Game Five Preview – Raptors vs. Nets

I love that double screen idea. Watching other teams, it just seems more and more inexplicable the way the raps have been frustrated. Tonight I think will really show whether it's the nets excellence or the raps badness behind the bad losses in jersy. If they've really got raps figured out, they should have no trouble putting them away tonight. It sure seems to me like they do and with their motor running like it is, watch out lebron and co. Nets going to the finals would actually make me feel better about our series at this point, but I still think we can win tonight. Just give a fight, guys come on!!!!

man, these HQ game day previews are like turning points in the day for me - there's no turning back! I refuse to believe it's going to be the last one.

the perfect wave...we're all waiting for it.

Well what do you do? Do something, anything. What I mean by that is, throw caution to the wind and go down fighting.

1) Take away the Kidd Post move. Put Parker on him and have TJ guard Vince. TJ is going to need a double team anyways, so why not eliminate Kidd as an inside scoring threat and let VC play with the ball. Bring in weak side help and every chance you get, foul him hard inside -- I mean, deny.

2) TRAP! Trap, trap trap on some made buckets. Full court, half court. Alter their rythm. Make them use up the clock. Be aggressive and cause turnovers.

3)Since day one, I said box+1. Make everyone else an outside shooter. Works in hockey PK, why not?

4)Try some small ball. TJ, Calerdon, Parker, Bargs, Bosh. And run run run! Every NJ missed shot should be a push up the floor.

5)Attack Vince early. Not known as a great defender, and hopefully he gets in foul trouble. Mo/Parker should attack at him, with ISOs!

I like your potential starting lineup. I think Mitchell's tried to balance out the depth between the bench and the starters, so we can have an advantage against the Nets subs. But it really hasn't worked out: neither lineup has been particularly effective and most of our players look out of sync. I say you might as well stick your best offensive players on the floor for the majority of the game and ride it out. We have no other alternatives at this point.

This might be the last one of the season so if your going to the game tonight wear 'Red' at make this the loudest Raptors game in the history of the franchise.

The Raps backs are to the wall and the only one backing them up is us!

Go Raps.

I think this has the makings of the greatest playoff comeback in the Raptors franchise history. We have an overconfident overachieving overaged team thinking they are going for the kill tonight. I think the Raps will surprise them. So much so that the confidence game will shift. It will now be the Raps riding high on adrenalin and the Nets wondering what went wrong. This will be enough to push it back to TO for game 7 live on US networks as all other games would have ended by then.

Or not.

There's certainly the potential for a comeback of epic proportions in this series, but it all starts with the players. They can't come out looking defeated and overmatched from the opening tip like in game 3 and especially game 4.

I'll be there in section 310 wearing a red T and cheering loud as always, but the guys night to come out with some FIGHT!

The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see us go at the nets bigs. Why attack jefferson and carter at all, they're shutting us down, they're great perimeter defenders with major hops, lets go at the other two guys with post ups from joey, bargs, rasho and bosh will be the decoy rather than add another perimeter guy(mo) who's just going to get shut down. I wish this game would just start!

Did anyone listen to the Fan last night when Zach Cooper had Sherman Hamilton on? What a waste of time it was. Hamilton was sitting on the fence on everything, and offered no real insight. I gues he was afraid of losing his gig on RaptorTV.

Tfan, how many times have you heard Leo say "that was a tough foul" instead of calling it what it was, a horrible call? It’s a different style, but I don’t see the need for it. Call it like it is. If it was a bad call, say so. Don’t beat around the bush.

But Leo is generally pretty good. On the bad end of things, there is only one man standing tall, Bill Walton. No one can beat him. He rarely watches the games he covers, frequently talks about something stupid completely irrelevant to the game and is clearly more into hype than substance. He really doesn’t understand the teams he covers and doesn’t seem to know much about their rotations or personal. Sometimes he slips back into his LSD induced state that make me wish for Rod Black’s ice dancing competition coverage.

On the other extreme is Doug Collins. Never heard a better colour man in the business. He always adds insight, brings a different prospective, makes me see the game differently and I actually learn something when I hear him. He actually seems to have watched the teams he’s covering play before and genuinely seems to know their personal.

So where do the Raptors analysts rate? Well, if Doug is a 10 and Bill is a 0, then:

Leo 7 - generally good insights, but could be a little better at calling it like it is and stop being afraid to rustle fathers

Chuck 2 – doesn’t really add much. I mean he’s a great cheerleader, but after he speaks (which is a lot), what did he really say? He’s all about hype and not much substance.

Armstrong 8 – great analysis and pretty good discussion of actual issues. Shame we don’t get more of him in the playoffs.

