Tonight it is Blazers/Raptors for the second time this month. We all remember the dramatic win the Blazers came out with in Toronto. Tonight the Raptors will look for revenge. Both teams come into tonight’s contest with different attitudes than they did on December 7th. The Blazers are 18-12, needing a bounce-back victory after the tough home loss to Dallas. The Raptors however have hit somewhat of a mean downward spiral since the Blazer loss. Despite the fact that they have won 2 in a row, they have lost 6 of their last 10 including a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yeah…that hurts.
Toronto cannot be overlooked though. They take care of the ball (7th in the L at 13.4 a game) and they shoot the three well (37% good for 8th in the league). theyI think we’ve all learned that lesson after the Clipper game. They have the tools to win games, especially if the Blazers don’t take care of business. As long as Chris Bosh is in uniform the Raptors are in this one. Portland’s bigs have to redeem themselves after Dirk torched them on Saturday. Bosh has the tools to get hot and I’m a little worried after watching Dirk make shot after shot. Picking up the slack as of late has been Jermaine O’Neal who has scored 20+ in his last three games. In Toronto, O’Neal gave the Blazers 24 after I conveniently forgot to mention him. With his play seemingly returning and a return to Portland, look for him to be aggressive. Let’s also not forget about Jose Calderon who remains dangerous despite the Raptors struggles. Those three are surrounded by Parker and Kapono who can nail three’s and a bunch of energy guys. The Blazers don’t do well with energy guys.
Keys to success:
- Win the battle of the boards. There is no excuse for the Blazers not to dominate the glass tonight. Toronto is the worst offensive rebounding team in the league. Keep it that way. In Toronto, the Blazers out-rebounded the Raptors 48-31. I expect that number tonight. The Blazers have been giving up entirely too many second shots as of late and that trend needs to stop tonight. Giving up second shots is always death but multiply by two against a team like Toronto. I’m looking at you Greg.
- Don’t give up anything easy. Toronto is a team we should beat…but we won’t beat them if we give them anything easy. Aka, free throws, open three’s, open layups, etc. Make them come in to the Rose Garden and earn every single thing they get.
- Contain Chris Bosh. Be physical with him from the start, don’t let him get into a rhythm because if he gets 30+ things could get sad in the RG.
- Keep Calderon in front. Calderon absolutely scares me after we how good our defense made Barea look the other night. If he gets to driving and dishing it will be a long night.
- Don’t let anyone else get their mojo going. No 4-5 three’s from Kapono, NOTHING from Joey “I hate the Blazers’ Graham, no dunks from Moon and don’t let Jermaine get 20. All it takes is a couple plays for a guy to get his confidence going. Look at Barea and Bass the other night. If Jermaine gets 20 they turn into a much better team, they just don’t have enough offensive weapons.
- Take care of the ball. Toronto isn’t that good at forcing turnovers so let’s get back to the days where we had under 10 turnovers in the RG.