Game 34: Raps vs. Magic - Pre-game
We are going to get an interesting look at the Raptors on Sunday, with no JO in the lineup to help guard Dwight Howard, but also without Jose Calderon, who is out with a hamstring. The Raptors are starting to get a little beaten up throughout the lineup and their depth might start to become a problem (if it hasn’t already) as you can only handle so many injuries before you start running out of healthy bodies to put on the floor.
The thing about guarding Howard is that it is hardly ever a one-on-one situation and by this, I don’t mean that teams are constantly double teaming him. What I mean is that while one guy is defending him when he has the ball, that player will need help from his teammates on any misses, as getting D12 to take a bad shot is one thing, but then stopping him from getting the rebound is another. When other players are putting up shots, it will be a tough task to box Howard out, but if that actually happens, then the other Raptors are going to have to get on the boards and not let another Magic player get the rebound otherwise all of that work is essentially wasted.
The thing that makes the Magic tough is that they have Howard as a virtual double-double lock inside, but they also have some good shooters (such as Hedo) sitting outside just waiting for the opportunity to let it fly. While this is usually where the problem is limited, for some reason, the Raptors have also allowed Hedo to walk down the lane repeatedly, laying in easy points. I can live with Dwight Howard scoring points inside, but there’s no excuse for Hedo Turkoglu doing the Charleston down the lane. He’s not quick enough to beat anybody off the dribble and it’s not like he’s an aggressive beast, so shut that down.
With Andrea and Jake assuming most of the responsibility of handling Howard, you can only think that it will be about 9-10 minutes before Jake slaps him with an intentional unintentional foul. We can expect Andrea to play some straight up defence, getting the arms up (and occasionally reaching), but we should hope that Jake will try to get in Dwight’s head, playing him as rough as he can. It’s not like Dwight is going to hurt the Raptors from the line, but they also have to make sure that if they are going to foul him, they make sure that he isn’t able to follow through and go for an old fashioned 3-point play.
Chris Bosh tends to have good outings against the Magic (unless it’s the playoffs…then, er…not as good). There have been a lot of unwarranted questions and discussion about his clutch decisions, but the fact is, without the way Bosh plays most nights, the Raptors wouldn’t even be in those few clutch situations that become available. Raptor fans need to appreciate what he brings to the table on a consistent basis and hope that he was one of those outstanding afternoons against the Magic.
3 in the Key
1. Don’t solely concentrate on D12. The Magic have a legit sharpshooter (Turkoglu) and a guy who can slash and dunk on anybody (Lewis), so they can’t sleep on those two guys or it will be lights out.
2. Get Solomon to play within himself. With Jose out, the Raptors are going to need some steady play from PG. While I do like the fact that Solomon will attack the basket and look to create scoring opportunities, it’s only worthwhile if he isn’t trying to do too much and forcing shots.
3. Bargs need to stay out of foul trouble. Andrea had a big night shutting down Yao on Friday and he will be in another tough spot Sunday afternoon. If he starts reaching on D12, he is going to run into early foul trouble, which will leave the Raptors very shorthanded.
The AltRaps Blog » Blog Archive » Toronto Raptors Linkage for January 4th from 08:22 to 08:35 on January 4th, 2009
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