@ <font color="red">Houston Rockets (0-1)</font> @ <font color="purple">Toronto Raptors (0-0)</font> Time: 7 P.M Place: Air Canada Centre TV: RSN Previous Games <font color="Red">Houston 79</font> @ <font color="Blue">Pistons 87</font> <font color="Purple">Toronto Raptors N/A</font> Head Coaches <u>Sam Mitchell</u> / <u>Jeff Van Gundy</u> Projected Starting Lineups <u>Charlie Ward</u> / <u>Rafer Alston</u> <u>Tracy McGrady</u> / <u>Jalen Rose</u> <u>Jim Jackson</u> / <u>Vince Carter</u> <u>Maurice Taylor</u> / <u>Chris Bosh</u> <u>Yao Ming</u> / <u>Loren Woods</u> Sixth Men <u>Juwan Howard</u> / <u>Donyell Marshall</u> Injury Report <font color="Red">Houston Rockets</font> -Bob Sura ; Out <font color="Purple">Toronto Raptors</font> -Alvin Williams ; I.L. -Jerome Moiso ; I.L. -Pape Sow ; I.L. Players To Watch <u>Tracy McGrady</u> / <u>Vince Carter</u> Keys To The Game <font color="Red">Houston Rockets</font> -Get the ball to Yao so he can get the Raptors frontline (praticularily Bosh) into foul trouble. -Don't settle for outside shots. They are not a good perimeter shooting team, so they have to get down low to Yao so they can get high percentage shots. -Transition defense. The Raptors are a running team capable of scoring on the break, so the Rockets can't relax after they score a bucket, they have to get back quickly. <font color="Purple">Toronto Raptors</font> -Bench points. Last year the Bench was pretty weak. This year it's a bit stronger, but the second unit will have to be consistent this year both on offensive and defensive end. -Fast break points. Rafer Alston gives them a point guard who can push the ball. During the preseason, they looked pretty good running on the fast break. -Slashing into the lane. Let guys like Rafer Alston, Vince Carter, Morris Peterson (if he doesn't just sit at the 3 point line) who are slashers create contact to draw fouls on Yao. Vince will have a pretty tough time, because he's got a pretty good defender in Jim Jackson guarding him, but he should be able to drive into the lane. Prediction I think this will be a good game. These two always have great games against eachother (2 OT games last year I believe). Houston did not look good at all last night, and I expect it to happen again tonight. While Ward scored a good amount last night he only had 1 assist. I'll take the Raptors in front of the home crowd by 6. PS: I only did this preview because I didn't see anybody else do it. If somebody else does them, just let me know, and you can do them again.
Main problem for Toronto is the fact they have no one who can guard Yao or T-mac. I don't see Houston slipping up twice this early. Houston's play last night had alot to do with the Pistons great defense, It's not that hard for Detroit to contend a very good guard/center duo. You saw that in the finals.
The Raptors will lose a close one but Vince will have a great game. There's no way the Rockets will lose their first 2 games.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllNet:</div><div class="quote_post">Main problem for Toronto is the fact they have no one who can guard Yao or T-mac. I don't see Houston slipping up twice this early. Houston's play last night had alot to do with the Pistons great defense, It's not that hard for Detroit to contend a very good guard/center duo. You saw that in the finals.</div> Actually Vince Carter can guard his own cousin. Over the past 4 years, Carter has guarded very well. They both guard eachother very well, because they know eachothers game. On the other hand, Yao isn't going to have another game like yesterdays. The Raps don't really have anybody at this point to guard him except Woods and Bosh. So I can see Yao man handling the Raps interior D today.
Hmm, it seems a lot of guys on JBB are eager to do previews, that's a good thing. :thumbsup: Regarding the game, I'd say that the Rockets will win, but not easily. Vince Carter always blows up in season-openers, and unless McGrady can contain him, will score at least 30. McGrady, meanwhile, would want to give the fans of Houston a chance to cheer for them as his bad performance against Detroit was part of the reason Houston lost. Yao, meanwhile, will not do as good as people are predicting him to IMO. He is still scared of injuring his elbow, and that injury has seemingly affected his jumper as well. I'm still confident that McGrady will pull the Rockets out of this one, but the Rockets will leave Toronto with a close win, 91-88.
yea i c the rockets winnin this, but hopefully the raptors can prove me wrong... but win or lose itll be a great game
I'm going to make a bold prediction and say the Raptors pull out the season opener. Vince always plays great in season opener and he plays especially great and is hyped when playing T-Mac, they bring out the best in each other. However, Yao will be hard to contain and will dominate the paint. Nevertheless, I can see the Raptors taking this by 3.
