3 In the Key – Toronto Raptors Game Day Preview vs. 76ers

Any updates on where we can watch the games? Is there really no other way to catch the game unless you have raptors tv or your'e with Bell?

Aaron, if you're referring to todays game, it will be on the Score.
Off topic a little, Kobe had a stat line of 23 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Being a fan of the game, he appears to be in mid season form in the first game of the year! I would bet he gets MVP again. On the flip side, LeBron clearly hasn't worked on his free throw shooting. His 2 missed free throws in the last 40 seconds of the game sealed the game for the Cavs. Sideshow Bob was about as offensively useless as Ben Wallace. I was hoping the Cavs could beat the Celtics just so that it would totally ruin the "ring night" for Boston.

Well, tonight's game is on the Score, as is Friday's, and Saturday's is on TSN1.

TSN2 is the only problem channel, and it doesn't carry a game until the 16th (I think).

First off, just a reminder that tonight's game is on the Score but the time has been moved up to 6 PM because of the World Series.

Second - I like Sam starting Jamario tonight. Let's see if he can get his groove back and let's see what Joey can do with the second unit. If both struggle over the first few games, he can switch things up.

Third - Can't wait to see the match-ups tonight, even beyond JO and Brand. Guys like Young and Williams off the bench could be a handful and I think as Howland said, our second unit could determine the outcome this evening.

Go Raps.

According to papers, Young is starting tonight. Good for us or bad for us?

Anyone else not surprised in the least that Moon is starting? Moon's preseason was atrocious and he showed no desire at all to drive to the hoop.

Even when Mitchell started JG, it failed to inspire Super Jamario.

Just goes to show you that the "this year we all start with clean slate" refrain is bogus. Mitchell's Jamario man crush lives on.

Surprised nobody's thrown in a "let's trade for Harrington" after the announcement out of Golden State. Take my Kapono, please!

Let's hope the fans are out of it tonight with the Phillies on deck.

I think Philly is rated higher not so much on Brand v. JO but on the guys around them. Raps without JO is a scary thought. Philly w/o Brand is about what they had last year, which wasn't bad.

Cavs on the other hand are waay over-rated. I just can't see Mo Williams as saviour.

I like Moon to start, he did have a good rookie year and earned the chance to start, but it's also his to lose if he doesn't bring tough D and smart play.

Go Raps!

I thought the cavs looked bad-ish as well benji. And I found myself cheering for the celts - it was weird.

My key for the game - transition defence. I'm just sick of watching teams get easy dunks on the raps becuase they're napping after a miss...

Acie - It's coming tomorrow...Howland and I have been emailing back and forth about options this morning. Problem is his contract is pretty big and in the final year...

I would loveeee to get harrington on our team for two reasons... 1) he is a tough mutha*&(*& and will add even more gritt to this team.... 2) he will be a huge upgrade for our three spot and immediatly puts us above philii and i think top 3...

The reason we WONT get him.. more than anything... toronto is adament on building a team with the right "type" of person.. and harrington is too hot headed and maybe "thugish" for what the toronto head office structures its team around... it sucks.. but thats the truth

Howland, so let me get this straight, the key to the game is for the entire team to play well. Thanks genius. Of course we need the entire team to play well to win. I'm so glad I read your website for informative information. LOL.

harrington seems like a decent slasher, with his salary though we'd have to do two for one and raps can't afford to lose the bodies I don't think

Bargsbust -

Well the key every night is for the whole team (at least those that get minutes) to play well. My point was more if the big men neutralize each other that its the secondary guys who will play the most important role tonight. In that way there is more pressure on the Graham's and Moon's to step up. It becomes less relevant if Bosh, JO and Bargs can out-play what the 76ers have on their front line. It's more of an if not (a) then (b) scenario rather than (a) and (b).

Next preview I will try and incorporate the use of the chaos theory and the theory of relativity to make it a little more "genius".

I like that youngs starting because it means a weaker second unit in theory. However i guess if philly plays their starters a ton it wont matter either way.

Dont know about harrington - isnt he too much like bargs???

