A new season, a new home for roll call, and a Raptors win in what could be a game to decide playoff seeding later on. Sah-weet.
Adams – last seen hitting up the ATM at King and Bathurst before heading to “the doctor”
Bargnani – not often you’d hear me say this about someone with a zero point night, but he didn’t really aggravate me once. Kept his fouls down to 2 in his 20min, grabbed 5 boards in a night we had to beg borrow and steal to get any. Didn’t try any 3s either. This game in his rookie year may have garnered some support.
Bosh – a long haul of 41mins, but his first of many double doubles this year with a 27/11 night. Impressive from the line, maybe the most vocal he has ever been, and the ability to, once again, take charge of his team. An Olympian effort indeed.
Calderon – committed five fouls while being outmatched by Andre Miller and made any Raptors fan wonder what may happen when we play a team that can hit a shot. Didn’t have a Jose-esque performance in directing this team. Pulling in 32 minutes as a point guard that is supposedly on the cusp of being an all-star and only dishing out 7 assists isn’t something to write home about.
Graham – you know that hot chick you meet at a club. At first you start checking her out, you make your way over to her from behind, start grinding on her…..the night is feeling great, you have your buzz on. You take a quick break to check in with the boys, hit up the washroom, splash some water on your face, then go back out to the floor to discover you’ve been dancing with the second coming of this? Welcome to a night in Joey Graham’s NBA life. Came out on fire, looking like a man possessed, but left looking like he was repossessed. 8 min, 2 of 7, contract year, oh my.
Humphries – new season, same uncertainty. Nailed to the bench tighter than Oliver Miller in a booth at Denny’s.
Jawai – if only he would show more heart.
Kapono – ASSASSIN. Finger blowin, ass shakin, lady killin, freestylin and electrifyin….. WOOOOOOOOOOOO. If Jesus came back as a basketball player, he would be Jason Kapono. 3 of 4 from 3, nailed the dagger, 25 minutes of big money worthy ball. BC was prouder than Billy Ray Cyrus tonight.
Moon – like Bargs, I can’t really rag on him. His stupid shots went in, he at least feigned attempts at playing his man. Still the expert in the blowby….except his is on the defensive end. 6 points and one board in 24 minutes. Did we mention he is our starter. Just lovely.
O’Neal – the new lear jet that is parking in our hangar, he got off to a rocky start, but pulled himself out of it after having his leg jerked in the dressing room. Nice dunk with a pompous point to his fam in the crowd, and he missed a lot more rebounds and blocks than he got, but the flashes where he and Bosh were in cahoots made you lick your chops. 17/8 in 34 is nice. Enough to be a major factor in getting us to the playoffs? If he can help crowd the paint and Jose/JK can knock some stuff down, we’ll be fine. If not….
Parker – solid game on the defensive end (although a few lapses) but horrendous on the offensive end. 3 of 11 in 37? MIKE JAMES!! MIKE JAMES!!!!
Solomon – last seen hitting up Kensington Market looking for one of these. Next stop? Roko’s locker to grab some leftovers from his comb to make sure the Gods know where to aim.
Ukic – Roko Jessica Parker played better than I expected in his first game. Only question would be whether the adrenalin hit and he flew like he never flew before or if this is the relaxed Roko and he is going out to shut up his critics. Only played 15min and only had 2 assists, but he was a reliable ball handler and fulfilled his role. Still seems to want to hog a bit after he hits a shot, so needs to work on that, but otherwise a nice night.
Driving The Bus: Chris Bosh
Under The Bus: a tough call, but….Anthony Parker
Game Theme: Indeed
10 Raps
nice!
i have to admit, i was ready to throw the whole franchise under the bus 5 minutes in, but to their credit, they tightened their belts, and forced the 76ers to beat them from the perimeter, which they didn’t.
my only cause for concern was the rebounding situation. dalembert grabbed 17 like a beast. thought o’neal was supposed to do something about that? whatever, rebounding, for now, is still an issue, but at least defense looks to be tighter.
imagine if we got some production out of bargnani?
Sorry I missed the liveblog guys. Was watching on tape delay and didn’t get caught up until the game was over. I’ll be there Saturday night though, with bells and beer on.
The absolutely embarrassing rebounding effort aside, this was as good a first game as we could have asked for, considering the team we watched in the pre-season. If we ever get it through our heads that grabbing our man to box out doesn’t have any sexual overtones, maybe we can corral some of those long loose balls that the Sixers guards had fall into their lap.
I’m also planning to set the world record this season for number of times on and off the Joey bandwagon. Right now, we’re ON! His hustle started our turnaround in the second quarter, and I’ll take moderate contribution over zero contribution any day.
And the new jerseys…sick.
p.s. Does Andre Miller look like P.Diddy’s crackhead cousin to anyone else?
A little sad that Bargs didn’t manage any points, but the rest of his line is decent – a couple of assists, blocks and a steal. The win margin was already pretty good and if he had played any better it probably would’ve counted as a blow out.
Not that this is a significant feature of the game but is Bargs becoming a shot-blocker? Has anyone in NBA history combined quality shot-blocking ability with abysmal rebounding? At heart he’s a 7′ SG. And that’s not a dis, it’s just weird.
And if Philly ever learns to shoot, look out. That team can rebound and then some. (And we need to work on that because it’ll kill us soon enough).
Decent, but not great, first game and I’ll take the win against a divisional opponent. At this point the glass is half-. I’ll fill in the blank in about 10 games or so.
Still waiting for your famous games recap! Arsenalist put your drink down and get to it!
hotshot, tomorrow morning around 7am man…not tonight…this site is taking up a HUUGE chunk of my time.
A perfect game plan by the Rap’s:
After a tough start, turn up the defense and stop the sixers:
Control their fast breaks, and make them play 1/2 court and shoot
from the outside, where they struggle to combine Iggy and Brand in their offense.
Worked to perfection with sixers 34.5%FG, 25%FG3.
Lots of work to do on blocking out still for rebounds, although 6 of Dalemberts ORB’s were put backs on his misses, in their 23 boards advantage.
Raptors defensive play negated the advantage sixers had in rebounds as
they only outshot Rap’s by 3.
Calderon made some big shots, including the 1st 2 for the game to get Rap’s started after an 0/10 start, and hit 5/9 while Miller only made 6/16 for 13 pts, the same as Jose. Only 7 assists for Jose as the ball went inside then out and Bosh/O’Neal had 8 between them.
First off, great work on the raptors republic site. Just great
Ukic won’t play that solid very often. Great aggression going to the rim, but an NBA point needs to shoot. I hope the raps get solid play from solomon at some point, they will need it
If this is the Jermaine O’neal we get for 70 games then the raps will be fine and a joy to watch.
I’m glad they won. Aside from all this bullshit analysis, they just need the wins against phi, det, cle,
Does anyone have the technology to make an animated gif of Kapono blowing on his fingers? That was epic.
Very impressed with the last 3 quarters of play. I love Jose, but he badly needs to work on his on ball defense. I would love to see Humphries play as well.
I still miss Garbajosa, but if Kapono keeps hitting shots and blowing on his fingers, I will tolerate Graham and Moon.
Roko is gonna be off the chain by the season end (15 pts / 7 assists a night) hes gettin his confidence up.