still a bitch who hasn’t proved he can take it in the paint like a true elite big man that is worth max cash. got swallowed by shaq in the first half……

well see if he can take advantage of al jefferson or not

Like I said, if you’d bother to have read it: “DeRozan, a 6″ shorter wing playing rookie, had as many rebounds in 6 minutes less.”

Keep in mind, on top of being a 7 foot centre, Ab is also a 4 year pro and DeRozan was playing his first game. Bargs is a crap rebounder, it’s his biggest weakness but the rest of his game looked great.

nice to see them off to a solid start on defense. if they play down to memphis tomorrow, last night’s win will have been in vain. i hope they do not play down to lesser opponents this year. triano said that the players got together before the game and set the tone for how they will come out and play the entire season. i hope we see a sense of urgency night in and night out.

He even said yesterday that he was feeling like we had a good chance to win this game (before the game started, I mean).

And I dully poked fun at him for being a tribal honking fan!

I actually think that he is doing a good job of pressing a bit more than last year.

Also, remember what Triano said in an interview: he wants to push the tempo, NOT rush shots (i.e., not run-and-gun). If they can get into a great position because they ran up the court, they can sometimes take their time exploiting that advantage (rather than forcing the issue early in the shot clock).

Actually, I don’t remember seeing a single shot-clock violation by us last night, which means our offense never stumbled to that point.

- Bosh took 23 plays to get to 21 points (in 40 minutes).
- Bargs took 17 plays to get to 28 points (in 29 minutes).

- That is akin to Bosh shooting 45.7%, and Bargs shooting 82.4%.

If Bosh’s percentage was at least in the mid 50s, he would have probably received a 9 or 10 rating. Either way, he did a solid job and stayed aggressive most of the night.

We will have him going into his prime, when he has the potential to be a $16+ million player (per year). If he continues to develop and improve for a few more years, that contract will be looking nearly as good as those of young stars on rookie contracts.

I think these games against lower ranked team will be VERY important for us; we still have a lot of learning and gelling to do as a team (and by “we” I mean “they”, of course :P ). The Raps need to take those opportunities to get not only much needed wins, but to improve and polish up their game.

Either way, Sunday is likely to be a reality check for us (because Orlando is deeper than the Cavs, and not playing the Celtics the night before).