@ Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON 7 pm ET, February 17, 2010 Projected Starters M. Conley O. Mayo R. Gay Z. Randolph M. Gasol Key Reserves S. Young J. Jack D. Derozan H. Turkoglu C. Bosh A. Bargnani Key Reserves A. Johnson, M. Belinelli, J. Calderon Key Matchup vs. Girl of the Game [video=youtube;SBjQ9tuuTJQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjQ9tuuTJQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjQ9tuuTJQ[/video]
toughest matchup for the raps in a long while. the grizz played last night so hopefully we can run them out of the gym. also, the grizz have one of the most physical frontlines with gasol and randolph so reggie's contribution to the team should really show tonight.
triano sucks. Why did Jose keep switching onto Gay, letting him score shot after shot? and why the hell did hedo keep playing and jacking up 3s?
well memphis forced it, there was nothing the raps could have done. although, i agree with the spirit of your comments- caledron should have sat especially when mike conley abused him off the dribble on every possession. and hedo is wasted money and a liability as well. i honestly think that if he suffered a season ending injury- it might actually be the best thing that happened to the raptors.
There was one possession at the end where hedo was guarding gay and wright on conley, so when they switched wright was on gay, although i think he still scored, wright is much better than calderon.
Tough loss. There's been a lot of criticism of Triano after this game. Not sure most of it is warranted. Calderon's switches onto Gay absolutely killed us in OT. I don't think that was the gameplan though. Calderon just got beat off the dribble each time, making a switch an absolute necessity (it was that or give Conley a clear path to the rim). What do you in that situation? Replace Calderon with Jack? I might agree with that most of the time, but Jack was terrible last night. His defense was just as poor and the offense was stagnant when he was on the floor. Jose almost singlehandedly brought us back from that 1st quarter deficit and it was a situation where Triano had to hope Calderon's crappy D wouldn't outweigh his offensive contributions. Eventually they did. Triano had to play with the cards he was dealt that time. Some people criticized the last shot in regulation, which was dumb. Clearly they didn't draw it up to go to Bosh. Memphis just guarded everyone else well. Of course there was the issue with Turk staying on the floor. It's a shame Wright had to leave the floor while the team had so much momentum. Even when he came back, I think Triano felt obligated to trust one of his "star players." Argue with that all you want (I hate it, personally), but I can understand his logic. Ultimately, Hedo turning it around could be the only way this team improves from "first-round fodder" to "potential upset." By trusting Hedo there and not yanking him out like he was a rookie (DeMar...), I think Triano was thinking big-picture. It's a shame they let it go to OT though. Bargs played a strong game, but this was one of his few unclutch games. He was too slow to switch and put a hand out on the Mayo 3, and his rushed shot on the other end directly led to the fast break that tied the game.
