<div align="center"> VS <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Toronto Raptors</font></font> (17-20) VS <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Dallas Mavericks</font></font> (30-8) Venue: Air Canada Center, Toronto, Canada Date: Sunday, January 14, 2007 Time: 1:00 PM EST Coverage: NBALP, TSN</div> [DIV=50%] <div align="center"><font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> Devin Harris - Jason Terry - Josh Howard - Dirk Nowitzki - Erick Dampier <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Jerry Stackhouse - Devean George - Austin Croshere - Desagana Diop - Greg Buckner <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Avery Johnson</div> [/DIV] <div align="center"><font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> TJ Ford - Anthony Parker - Jorge Garbajosa - Chris Bosh - Rasho Nesterovic <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Morris Peterson - Andrea Bargnani - Jose Calderon - Fred Jones - Joey Graham <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Sam Mitchell Analysis: The Raptors are looking to solidify their lead in the Atlantic while the Mavericks are looking to solidify their lead in the League. The Raptors are finally healthy after a string of unfortunate injuries and they are looking to distinguish themselves as a competitor in the East. However, their task today is huge as they go up against the energetic Dallas club. The last time these to teams met, it ended up in a blowout for the Mavs despite Dirk Nowitzki leaving in the first half. This young ball club will have to play with the intensity from the start and not just when they are trying to catch up. X-Factor Anthony Parker Anthony Parker has been great for the Raptors of late. He's been posting up great number in the past few games and has been a huge help to the Raptors offense. He realizes that Ford and Bosh cannot win the game alone, so he has stepped up as a possible 3rd option on offense. Not only has he been hitting open shots, and getting points inside; he's been looking for steals, hustling for loose balls and getting some crucial offensive and defensive boards. If the Raptors want to win today, he will have to continue what he has been doing, and just work work work, while contributing on offense. He also must contain the streaky, explosive gaurd; Jason Terry. Post Predictions Below </div>
3 consecutive playcalls by Mitchell basically lost us the game. God, I want to punch him in the face so badly right now.
wow i cant believe how we had bosh jumping up with some short dude and we still didn't manage to control the jump ball ... we should have won
I'm not going to say anything about the defensive breakdown because it's a mistake that can happen. But i'll say it comes from this team doubling too much. Our last offensive possession of the game was terrible. TJ Ford hiding behind a pick is our only playcall. The shot was crap, unacceptable. <div class="quote_poster">Chutney Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">3 consecutive playcalls by Mitchell basically lost us the game. God, I want to punch him in the face so badly right now.</div> mmmm . dito
Bosh tipped the ball to two white jerseys....they just happened to be the shortest on the floor. Why was garbo on the bench down the stretch when he did such a good job guarding Dirk? Bargs got schooled by Dirk on the drive and dunk, then he chucks a terrible 3...we had this game. Hurts alot. Btw, I love that Pic of Stacey Kibler....she is fine.
Bosh needs to fight for getting his position down low. I just saw too many occasions where Bosh just gave up postion and haning behind his defender. And again, Mitchell costs us a game. Situations like this it's all about coach's call that's why they get paid. Brian Colangelo should seriously think about his coaching .
I'm so pist right now. 1) Why do we send Parker to take the tech 2) Bargnani made a huge mistake by launching that ill advised three after getting crowned 3) Mo Pete was fouled after 10 players jumped on him 4) How did Bosh lose that jumpball? He should of tapped it to his back right 5) OUR ROTATION ON THAT LAST PLAY WAS HORRIBLE I haven't seen the replay enough but it seems to be Mo's fault. 6) Bosh's rest was way too long
I dunno about Peterson being fouled, it just looked like a bunch of guys going for the ball to me. The TJ Ford foul, that was f'n weak! I'd say the reffing went both ways though, we had our chances to win, no point on blaming the Zebras.
<div class="quote_poster">P.A.P. Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I'm so pist right now. 4) How did Bosh lose that jumpball? He should of tapped it to his back right 5) OUR ROTATION ON THAT LAST PLAY WAS HORRIBLE I haven't seen the replay enough but it seems to be Mo's fault. 6) Bosh's rest was way too long</div> its pissed but anyways. i was thinking the same thing. i believe it was bosh's fault cause remember they were switching everything (jim todd comment at the half) so bosh was suppose to go with the screener. and as for the jumpball- i looked at bosh's eyes and he didn't once glance over at his teammates to see how they were positioned. this was the most mentally handicapped thing ive ever seen him do cause all the players were jostling for position and he seemed totally aloof to it, and the result was him tapping it right back to dirk. colangelo needs to get bosh a basketball tutor. i hate this guy. and he had a horrendous second half btw when the mavericks made their push, proof again that bosh doesn't step up.
Yea, I'm not about to blame the officials when we clearly should have won this game. I can't believe I let this happen to me everytime. Whenever the game comes down to timeouts and set plays we always lose, yet I continue to hope that Mitchell will grow a fully-functional brain.
Nice shooting and nice teamwork game overall Raptors. The Mavericks used their favorite forumula to get another cheap win on the road. They buried alot of threes and had Nowitzki do as much of the work as possible. The Mavs like to wear teams down in the second half and dare the refs to call all their fouls and turnovers. The Mavs did the same exact thing Friday night as they did today when they beat the Pacers in OT. I am sure the Raptors will win their division. That guarantees a playoff spot regardless of the record, right?
<div class="quote_poster">deception Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">its pissed but anyways. colangelo needs to get bosh a basketball tutor. i hate this guy. and he had a horrendous second half btw when the mavericks made their push, proof again that bosh doesn't step up.</div> Yeah, I agree that bosh made some mistakes here and there. But you should not hate your franchise player based on those plays bro. I think Bosh got tired of fighting position with dampier. Bosh was the only raptor who was getting rebounds man. I just hope we can get a big guy from Detroit in exchange of mo pete.
So apparently in the post game peterson admitted they were not supposed to switch which lead to the confusion there at the end of the game. I could not figure out what was going on there. For a second i thought we were in zone, then i though Bosh doubled the guy on the perimeter for no reason, but now it makes more sense. So when the two Dallas guards switched on the perimeter Peterson made a switch (which we wrong) and Bosh stayed with his man (the same guy). Bosh then realized what happened and ran towards the open man (which made him look like he was at fault, but he wasn't really). This wasn't the game defining play though imo. There were numerous screw ups before that which kind of put us off track. The biggest one was definitely the tip we sent directly to the mavs. We should get possession on that ten times out of ten, Dallas would have had to foul and we would have been up by at least 2.
So I guess deception has to get off Bosh for at least that play, lol. But yea, I agree with a13x. There's no reason why that defensive breakdown or the two jumpballs should've been the game-defining plays. Our substitution patterns were off (at one point Smitch subbed in Rasho only to take him out one play later when he realized Dallas was playing small), and the last 3 offensive possessions in particular were stagnant and horribly executed. Some of that was the players' fault (eg: Bargnani jacking up an ill-advised 3), but the majority of the time it boiled down to coaching (eg: TJ Ford's mid-range jumper on a play that didn't even move the ball, the fact that we couldn't inbound the ball anywhere but 5 ft. away from the 3 pt. line).