Hamilton INC – don’t really know as us non Raptor TV fans don’t get much of a chance to see him

Rod Black 3 – He tries hard, but is miscast

Brian Heeney 5 – pretty insightful, just stuck at the wrong network. It’s like watching Peter Mansbridge on Treehouse.

Did I miss anyone?

PJ - 0
Norma - 1.5
Virk - 6
Other white guy with the sports guy voice - 7
Agree on jack, but I find leo annoying when he goes on and on about salami and cheese.
Marv Albert 10 - best play by play ever
I love collins and kerr the best for analysis. I'm ok with walton even though he exagerates to the point of being 50% wrong 50% of the time.

As if the Raptors needed any extra motivation for tonight, here's some blackboard fodder: the Nets' website has a link for purchasing round 2 tickets. (To be fair, I have no idea how long that link has been up, it could have been there since game 1.)

Good point Axl, forgot about that other white guy. One more, Cabbie 9.5 Great humour factor (especially the bits with Bryant.

oh, can't believe I forgot cabbie - definitely 9.5

I've always thought they should stick him in there between jack/leo and chuck

How does this double screen work when the defense refuses to hedge off on to the ball handler? The problem is NJ has been sagging off our PG's the entire series and making TJ and Jose be the ones to beat them.

I think Chris has to be more decisive when he gets the ball and the passes have to be fast and crisp (not just from Bosh but from everyone) just like they were in the regular season. Most importantly, the Raps need to BELIEVE. The body language in that last game was embarassing.

As for broadcasters, Norma is so captain obvious its painful. Has she ever ever ever said anything insightful?

If this is the last game of the year, then I want to say 'Thanks' for the year we just had, and to the HQ guys for being my daily read about all things Raptor.

Go Raptors!

The idea of setting some good screens to free up Bosh sounds like a helluva idea. The isolation play is pretty predictable and, with the Nets being permitted to put in a lot of contact, is really just setting Bosh up for a pounding. However, I'm not sure that the screens will really make much of a difference against Jersey's zone defence. Can't be worse and may give some other options early. Against the Cavs, defending Lebron is the main idea - not Z. Bosh won't be given the same freedom that Z gets.

where the hell is the Score HDé Its says 507, but it goes 506 and 508 on rogers digital cable, no 507 :(.

*phew* - I have never been so drained watching a television.

As hard as they tried, the refs just could not give this game to the nets. You'll get 'em next time delaney!!

Worst reffing ever.

If the officiating was even average the Raps would have won by 10

The bias on foul calling is offensive. How does David Stern let this go? On the play when JC got injured, he got hand checked by Kidd 3 times. If Kidd didn't hand check him, JC would have blown by him. Instead, he gets injured and instead of shooting free throws, the Nets get a 3 pointer to pull to within one. Don't even talk about the bogus calls on Bosh! Pisses me off to watch.

Why is Bosh not taking it to the hole?

Big game coming up in Jersey. Wish we could fill up all those empty seats with Raptor fans.
Solid contributins from Graham and Peterson. Ap was AP. Gotta get Barghani more touches for game 6.

Damn that ended up much closer than what I wanted! Oh well, a win is a win, now we have to go in to New Jersey and win a road game. Who cares what this win looked like, it was a win.

From section 307 ... If Joey would board like that every night he would be a very rich man.

Has anyone scouted the D-league in case Jose and T.J. cannot play in game 6?

Considering Bosh and Ford played 25 and 7 minutes, it is a quite remarkable we won tonight.

Dikweed, it should be channel 507, I was watching the game on it. I would contact Rogers if I were you.

Great game, and I am not the least bit concerned that NJ came back. The refs played a HUGE factor in the Nets comeback. Mo Pete, CB4 and Joey were forced to play less aggressive because they were in foul trouble. The foul calls were atrocious and obviously deliberate. Maybe the NBA is not ready for a Canadian team to contend for a championship. I guess they feel it will affect their ratings. The fix is in. The officials have been favouring the Nets the entire series. Tonight just took the cake. I loved this starting lineup by the way. I loved Mo's energy and I believe he is going to be the X factor for both games 6 and 7.

...and remember, our best player played only half the game. That alone speaks volumes.

Raptors will not even compete without our point guards lets hope they will have enough time off to heal and be effective.

Enjoyed the game drank my brews and had finger nails for snacks lol. (Looks like a great coaching move playing AB 40 min in last game in NJ then start Him in TO) U know who that was for .

I think the most important factor in successful Raptor play is combinations of players on the floor.There have been two platoons in effect. The bench platoon has given fits to opponents this year. The first 4 playoff games went against this patterning and allowed Franks to focus on Bosh (who needs to reinvigorate his ability to dish-off when double-teamed).

hey i am a big fan of adriana lima i just want to be like her. =]