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| Bargnani is a key cog for Toronto’s offense and it will be tough for them to score without him |
Tonight at the Prudential Center, the New Jersey Nets look to extend their season-long winning streak of two games with a win over their divisional foe, the Toronto Raptors. Each team is suffering from a myriad pf injuries right now as the Raptors will not have leading scorer Andrea Bargnani (calf) tonight while the Nets won’t have their two best centers, Brook Lopez (foot) and Mehmet Okur (back), while stud rookie shooting guard Marshon Brooks (Achilles) is a game-time decision.
Background on Toronto
The Raptors, like the Nets, are a team made up of two main stars in point guard Jose Calderon and power forward Andrea Bargnani while the rest of the roster is a bunch of lottery draft picks, young athletes who have shown some potential but not enough consistency, and a few veterans who are just trying to stick around the NBA without providing a ton of production for their team. When you add these factors together, you get a really bad team that will be seriously affected by the injury of its best player in Bargnani. The Nets should be able to handle this team with ease.
Previous Game
Without Bargnani in their last game, a loss against the Denver Nuggets, the Raptors simply didn’t have enough offense to keep up with an up-start Denver squad that has been a major surprise so far this year. Calderon was off his game against the Nuggets so Toronto only ended up getting significant scoring numbers from three players who normally don’t even start. James Johnson, Leandro Barbosa, and Jerryd Bayless combined for 53 of the Raptors’ 81 points which was a telling sign of how much the team’s offense suffers when Bargnani isn’t in the line-up and when Calderon is off his game. The loss snapped a season-high two-game winning streak for Toronto.
The Nets are coming off of a 99-96 road win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night. Deron Williams led the Nets with another double-double as the star point guard scored 27 points and had 11 assists in the win. Kris Humphries (18 points, 11 rebounds) and Anthony Morrow (22 points, 6 rebounds) also contributed to the win which was actually a blow-out for most of the game but Cleveland was able to cut into the lead towards the end of the 4th quarter. The Nets played very good team basketball against the Cavs even without Mehmet Okur and Marshon Brooks due to injuries and they look to continue that high level of play tonight at home.
TOR- Calderon (PG), DeRozan (SG), Rasual Butler (SF), Ed Davis (PF), Amir Johnson (C)
1. Attack the basket- The Raptors don’t have a lot of front-court depth right now especially with Bargnani out, so it would be smart for the Nets to get Toronto’s few good big-men in foul trouble early so the not-as-talented reserves will have to play. This would be important for Nets like Shawne Williams who are big-bodied but tend to gravitate towards the 3-point arc instead of driving the paint for a higher-percentage shot.
2. Limit the turnovers- I use this as a key for almost every game but that’s because it is so crucial. The Nets commit tons of turnovers which lead to plenty of points, especially in transition, for their opponents. As the Raptors are lacking in traditional offensive power right now, they will be forced to score as many “cheap” points as possible, some of which can be classified as wide-open dunks coming on fast-breaks which were made available by bad passes or poor ball-handling.
3. Don’t give up offensive rebounds- The Raptors may not be a big team, but they have a few players who are very good rebounders especially on the offensive end like Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, and Aaron Gray. These players can extend possessions and garner additional shot opportunities for their team to score and Toronto will need those extra shots if they are going to have any chance at a win.
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