<div align="center"><font face="Comic Sans MS"><font color="Purple"><font size="4">Game Time: Wednesday January 26th 7:00 PM EST @ Air Canada Centre</font></font></font></div> <font size="5">For Starters: </font> <u><font color="Purple">Raptors: </font> </u> <div align="center"> Hoffa at 290 lbs, 6'11" and "slim" Shaq at 325 lbs, 7'1". Shaq still holds the advantage in the size department but I'd imagine their strengths are pretty much even. If Araujo does what he did against Okafor and Prezec the other day, he will be able to limit Shaq's offense. I'm hesitant to put a prediction on this one, but as long as the Raptors do what I mentioned above, they should be able to pull out this one. Raptors win 110 - 99.
I think Shaq might show that it takes more than size to be as dominant as he is. Even though he's like a ton, his footwork will win him the battle with Hoffa. Though I do think Araujo can put a body on him and at least limit him on the boards. I'll be at this game, in the nose bleeds. I figure it's going to look like 8 stick men on the court with 2 fat guys somewhere in the mix.
Hmmmm.... I believe for the Raptors to win is key, is to stop the other players besides Shaq and D Wade... because they are going to get theirs no matter what you do.., they just need to stop D Jones/Haslem/E Jones/.. and the thing about Shaq, i think he has quickness against Araujo.. Raptors win 89-86
Look, to stop Shaq we should to do alot of fouls on him, he is 53% from the line in his career. but to do fouls and not to fouled out, we need Woods, Araujo, and yes... Chris Bosh to do fouls (he doing only 3 fpg). And we should remember- when Alston get crizy with his shots... chiefly 3pt... We Lose... but when alston shots 4 3pt in game its ok... but 6 ?! and to miss them all ?! NO. Alston can destroy our offense in one min- we need to hope that he don't will shoot 6+ shots from 3pt tomorrow. So lets get some CB4 Energy !!!! GL Raps
great preview, should b a good game, but with Miami in town, im not going to make a prediction, i tihnk either MoPete or E.Dubb. will stop D.Wade, and Bosh will have another great game, hopefully the raps win!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting DerfZ:</div><div class="quote_post">great preview, should b a good game, but with Miami in town, im not going to make a prediction, i tihnk either MoPete or E.Dubb. will stop D.Wade, and Bosh will have another great game, hopefully the raps win!!</div> I think that E. Dubb on Wade would be a bad matchup. E. Dubb just doesn't have the speed to keep up with a guy like Wade. I think Mo Pete or Alston are the only possible match ups on him. E. Dubb will have to give up too many fouls , b/c of wade blowing by. Wade might be a little slow from his recovering ankle. If he plays limited minutes we should be able to keep Mo Pete on him for most of the game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SkiptoMyLue11:</div><div class="quote_post">I think that E. Dubb on Wade would be a bad matchup. E. Dubb just doesn't have the speed to keep up with a guy like Wade. I think Mo Pete or Alston are the only possible match ups on him. E. Dubb will have to give up too many fouls , b/c of wade blowing by. Wade might be a little slow from his recovering ankle. If he plays limited minutes we should be able to keep Mo Pete on him for most of the game.</div> Yes, it is a bad matchup. Alston can't guard Wade either, because Wade will just post him up and he has about 40 pounds on Alston. Our only legit options seem to be Mo' and Milt, as Milt and Mo can match Wade's quickness as well as his strength. One thing we absolutely CANNOT do though, is to put Jalen on Wade. On offense yea sure JR will just own Wade with a post-up but on D, Jalen will get owned.
MoPete can't match his quickness, if Wade is killing guys like Eric Snow and Raja Bell, MoPete doesn't have a chance. We don't really have any perimeter stopper, we just have Mo who's a good defender, but Wade has been hampered with injuries, and who knows how effective he will be. The best option is Mo though, Eric Williams will get killed, Alston isn't a good defender in the first place, and also has a size disadvantage, so Mo is the man. The Heat have been struggling lately with Wade missing games, and playing injured, so we have a good chance at taking this game. We need to play very fast paced to wear them down, and see how it goes from there.