Looks like we won't see the "full rotation" tonight as Addams and Solomon didn't make the trip due to injuries. Roko will be thrown into the fire right away.

I am normally a Mitchell defender but if he is starting Moon over Graham he is sending the wrong message. Graham, by all accounts, out played Moon in the preseason and for Mitchell to start Moon anyway says that how you play doesn't matter. I realise that Moon off the bench is probably not as good as Graham off the bench but the least he could have done is given Joey the nod for tonights game then moved him back to the second unit on Friday (kind of an acknowledgment that he deserved to start but it is better for the team to come off the bench for now).

FINALLY! The season is here!

Re: McGateway

Sam has always said his players earn their time in games AND in practices, and has openly said that he gives preseason games VERY little weight.
He also came out and said the reason Jamario is back in the starting lineup is because he started doing 'the things they want' in practice.

Personally, last year's performance by Moon is enough for me to give him the spot to lose in the season.

Like you said, if it doesn't work out, it can be changed for Friday.

Lets play ball !!!!!

Back to my point of a few days ago. JG doesn’t get any breathing room. When he messes up, he’s out immediately. When someone else messes up, they get to work through it and try again.

Joey should start. I don’t buy the whole second unit would be better with Joey. Never understood that. Wouldn’t the second unit be better with Bosh as well? You don’t hear anyone suggesting he should be moved from the starting lineup. Good players start, period.

JG has outplayed Moon and has finally started showing some consistency. What Sam is doing is again messing with his confidence. Back to my earlier point, don’t we have some vested interest in developing Joey’s game? Doesn’t part of the starting decision have to come down to the coach developing his talent? By moving Joey to the bench, the young man will get messed up again and this time I will blame it all on Sam.

Start the guy, he’s earned it!

I’ve gone public in the past when the Fan has pulled bone head moves, so I have to go on record to give them credit. The Fan has decided to have tonight’s game on 590, not its sister station out of Hamilton (which has a listening range of 3 homes). I was fully expecting them to pre-empt tonight’s game for a 3 hour baseball pre-game show.

On the same topic, I actually heard bball talk on McCown’s show the other day. It wasn’t prime time, but it was so close to 6pm that you would actually use the word ‘6’ as part of your response if someone asked you the time. It’s the closest the Raps have been to 6 since, well, ever.

sick J.O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sick BOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!

My highlight of the evening was at half time,when CB4&JO were walking off the floor with a big FUCK YOU swagger !!! sorry about the F bomb...but I had to

Whatta game. Ukic play was all over the place, Good Joey Showed Up, we were outrebounded by a million but we still won. Our defence was good, and Philly will struggle w/o a 3pt shooter, which is ironic since trading korver allowed them to improve!
Bosh had 42 minutes! you gotta ease up smitch. Calderon needs to shoot a lot more in the future, 10-15 shots from him and O'neal are neccessary for this team to win consistently. And who cares who's starting, I see Kapono/Parker finishing games to space out the court as long as the other team doesn't have 2 good wings.

Random Thoughts I know, but I'm EXCITED! 82-0!

Heard the game on the radio, and watched the box scores. Great game by Bosh, and looks like we got calls going against us most of the game. Kapono is HUGE for us, he needs more touches.

Bargs worries me. We still pulled out a big 11-point win without a point from him, but he HAS to start contributing more significantly if we want to challenge Boston and Detroit and Cleveland.

Ukic was ok, first game under his belt, and he didn't do that bad. 15 minutes too.

Wow, Humps did not see one minute of action. No chance for him to get 4 or 5 minutes to spell Bosh some rest?

JO was bigger than his statline. He altered offensive sets and created havoc for opposing bigs.

Awful rebounding. Dalembert is NOT that good. This HAS to improve. We won't win too many games being outdone by 20 in this category.

Was that A tight rotation by Smitch?

Calderon, Parker, Moon, Bosh, O'neal
Graham, Bargs, Kapono, and Ukic

9 Players!!!!!!!!!!!

To Sho regarding the tight rotation,I'm not sure but I thought that Solomon and Adams weren't making the trip, so that only leaves 10 players anyways. Only Hump didn't play.

