Game 51: Raps vs. Lakers - Pre-game
After mailing in a loss to the Cavs on Tuesday night, it’s comforting to know that the Raptors can cue up the hometown boos against he Lakers the very next night. With Kobe coming off a 61 point performance (and it was that, it was a performance, a spectacle if you will), you can’t think that the Raptors chances are very good right now. Somewhere, Bryan Colangelo is working his Blackberry overtime, but unless he has a trade cooking up where the Raptors get Jesus (and I ain’t talking Shuttlesworth), things certainly aren’t looking up for our hometown boys.
The thing that has been so disturbing about the Raptors losses lately is the astonishing lack of effort seen on both ends of the court. The Raptors have looked like they were simply walking through practice. Watching them lately has reminded me of back in school where we would continuously work on bunt coverages, not fully going at it, but not dogging it enough to have to do laps. Just enough effort put out to keep you warm. Well, if we see that kind of effort again against the Lakers, they’re going to be warm all right, because they’re going to get cooked.
If there is one good thing for the Raptors, it is that the Lakers are going to be without Andrew Bynum for 8-12 weeks, as he has suffered his annual second half knee injury. It didn’t look like that slowed the Lakers down against the Knicks the other night, as Kobe decided to let everyone know that he could pick up the slack. But hey, what do the Raptors have to worry about? They’re a lock-down defensive team and Kobe has never had a big game against them before.
There is the chance that the Raptors will come up with one of those “Win one for the Gipper” games, where out of nowhere, things come together and they collectively make everyone say, “What the hell was that?”. I have seen stranger things happen. Let’s consider that this season, Andrea has performed well against some of the bigger and more talented players and he will have a challenge in Pau Gasol, who is one fire right now. If the Raptors are able to get the best out of Andrea and then see another good pairing from Bosh and JO, there is the chance for an upset. You also have to keep in mind that Jose will be looking to bounce back from a terrible outing against the Cavs and when he is focused on doing something, Jose can be an impressive player. He’ll have Fisher to go against and to be honest, I actually like that matchup for Jose.
So there it is, me ending on a positive for the Raptors. Well hey, somebody has to balance the boos that will be coming at the ACC, right?
3 in the Key
1. The Raptors will need Andrea to step up and have a game if they are going to have a chance.
2. Jose will need to get everyone involved. The Raptors will need to have energy up and down the court and Jose needs to lead that.
3. It sounds ridiculous, but the Raptors can’t afford the rest of the Lakers to get in on Kobe’s party, because when he scores 27 or LESS (so when the rest of the team is scoring), the Lakers are unbeaten.
4 Comments
Linkage for Feb 3 5pm to Feb 4 3pm - Raptors Republic on February 4th, 2009
[...] Game 51: Raps vs. Lakers - Pre-game [...]
The AltRaps Blog » Blog Archive » Toronto Raptors Linkage for February 4th from 07:25 to 19:11 on February 4th, 2009
[...] Game 51: Raps vs. Lakers - Pre-game - The thing that has been so disturbing about the Raptors losses lately is the astonishing lack of effort seen on both ends of the court. The Raptors have looked like they were simply walking through practice. Watching them lately has reminded me of back in school where we would continuously work on bunt coverages, not fully going at it, but not dogging it enough to have to do laps. Just enough effort put out to keep you warm. Well, if we see that kind of effort again against the Lakers, they’re going to be warm all right, because they’re going to get cooked. [...]
Jay on February 4th, 2009
Well, I guess you were right about Joey and with Jose out, we might see more of Roko again…
Doc on February 4th, 2009
Jay really needs to suck it up and start Joey and give Roko some burn once again.