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

Looking forward to tonites matchup - Altlanta is a fun team to watch. Also a tough matchup.
Would like to see Jamario ride the pine for the matchup but think his athleticism will come in handy.
No excuse for losing the rebounding department tonight. Our bigs are bigger than their bigs.
Bargnani is my X Factor of the night.

Here's my prediction... Moon will stay in the game because Sam wants him to guard the athletic wings of the Hawks. However, Moon will only jump shoot and not rebound, and unless Sam suddenly gets an epiphany, he'll stick with Moon because of his man to man defense.

I can't believe I'm pining for Joey Graham

Vicious D

You are really going out on a limb with Your prediction

lol

hawks are averaging 46 boards a game so far! yikes.

rebounding is supposed to be something moon provides and he hasn't done that. i wonder if we should just start our best offensive weapon at the 3, i.e. kapono. this is when a lack of an established SF really hurts.

go raps!

Davl - I looked at my tea leaves this morning... What can I say? :p

Bargs is my X Factor as well here. He's gotta get more than six shots but also needs to dominate when Bosh is on the bench. Good to see this article this morning about O'Neal being upset about his offence:

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/NBA/article/532469

Just shows the level of commitment he has and I think things will get better as the season goes on and as he adjusts to his new role.

I really hope Bargnani's scoring pattern doesn't continue...

0, 19, 0, 12, ...

These guys always seem to run the raps out of the gym even in a defeat... going to be a tough one.

I agree joey should get moon's minutes tonight just to see what happens - though i say this every year and graham gets in there and slips on the ring of power!!! sorry reading lotr right now...

If they're going to run us, I sure hope Smitch does the smart thing and goes to an 11-man rotation with Hump & Graham & Ukic, so fatigue isn't an issue at the end in a close game!

Franchise,
Thanks for the article link. I know JO will be just fine and I will look for him to rebound tonight from a tough performance Wednesday. I'm not so sure Bargs will be the X-factor tonight, as much as I would like for that to happen. Rather, I would expect to see a monster effort from Parker after a lackluster performance against Detroit.

I worry about toronto losing this one tonite too. Hawks are playing hungry, jj is destroying teams, and like you siad howland, the raps have been bad on the boards and against athletes.

The Hawks seem to start off strong every year............

Had a chance to read that article on JO today in the star. Loved to see that he is really focused on helping this team and that it sincerely bothers him that his game has taken time to round into form. Especially loved this quote about the DVD player and how if his wife took it away, he'd "empty the fridge"! LOL

I agree with Flying J. Its just a matter of time. I don't think he's going to average 20 a night but probably somewhere around 15 pts on 48% shooting should be enough for this team to be successful. Also, it can't be overlooked that he's playing some pretty good D, guarding the best post guys the oponents have and has instituted a "No Dunk Zone" in Raptor land we haven't seen before.

On another topic, did anyone catch Brandon Roy's heroics last night?!?! OH WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. I can't bare to watch Roy anymore... I just get mad at Bargani when I do... and that's not fair... Right? Ugggh

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3687529&categoryId=2459788

Excellent news for those of us living outside the US & Canada: the NBA has finally unveiled an international, PC-only, version of the League Pass:

http://leaguepasssupport.nba.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=7801&task=knowledge&questionID=265
http://ilp.nba.com/

I really have no words to express you just how thrilled I am, hopefully some other fellow HQ posters (Robert Archibald? renato?) will be able to enjoy it too...

Now we have no excuse not to follow the Raps! Only the timezone difference, but we can still catch the replay the following day.

OK let's stir the pot... here's the question that apparently faces Raptors Nation right now. This is a quote from a question sent into Michael Grange on his blog on The Globe and Mail's basketball site. I for one agree with him. How do we feel about this?:

"Trevor Lloyd writes: You are Bryan Colangelo. You need a 3. Do you offer Bargnani & Kapono for Harrington or Wallace, then push hard to sign either a big (or backup PG) for the minimum?

Thanks,

FD(Grange): Yes."

"You are Bryan Colangelo. You need a 3. Do you offer Bargnani & Kapono for Harrington or Wallace, then push hard to sign either a big (or backup PG) for the minimum?" We need Harrington more because he's a better rebounder. Humphries can be the B/U big. Ukic can be the B/U PG soon enough. Save the next signing & the mid-level exemption for when someone gets injured. Then we'll know exactly what we need.

i'm not sure harrington, mcdyess, or wallace are going to be enough to justify going over the cap for BC. if we do a two for one he would need to sign that backup

Bargnani and Kapono for Harrington and Belinelli works according to ESPN's trade machine. We desperately need a 3 and I'm starting to think that we don't have many other options.

