<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">(8-9)</span> vs. <span style="color:#5591C9"><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><span style="font-family:Impact">Utah</span></span></span> <span style="color:#5591C9">(12-8)</span> </div> <div align="center"> When: Friday December 5th, 2008 @ 10:30PM EST Where: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO TV/Radio: TSN/ESPN, 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> I don't know about you guys, but I felt like a freed prisoner after I heard about Mitchell's firing the other night. The dude might've given it his all to bring this team success, but the fact is that his arrogance and tactical incompetence has led us to completely underachieve for a season and 17 games. The inability to recognize matchup problems while they were happening, the stubborn refusal to adjust his offensive gameplan to add some variety, the overall inconsistency when it came to managing players: I simply could not take it anymore. Look, I know this team's roster is significantly flawed. You'd have to be a moron to not recognize that. But I want that to be the reason why we lose games. We should fail because of the lack of talent on our roster, not because that talent is consistently not put in the position to succeed. I'll feel much more secure and optimistic with a flawed group of players who are coached to overachieve, than a better roster with a coach who I know will lead them to underachieve. Whether or not Jay Triano is that coach is yet to be determined, but I'm hoping and waiting for a coach who can fill that need. The best sign of good coaching is reading through an S2 game thread and not seeing any complaints about the coaching (WARNING: this doesn't apply to fucktards in the Nets and Blazers forums). The praise has been absolutely rolling in for Jay Triano after he was given the interim tag (link). Steve Nash, the Pistons front office, Smitch, the COCK!, UofT's basketball coach. It seems the guy's left a good impression everywhere he's stopped off, and a lot of people want him to do well. Count me among them. The guy has excellent credentials, appears to be a genuinely good guy, and been incredibly committed to growing Canadian basketball over the years. Attaining success as an NBA coach is often beyond the hands of the individual coach, but I'm hoping he gets the recognition he's entitled to. <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 - Andrea Bargnani - Chris Bosh - Jermaine O'Neal</span> <span style="color:#5591C9">Deron Williams - Ronnie Brewer - Andrei Kirilenko - Paul Millsap - Memo Okur</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">Chris Bosh</span> vs. <span style="color:#5591C9">Paul Millsap</span></div> Carlos Boozer will not be playing in this game, and that's excellent news for us. Boozer is the type of low post player that just forces irrational double teams, freeing up Utah's excellent jumpshooters. However, Millsap is exactly the type of player that the Raptors have traditionally been susceptible too: strong hustle players that are committed to rebounding (eg: Varajeo, Lee, Dalembert, Evans). The sad thing is, we've always had players that can match up with their athleticism and strength. It comes down to having pride in your effort on the boards. After witnessing the firing of their head coach, you have to hope that Bosh, JO, Bargs, and Hump will have woken up. They need to come out and commit themselves to boxing out. Set a precedent for the rest of this season by limiting Millsap to his basic offensive arsenal.
Kirilenko and Okur apparently are a bit banged up. They'll be game-time decisions. Deron Williams has come back from an injury, but has still been rusty. If there were ever a chance for Toronto to beat Utah (we always struggle against them), tonight might be it. The team will have energy and a new approach to the game. The element of surprise might be the wild card we need.
C'mon Jay, get those boys ready to rock tonight! wtf, no leo's thought? chut, i always look forward to those. This is big, the first time a Canadian has been a head coach of a team - well, at least this season.
Leo's just too depressed at the Smitch firing. He'll be back for the next game. (in reality, the laptop I'm on is so f'd up that it can't upload images to imageshack without IE freezing)
btw, I've really loved what I've heard from Triano so far. I mean I realize its all talk until he actually coaches his first game. But the talk about instilling a running mindset, changing around the defensive habits, introducing more offensive sets. These have all been glaring needs for a while now.
God, that Celtics/Blazers game wouldn't end would it? I'm ready for this. The crowd's really into the game so far. Damn Mormons.
I feel sorry for Colangelo. He's got to spout the company line while we struggle to score against the Jazz. Its almost comical.
Pretty sloppy play throughout: lazy passes and poor rotations (although that last one was more of a slip up)
uh-oh... this is going to get bad quickly and an embarrassed and upset Blazers team will be waiting for the Raptors at home.. who ironically will have had the shorter trip to Toronto.
not a good showing right now, I think its colangelo, hes bad luck. He was just saying how after he traded marbury and he went to talk about during the game they went down 27-2.
Two weak layups by Kapono so far. He needs to be on the floor but Newcoach O'Forgothisname needs to get him in an offense that has him waiting on the perimeter and not cutting to the basket.
