GREAT START TO SEASON

The 14th season in Toronto Raptors history went very well with a 95-84 victory over the re-tooled Philadelphia 76ers. The majority of the crowd was decked out in Phillies gear, and were drawn to the game due to discounted tickets. That was only if you had a World Series game 5 ticket. You couldn’t spot a 76ers jersey for the life you, and everywhere you looked, you’d see a Phillies jersey.

The Raptors did start off the game slow and were very sluggish in the opening quarter. The 76ers were grabbing rebounds at will, and their inside duo of Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert paid off big time. They had offensive rebounds, and out-rebounded the Raptors 56-33. If the 76ers had finished off their offensive rebounds with some baskets, the end score could’ve been closer or a different result, maybe.

Lost in the first quarter was Andre Igoudala. He barely got any touches and his name was hardly heard, except for a dunk late in the game. A lot of the 76ers offense revolved around getting the ball deep.

Really, the only bright spot for the 76ers was the first quarter, and after that they looked lost. Their offense wasn’t clicking like it did to start the game, and they turned the ball over plenty of times. The Raptors took advantage of those turnovers and didn’t return the favor as they protected the ball. The 76ers had 17 turnovers and the Raptors only had 11.

Coming into this season, a lot of people wondered if Jermaine O’Neal and Chris Bosh could co-exist. Well, that question was answered emphatically. Even though this was only one game, they did a lot of good things playing together, and separately too if one of the two were taking a breather.

In the first half, the two towers traded some big time dunks. First it was JO who blew by Elton Brand and slammed it home with his left hand. That dunk was a game changer, and slowly things started to go smoothly for the Raptors, and there was a momentum shift, if you will. After that dunk the Raptors won the final three quarters and outscored the 76ers by 14 points. JO’s jumper was consistent as well.

Not to be outdone, CB4 came right back with a two handed jam of his own. Pretty much the same move was made, but from the opposite side of the court. His jumper was as smooth as ever.

The two players, O’Neal and Bosh combined for 44 points and 19 rebounds. Individually they both had solid nights as Bosh scored 27 and had 11 boards, while O’Neal had 17 and 8 in 35 minutes of play.

The point guard situation for the Raptors went just as advertised. Jose Calderon was his fine self, sharing the ball, protecting the ball and showed off his smooth shooting stroke.

The backup point guard play of rookie Croatian Roko Ukic wasn’t too shabby. He played 16 minutes, scored 4 points and dished out 2 assists. He stuck to his game and didn’t get out of his comfort zone, like so many rookies do.

The seven foot Italian Andrea Bargnani was seldom used in the game and played a quiet 20 minutes. He did show some signs off improvement, but his defense was lacking.

The small forward position duties were split evenly between Jamario Moon and Joey Graham. Both players had good showings, to start the year. The one constant you could always count was the play of Anthony Parker. He always found some open room and never took a bad shot, and scored 9 on the night. He had the task of guarding Andre Igoudala and shut him down, holding him to 15 points.

In the end, the Raptors held off a late surge by the 76ers as they cut the Raptors lead to six points with less than three minutes left to play. On the next play Jason Kapono came back with a clutch three pointer from the corner and that put the Raptors up by eleven, and that pretty much sealed the game. The three point shooting from the Raptors was scorching and went 10-16 from three point land. The biggest lead of the game for the Raptors was 14 points.


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