Wow what a game. F bomb allowed for that one, just a great victory to kick things off.

I'm writing the recap now and I'm sure there'll be lots to discuss in the morning.

Five boards, two blocks in limited minutes. No points but no bad shots. Solid D. I disagree.
Good rotation from Sam, he rode who was hot. We needed Bosh for them 42 minutes. What do you want 36 and a loss?

Howland,
Looks like you called it bang on- especially with the Kapono comments. I was really impressed with what I say tonight. This team will be dangerous, especially down the stretch!

surprised bosh played 42, mitchel did a great job subbing him in and out for shorts rests - what a luxury having o'neal to stagger the rotation. We never saw anything even close to the pre-season second unit which was a relief.

Bargs actually had a nice 20 mins since they really didn't run any offence through him. He had 5 boards, 2 blocks, 2 assists and a steal and only 2 fouls! No three attempts. That's fine for him I think. The fact we didn't see Hump meant that Mitchell was satisfied I believe.

On the flip side, the fact that philly can't shoot really covered up our poor perimeter defense.

Great game!!

Gerry
Bargs was just fine. He tried to do the little things and didn't make any mistakes. He made some nice passes and didn't force any shots.

Didn't you state that you just heard the game and watched the boxscore?

Roko was good too. You said he wasn't that bad. Actually I thought he was exactly what we needed tonight. 1 or 2 small mistakes, but some great plays as well.
How about his wrap around breakaway lay-up. Wooooo!

D279. Nice! Sometimes it just fits.

JO looks great.

Perfect start. Even for Smitch.

Cheers!

funny typo at nba.com: "Chris Bosh had 27 points and 11 rebounds to help the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors 95-84..."

aaanyway, bargs was okay, he looked a lot less lost, and roko was great, much better than expected, reminds me of jose in his first year, raw but high energy. JO and CB4 were awesome. just need to improve that rebounding. and, to slightly contradict myself from earlier, maybe JK staked a claim to the starting role tonight? i swear playing with calderone he could average 16 a game.

The Rap's much maligned defense won the game in the first qtr when they made 2/12 FG to start, both by Calderon, and lost the rebouding by 5-22, and still were only behind 18-21.

From then on they controlled the game with a great 8 mins by Ukic to start the 2nd qtr.

Some things to work on...rebounding... but great start none the less.

On what D279 said, I absolutely agree that was my favorite part too, and I think that is important. I can't think of the last time the Raptors had that kind of "F-U we'll kick your A$$ swagger." (maybe the Davis, Oakly, Vince days) Now as much as I love the Raps they aren't a championship team, but that is the swagger that the best teams and players have.

Anyways after the camp, preseason, and one regular season game I say Raps, 49-33 with a tough loss in the Eastern Conference finals to the Celtics.

bargs did more than fine off the bench, even without scoring much. the rest of the bench did awesome as well. good joey showed up, kapono was on fire...it's all good.

for me though, the shiz J.O and Bosh were handing out was just disgusting.

vicious dunks and a swagger I haven't seen in a long, long time around these parts. (that's actually warranted...unlike a certain MJ)

Gerry, don't worry. Be happy. I agree with most of your points. Johnn19, greta summary. NOTES: No Raptor was a net negative! Joey was the only Raptor to get too few minutes to make a significant contribution statistically (besides Kris, who got NO minutes!!!). I thought, at times, that both O'Neal & Moon, were NOT playing well enough to leave those two last options sitting on the bench ... BUT a GREAT start!!!!!!!!!

axl, you're right. It looked to me like the game turned to our favour when Bargnani led the second unit by doing all the other things right ... with Bosh still there to anchor them ...

Gang! I LOVE this blog and enjoy all the comments. Thanks for giving us the BEST Raps analysis out there, Howland, and Franchise.
I totally fanned on this one and missed the game COMPLETELY...does anyone know when 'Raps game in an hour' is scheduled for??? Help!!!
Thanks to all!