By the way, it seems as if the Raptors have been unable to buy a foul the last few games. Just an observation. Bosh doesn't get star treatment and neither does JO anymore. Do you think the Toronto logo might have something to do with it? Just a thought.

Let's forget this game even happened - Hawks couldn't miss (although Toronto's perimeter D wasn't making things very tough), Jose struggled, and CB4 and O'Neal didn't get enough touches down low to take advantage of foul trouble and mismatches.

the toughness and swagger that seemed to have rubbed off JO onto our smalls seemed non-existant this game, they just got beat. poor AP out there, trying to do it all and getting nothing done. seen this before from bibby and jj though - when they're hot, they're hot

Sergi-thanks for the link, but it is a good news/bad news situation for me. I live in a beautiful farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and can't even get broadband! Almost makes it more painful to know that it is available but can't use it! I'm moving!
(that is also why I have been posting a lot less lately, but I still read)

If we do trade Bargs for Harrington, I want some kind of prospect or draft pick coming back with him. Also, lets not forget how thin we are at the 2. Belinelli might be ok, but I am sure either GS or Tor want to keep the two Italians together. If we could make the trade without Bargs I would be ecstatic!

Assistant GM I think you're right. No star calls for CB!? I'm glad he's starting to complain about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Complaining works for Kobe.

The defense was awful. Why do the Raps automatically bring the double team every time the ball gets into the post?

Let some of these opponents earn the double team. I'd rather give up a contested one on one 2 pointer than see an opponent get double teamed and kick it out for an uncontested 3. Sam's defensive philosophy is a mystery to me sometimes.

It's almost time for Moon to sit his a$$ on the bench for a while and see what Joey can do. At the 6 game mark Sam needs to light a spark under Moon's behind. It you're not gonna rebound or take it to the hoop then sit on the bench.

I am really beyond words for describing the Moon/Mitchell relationship anymore. Seriously, I wasn't even yelling at the screen anymore every time Moon made an obvious error, I just calmly watched only him for long stretches to make sure I wasn't missing some intangible he was offering while out on the floor. There was literally absolutely nothing. It was sequences like missed box out, blown rebound, up the floor, recieve pass at perimeter, hold it (while ATL defender was entirely aware Moon would not be driving) and simply waste clock, eventually dump back to Calderon, continue standing (as though a cut through the paint would destroy the time-space continuum), don't challenge for the offensive rebound, go back the other way, then do one of three things i.) fail to keep your assignment in front of you ii.) fail to offer help to teammate iii.) offer help at the most inopportune time and leave your assignment open for a Jimmy. And then the cycle would repeat, with a slight variation occurring when Mr. Moon would jack up yet another deep 2 on the offensive side. The guy is literally doing as much as I could likely offer the Raps. I honestly believe I could offer the Raps at least as much as Moon is currently. And yet, he plays. Starters minutes!!! I guess I am back in last year's mindset after that game, waiting for the firing Sam press conference. I am very much aware of my own tendency to over react though, so hopefully I am proven wrong. And to be clear, Moon is far from the only problem with this teams chemistry and toughness on a nightly basis, but seems to me, to be the easiest problem to fix. Mr. Moon meet Mr. Bench.

Our shooters were off and their's were hot (especially Bibby). JO had a good game and Bosh was great as usual. I liked his Tech for complaining about no calls. Its about time that he should be getting Kobe, Lebron type of calls.

Although I've been warming up to Mitchell's coaching, he's got to take the heat for this one. It was a brutal game to watch.

p.s. Please bench Moon for Joey now.

Pleased with the tone after bad defeat. A dose of reality could be exactly what we need.
Hawks were on fire - definately looked like a playoff team. They always seem to start the year off good.
Raptors, on the other hand, didn't look that good. I'm hoping this defeat wakes some guys up. Don't expect to see Calderon and Parker shoot 4 for 19 with zero FT attempts. Both stunk defensively as well. Our bigs did alright offensively but we got beat on the boards again. O'Neal with 4 and Bargnani with 3 not what I like to see.
Always tough to win on the road in the NBA. Last night we were outshot, outhustled, outrebounded, basically outplayed in every aspect of the game. I'm hoping a dose of reality is exactly what this team needs.

After 4 seasons of other coaches being able to exploit our teams weaknesses, it annoys me to no end when after a loss when Smitch sums up a loss by pointing out our teams weaknesses.

'We just couldn't stop them', thanks Sam. No team is perfect, the key is to hide your weaknesses and exploit your strengths. That is what a coach is supposed to do. We have improved our interior D. We have excellent scoring. We should be a pretty competitive team. I don't like the coach always explaining why we lose by blaming his personnel. No wonder he and BC often seem to clash.

Lol, 2 losses and I am all over him, I am Sam's Bargsbust!