I'm interested to see the Magic for the first time this season and wonder what effect Lewis arriving and Darko leaving has had on the team.</p> If the Magic go small if could be bad for the Raps, they didn't fair well when Philly went small. We saw 12 players last night for the Raps and the starters only averaged 17 minutes. Sam played Dixon, Hump, and Delfino all for more than 30 minutes last night, hopefully that pays off with a fresh starting squad against the Magic.</p>
^ I didn't think about it until now, but that's probably why Mitchell pulled them out so quickly. I'm also eager to see how much of an impact the coaching change had on the Magic. I know from reading Magic fans' posts last season, that Brian Hill was an absolutely terrible coach who didn't seem to understand how to get the best out of Dwight.</p>
Here I am, waiting for today's game against the Magic to start when I decide to check the mail and find a new issue of DIME magazine with a homoerotic Dwight Howard cover. Don't know what that's supposed to mean. </p>
It looks like Lewis was money well spent by the Magic. That is a hugely improved offense.</p> After another less than stellar half the Raps are lucky to find themselves down by only five points. Bosh looked better in the second quarter and Bargs has made a couple of nice drives to the bucket, including a sweet slam. Ford is playing well but the Raps better come out of the half shooting better than 34 per cent or Orlando will steal this one on the road.</p>
Down 5 at the half. I hope that intense look on Colangelo's face means that Mitchell is coaching for his job. He hasn't impressed me at all so far this season and we're making the same simple mistakes that we made last season: unrecognized mismatches, lack of in-game adjustments, overly simplistic offensive sets. The game's still within our grasp though.</p>
Absolutely, I'm not calling for Smith's head but this does not look like a discipline team from the defending COY.</p> Looks like the Celtics are killing the Nuggs.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Thanks Chutney. haha</p> Things won't get easier for the Raps tonight. I can see Howard getting 20/20 knowing that Bosh is not 100% yet. I mean who else will be able to defend Howard? Certainly not Bargnani.</p> </div></p> I’m not trying to pick on you but I just think that people look at bargnani, see that he’s euro and white, think he’s a marshmallow who’s going to get dunked on every game. The guy plays highly respectable D, especially for a second year player. Personally i look at the defense Chris<font size="2">"The Matador" Bosh plays and i'll take what bargnani does any day. </font> </p> </p> </p> </p>
Damn, I'm so impressed with the way Lewis fits on to the Magic. Good TO by Sam, the Raps are looking lazy out there, someone jump on that loose ball (good strip by Andrea)!</p> Parker needs to get his shot going, it's killing the team having him shoot poorly.</p> </p>
A good series of plays on both ends by Bargnani gets the Raps back to within striking distance. I loved the sweet post move on Turk.</p>
The Raps are still hanging around in this game down by only four going into the fourth Q.</p> Did anyone else see that all-white lineup the Raps used for the last two minutes in the third? Jose, Delf, Kap, Jorge, Bargs. I'm pretty sure I've never seen that on the Raps before.</p> I find it somewhat comforting that going into the fourth both Howard and Lewis have four fouls.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (a13x)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> I’m not trying to pick on you but I just think that people look at bargnani, see that he’s euro and white, think he’s a marshmallow who’s going to get dunked on every game. The guy plays highly respectable D, especially for a second year player. Personally i look at the defense Chris<font size="2">"The Matador" Bosh plays and i'll take what bargnani does any day. </font></div></p> I'm from Europe as well so I can do that. haha</p> </p> </p>
Well, we didn't close out on our shooters and we got burned. Teams have done their homework on the raps this year, no more suprising people with our play.</p> I felt that our in game management last 4 minutes or so left a lot to be desired. Maybe i'm just being critical however.</p>
That traveling call on Bargnani was bullshit, still it wasn't the refs fault the Raps lost this one.</p> I really wasn't impressed with Kapono's shot selection the whole game and the last two minutes was the entire team's was brutal. Thank gawd for Juan Dixon or this one would've if been close.</p>
Man im soo mad right now...the only 3 games I have watched so far have been loses! Anyways im having doubts about Mitchell....like for example Turk i s killing us in the 2nd quarter and Dixon is guarding him and Mitchell doesnt make any adjustment for the height differential, and in the 4th quarter when we were making our run with Calderon on the floor Mitchell decideds to take him out with 3 minutes left in the game when were down by 1 to put TJ in who just ruined our offensive flow, like he dribbled out every offensive possesion in crunch time. On a side note I think we should get rid of Dixon, I just dont like him at all. I think hes a big liability on defense and every single opponent takes advantage of it, and I dont think his offensive game is something we must hold onto as there are plenty of other players on our bench that could fill in his void!</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (a13x)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Well, we didn't close out on our shooters and we got burned. Teams have done their homework on the raps this year, no more suprising people with our play.</p> I felt that our in game management last 4 minutes or so left a lot to be desired. Maybe i'm just being critical however.</p> </div></p> </p> You definitely aren't. Watching the Raptors hang around for the last half but never really build a lead just exposed so many problems with this team. And the majority of them can be traced to coaching. Our roster definitely has its shortcomings, but they're manageable IMO. And you can't directly blame the talent either, because we aren't even executing properly when it comes to our strengths. I'm not going to list every single problem I saw as the game closed (its better suited for a blog article or its own thread), but I felt the nail in the coffin for us tonight was when Sam Mitchell subbed TJ Ford in for Calderon near the end. I watched about a minute and a half of the game after that point and knew that we wouldn't be winning the game. Ended up just switching the game to an excellent episode of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares (wish Chef Gordon would rip through this team right now...).</p>
I know its still too early to judge but after watching the first 5 games where do you see the Raptors by seasons end? Im still optimistic and am predicting a 50-32 finish and 3rd in the East.</p>
