<div align="center"> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="color:#c8362d"><span style="font-family:Impact">Toronto</span> </span></span><span style="color:#c8362d">(23-37)</span> vs. <span style="color:#2C5098"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact">Dallas</span></span></span> <span style="color:#2C5098">(35-23)</span> </div> <div align="center"> When: Sunday March 1st, 2008 @ 9:00 PM EST Where:American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX TV/Radio: The SCORE, FAN 590 </div> <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"> <span style="font-family:Impact"><u>THOUGHTS ON THE GAME</u></span></div></span> This is the 2nd game of Toronto's 3-game Southwestern road trip, and in all likelihood, the Raptors can't afford to lose more than once on this trip. After the Suns ran away with the Friday night's game in the 4th quarter, they'll need to come out strong and hopefully begin another 2-game winning streak. Luckily, the Mavericks play a style of basketball more conducive to the Raptors. While Nowitzki always torches us, they lack the bulky post presence that we simply cannot handle after the JO-Marion trade. It's interesting to see the parallels between the Raptors and Leafs. I just saw the Maple Leafs beat the Senators last night, making it 4 straight wins and placing them 7 points out of the final playoff spot. Similarly, despite being second last in the conference, the Raptors are only a handful of games away from the final playoff spot. In all likelihood, neither team stands much of a chance of making the playoffs. They wasted too much of the season struggling and they'd both need to play at a calibre that is clearly beyond their capacities. And yet, these little mini-winning streaks (as speeds always says) are incredibly valuable to MLSE. Because, the longer it takes for either team to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the longer it takes the foolishly optimistic fans of Toronto teams to wake up and realize what a disaster this season has been. <span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"><span style="font-family:Impact"><u>STARTING LINEUPS</u></span></div></span> <div align="center"> <span style="color:#c8362d">Jose Calderon - Anthony Parker - Shawn Marion - Chris Bosh - Andrea Bargnani</span> <span style="color:#2C5098">Jason Kidd - Antoine Wright - Josh Howard - Dirk Nowitzki - Erick Dampier</span></div> <span style="font-family:Impact"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><div align="center"><u>KEY MATCHUP</u></div></span></span> <div align="center"> <span style="color:#c8362d">Andrea Bargnani</span> vs. <span style="color:#2C5098">Erick Dampier</span></div> Andrea had a productive offensive night Friday night against the Suns, but it was completely offset by the fact that the Raptors frontcourt was utterly trampled by a motivated Shaquille O'Neal. The Raptors simply had no answer for Shaq: they refused to double him, couldn't guard him in single coverage, and neglected to challenge his shaky defense. Luckily for the Raptors, Erick Dampier does not present the same threat. Indeed, the entire Mavericks roster seems to work outside-in, which makes it unlikely that we'll see another dominating performance in the paint. All that makes this matchup both favourable and pivotal. Dampier is a strong rebounder and post defender, but Andrea can really make this strong advantage in favour of Toronto if his offensive game is on. Lately, he's shown the sort of quickness and decisiveness that Dampier struggles against. There's no way he can step out to guard Andrea, as long as Bargs' shot is falling. On the other side of the court, Andrea's marginally good defense should be enough to stop Dampier's non-existent offensive game.
according to doug's blog: marion is suffering from flu like symptoms, it must be that canadian winter catching up to him
judging by bosh's play- it looks like he wants to be in dallas, heck he even took it hard to the basket
if kapono shoots that retarded ass runner one more time im going to start throwing my shoes at him in their next home game
antoine wright has really taken his game to another level. a lot of ppl thought he would be out of the league after his rookie contract expired but it looks like he can become a 10 yr pro in this league.
Shitty lineup. No timeout. That final 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter was friggin' neglectful coaching by Triano. Don't know what the fuck he was doing, but it certainly wasn't working.
well i think he's panicking, hence breaking the clipboard. i think in these tough economic times, mlse should force him to pay for that.
I think this is the best dribbling ability I've ever seen from Bargs. He's crossing and changing direction awesomely against Dirk. Unfortunately he's been shooting terribly all game long.
I'm just sick and tired of fadeaway jumpshots. They're so ridiculously low percentage. AP and Bosh need to get that through their heads. EDIT: We could've made a run with 2:00 left, but Bosh wasted two consecutive offensive possessions by fading away. Fucking waste of time.
