I hear ya... but I wonder are we a team who wants an easier first round match v Washington just to say we made the second round, or think about great, and I mean GREAT it would be to knock Wince out of the playoffs! let alone the excitment that match up would bring to this city.

axl, i couldn't agree more. TJ took those shots because that's what the defense gave them. The problem is that the raps didn't have a strong enough strategy to break Miami out of their defensive sets when it mattered. Miami was organized, cautious, and wholly cognizant of the fact that the worst thing they could do was allow TJ to drive and kick.

absolutely raptorman, not many teams do have a strategy (or a gifted player) that can overcome that situation, and there are few that have defenders that match up that well against so many different teams. detroit, chicago, spurs come to mind.

I think tj is one of those players, but he still only can be expected to shoot 50% like everybody else and he had a good shot.

http://thestar.blogs.com/starsportsblog/

check out the photo with the blog (at the link above) about tj and tell me he didn't get a really good look. j-will's the weak link on miami's d so go at him I say

Axl, I’m not upset about the shooter, just about Mitchell bringing him in cold with 26 seconds left and calling a play for him. Also, he only took the clock down 6 seconds which didn’t allow him to try to break down the defence and even if he scored, Miami would have had plenty of time to win this thing. He should have at least waited till there were 5 seconds left on the clock. But I don’t think this was Ford’s doing, I think Mitchell called the play and told him to drive to the bucket immediately.

Blaxx, would you rather us finish 4th and start the playoffs on the road in Chi/Cle? I’d take 3rd any day. If it’s NJ, so be it, I’m not worried.

erezona - hard to argue with any of that, it's more a matter of opinion. maybe a more complicated set play would have accomplished more and opened someone else up. To me the simple play is better (more margin for error to at least get a shot off) and I trust tj to break down j-will 9 times out of 10.

whether or not to try to go two for one with 26 seconds left has got to be a tough call, but that what nba coaches usually do.

Axl, that's the funny thing. There were 26 seconds left on the clock when Miami scored and Toronto called the timeout. You can't get a two for one unless you score with only one second coming off the clock and even then you get only 1 seconds. This wasn't a 2 for 1 type play which is why I was really frustrated to see them take a shot with 20 ticks left.

Anyway, we will sleep in the bed we make. We have to win this season out if we want 3rd seed.

good points erezona. I'm pretty realistic with my expectations which have been absolutley blown away. And I like mitchell's system, where, on one hand, they can play slow and just work their sets until they get what they want, then on the other hand they can run and play fast. Plus the defence is getting better (I like to think we could've downed miami and orlando much easier if garbo would've have been there). Anyways, what am I doing, gotta pause the game on the pvr.

GO RAPS!!!!

Coach Jack made a great point - Humphries and Graham have really stepped up as of late.

I wouldn't mind finishing 4th because the Raptors match up better against Chicago and Cleveland than most people realize just because their records are better than ours. Chicago is just a bunch of jump shooters, streaky jump shooters at that. If you manage to contain Lebron and force his teammates to beat you, more often than not, they won't. Over a 7 game series, I wouldn't bank on Larry Hughes really steppin up

Wekk the Raps won the division, they beat the 76ers and so far the bulls are wipping the nets...Celebration!!!

Blaxx, better than they match up against WAS? I don't know if I agree with that. Plus, we are 16-23 on the road where we will be in that matchup. Home court is huge in the playoffs and that's why it's key for us to stay in 3rd. In addition, if we stay in 3rd, we avoid a possible meeting with Detroit till the 3rd round.

I'd love nothing better than to beat Chicago, we have not matched up well against them. They have outside shoters which we play poor defence against. They also have some big man that cause us trouble. Cleveland is a different story. I think we match up better against them, but again, not till the 2nd round. I like our chances on the road in a 7 game series a lot better than in a 5 game series.

Close call for MIA tonight in BOS. They almost slipped! We need them to lose one of these games down the stretch which will give us a one game breather.

By the way, why is everyone cheering for Chicago tonight (including Eric Smith)? Does everyone think that NJ will go 7-0 and the Raps will go 0-6 down the stretch? The division is a given, far more important for Chicago to be losing games at this point.

Not that it's relevant, CHI won big.

I think our road record is given more attention than it should get. If you throw out the awful 5 game west coast road trip in November when the Raps were still trying that "100 shots per game" philosophy, we're almost .500 on the road. We'll be just find against anyone we face in the first round that doesn't play in Detroit or Miami

Division Champs baby! 3rd seed and counting...

Toronto needs to finish strong to hold on to the 3rd seeding. That said, we are not a bad road team in 2007. Road record since January 1st is 9W-6L. That's not elite, but it's pretty good.

I feel pretty confident with this team playing any of their most likely opponents.

Franchise - great insight into the TJ Ford situation...

i'm so happy the playoffs are just around the corner and i'd take any matchup, but i'll really be pumped if we draw New Jersey. How insane would the ACC be?

Go Raps! Can't wait for Andrea to come back.