<div align="center"> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="color:#0A355E"><span style="font-family:Impact">Indiana</span> </span></span><span style="color:#0A355E">(22-36)</span> vs. <span style="color:#c8362d"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact">Toronto</span></span></span> <span style="color:#c8362d">(32-24)</span> </div> <div align="center"> When: Friday February 29th, 2007 @ 7:00PM EST Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON TV/Radio: The SCORE, FAN 590 </div> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"> <span style="font-family:Impact"><u>GAME PREVIEW</u></span></div></span> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Indiana Pacers continue to make things tough on themselves as they try to remain a serious contender in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Things won’t get easier Friday night when the Pacers will be without leading scorer Danny Granger as they look to avoid a fourth straight loss and a season sweep to the Toronto Raptors. Indiana (22-36) fell 113-107 at home to Chicago on Wednesday for its 13th loss in 16 games. In the fourth quarter of that contest, Granger—scoring a team-high 18.2 points per game—struck Chicago’s Andres Nocioni in the face, earning him a one-game suspension. Despite the skid, the Pacers are still hanging around in the Eastern race - they are within four games of the eighth and final playoff spot - in part because only five of the conference’s teams have winning records. The Pacers, though, will need to improve their play if they want to make a push in the final stretch of the season. The challenge will only get tougher Friday as they try to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat overall, and fifth in a row to Toronto. The Raptors (32-24), fourth in the East, have won three straight games, including a 102-98 victory at Indiana on Monday night. Toronto already has clinched its first season series win over the Pacers since 2000-01, and now seeks its fourth straight home victory over Indiana. The Raptors have won their last four games at Air Canada Centre overall, and each of those victories was by at least 17 points. “Games are getting more crucial down the stretch and we have to do a better job at home,” said Toronto’s Chris Bosh, who had 28 points in the Raptors’ 107-85 home win over Minnesota on Wednesday. Bosh had 24 points and 10 rebounds against Indiana on Monday, and he is averaging 22.7 points and 10.0 boards in three games versus the Pacers this season.</div> <div align="center">Source: Yahoo!Sports</div> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Impact"><u>STARTING LINEUPS</u></span></div></span> <div align="center"> <span style="color:#0A355E">Travis Diener - Marquis Daniels - Mike Dunleavy Jr. - Troy Murphy - Jeff Foster</span> <span style="color:#c8362d">Jose Calderon - Anthony Parker - Jamario Moon - Chris Bosh - Andrea Bargnani</span></div> <span style="font-family:Impact"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"><u>KEY MATCHUP</u></div></span></span> <div align="center"> <span style="color:#0A355E">Mike Dunleavy Jr.</span> vs. <span style="color:#c8362d">Jamario Moon</span></div> There's virtually nothing left on this Pacers roster with Danny Granger serving a one-game suspension. The Raptors really do just have to take care of business and it starts with closing out on Dunleavy. Jamario's gotten on Smitch's bad side recently for being indecisive on D. He needs to show a great level of awareness tonight. Indiana really has no players who can consistently take the defense by themselves. Dunleavy's a shooter plain and simple, and even though he can put the ball on the floor every once in a while, our bigs will collapse fairly quickly because the Pacers have no post threat either. <div align="center"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact"><u>PREDICTION</u></span></span></div> <div align="center">Just get the job done, boys.</div> <span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"><span style="color:#c8362d">Toronto 102</span> - <span style="color:#0D588D">Minnesota 94</span></div></span>
<u><div align="center"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact">Something to look at while you wait for the game....</u></div></span></span> <div align="center"></div>
Jesus, the defense this game has been atrocious. WTF was Sam thinking by going with Joey Graham at center in the first half? It's okay if you go small but Graham was guarding Troy Murphy, who owned him in the post. Graham wasn't enough of an offensive threat either to make Murphy work on D. And what about having Calderon on Diener and Ford on Daniels? Ford was giving up half a foot. And then having defenders switch on every pick. How many times did we see Calderon on Foster or Bargnani on Diener? That first half killed the momentum of the team and essentially ended the game for us.
Man this game really upset me because without Granger, O'Neil and Tinsley it is basically playing a bunch of scrubs and role players and we LOST!! The Raptors played without any will and inspiration besides Bargnani and Parker, it looked like they really worked hard on defense and attempted to anchor our comeback but the rest of the team was just labouring. Im happy that TJ Ford is back but I was not happy with his shot selection today and the way he ran the offense...it was just one bad decision after another! Our defense was laughable, watching the game I was furious at Moon, Ford and Calderon.....this was Moon's opportunity to have some big impact stops but instead he easily falls for the pump and head fakes and gets blown by on the perimeter. Bargnani was probably our best defender today as he was able to stay infront of his man the entire game and really picked up alot of fouls due to his weakside help.
I don't blame Ford for missing his shots last night. He tried to make things happen when nothing was happening. Having both Ford and Calderon on the floor was stupid though, especially when the opposing two guard was Marquis Daniels or Stephen Graham. How do you guard that with 6-2 or 5-11? Brezec should've gotten some burn last night. Outside of Bargnani or Humphries, he was probably the only fast big guy available who could have stopped Murphy.
I hope they can rebound today against the Cats cause between this and the Knicks game @ MSG, I wonder about this team. Big ups on the J Rabbit pic.
