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November 15, 2007

Raps vs. Pacers Preview

JayJay wrote this today:

Check the standings. The Pacers are only a game behind Toronto in the East with what I would call far inferior talent. That’s not a testament to how well the Pacers are doing, it is more of an indication of how the Raptors are underachieving. But when you break things down, the two teams have more similarities than one would care to admit.

Both teams score about the same amount of points per game (Pacers 98.12, Raptors 97.75), neither team has awe-inspiring shooting percentages (43.9% Raptors, 41.7% Pacers), both teams have stars who have had their share of injury problems lately (Bosh and O’Neal), both have important players in their lineups who may suddenly go missing on any given night (Bargnani and Granger). That being said, while the Raptors should come out on top in this one, there is one thing that makes me nervous. Rebounds. Indiana is 5th in the league in rebounding…Toronto is 25th.

Now sure, the whole game doesn’t come down to rebounding and it isn’t like the Pacers have one guy out there who just rules the boards, but that is kind of what makes them a little more dangerous: any of those guys can go up and get some boards. Problem for them is, they’re not very tough (thank God for that), so a lot of those rebounded opportunities go to waste as nobody really wants to go up strong. They are also a middle of the pack free-throw shooting team, which doesn’t help.

I’ve never really bought into the whole Mike Dunleavy thing, I just don’t think he’s the big name people try to make him out to be. To me, it looks like a lot of nights he just doesn’t feel like going all out. You can DEFINITELY say that about Jamaal Tinsley, because if this guy starts a game cold, he just shuts it down. If he’s hot, look out, because the guy can stay hot, but let’s be honest, he’s a street baller. He’d have a blast playing against Rafer.

Starting to sound like a broken record here, but this is a team the Raptors can do some damage against inside. Because the Pacers lack toughness, they tend to slap guys on their way up, leading to them giving up 38 free throw attempts per game last year. The problem is, the Raptors only averaged 21 attempts per game last season and aren’t that far off this year, so I guess we’ll see how that whole strategy pans out. Sam needs to get through to the Raptors that they can win games inside. If they sit outside and shoot outside jumpers all night then they will be playing into the Pacers hands.

Needless to say, the whole turnover thing has to be taken care of too. That seriously got embarrassing the other night.

Alright, let’s go.

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2 Responses to “Raps vs. Pacers Preview”

  1. TTFD Says:
    November 15th, 2007 at 11:09 pm

    Wonder if Jamario will start again? He turns the rebound situation around somewhat for the Raps, as of now BC looks like a prophet again on that one.

  2. Jay Says:
    November 16th, 2007 at 1:16 am

    I think Sam HAS to start him again. He has played well, using his athleticism and his head out there. He has also been great on D, making guys alter shots. I see no reason to pull him out of the starting lineup now.

    I’m still going to wait a while before I call Colangelo a prophet on this one, but all indications so far is that he has found another solid player.