What a night it was for the Toronto Raptors and their fans, who were most certainly treated to an entertaining game versus the Golden State Warriors. The Raptors came out on top winning the game 112-108 in overtime, before a sellout crowd of 19, 800 at the Air Canada Centre.
The Raptor fans were almost tricked out of a victory as their team dominated in the first quarter, but the Warriors hung around. In the second quarter with the Raptors up 45-33, the Warriors went on a huge 14-2 run to close the lead. Golden State was led by Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson. A large part of the comeback should be attributed to the ball movement of the Warriors. They were driving to the net, and kicking the ball out to open perimeter players, who made no mistake. And the Raptors didn’t help out their own cause as they were sucked in by the ball carrier and left the wings open.
The fast break was also on for the Warriors, as they did a good job of breaking out. And the score ended up 51-50 at half-time in favor of the Raptors.
After the Raptors’ strong opening quarter, where they were getting the ball inside, and getting buckets. They completely went away from that, and kept on taking the jumper. They were knocking them down, but when they missed, that allowed the Warriors to get back in the game and keep the game close. Both teams had respectable nights with their shooting, as the Raptors shot 51% and the Warriors 44%.
With only a slim two point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Raptors almost let this game get away from them, but didn’t. They were led by Chris Bosh, their leader, who poured in 31 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and now has 58 points in the first two games of the season. CB4 made shots drop in the clutch and demanded the ball with confidence.
After a slow opening night, Andrea Bargnani had a breakout game, including last season, and scored 19 points off the bench, with 5 boards, in 30 minutes of play. In the first half, he had ten points in ten minutes, and three dunks. One of those dunks was created when Andrea faked a pass, and his defender, which left an unguarded basket. He was confident with his shot and drove the ball whenever he had the chance. What really stood out was he didn’t settle for three’s after getting a few points, like he did so often last year. At one point, he passed up a three point shot and drove the ball. His defence was glowing too, with three blocked shots. They key now is, if he could repeat this effort versus the Milwaukee Bucks, on back-to-back nights.
With the game winding down, the Raptors held a 94-93 lead with less than a minute to play. The defence came up big as Jermaine O’Neal blocked a drive by the Warriors. The block was so hard, that the ball went right to Al Harrington who knocked down an uncontested three ball for the lead at 96-94.
The Raptors came right back, giving the ball to their All-Star, and CB4 tied the game with two free throws. After another defensive stop, the Raptors had the final possession of the game, but missed the game winning shot with 0.7 seconds left.
In overtime, it was all Raptors, as they began the extra frame with 6-0 run and didn’t allow the Warriors to score a point in the first 2 ½ minutes. That was all she wrote, as the Raptors won the game.
From start to end, you could just see the players feed off the energy being provided by the fans. One of the players that really wanted to make a splash was Jermaine O’Neal. He didn’t do so much on the stat sheet, but his defensive presence was there. He showed the Raptors faithful what he was all about with three huge blocks. Due to foul trouble, he was unable to play significant minutes in the fourth with five fouls, and ended the night with only five points.
Anthony Parker was another player who stepped up big time with 23 points, including a wicked circus shot with his back towards the rim, and he just flipped up the ball. He went 7/10 from the field and 3/5 from three point range. Once again the point guard play was fantastic by both Jose Calderon and Roko Ukic, as the two only combined for two turnovers.
On the Golden State side, Andris Biedrins had a slow game after the first quarter, where he had ten points and five rebounds, but was lost from there. The deciding factor in overtime was the stamina of Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson and Cory Maggette, who all logged big minutes, and just didn’t have anything left to give in the extra session. They did fill up the stat sheet with 26, 19 and 14 points respectively, but it still wasn’t enough.
For the second straight game the Raptors were out-rebounded 46-36, and 17-6 on the offensive rebounds. They did win in the free throw category shooting 86%, compared to Golden State’s 68%.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.
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