<div align="center"> - <font color="Navy"><font color="Navy"> Toronto Raptors (1-10) @ Los Angelos Clippers (8-2) TV: Toronto (Sportsnet Ontario), LA (FSN) Radio: Toronto (Fan590), LA (KTLA AM 1150) Venue: Staples Centre Date: Tuesday, November 23rd, 2005 TipOff time: 10:40 PM Eastern</font></font> <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="7">.......</font></font> <font color="Red">Starting LineUps</font> <font color="Black">The Raptors: </font> <font size="1">Mike James-Jalen Rose-Morris Peterson-Tim Duncan-Rafael Araujo</font> <font color="Black">6th Man:</font> <font size="1">David Robinson</font> <font color="Black">Coach:</font> <font size="1">Sam Mitchell</font> Team Leaders: <font face="Comic Sans MS">Scoring: C.Bosh - 20.5 Rebounds: C.Bosh - 11.1 Assists: J.Calderon - 6.1 FG%: M.Jame - 49.7% FT%: M.Bonner - 85.7% 3PT%: M.Bonner - 50.0% Blk: L.Woods - 1.0 Steals: M.Bonner - 1.2 </font> <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="6">.......</font></font> <font color="Black">The Clippers:</font> <font size="1">Sam Cassell-Cuttino Mobley-Xzibit-Elton Brand-Chris Kaman</font> <font color="Black">6th Man:</font> <font size="1">Quinton Ross</font> <font color="Black">Coach:</font> <font size="1">Mike Dunleavy</font> Team Leaders: <font face="Comic Sans MS">Scoring: E.Brand - 24.1 Rebounds: E.Brand - 10.0 Assists: S.Cassell - 8.0 FG%: E.Brand - 57.1% FT%: S.Cassell - 94.9% 3PT%: S.Cassell - 40.0% Blk: E.Brand - 2.4 Steals: Q.Ross - 1.3</font> <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="7">.......</font></font> <div align="left"><font color="Red">Keys To The Game:</font> <font face=""Comic Sans MS"">- Rebounding:</font> We got outrebounded by a Suns team that got outrebounded themselves in their first 9 games, so what do you expect Brand, Kaman, Wilcox and company will do to us? This key is in every game thread, and it couldn't be more crucial than this game. <font face=""Comic Sans MS"">- Patience:</font> The Clips are not the greatest of defensive teams, and you'll get you shot if you move the ball and have patience. Last night, specially in the first half, we got into a chucking match with the Suns, and we can not afford to do that tonight. Mobley and Cassell never met a shot they didn't like, but we have to be patience and make this a low scoring affair. <font face=""Comic Sans MS"">- Win The Backcourt Battle:</font> Both Cassell and Mobley are streaky shooters who have bad shot selection but are deadly when they're hot. Mike James and Rose have to outplay both of them tonight for us to stand a chance, specially defensively where we have to play them tight and eliminate the open shots. </div> <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="6">.......</font></font> <font color="Red">Game Matchup:</font> vs Mo Peterson vs Corey Maggette With The Admiral and Duncan providing consistent interior scoring, I truly believe this is the most crucial matchup of the game. Peterson, shockingly enough, has not been a factor on the road this season on neither end of the floor. Defensively, try as hard as possible to stay between Maggette and the basket and eliminate his FT attempts. Offensively, Mo has been taken contested long range jumpers the majority of the time, which is why he's going through a major drought offenisvely. He has to regain his the agressiveness he had at the end of last season and look to attack the bucket at every opportunity he gets. His free throw attempts are way down from last year. <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="7">.......</font></font> <font color="Green">The X-Factor:</font> Rafael Araujo Ok, here's the deal. Elton Brand, perhaps you've heared of him, has been a rebounding machine this season with his massive body and strenght downlow. While both Robinson and Duncan are not strong enough to guard the man or box him out for 48 minutes, Hoffa seems to be (and that's a scary thought) the only man that is capable of doing a somewhat decent job on the former Blue Devil. Hoffa have been impressive in the last two games looking confident and more agile than ever, so hopfully he'll carry it to this game. All he needs to do is put a body on Brand every time the ball goes up, and box him out on every shot taken. He must play him physcial and try to deny him a deep position down low. Hoffa is the X-Factor for a Raptor win tonight. <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="7">.......</font></font> <font color="Red">Say What?! (Prediction)</font> My prediction <font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="7">.......</font></font> </div>
No prediction today ? Good job on the preview as always... Agree 100% on your x-factor .. i really felt Hoffa was (strange enough) a big part of our first win as he provided the interior toughness we've been missing for quite some time now. I think in the end their ability on the boards will get them enough 2nd chance points to win and Maggette is going to eat whoever happens to be infront of him (**personal bias **warning *). I'm going to say clippers 102-95
i never really cared much for the cheerleaders u post, but that one in the center has really caught my attention...... i dunno, maybe it's that look she's giving to the camera.... Well as for the game, the Clippers are on fire and the Raps are tired, on the road, and most importantly, they suck....... I predict a blow-out.... Clips by 10+ Hopefully i'm wrong though
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting a13x:</div><div class="quote_post">No prediction today ? </div> I did actually make a prediction.
ok...i gotta know...WHAT in the HELL has happend to jalen rose? i mean...he can NOT hit an open jumper to save his life. and this isnt just tonight, its been like this all season long. with the exception of the 3 ball late in the game against miami, and maybe another 1 or 2 here and there....he's been GOD awful. just painfull to watch. what has happend to him? on the plus side, raps by 10 at the break. nice work guys.
<u>game summary</u> the raps outplayed the clippers while dunleavy outcoached mitchell. its a freakin zone, high school teams break zones but not our purple heroes.
