Orlando vs. Toronto When: Sunday November 1st, 2009 @ 1:00PM Where: the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario TV/Radio: CBC, FAN590 STARTING LINEUPS Jameer Nelson - Vince Carter - Mickael Pietrus - Ryan Anderson - Dwight Howard Jose Calderon - DeMar DeRozan - Hedo Turkoglu - Chris Bosh - Andrea Bargnani KEY MATCHUP Jameer Nelson vs. Jose Calderon It wasn't just the notoriously poor rebounders that were allowing Gasol and Randolph second chances Friday night: Bosh and Nesterovic were also weak on the defensive boards. And part of the reason for that is because they were often rotating away from their man to help our perimeter defenders. Mike Conley and OJ Mayo had their way with our guards, penetrating at will. The result was a team defense that was more reminiscent of the '08-'09 Raptors than the one that stifled Cleveland. Jameer Nelson is one of those speedy PG's that has traditionally exposed Calderon. A lot of this game is going to depend on Jose's ability to lay off Nelson, over-compensate against the drive, and hope that he doesn't have a big shooting night. Because there's no way we can have our big bodies rotating away from Dwight Howard in this game and expect to be successful.
He's been questionable since spraining his ankle, but recent reports suggest he might take a shot at playing. Hopefully not though.
Oh ok, I was going by this link though. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...9-nba-orl&prov=sportsxchange&type=team_report Anyway I think Toronto can do more damage this season. Hopefully you guys can regroup on D again.
btw, has anyone else found the "15 years of Raptors basketball" commercials funny? They show a clip of Damon Stoudamire being drafted, the craptastic '96 Raptors beating the Bulls, then Jose Calderon feeding Chris Bosh for a dunk. You don't think there's an obvious gap in that retrospective? It's so funny how un-subtle MLSE can be at times. I dislike Vince Carter like most people here, but there's no denying he's been the most important player in our franchise's young history.
ugh, this game could get ugly for the Raps. Howard is the obvious beast but guys like Gortat and Bass, those energy guys off the bench are the ones that usually kill the raps.
You know Leo Rautins was talking about emotion for the raps, I think thats what we're missing when we don't have reggie evans. That guy is going crazy on the bench and everyone else looks like theyre at a golf tournament or an art gallery.
this protect the paint defensive strategy at the expense of leaving shooters wide open courtesy of the defensive guru's: ivaroni and triano is laughable. why would u do it against a three point shooting team? -bargnani is not closing out on shooters at all, he has zero defensive awareness -bosh is forcing it big time, i suspect he's playing for numbers -amir needs more p/t because he can close out on shooters better than any big on the raps roster -there is no way that a magic team without vince, shard and pietrus should ever be up on the raptors by 22 on the their own homecourt -wright needs more p/t as well -derozan is playing is arse off, dont know i can say that about anyone else in the first unit as an aside- in the smitch era, vince carter was burning us but in the triano era- jj redick is making us look like nc state.
I'm seeing the same thing that frustrated the hell outta me during the Smitch era: we're doubling down on absolute no-name players in the post, at the expense of leaving wide-open 3 pt. shooters. There's only man on the Magic who warrants a double team and his name is Dwight Howard. Trust your frontcourt to guard the likes of Gortat/Bass. If they can't guard those guys one-on-one, you might as well just forfeit the game.
no chutney, this is part of the triano and iavoroni era. they want to protect the paint and close out on shooters. its a terrible strategy against three point shooting teams. in the smith era they wanted to funnel everything inside and that was a terrible strategy as well because bargs and bosh dont like helping
Derozan and Wright have been really good this game. Fuck JJ Redick, the raps gotta give him a hard foul or something to get that smug ass look off his face.
I don't mind either strategy, but you have to adjust, right?!? If you're getting burned from beyond the arc, why would you continue to double no-name big men? And why would you go underneath screens? It just doesn't make sense. Jose's defense against Jameer hasn't helped.
I was hesitant to focus on them because we're playing poorly. But yea, we've been getting called for stupid touch fouls and they've ignored contact on the other end.
so, someone should probably start guarding Ryan Anderson. Seriously make him dribble the ball, I am confident Wright or Derozan can strip him.
