Cavaliers @ Raptors 3/10 <div align="center"> <font color="DarkRed">Cleveland Cavaliers</font> (28-36) @ <font color="Purple">Toronto Raptors</font> (27-36)</div> Saturday, Mar. 10, 7:00 pm Eastern Air Canda Centre, Toronto, Ontario TV: FSOhio Vegas Line: Check back gameday Season Series: Cavaliers 0, Raptors 2 12.09.03 Raptors 100 @ Cavs 93 01.07.04 Cavaliers 69 @ Raptors 75 Previous Game Cavaliers 108 @ Hawks 102 Hornets 76 @ Raptors 84 (Play <font color="Blue">Pacers</font> tonight) Last 10 Games Cleveland: 8-2 (Won 4) Toronto: 2-8 (Won 1) Head Coaches Paul Silas/Kevin O'Neill Probable Starters Jeff McInnis/Milt Palacio LeBron James/Dion Glover Eric Williams/Vince Carter Carlos Boozer/Donyell Marshall Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Chris Bosh 6th Men Tony Battie/Morris Peterson Injury Update Cavaliers Ruben Boumtje Boumtje Kedrick Brown Raptors Michael Bradley Alvin Williams Jalen Rose <div align="center">Players To Watch LeBron James/Vince Carter James: 20.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.57 steals Carter: 21.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists</div> Keys To The Game <u>Cavaliers</u> No easy 3 point looks Ride Z and Boozer all night Crash the boards. Outrebounded last game, can't happen again Mcinnis and Lebron must attack the hoop Play a full 4 quarters. Don't take the Raps lightly <u>Raptors</u> Team rebound Force Lebron to shoot perimeter shots Double Ilgauskas, make him pass out of the paint Attack Z and Boozer on d, try to get them in early foul trouble Try to exploit the Cavs weak transition defense Pick and roll...pick and roll...pick and roll redscoon's Take It's time for the Cavs to put their struggles with injured teams behind them and come out strong. This is a huge game in the playoff race and the Cavs need it to avoid losing the season series to Toronto. The Raptors struggle to score points in the half court, so the Cavs have a big advantage in being able to go to Z in such situations. As long as Lebron and Mcinnis keep up their great play, the Cavs inside game will prove to be too much. Cavs by 8. <font size="1">Please visit NBA.com</font> Playoff Race <ul> [*]New York 29 35 .453 - [*]Boston 28 36 .438 1 [*]Cleveland 28 36 .438 1 [*]Miami 27 36 .429 1.5 [*]Toronto 27 36 .429 1.5 [*]Philadelphia 26 38 .406 3 [/list]
Very important game tommorow. We need to beat these guys to officially get them out of the race for a good while. A win here will just leave us with Miami and Boston to worry about. LeBron needs to attack the hoop for Marshall and Bosh shouldn't be able to do anything but foul him. Z should OWN Bosh, give the ball to him. Contain V.Carter and we shouldn't have any problems taking this one. Cavs by 6.
in terms of the immediate future, toronto needs this game more than the cavs do, but in the long term both teams need this 1. the cavs dont want to be on the wrong side of the tiebreaker situation with toronto (cavs are already 1-3 against boston, but 3-0 against knicks and 76ers). i cant see toronto beating us if we play our style of bball, bosh is a nice young player, but he cant guard z, too much of a height disadvantage. we wont lose this game unless carter gets off. cavs in a close 1 cuz its on the road, would be a blow out if at the gund.
The big 3 will do their part, but Def Jeff has really stepped up his game as well the last few weeks. Give me 15 and 8 dimes and I'll feel safe with calling a win.
Donyell Marshall worries me. He is a similar style player to Chris Crawford, who burned us last night, only 100 times the player. Any big man who can step out and hit the long range shot, will worry the Cavaliers. Boozer will have a tough night there! Marshall is also a strong rebounder, so it will be a fierce battle. Bosh on Z also give me some concerns. Although Z should be able to score rather freely, Bosh's quickness could force some cheap fouls on Z. In saying that we have a good advantage there! Other key areas where we can really hurt them is at point guard. McInnis is up against Palacio and Strickland who both can be attacked. The Cavs need a big night from Jeff, as I see Carter having a big night. Stop Glover and Peterson from being that "other" scorer that burns the Cavaliers. Peterson has been a killer from range against us previously. Bang the ball inside and Cavs win by 5.
Maybe Carter is having his night tonight. He's poured in 21 pts against the Pacers in the first half..............Tank
Carter has his night every night against the Cavs. The key is containing Marshall, Bosh and Peterson the Cav killer. Gee there are alot of Cav killers in the NBA. Most of them to are only average players. Frustrating!