I've gotta say where are the Mitchell backers now? Today again, he continued his fascination with Bonner. Charlie was playing great, never saw he court again, Calderon was playing great, never saw the court again. Mitchell has no clue what he's doing, out of timeouts, and for game winning attempts we had nothing. Lenny Wilkens and KO at least knew how to draw up game winning shots, Mitchell knows how to draw up an inbound, and then we work it from there, no plan whatsoever. Bonner is a terror to the team.
holy christ that was embarassing. we just looked SO lost out there when they threw that zone at us. everyone just stood around, nobody did ANYTHING. god that was painfull to watch jalen...seriously. you're fired. im SO fed up with his horrible play. he couldnt hit the ground with the ball if he was aiming for it. we shoulda had calderon in there at the end instead of jalen...he at least would have tried to penetrate and make something happen. im so furious right now, once again bosh and james are the only consistant and reliable players we have on the floor...mo pete and jalen not pulling their weight is what cost us this game AGAIN. im not even going to touch on those two horrible calls that the refs missed...offence on cassell, and bosh got raped under the rim.
Raptors let this one slip away as well, we led for most of the game but couldnt execute down the stretch. And well, i really dont know whats up with sam and his plays.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">I've gotta say where are the Mitchell backers now? Today again, he continued his fascination with Bonner. Charlie was playing great, never saw he court again, Calderon was playing great, never saw the court again. Mitchell has no clue what he's doing, out of timeouts, and for game winning attempts we had nothing. Lenny Wilkens and KO at least knew how to draw up game winning shots, Mitchell knows how to draw up an inbound, and then we work it from there, no plan whatsoever. Bonner is a terror to the team.</div> agreed agreed agreed...on all fronts what was bonner doing in the late minutes of the game!?!? i mean...aside from hoisting up a brick off the side of the backboard. god that was painfull. why he would put a 1-9 jalen on the floor instead of calderon ill never know. im so pissed right now...that was a winnable game...and huge mistakes from coach cost us the game. frankly right now, id rather have Chris burke from the show life goes on as our coach
God, it's KO and Curry all over again w/ Mitchell and Bonner....... I don't see where Mitchell's facination w/ Bonner is coming from??? Can anyone explain the logic behind that lineup we had to close out the fourth??? Where was Calderon or CV (both of whom were playing great)..... and I agree w/ everyone else, Mitchell has the worst plays coming out of timeouts..... I'd hate for us to change coaches again, but I don't think we have a choice, this is really getting annoying.....
This whole insanity should be summed up in one question: Why Rose and Bonner in the 4th and not Jose and Charlie?
Yeh I was really frustrated with Bonners P.T at the end of the game, In my Oppinion it was a joke. Bonner enters the game with 3:25 left in the 3rd and plays out the entire game (15 min 25 sec). In this time Bonner goes 0-4 from the field including 0-3 from 3pt territory and some wild driving hook shot that barely grazes iron. He maneges to pick up 1 reb and 1PF in this time. I mean come on, if Bonner can't hit his shots he is effin useless out there. The blame rests on Sam Mitchell for keeping such a ineffective player in there for so long, when CV31 a far more vesitile player is chilling on the bench. Im not a Bonner Hater because i think he is good in spurts but Mitchell has to get Bonner out of there sooner becuase when Bonner isn't hitting his shots he is a waste of space. Notes: Couldn't believe they didn't call Goaltending on the Calderon lay-up. My roomate and I were screaming it during the live shot and the worst part about it was the Ref was right there to make the call. Not only was the ballgoing down it had already made contact with the backboard - - Pathetic missed call.
I completely agree - this is all Sams fault. His rotations are ridiculous, and his plays are even worse. However, we have to look at the plus side. We lost by 3 to a good team, with a bunch of suspect calls. If I were Sam, my 5 would be: PG-Calderon SG-James SF-Graham PF-Bosh C-Villy I think Villy is more than capable of playing the 5, imo.
Have you noticed that Bosh seems to have abandoned facing up his defender? I thought he would have done it against the stronger but slower Brian Grant yesterday. And it looked like he was going to do it today a few times, but he ended backing down his opponent. It almost looked like he was uncomfortable trying to beat his opponent off the dribble. His post game has really developed nicely, but that part of his game was so important. Btw: LoL at Duncan and Robinson on our team, and X to tha Z on the Clips.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chutney:</div><div class="quote_post">Have you noticed that Bosh seems to have abandoned facing up his defender? I thought he would have done it against the stronger but slower Brian Grant yesterday. And it looked like he was going to do it today a few times, but he ended backing down his opponent. It almost looked like he was uncomfortable trying to beat his opponent off the dribble. His post game has really developed nicely, but that part of his game was so important.</div> I don't see what you're seeing. Bosh is pretty consistent with that little Sikma pivot and playing face up. He's been using the jump hook a bit more lately, but that inside pivot and face is still there a lot of the time Have fun..............
What I meant was that, last year Bosh would basically get the ball around the elbow and beat his man off the dribble. It was effective, because he was so quick and it usually resulted in a trip to the foul line. But we all knew that he would have to expand his offensive game, if he wanted to be successful against a double team. This year he has definitely improved his offense (he's been able to back his opponent down and use that hook shot), but when he he's faced up his opponent he usually shoots it, passes it off, or starts backing him down again. I love his new moves, but I'm wondering why he hasn't been using his quickness against players like Brian Grant, who can easily muscle him out of the paint.
^ Didn't Bosh use his face-up game against Grant though?? The first time he ended up dribbling it off his leg, resulting in a turn-over. The second time he actually beat Grant, but a help defender came in and stripped the ball....
