Without Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon available, the Raptors strike me as a dangerous team. The absolute last thing the Sixers can afford is to drop their fourth game in a row, this time to a very bad team, on their home floor. They need to turn it around tonight.
In the absence of their slow Europeans, the Raptors are probably going to put a scary-athletic, small lineup on the floor. I'm guessing the backcourt will be Bayless and DeRozan, then up front they'll probably go with James Johnson, Ed Davis and Reggie Evans. There isn't a whole lot of offensive skill in that group, in fact there's barely any. There isn't a shooter among them, either. Bayless is the closest to average from three (35.1% since joining TOR), the rest are pretty much miserable from deep. What they lack in actual skills, they have the potential to make up for with energy. They're young (outside of Reggie) and they can really get up and down the floor.
DeRozan, Barbosa (listed as questionable for the game) and Bayless are all capable of getting hot and beating you with penetration. I'd say tonight is a perfect opportunity to pack the lane considering the complete lack of shooting for TO. Up front, they've got one solid shotblocker in Amir Johnson (also listed as questionable), a rebounding machine in Evans and a guy who does a little of both in Ed Davis. James Johnson is a pretty bad small forward and shouldn't really occupy Andre Iguodala's attention. I'd probably go with Iguodala on DeRozan and tell him to give him some space, encourage him to shoot. DeRozan takes a ton of long twos (5 per game @ 40%), let him settle for those and hopefully get him to chuck up threes as well (he's 10.9% from three).
Jrue needs to keep Bayless in front of him, and keep tabs on him when he's off the ball. Everyone needs to work to keep the Raptors off the offensive glass, because they will be missing plenty of shots. Face guard Evans, if you have to.
On the offensive end, Jrue needs to be prepared for the Reggie Evans suicide trap at midcourt. It's going to come at some point, keep your composure and get rid of the ball quickly, let the rest of the team play four on three while Evans is recovering to the lane. Jrue has a tendency to see the double coming and try to keep his dribble through it instead of making a quick pass out of it.
Three things I want to see tonight:
- A double-digit win.
- A strong start in the first and third quarters.
- A good shooting night for Jrue
Prediction: I abstain.
The tip is at 7pm, game thread will land 90 minutes prior.
So it looks like the Sixers are running a poll. If you had to choose between Thad and Lou for sixth man of the year, who would you pick?
Thad. Lou would get my vote if he had a FG% more like last years 47% (even 44% would be fine.)
Both have gotten hot and sparked the team. Thad has had less negatives.
And I don't vote for Jason Terry for 6th man of the year, because he is a bogus non-starter. He is 2nd on his team in minutes played and the "starter" ahead of him averages less than 20 minutes a game.
Thad and Lou are 5th and 6th in minutes/game.
My vote would be for Odom. Thad or Harden would be #2, probably Thad.
Odom averages 32 min/g. Third on the team. Again, that's just too high to be considered a 6th man.
Every team has 3 or 4 players who get 32-36 min/g. None of them should be consider "6th man." Or mamybe this really is an award for the best player who is willing to come off the bench, even if they are a de-facto starter?
Odom's a different case than Terry, imo. He had to start a bunch of games because of Bynum's injury, but he's clearly a bench guy for them behind Gasol and Odom up front.
Sorry, Gasol and Bynum. Terry is Dallas' starting 2 guard, they just choose to bring him off the bench.
Who is Harden backing up? I thought he was a starter.
Perkins
Ibaka
Durant
Harden
Westbrook
Thano
Thabo. Smart phone, my ass.
Odd ti face a Raptor team that can't shoot.
And I'd like to see Iguodala get some quality rest tonight. They don't need his elite wing defense and he rarely takes advantage of weaker players on the other end. I know he won't "heal" before the playoffs, but no reason why they can't at least keep him fresh.
Agreed on Iguodala. 25-30 minutes would be ideal, though I doubt it happens.
Toronto = yawner.
not one player on their roster I'd even like to see. maybe Bayless 2 years ago.
Should be a win. And Yes we will play sloppy tonight.
I'll watch the Phils game and check the highlights later.
I'm intrigued by Demar Derozan, since the All star break he's been averaging 20 ppg shooting 48%, and in April (4gms) is havering 26 ppg.
He's helping my fantasy team out all the way to the finals (though amare and dwight are really screwing my weekend over)
I haven't seen it first hand, but I keep reading that Ed Davis is becoming pretty impressive.. looking forward to seeing what he can do.
Sort of like a young Camby.
Case in point.
I think Tray has some kind of super-duper google alert set up for Ed Davis currently.
He's Tray's latest "rookie from another team that I'm going to constantly update you about as my passive aggressive way to say we shouldn't have taken Evan Turner."
My take on the 2010 draft id "pass."
Meant "is", not my inner psyche.
Wait, I'd be insane to argue that we should have drafted Davis over Turner. He looked lost in his sophomore season. I always liked his athleticism, but no way that I'd argue that. I think I even was for Turner over Favors. Maybe not for Turner over Cousins, and frankly I don't think that this season has settled that debate either way. Cousins has definitely had more games where he's looked like an impact player. I guess they're both good rebounders for their position, that's really all that they're currently good at on a consistent basis. Cousins gets to the line a lot, there's that.
Wow, the Sixers are -11 in this game. That's a sketchy bet considering their last three games.