<div align="center"> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="color:#00A35F"><span style="font-family:Impact">Boston</span> </span></span><span style="color:#00A35F">(12-2)</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">(6-6)</span> </div> <div align="center"> When: Sunday November 22nd, 2008 @ 12:30PM EST Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON TV/Radio: CBC, FAN 590 </div> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"> <span style="font-family:Impact"><u>THOUGHTS ON THE GAME</u></span></div></span> Geez, Friday's game was a bummer wasn't it? So many bad things happened in one night. We lost to the Nets and their annoying fanbase. We lost to that Vince Carter dude. We lost a game that was ours, because of stupid self-inflicted mistakes. We lost Jermaine O'Neal to some sort of injury. An all-around depressing night. You know what always cures depression? An upset win against the Celtics dunno I'm not really sure what to say about this upcoming game. So much depends on whether or not Jermaine O'Neal is ready to play. He changes the entire look of our team and without him we look eerily similar to last season's squad. Our perimeter defense is never going to be all that good, but having that shotblocking presence under the rim almost makes it passable at times. One thing's for certain, this team can't afford to ignore Bosh for a significant stretch of time like we did in our last matchup against Boston. We'll be more dependant upon him than ever tonight. <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:#00A35F">Rajon Rondo - Ray Allen - Paul Pierce - Kevin Garnett - Kendrick Perkins</span> <span style="color:#c8362d">Jose Calderon - Anthony Parker - Jamario Moons - 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:#00A35F">Kendrick Perkins</span> vs. <span style="color:#c8362d">Andrea Bargnani</span></div> It's going to be really really difficult to beat the Celtics if Jermaine O'Neal isn't in the lineup (which hasn't been established for sure yet). There's another thread already documenting this fact. Any chance we have starts with Andrea Bargnani filling in for JO. This is an especially demanding task for him, because he's tended to struggle against Boston's instense, stingy defense. But the Raptors are going to need him to exploit Kendrick Perkins' inability to defend outside the paint. We can't expect Andrea to replicate O'Neal's imposing presence defensively, but he will have to continue to rotate and help quickly, continue to be a shotblocking presence, and be stronger on the boards. <div align="center"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact"><u>LEO RAUTINS' INSIGHTFUL THOUGHT OF THE DAY</u></span></span></div>
I wasn't sure about the starting lineup. It's not a guarantee yet that JO isn't playing. And even if he doesn't Smitch hasn't given any indication on how he'll adjust the lineup. I think we would've had to shift Bargnani away from the 3-spot regardless of any JO injury. There's no way he'd be able to guard Pierce.
I think i might be done watchin the Raptors for a little while. I never thought i would say that but man they are frustrating to watch this year
Dude you got to fill me in on what happened with Bosh yesterday afternoon. I missed the game, but I read today's newspaper and people keep talking about his frustration. Definitely a little worrying.
Well, they didnt show a lot of it on camera but what basically happened according to Matt Devlin was that during a timeout Bosh didnt go into the huddle and when Jose tried talking to him out of it he listened for like 2 seconds then walked away. At the end of the game though when he finally got pulled out with Jose they sat together and everything seemed alright though. Still that game was not a pretty thing to watch, for a while there I thought Bosh was gonna yell at Hump cause everytime Hump got it he did something crazy.
I watched the game in an hour this morning and I agree, it was ugly to see. I thought the boos coming down at that point just made everything boil over. His teammates came out with absolutely no effort. Although to be fair, Bosh himelf did not play good defense either. Without JO, I started to notice certain problems in his defense that popped up last season: not rotating for help defense, allowing his man to establish position too easily, going after the board instead of boxing out first. Bargnani and Roko Ukic looked like the only ones playing legitimate defense Sunday afternoon.
