The Blazers wrap up their five game trip with a Sunday morning game against the Raptors in Toronto. Gametime 10 am Pacific Time Since this is our first look at the Raptors this season here is a video preview of their team. Video link to this seasons Toronto Raptors http://www.nba.com/video/channels/n...20081019_preview.nba/index.html?player=nba_tv After a day off and a dissapointing loss to Boston the Blazers will be facing a Toronto team with a new coach who is looking for his first victory after losing Friday night in Utah. Jay Triano will be the first Canadian head coach in NBA history. Triano, formerly an assistant coach, will run the team through the end of the season according to Brian Colangelo. Colangelo was upset about the teams 39 point loss in Denver and slow start ( 8-9 ) after making the playoffs the last two seasons. The Toronto coach has been on the hot seat since last year when the team finished the season poorly. Just 13-20 out of its last 33 games. Mitchell, who was hired before Colangelo came in from Phoenix, never really saw eye to eye with Colangelo. The GM wanted the team who is currently last in the NBA in fast break points, to run more. And he put in place a coach who will do his bidding. Friday nights loss was a tough one for our team, but if they keep their heads together they should find Toronto a much more inviting place than Boston. Toronto has two players that match up well against Portland. AllStar Chris Bosh, and Jose Calderon. Beyond that the Raptors roster hasn't been very effective this season. ExBlazer Jermaine O'Neal isn't the player he once was. He was brought in to be a defensive stopper for the Raptors, but it hasn't really worked out that way. Andrea Bargnani hasn't been playing very well either. He looks like one of those guys management has ordered a coach to play so that their learning curve will hasten and they will reach their potential sooner rather than later. Trouble is, it hasn't worked out that way and Bargnani hasn't been able to successfuly play NBA defense. Pundits around the league have been calling for Toronto to replace him in the starting lineup with Jamario Moon. Brandon Roy shot just 3-12 against Boston. Does anyone really think he is going to play that way again, especially with Anthony Parker trying to stop him? WIll Solomon or Roko Ukic off the bench aren't going to be able to stop him or Rudy either. If we can keep Bosh under control and be patient offensively our guards can torch this team and we should come home from this road trip with our heads held high and a 4-1 record. Projected starters Portland Trailblazers Steve Blake -PG Brandon Roy-SG Nic Batum-SF LaMarcus Aldridge-PF Greg Oden-Center Projected starters Toronto Raptors Jose Calderon-PG Anthony Parker-SG Andrea Bargnani-PF Chris Bosh-PF Jermaine O'Neal-Center As always there will be pregame, gametime, and postgame discussion of the game in the gameday forum http://www.clubblazers.com/blazers-gameday/dec-toronto-t1242.html Be sure to catch the video recap and hdtv highlights of the game at http://www.clubblazers.com/blazer-game-highlights-f20/ http://www.clubblazers.com/blazers-gameday/dec-toronto-t1242.html
On the plus side it sure looks like the Raps play zero defense; they're giving everything away the Jazz could want right now.
Jermaine O'Neal has declined a lot. They should use their better defenders (Oden/Przybilla) on Bosh and let Aldridge defend O'Neal. I'd like to see Bayless play a bit more. Someone who can make Calderon work a little harder would make this game much more likely for Portland to win.
That's not true at all. He's played well and shown tremendous improvement over the summer. His one failing might be that he has not been assertive enough when he's one of the better scoring options on the team. He plays within the flow of the offense, seemingly afraid to take touches away from Bosh and JO, and it leads to inconsistency. He's played excellent defense, that's arguably what's earned him most of his minutes so far. He's a legit shotblocking threat and he's moving his feet and using his length to disrupt opponents. And this is all while playing out of position at the 3. Jamario Moon played his way out of the starting lineup, despite being one of Sam Mitchell's favourites. Any "pundit" arguing that the Raptors should insert him back into the starting lineup is acting like an authority despite knowing nothing about Toronto's situation (so that's basically the majority of NBA "pundits"). That said, you guys will probably kill us. We're adjusting to a completely new basketball philosophy, and we'll only have had like 2 or 3 practices when we face you. It'll take a solid couple of weeks before we see this team move past the firing of Smitch.
You'd think the Raptors would've be angry after the 39 point blowout they were given the night before last.
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We are getting killed again. Can't shoot and I think Oden is the only way looking let he is playing today.