This game looks like one of the only ones where Bosh could get 20+ pts and we'll still lose. The Heat are just gonna overpower us unless everyone has a good game. Heat win 103-96.
the keys to the game... get shaq to get early fowls, get him on the bench... get an early lead and momentum on our side... if shaq is down low, penatrate and kick it out to our 3 point specialists... bosh to take charge, especially when shaq is on the bench...he can also out husstle in the post and draw the fowl... we should be able to pull this out on home court...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Proz4k:</div><div class="quote_post">Look, to stop Shaq we should to do alot of fouls on him, he is 53% from the line in his career. but to do fouls and not to fouled out, we need Woods, Araujo, and yes... Chris Bosh to do fouls (he doing only 3 fpg). </div> You see... most of the times when Shaq plays the Raptors for some reason... he makes his foul shots... First game he was 10-13... 2nd was 2 for 6 but meh... and if i remember from past years too, Shaq always made foul shots against Raptors for some odd reasons too... so your Hack a Shaq may not work.. With D Wade hampering with injuries too, Raptors can pull this one out... if they stop the right players..
Hmm ... zone anyone? I think at appropriate times in the game playing a zone will really benefit us. The only shooters we have to worry about are Jones and Jones.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Bobcats:</div><div class="quote_post">DWade is injured and is a gametime decision. That would be a huge loss for the Heat.</div> As crazy as this may sound, this may be actually a bad thing for us. Remember last year, when Kobe was injured when LA came to TO? Shaq murdered us. 20 points or something in the first q, got a season high 36 points when the game was done. I actually think we might of won the game, if Kobe did play, cuz that would mean less touches for Shaq. You cannot contain Shaq, but you can contain Kobe. It's the same case this year. The only difference is that Wade and Shaq enjoy playing with eachother, and like eachother. Shaq will kill us again like he did earlier in the season. Raptors 96 Heat 105 Shaquille O'Neal 37 Points, 12 Rebounds, 3 blocks (if Wade doesn't play) Chris Bosh 22 Points, 11 Rebounds, 2 blocks.
You know what is surprizing I think if we can do a decent job to stop the heat offensively with Shaq and Wade. Then we might be able to pull it off. I would say Miami has one of the best low-post defenses because of shaq. But we don't really rely on low-post shots from our big men. Bosh either shoots a 15 footer or some fancy drive/ fade away. As long as Bosh doesn't try posting up Shaq. Jalen does post up a lot, but I don't think Shaq will come over to double Jalen, it would be a funny sight though. So one of Miami's big advantages doesn't affect us too much. Their great interior defense. The 76ers beat the heat, lets add another Atlantic team win against the heat. It is sort of surprizing that we are ahead of New York right now.
I think Shaq is gonna have a good game, but I think Mo' Pete and Jalen will be able to step it up. I think if the Raps can shoot well from outside, we should be able to take this W. Gonna be a good game tonight.
i dont think there's anyway we can stop Shaq. And this Heat team, particularily Wade has shown that its it's willing to toss the ball down low over and over again if their/Wade's shots arent going down. Kobe didnt like doing that has shown by his numerous 7 for 25 games last year.
raps need to collectively attack the basket and just take it right at shaq. if we can get him in foul trouble we'll have a decent shot at winning the game raps got a whole lot more depth then the heat, so we really have a good shot at winning this one. when their 2nd unit comes in, they cant match up...so this could very well be a win for the raps with the way the heat have been struggling lately, they kinda come into toronto stumbling...we really have a chance to take this one....raps are a good home team..hopefully we'll come out all fired up and ready to play. if thats the case, we could jump out to an early lead and build confidence
Well, the Sixers are playing Wizards in Washington and the Celtics are are playing the Pacers on the back end of the back-to-back series, so if they lose tonight and the Raps pull this one out, they will be only 1 game behind the Sixers. So everybody pray for them to lose and for us to win Amen!
