<div align="center"> @ <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Toronto Raptors</font></font> (32-27) VS <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Cleveland Cavaliers</font></font> (33-25) Venue: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH Date: Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 Time: 7:00 PM EST Coverage: NBALP, THE SCORE</div> [DIV=50%] <div align="center"><font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> Daniel Gibson - Sasha Pavlovic - Lebron James - Drew Gooden - Zydrunas Ilgauskas <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Larry Hughes - Anderson Varejao - Eric Snow - Donyell Marshall - Damon Jones - David Wesley <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Mike Brown [/DIV] <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Projected Starters</font></font> TJ Ford - Morris Peterson - Jorge Garbajosa - Chris Bosh - Rasho Nesterovic <font size=""3""><font face=""Arial"">Reserves</font></font> Jose Calderon - Juan Dixon - Joey Graham - Kris Humphries - Darrick Martin <font face=""Arial""><font size=""3"">Coach</font></font> Sam Mitchell The Tip-off Toronto travels to Cleveland to close out the season series versus the Cavaliers on Saturday night. Cleveland leads the season series 2-1. The Cavaliers won the most recent game 86-85 February 21 at Air Canada Centre. The teams are averaging a combined 179.7 points per game in the series (Toronto 90.3, Cleveland 89.3). Chris Bosh is averaging 22.3 points and 12.0 rebounds in the three contests, while LeBron James is averaging 28.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists. Toronto can surpass its road win total of last season with a victory. Last Time They Met February 21, 2007 ? Cleveland 86, Toronto 85 ? Air Canada Centre Anderson Varejao's dunk over Chris Bosh upstaged LeBron James and helped Cleveland to an 86-85 win at Air Canada Centre ? James scored 29 points and Varejao slammed home teammate Sasha Pavlovic's missed shot with 16 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers ? Varejao had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the second-place Cavaliers, who moved three games ahead of Toronto in the Eastern Conference ? Indiana also beat Milwaukee night to overtake Toronto for fourth ? A double-teamed James passed to an open Pavlovic, whose 3-point attempt hit the rim before Varejao emphatically dunked it before falling to the floor for the final points of the game ? Varejao finished 8-for-9 from the field. He had his second straight double-double in place of starting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who missed his fourth consecutive game because of a family health matter ? Bosh had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Andrea Bargnani scored 18 points for the Raptors, whose eight-game home winning streak ended. Analysis The Raptors are without Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker tonight, so Sam Mitchell will have to go deep into his bench for some contribution. After a disappointing loss against Milwaukee, look for the Raptors to bounce back and take charge. This game is crucial in the standings, and a win could mean a lot in the East. Guys like Mo-Pete, and Dixon will have to step up to fill the losses of Bargs and Parks. Humphries although he didn't play much against Milwaukee will be utilized tonight after having a strong performance in Houston. X-Factor Morris Peterson With Parker out, the Raptors will need some leadership out on the floor along with Bosh. Peterson gets his chance to prove to Smitch that he should be used more. Peterson also has a job of possibly defending Lebron at times along with the likes of Sasha Pavlovic who is becoming a solid role player for the Cavs lately. If the Raptors want this win, they'll need all the contribution they can get from Morris Peterson. Post Predictions Below </div>
It's all good. We'd have no game thread if it wasn't for your efforts. I'm very scared of LBJ this game considering mopete is the only thing we can use to guard him.
Hump is keeping us in the game right now - 7 PTS, 4 REBS in 3 MINS Bosh looks like he's making up for lost time, 3-10 in the first quarter. I miss Bosh's shot from last season, it just doesn't look the same anymore.
Wow, we're getting killed in scoring percentage because of bad shooting choices. I guess we're really missing AP now. I hate to be ignorant, but going back to that San Antonio game. If that moron Bowen never injured Anthony Parker, I would say that this blowout that's going on right now would never occur. I hope we injure Bowen the next time he comes to ACC. That guy should really be banned from the NBA. BITTER IN MARKHAM!!!!!!!!!
