Raps @ Celts Post-Game: BOS 106 TOR 90

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 20:38 Written by Seb Beitel

Weeeeeeellllllll what can you really say? The Raps got beat up by a much better team tonight. I don't think there was ever a point in the game, even including the 5 or so minutes that the Raps were up, that it seemed like we had a chance. That being said, I think we can take a lot of positives from this one.

For one, Turkoglu (21 min, 6 pts, 5 ast) played a lot better than I thought he would given the circumstances. I thought he integrated himself into the offense really well and its easy to see how effective he's going to be with this group.

Twice (that I counted) he found Calderon for a jumper after drawing his defender over on a drive. Caldy's never had a wing that commanded help on the drive before and I think he'll thrive as a spot up shooter. Having someone that could consistently get into the lane and create defensive switches was something we sorely lacked last year and I think Hedo will fill that role perfectly.

His shooting was a mixed bag. From midrange, he looked great, drilling two pull ups from the elbow. From outside though he was awful. He missed all three from outside 20 feet by a mile including two deep covered threes that left me shaking my head. Maybe those weeny FIBA 3 point lines messed up his range. I kiddd but seriously, he did not look comfortable hucking those up.

All in all, Hedo's debut was a pleasant surprise. He didn't blow me away but he was way ahead of where I thought he would be.

Another big positive is that Caldy and Bosh looked like they're rounding back into game shape.

Calderon (23 min, 12 pts, 5-8 fg, 3 ast, 3 stl) had a bounce in his step tonight, something that we haven't seen yet this pre season. He still isn't beating his man off the dribble but his passes are crisp and his shot looked tight. He even did a pretty good job on Rondo holding him to 6 pts and only 1 oreb.

Bosh (27 min, 21 pts, 8-13 fg, 4 reb, 3 ast) looked much more agressive on offense and I felt like his added weight allowed him to get much deeper positioning in the post. He settled for some awkward looking fadeaways at times but on the whole he was effective down there. Most of all, I was stoked to see him refuse to settle for the jumpshot. Only 6 of his 13 shots (46%) were from outside the paint, well down from 64% last year. Although its only one game, this is still extremely encouraging.

Good things aside, the way that Boston's bigs manhandled Bosh and company is a cause for concern.

For one thing, Boston was able to pull down 14 offensive rebounds. I couldn't find a second chance point stat but I'm sure it was the key to the game. The worst part about it is that most of these O boards were just a case of Raptors bigs being completely outworked.

In addition to dominating the Raps on the boards, Garnett, Perkins and Davis combined for 40 points on 15 of 24 shooting (62.5%). The amount of wide open layups, dunks and ally-oops the Celts got was embarrassing. At times it looked like once our bigs got sealed they just gave up and started thinking about the other side of the floor. There has to be some fight down there and tonight I just didn't see it.

That little rant made this post-game sound a little bit negative. The reality was that the Raps looked good tonight, maybe the best they have so far, against a really really good team. I'm starting to see some chemistry forming and with three games left in the preseason I'm starting to feel like this team is going to be ready. Here are some highlights for those that didn't see the game:

Game Highlights

By the way, Reggie Evans left in the second quarter (or was it third?) with what looked like an ankle or foot sprain. He's a tough dude and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. Hopefully he's alright.

That's all for tonight.

GO RAPS!

Seb Beitel

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tags: