<div align="center"><u><font size="5"><font color="#FF0033">CLEVELAND CAVALIERS </font> @ <font color="#7A3293">TORONTO RAPTORS</font></font></u> <u><font size="3"><font color="#FF0033">PROJECTED STARTERS</font></font></u> <u><font size="2"><font color="#FF0033">CAVS</font></font></u> <font color="#FF0033">C Zydrunas Ilgauskas PF Drew Gooden SF LeBron James SG Larry Hughes PG Eric Snow</font> <font color="#7A3293">C Loren Woods PF Chris Bosh SF Joey Graham SG Jalen Rose PG Mike James</font> <u><font size="2"><font color="#7A3293">RAPTORS</font></font></u> <u><font size="3"><font color="#FF0033">MATCHUP BREAKDOWN</font></font></u></div> <font color="#FF0033">Zydrunas Ilgauskas</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Loren Woods</font> – I expect Ilgauskas to really take his game to Woods and to come up trumps with a great performance. <font color="#FF0033">Drew Gooden</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Chris Bosh</font> – Bosh will probably have the advantage here, as he is more powerful when bursting towards the rim. Could be close, but Bosh should come out on top. <font color="#FF0033">LeBron James</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Joey Graham</font> – LeBron should surpass Graham here. After all, you have a superstar playing a rookie. What else would you expect? <font color="#FF0033">Larry Hughes</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Jalen Rose</font> – Another interesting matchup for Larry Hughes. A great defender (Hughes) faces an attacker (Rose) who score in excess of 20 points if he plays at his best. It will be a great game at this, the two-guard, position. <font color="#FF0033">Eric Snow</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Mike James</font> – Two average point guards against each other and I think that this matchup won’t change much to do with the game because neither has the ability to change a game unless they pull something huge out of the bag. <div align="center"><u><font size="3"><font color="#FF0033">SCORE PREDICTION</font></font></u></div> <u><font color="#FF0033"><font size="2">109</font>-<font color="#7A3293">87</font></font></u>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting chingy0007:</div><div class="quote_post"> <font color="#FF0033">Drew Gooden</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Joey Graham</font> ?Drew should be able to handle this rookie and after a tough time with TD and Pau Gasol, he?ll be thankful that he gets to face a rookie. </div> Joey on Gooden? Why? Graham's is a small forward and he's giving up about 4 inches on Gooden. No logic here. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><font color="#FF0033">LeBron James</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Chris Bosh</font> ? Bosh and Graham really are interchangeable but I think they?ll stick Bosh on ?Bron because they need experience to face LeBron. Another potential combination is to put Bosh on Gooden, Rose on LeBron and Graham on Hughes. Really the central 3 for the Raptors will need to work overtime to prevent the Cavs from running away. Whichever way the matchups go, I?m pretty sure LeBron will win. </div> Bosh on James? Not only do they play two different positins (oneis PF and the other is a SF), this matchup is laughable as far as the Raps defence go. Again, I don't see the logic. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"><font color="#FF0033">Larry Hughes</font> v <font color="#7A3293">Jalen Rose</font> ? Another interesting matchup for Larry Hughes. A great defender (Hughes) faces a great attacker (Rose) and it will be a great game at this, the two-guard, position.</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting P.A.P.:</div><div class="quote_post">Since when is Hughes a great defender?</div> You are right, most players named to the all-defensive first team aren't good defenders. Last year he also finished 6th in the DPOY award voting and surely would have been higher if not for missing 21 games.
I think Hughes is a better off-the-ball defender than on-the-ball. He takes a lot of risks on defense to get his steals. He's a very good one-on-one defender but not on the same level as Bowen or Artest.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">You are right, most players named to the all-defensive first team aren't good defenders. </div> Sure he can steal the ball, but he's average man-to-man. That's all they were looking at when they named him first team- steals.