I remember Bosh doing a good job covering Yao for last years games. Even though our frontcourt's our biggest weakness, I think we can overcome it if we stick to a fast break and play good defense.
The Rockets are a much better team than the Raps, but as long as Araujo, Woods and Bosh can contain Yao and push him away from the bucket, we'll have a good chance at winning this game. The Rockets will be a little gassed from playing a tough game last night and so far it doesn't seem like they have it all together as a team at this point in time. As for the Raptors, they have home court advantage, they'll be eager to play their season opener, they know that this is a must win situation considering the tough schedule coming up and Vince will be looking to take out his off-court frustrations on the court. Raptors by 4
Wow, good couple of first minutes,every raptor inthe books . McGrady broke a double teamto the lane, but ball movement has been looking good with this early lead
This is going to be a good game and it usually always is between these two teams because the former teamates T-Mac and VC go head to head.Not to mention this is always a game circled on the calender because these guys are cousins. I expect Yao to be a huge force in this game,the Raps are espically shallow in the paint so he is going to have to take advantage of that and be agressive.Last night against the Pistons T-Mac didnt look his best.Mcgrady really needs to look at pentrating more because he is often setteling for jump shots. Its key for the Rockets to get Yao and T-Mac involved early,and its key for those players ot be agressive. The Raptors are a team that may struggle,with VC's current situation he has missed preseason games and I am sure he missed a few practices.This could have a negative effect on the Raptors but I think they will fight through it.The Raptors need to get VC, Jalen Rose and Rafer Alston open looks on the perimeter because the Rockets are much stronger inside. I expect the Rockets to take this one,89-81.
Raptors are playing much better so far. The starting five have really gelled well, even Loren Woods is playing a solid game. I took 6/4 on the Raptors before the game, so rapt they are well up.
Nice shot by Carter to end the half. 52-39 for the Raptors at halftime. Alston looks great. 5 assists so far to go with 7 points and 5 rebounds.
71-68 for the Raptors after 3. Bosh lost his temper and got hit with a tech. Taylor and Bosh are the only one's in major foul trouble with 4 each.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Chungster:</div><div class="quote_post">The Raptors will lose a close one but Vince will have a great game. There's no way the Rockets will lose their first 2 games.</div> oooooohh! they won lol. im surprised! bosh is playing awesome and rafer is gonna be like 13 5 5 this whole season. i luv the kidd! and VC! i dont care if he makes 20ppg as long as he is contributing in the game im happy. now that all the BS is gone! I look forward to this raptors season, and watch out for bonner! he will be a great backup i was watching him, so calm at times and yet so kool. wtf is up with palacio! i dont like that guy period!. lol
Raptors win! 95-88, great defense tonight by everyone, but I gotta give props to Loren Woods. What a great defensive job on Yao by him. When the Bobcats couldn't get him, and Raps did, I knew he had a chance to breakout with the lack of big men on Toronto. Hope he proves his critics wrong this year.
I didn't see this as a surprise win(and my prediction was not bold and neither was spawns), seeing how it was very close. Very good game, good work by Loren Woods. He did a good job on Ya,m and we compensated nicely for our lack of a big man. Impressive first game by the Raptors, I hope they keep it up. Very nice ball movement unselfish play(not to mention some nice highlights).
Yeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Go Raps... glad they won, i wished Carter would score a little more but its cool. I didn't watch the game, but followed the play by play on nba.com, it was so boring reading stupid sentences, i wish i had NBA TV, my mom wouldn't pay for it though. But w/e lets go Raps, great stats by Alston, and Woods too. :mrgreen:
Yeah baby yeah!!!!!!!! Raptors win!!! That was one entertaining ballgame. Our starters did a great job. Bench needs a little work though. But the effort was there, the offense was fluid and he defense was decent. Good first win for Sam Mitchell.
