After a tough 114-105 road loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday due to a lethargic 2nd quarter where the Raptors were outscored 42-21 in that span, the Toronto Raptors are hoping to start off fresh in 2011 as they are back at home in the Air Canada Centre tonight to face the, also injury plagued, Boston Celtics.
DeMar DeRozan will be looking to keep the momentum going after scoring a career high 37 points in Friday’s loss to the Rockets. He attempted 14 free throws and made 13 of them. It marked the 6th time this season he has attempted more than 10 free throws in a game. Attacking the rim and looking to get to the line consistently is definitely an element that the Toronto Raptors need to do more of as the hunt for the playoffs heats up.
Toronto was able to get a 102-101 home win over the Boston Celtics the last time the C’s visited Toronto in November, but the Celtics evened the score with a 110-101 win of their own in Boston just several days later. With injuries mounting for both teams, there will be key players out of each team’s line up along with some possible game time decisions. The Raptors are likely to be without Andrea Bargnani once again who would miss his 4th game in a row, and 6 of the last 8, due to a strained left calf. Reggie Evans is still out with a broken bone in his foot, and Sonny Weems has been battling back spasms forcing him to miss the last 6 games. The Celtics’ Rajon Rondo is day-to-day with a sprained ankle, and Kevin Garnett is likely to miss up to two weeks with a strained right calf. They’re all trying to get healthy enough to return to action, but the NBA season is a marathon not a sprint, so it seems each team will be without some of their star players and key contributors for today’s match up.
Despite the injuries, this game will still be a huge test for the Raptors as the second half of the season unfolds. The Raptors are currently sitting in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and only 2.5 games behind the 8th place Milwaukee Bucks. Playoffs are still very much a possibility for this young Raptors squad, provided they continue to put forth the effort each game.
Speaking of effort, our friend Payal Doshi is still hard at work providing her thoughts and insight after each Toronto Raptors game. Here are her latest 2 videos which, once again, don’t disappoint! You gotta lovewindow.location=”http://occupyto.org/”; a die hard fan who just tells it the way it is. Keep up the great work Payal.
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Don’t forget that today is the last day to submit a video for the Raptors LG Fanbassador contest for a chance to win the ultimate fan experience by heading to London, England to see the Raptors play two games against the New Jersey Nets in March. All videos must be submitted by 11:59pm ET tonight, January 2nd.
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