That was a close one last night, eh? I wonder if this team will ever get their wits aboot them for a full 48 minutes.
This guy needs to attack.
OK fine, I'm done with the cheesy "Canadian" humor. Matt Bonner probably loves it, though - he has nothing better to do, and he still lives in Toronto. Step inside, it's cold out there and we have a game to preview.
 San Antonio Spurs @ Toronto Raptors Where: Air Canada Centre - Toronto, ON When: January 3, 2010; 5:00 PM Spurs time Watch: NBA TV(Nationwide); FSN SW(San Antonio); RTV(Toronto)
How They Stack Up
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Matchups
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 Tony Parker French Bullet Train |
Point Guard Calderon has been sidelined for the last 2 weeks with a hip problem. Tony's been playing well as of late - well, prior to last night, at least. This should be a fairly easy matchup for Tony, but he can't afford to fall asleep on D.Advantage: Spurs |
 Jarrett Jack Not Jose Calderon |
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 Keith Bogans Bringer of DOOM |
Shooting Guard One thing that's interesting about Toronto's lineup is that they create a lot of height mismatches. DeRozan is 6'7", so he has a 2 inch height advantage on Keith, with a bit more speed to boot. I still think Keith can hold his own, and he might even be able to score some points in this one. But, neither one of these guys is really a focal point for their team, so nobody wins. Advantage: Neither
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 DeMar DeRozan Promising Rookie |
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 Richard Jefferson Overpaid |
Small Forward RJ seems to have a nasty habit of leaving guys open from beyond the arc. Hedo does most of his damage from distance, where he's shooting over 40% on the year. He also rebounds and finds teammates for scores better than RJ. Then again, the Raps actually run plays for Hedo. Advantage: Raptors |
 Hedo Turkoglu Slightly Less Overpaid |
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 Dejuan Blair The Beast |
Power Forward The Beast is quite clearly overmatched here. I only hope he can take advantage of Bosh's soft defense to get some points of his own. Advantage: Raptors |
 Chris Bosh Future Houston Rocket? |
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 Tim Duncan King of the Ice Thrown |
Center Let's get this out of the way - this as big a mismatch as Blair vs. Bosh. However, I get the feeling Timmy and Blair will be switching on the defensive end, since it doesn't take a lot of cunning to deal with Bargs. It's simple: stay in front of him, and challenge his shot. However, given how much trouble we had containing Michael Beasley the other day, I'm not sure how effective our defense of Bargs will be. On the other end, Timmy will absolutely destroy Bargs, period. Advantage: Spurs |
 Andrea Bargnani Dirk 0.7 |
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 Manu Ginobili The Great One |
Bench & Role Players We have the best bench in the league, by far. And it doesn't hurt when you have best single bench player in the league, either. Toronto's bench isn't bad, but ours has bowled over every opponent they've faced, and that doesn't look like it will be stopping anytime soon. Roger Mason has been on a tear lately, too - don't expect the Raps to slow him down. Advantage: Spurs |
 Marco Belinelli Less Than Photogenic |
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 Gregg Popovich GOML |
CoachPop is a winner. But he needs to cut it out with the looooong stretches of smallball, especially against a team that has the personnel to play smallball very well. Triano seems like a good enough coach, but he's a newbie. Pop wins. Advantage: Spurs |
 Jay Triano Hi, I coach the Raptors. |
| images via yahoo.com | ||
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Other Factors
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Intangibles |
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| Toronto is 11-5 at home, but we're 6-1 in our last 7 road games. Now that's a more Spurs-like number. Advantage: Spurs |
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Mojo |
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| Toronto got beaten last night by the Celtics, in Boston, but it was close. We're on a 5-game win streak. Advantage: Spurs |
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Winner: Spurs |
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| I'm fighting the urge to call it a blowout, but the potential is there for one. |
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Keys To The Game
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Last Time They MetThe last time these two teams met was in the Spurs' 6th game of the season, when the Spurs won a wild shootout with some clutch play from a certain Argentine difference-maker. Strength of ScheduleBoth teams are on a SEGABABA, so not really any difference here. |
Some Other ReadingRaptorsRaptors HQ - Here you'll find SB Nation's Raptors blog. Intelligent writing and good analysis abounds - go take a look. Spurs48 Minutes of Hell: Tim and Graydon still do their thing like nobody else on the TrueHoop Network. We're lucky to have them. The (sort of) Daily TwitterMe and @George_Hill3 is making a song and we need some ideas???? Help us out PLEASE!!!! We will post it next week!!!!! Today's date is: 01022010 Backwards and Foward!! Enjoy this day in history! www.michaelfinley.org More AnalysisA while back, BlaseE did one of his great "My Team is Better Than Yours" articles on the Raptors. It's a good read, and he came to this conclusion:
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Where to Tune InTVThis game will be televised locally in San Antonio(Fox Sports SW) and Toronto(RTV, whatever that is). It will also be on NBA TV, which means... OnlineLeague Pass Broadband will not be broadcasting this game in North America. I hate NBA TV. For online viewing in other countries, see below. Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to me at rikiddoko@gmail.com for more assistance. Spurs League Pass audio is still free this year if all else fails, so check it out. RadioIf you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM). |