Watching this game is sooo disheartening... I hate that BOWEN dude, he needs to be banned from the NBA. I THINK ALL RAPS FANS SHOULD WRITE A LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONER about BOWEN. I think we will bounce back and have a better week next week.....
All I have to say is that were 1-4 in the last 4 games w/out Parker, and both his offense and defence is needed. Man, I really miss Barnani and Parker now. Cleveland has no right to beat us this way. Oh well. We'll be better next Tuesday against Washington when hopefully they'll both be back.
Ummm.. we also need to sit Ford down, he's a little too trigger happy sometime. A point guard is supposed to pass first before shooting. What a liability.
we obviously miss both parker and Bargs.... BUT the entire team aint playing good ball right now, this week was rough... TJ and Calderon arent playing well. We need both PGs to play proper ball.... The past 4games showed that this team aint ready for the playoffs yet... we need to learn from these games b4 the playoffs.... Otherwise, we will be toast in the first round. PS...... GREAT game THREAD by DR NAismith... but why does he never put "BLACK" or "ASIAN" women.... only white woman.. IT WILL BE NICE TO HAVE a LIL BIT OF EVERY RACE...... BALANCED DIET for MY EYES
Well, we better Start winning otherwise we won't be in the playoffs when it starts getting really intense down to the final month and a half.
I'm officially giving up on Joey Graham after this game. His basketball IQ is right up there with Hoffa's. He is no use to anyone.
^ Co-sign. Tucker looks good everytime he plays in garbage minutes. I'd like to see him play more. I hope Graham gets traded in the off-season (if any team wants him). Nice guy, not that good of an NBA player. On the bright side, Slokar look good tonight. I hope to see more of him and less of Humphries who's allergic to passing and thus is out of control everytime he puts the ball on the floor 5+ feet away from the basket.
I second that Tucker should be playing more. Every time I've seen him play, he has impressed me with his effort. I believe if he was only a little taller and bigger, he would be playing a big role for our team right now. If only we could stick Tucker's heart and brain in Joey's body.
Bosh was off. LeBron & Hughes destroyed the Raps. The only thing that I was glad of, was Dixon's 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
<div class="quote_poster">boshbosh Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">we obviously miss both parker and Bargs.... BUT the entire team aint playing good ball right now, this week was rough... TJ and Calderon arent playing well. We need both PGs to play proper ball.... The past 4games showed that this team aint ready for the playoffs yet... we need to learn from these games b4 the playoffs.... Otherwise, we will be toast in the first round. PS...... GREAT game THREAD by DR NAismith... but why does he never put "BLACK" or "ASIAN" women.... only white woman.. IT WILL BE NICE TO HAVE a LIL BIT OF EVERY RACE...... BALANCED DIET for MY EYES</div> I made the Game Thread for this game. Anyways, Hughes killed us the whole game. We still didn't put a body on Varejao as he got so many points of offensive rebounds. Bosh was taking some bad shots, especially that one 3 he took. We really Parker and Bargnani back. It just goes to show how valuable they are to our team. Parker's leadership and decision making, and ball IQ are what we need out there, and just Bargnani's presence as another offensive threat is a huge loss. On a positive note, both Humphries and Dixon played very well. Humphries is just pure hustle, and he may not get the 'nice' or 'good-looking' plays, he gets the job done with his hustle. Dixon is very streaky, and as soon as he hit one or two of his first jump shots, he continued to drop them all night. We also need to switch PJ and Graham on the depth chart. PJ Tucker >>> Graham. He works harder than Graham and doesn't take dumb shots when the team is struggling. Also his D is superior to Grahams.
<div class="quote_poster">P.A.P. Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">^ Co-sign. Tucker looks good everytime he plays in garbage minutes. I'd like to see him play more. I hope Graham gets traded in the off-season (if any team wants him). Nice guy, not that good of an NBA player. On the bright side, Slokar look good tonight. I hope to see more of him and less of Humphries who's allergic to passing and thus is out of control everytime he puts the ball on the floor 5+ feet away from the basket.</div> Graham is the type to go through stretches. He's going through a bad one right now. But I just can't believe we passed up both Danny Granger and Gerald Green for him...