Well, Carter only had 14 pts against us last game. I'd settle for that again tomorrow. Marshall is indeed a concern but Peterson hasn't killed anyone in recent memory. In their two games against us this year he's had 9 and 6 pts respectfully. The brighter note is even though The Raps took em to OT, Indiana grabbed the win tonight. Thats just one more nail. Tank.....................
That win by the Cavs over Toronto was the first time we beat them with Carter aboard if my memory serves me correctly. As for Peterson, he can drain it from down town, so is a big threat to us. He isn't Bremer. The Raptors front court depth is thin, so we need to attack and get Bosh and or Marshall to sit. Z and Booz again are key to our offense.
Last I knew, we were still 0-fer Vince Carter..................Would be nice to change that tomorrow night however!!............ I'm out on this one...................Tank
We better not lose to a team that starts Milt Palacio, that should be a good sign for us. The concerns about Donyell Marshal are definatly valid, thats always a tough guard for our physical in the paint forwards. We are 8-2 and they are 2-8 in the last 10. They are comming off a hard faught overtime loss to the Pacers. We had the night off, Cavs by 4....but I predict having to overcome a 10 point deficit for a big win.
Your right tank. They have swept us thus far! Dont know what I was thinking there. We finally broke that Boston streak, so time to end the Carter drought.
They should have beaten Toronto the last time they played them. Carter was something like 3-20 but the Cavs couldn't make a shot. Lonnie Baxter dominated our frontcourt. Carter could have a monster game tomorrow. I watched him drive past the best defender in the league, Ron Artest, all night. The Cavs are terrible at stopping penetration. We need to make Carter shoot jumpshots, even if he's hot from out there.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting bmp72178:</div><div class="quote_post">Carter could have a monster game tomorrow. I watched him drive past the best defender in the league, Ron Artest, all night. The Cavs are terrible at stopping penetration. We need to make Carter shoot jumpshots, even if he's hot from out there.</div> I don't know what game you were watching, but Carter did not drive past Ron Artest all night. He did it in the first half but Artest just owned Carter the rest of the way. As for the game tomorrow night, I would say Cleveland by 4. The Raptors are known for getting gased out on the tail end of back to back games. They especially looked like they ran out of engery in OT against Indiana last night so Cleveland should take advantage of this. Just as long as the Cavaliers use their size to crash the boards then they should come out with a win. But on the flip side, the Raptors just came off a great game with Indiana that, although they lost, had a lot of positives coming out of it. The main one is Rod Strickland in his third game with the team. He was just 3 rebounds away from a triple double with 16 assists and he made the Raptors look like a whole new team on offense. He should be the X-factor in tomorrow night's game. The Cavs should pay very close attention to him.
This is a test for both teams, I would say the Raptors more so because this new Cavalier team is showing limitless potential and they are learning how to stay consistant and win games late. Toronto is a team that can make a lot of mistakes, we would have to take adnavtage of that.
The Raptors are in a must win situation and taking this game is....well a must. Hopefully Hot Rod is going to get the start tonight. Will Jeff Mcninnis complain about guarding Vince Carter if he's put on him? Who knows.. Raptors need this so I'm givin it to them by 2. This game will have playoff type intensity so you have to watch it.
High stakes in Toronto <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Tiebreakers might be crucial for Cavaliers to make it to playoffs For the last two weeks, the Toronto Raptors and the Cavaliers have been eyeing each other on the out-of-town scoreboard as they jockey for playoff position. That makes tonight's matchup at the Air Canada Centre more relevant, but there's more at stake than just a game in the standings. With six teams tightly bunched and scrapping for the final three playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, tiebreakers might become vital. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition and, thus far, the Raptors are 2-0 in the series. The Cavaliers, winners of eight of their last 10 games, have already won the season series from contenders New York and Philadelphia and are 1-1 with two games to play against Miami. Managing a tie against Toronto by winning the remaining two games could prove crucial, because the second tiebreaker is record against the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers hold an edge there, entering tonight 22-20 while the Raptors were 17-23 entering Tuesday's game at Indiana.</div> Full Story
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting bmp72178:</div><div class="quote_post">They should have beaten Toronto the last time they played them. Carter was something like 3-20 but the Cavs couldn't make a shot. Lonnie Baxter dominated our frontcourt. Carter could have a monster game tomorrow. I watched him drive past the best defender in the league, Ron Artest, all night. The Cavs are terrible at stopping penetration. We need to make Carter shoot jumpshots, even if he's hot from out there.</div> The Cavs should have won both encounters with the Raptors this season. The first game, Jalen Rose went off in the 3rd quarter after a foul call and lit the Cavs up to take the lead and eventually the win away from them. I doubt Jalen will play tonight and I don't think that Z will go 5 for 15 again like one of the other games. Bosh is just too light to keep Z out of the paint if thats where he wants to go. Marshall is a matchup problem if he is hitting from 3.
