I posted this in the other thread, but we almost won the rebounding battle, still had no Reggie Evans.
He should. The whole thing was so idiotic in the first place. Shaq felt slighted by a media misquote. I've really been impressed by Chris' attitude this year. He seems motivated yet grounded at the same time.
I had a chance to see the first half today. First off, the introductions were so over the top it was hilarious. You'd think it was game 7. I liked it, though. Second, this wasn't the same team that played in preseason--predictably. You can't glean much from preseason or summer league or anything that isn't regular season NBA. Third, it looks like we have our confidence back. Hopefully it sticks. Fourth, we were lucky to play Cleveland on a back to back. If we'd played them at home with rest I think the game would've been different--though we played well enough to beat just about any team. Last, the crowd was fantastic.
The "bullshit" chant was absolutely awesome. It's crazy when you can tell your players to calm down and stop complaining to the refs, only to let the crowd send home the message so much better. Anybody else think the SCORE's broadcast was terrible? They had technical difficulties in the beginning, showed replays during live action, cut to awkward camera views, and the HD feed was staticky for most of the third quarter.
You never know. If Bosh had another down season GMs might not be as willing to pursue him at max money. Regardless a great start for the Raptors and I always enjoy watching Shaq lose. Dropping 100 points on the Cavs is no easy feat.
The camera angles really pissed me off, it was like they had some pretentious film student directing the broadcast.
shape look at the boxscore- shaq was a -25; in fact, the raps got him on the move in pick and roll sequences and he simply didnt move, leading to wide open shots by bargs, rasho and bosh. thats the story of his career but it seems more pronounced today with his inability to do other things at a hall fame level
the introductions were so ostentatious that i think some of the players felt uncomfortable. btw, did anyone else catch shaq's spanking entrance? i honestly think the raps could have beat them even if they werent playing on a back to back. why? shaq destroyed their defense because he simply doesnt contest shots outside the paint and thats disaster when u go up against sheed, KG, bosh or bargs.
That logically brings up the next question. How much of this showcased the new Raptors and how much of it showed the Cavaliers' flaws?
Cavaliers had a bad shooting night but it wasn't all just them, so it has to be a little of both. But just having Hedo out there seemed to fuck with Cleveland.
Well the Cavs were crippled by their pick-and-roll defense and the lack of ball movement amongst their primary players (e.g: the starting lineup). Both of those problems have been intensified by addition of Shaq. In fact, Cleveland made their only significant run and played their best basketball when Shaq wasn't in the game. Do you guys think we'd have beaten last year's Cavaliers by such a wide margin?
Nope because I think last years loss to Orlando did a lot of damage to LeBron, before that they were dangerous.
