Toronto Raptors Ramblings

Hey Sports Guy....Bon Appetit

That's not Ape Tit. That's french for eat it.

After the Sports Guy (pretty much my favourite internet writer) wrote that the Eastern Conference is the worst division in the history of sports and proceded to rank the Raptors as the worst team in the worst division ever, I couldn't help but feel a screw you coming on. (p.s. asides from that it's a sweet article).

Simmons makes a great point about the Rapshow, which is you can't play 'outscore' the other team, if you can't shoot the outside shot. No doubt we can't. Our 628 games straight with a three pointer streak almost ended for God's sake (p.s. because it didn't Derrick Martin is a hero in at least mine and Chuck's books). But since it's so obvious we can't shoot Mitchell has hired a shooting coach and made adjustments to our game so we don't jack a gagillion treys a game. I think the Sports Guy is actually jealous of Sam Mitchell, which shows the Celts are in a really bad coaching situation. Sam certainly outcoached Doc.

SPORTS GUY MATH
His win Prediction for the Raps is: 22!
Yup, 22. That means he thinks they'll go 16-50 the rest of the way.
Celtics Win Prediction: 28 - 47!
Ha ha. Meaning to hit 47, the celts will go 42 -25.

Read that again:
Raptors: 16-50
Celtics: 42-25

Wins so far: Raps 6. Celts 5.
Wester Conference Games: Raps 8. Celtics 3.
Easter Conference Games: Raps 8. Celtics 12.
Road Games: Raps 9, Celtics 6.

Raps have 9 new players. Nobody (who knows the Raps or Hoops) expects them to find the right chemistry until let's say aggressively 25 games. More like 40. Until then they have to find a way to stay alive.

The Celts don't have nearly as many new faces asides from some ghetto punks (nice Neck tattoo incidentally on West). Michael Rappaport was the closest thing they had to an answer for Bosh. How do these guys defend anybody with any size when there best interior defender could easily be the Guy from the Boston Publics instead of the Boston Celtics. It's a sad state in Boston.


(seriously. can you tell which two are which? There's no way you can. This has got to be the same guy, what a talent)

Sports Guy is self admitted idiot, but I think this is more of the case of 'blind faith' here than his idiocy. I can't knock anybody for that, I've got a 41 win counter on this blog. The chances of this celtics team winning 45+ games is zero unless a major trade goes down. Rant over, back to the game.

THE GAME
We were sitting up in the "Adrenaline" seats last night (i.e. the seats in front of the bar, and the Aussie sitting beside us got an amazing shot of the NANI dunk. It was a semi-plodding 1,2, zlam, from the free throw line. The crowd goes wild. It's in the hole. It apparently got NANI fired up as well as he tried another one minutes later. Not as lucky with a nice Rim/Celts stuff.

The second half was much more enjoyable from our new seats, baseline golds. Row 22 has something that row 87 lacks. The amount of unofficial 'moves of the game' at the ACC means plenty of vocal fans are in prime seats by the 3rd Q. Once they get comfortable that they won't get kicked out (early 4th) they bring some needed spirit down to the rich zone.
note: Aussie guy is supposed to send me the picture. Hopefully he managed to sneak down okay and that picture is coming. Come on Aussie, where are you?

RAPTORS
The game was actually pretty ugly, with no defense in site. We scored 106, but it wasn't even that pretty. Garbajosa was great once again. This guy is probably the smartest rookie in the league. Given he's 28, and known for his craftiness, that kind of makes sense.

NANI was once again showing why the Rookie of the Year award sure isn't locked up yet. He needs something to compete with Morrison's mustache, flowing locks and awkward shooting form. We just have to find out what that is. Raptors PR braintrust...get on this, stat!

Meanwhile, Meat (JG) couldn't quite handle the starting lineup duty. With two beauty early fouls he was riding early pine and the Former Slam Dunk Champion was back in the lineup. Jones actually got packed so brutally in the 2nd Q that I might have to stop calling him the Former Slam Dunk Champion. Okay, I can't, but i might try

Meat meanwhile not only had 2 early fouls but 3 stupid fouls over the course of this game. On the upside he also played hard and with a lot of aggression. Kind of like the 'move of the game' fans come the 4th quarter, a lot more confidence. But when you kick your leg out and trip up Pierce don't look over to Sam wondering how it happened. It's a no call, maybe, but not against Pierce.

Down the stretch Bosh took control (thank god) getting fouled and draining his free throws. Up 3 with 15 to go he missed his first, then calmly drained number 2. Game. Set. Match. Are the Raptors better than the Celtics. Yes. But not by much.

Random Questions: Who's better?
Celtics without Pierce.
Raptors without Bosh.
Both of those scenarios are ugly, don't you think?


Other notes.....Anthony Parker was pretty sweat, but i found out he wears #18 to suck up to Jewish fans in his old league? Apparently it works.....Bosh still not quite handling double / triple teams quite right yet. Remember when it happened to Vince? Remember when it happened to T-Mac. Ya...he'll get through it once he learns to react quicker, fake guys away from bringing the double and not getting caught under the hoop in a triple team and hucking up crap. He'll get it....Garbajosa, would win smartest rookie of the year award if they had one....The Celtics shot over 80% in the 1st quarter, nobody missed and yet i think they were up two...It was like an all-star game but with only 2 all-stars.

posted by WG @ 10:45 AM