by Stephen Brotherston… Tonight at the ACC, the Toronto Raptors face off against one of their primary competitors for a playoff spot this April.
During the offseason, the Detroit Pistons rebuilt the key components of their roster in an attempt to become relevant once again in the postseason.
Not everyone is convinced that the Pistons have made all the right moves and Wednesday night’s tilt versus the Raptors is the first head-to-head meeting with one of the half dozen teams that they will competing with for one of the last four playoff spots.
The Toronto Raptors have gotten off to a disappointing start to the season, from the high of beating Cleveland in their home opener to the low of losing two straight high-scoring contests they could have won.
As expected, Toronto’s strength has been the ability to score as they’ve averaged 108 points per contest. However, the Raptors have been surrendering an average of 110 points and questions about their ability to defend are abound.
Similarly, the Pistons won their opener on the road against the Grizzlies, but then dropped their home opener and the following road game against teams not expected to make the playoffs.
The biggest issue for the Pistons is an apparent inability to score as they’ve averaged just 88 points per game over their first three games. The Pistons’ defense has held their opponents to just 87 points on average, but after playing the Grizzlies, Thunder, and Bucks, it’s hard to praise the defensive effort just yet.
Detroit faced their first high-powered team of the season at home Tuesday night versus the Orlando Magic. If Detroit’s defense played like they did against Milwaukee on Halloween, it would have been a huge blow out!
But Detroit came out strong (or lucky?), holding the Magic to just 80 points as Dwight Howard fouled out in just 16 minutes and the hot-shooting Magic went 37 percent from the field. Without their big man to attract defenders, the Magic’s vaunted outside shooting went cold.
Detroit still couldn’t score, but 85 points were enough for the win on Tuesday.
There is likely something about the law of averaging catching up to the Magic as well. Second-year power forward Ryan Anderson went just 1-for-11 from beyond the arc following his unexpected 5-for-8 performance in Toronto.
Coming into Toronto on Wednesday night after playing the Magic puts the Pistons at a significant disadvantage. A tired team that relies on a hustling defense and doesn’t score much will have their hands full against a high-scoring team like the Raptors.
Richard Hamilton sprained his right ankle on October 28 and will not play on Wednesday.
The Detroit Free Press reports that Tayshaun Prince’s 439 consecutive games started streak ended Tuesday night because of a lower back strain. He will not play Wednesday in Toronto or Friday in Orlando.
The starting lineups for the teams compare as follows:
Point Guard
At just 23-years-old, Rodney Stuckey is the Pistons’ 6′5″, 205-lb. third-year starting point guard. Last season, he averaged 13.4 points and 4.9 assists.
Still developing his game, Stuckey was recently accused of trying to beat the Thunder by himself resulting in a 21-point, two-assist night for the young point guard in a loss.
Against the Magic, Stuckey had a strong 20-point, nine-rebound, three-assist night.
Jose Calderon is the Toronto Raptors’ 28-year-old five-year veteran point guard who averaged 12.8 points and 8.9 assists last season.
Calderon has struggled with his shooting in the first three games, going 1-7 from three and averaging just 10 points and 6.7 assists, but don’t expect Calderon’s shooting woes to last long.
Advantage: Raptors.
Shooting Guard
Filling in ably for the injured Richard Hamilton has been the high-scoring five-year veteran, Ben Gordon. In the first four contests, Ben Gordon has averaged 24 points, proving he hasn’t forgotten how to score.
Offensively skilled but under-sized at 6′3″, Gordon will be a tough cover defensively for any opponent.
The Raptors have handed the starting assignment for shooting guard to the rookie DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan has performed well in just over 20 minutes per night, averaging 7.3 points and an under-appreciated 4.3 rebounds.
It would be unfair to expect DeRozan to lock down Gordon for any length of time. But DeRozan does have a significant size advantage at 6′7” and hopefully can make Gordon’s outside shooting difficult.
Advantage: Pistons.
Small Forward
This is another matchup of a veteran versus a rookie.
The long, tall, and athletic Tayshaun Prince is out. Starting is the rookie from Sweden, Jonas Jerebko. The 6′10″, 230-lb. Jerebko has previous experience in Europe and played for Sweden’s national team.
Prior to Tuesday, Jerebko had played for six minutes in one NBA game. Tuesday night, Jerebko had zero points and five boards in 25 minutes.
The Raptors’ nine-year veteran small forward Hedo Turkoglu has been playing better each game out with his new teammates and against the Magic, had 19 points, four rebounds, and three assists.
At 6′10″, Turkoglu will not be over-matched by Jerebko’s size. Hedo has surprised fans defensively by accumulating five blocks already this season.
Advantage: Raptors.
Power Forward
Former Toronto Raptor and Milwaukee Buck Charlie Villanueva is entering his fifth NBA season. At 6′11″ and 230 lbs., Villanueva is best known for his outside jump shot and inconsistent effort.
In Detroit, Charlie has gotten off to a particularly poor start, averaging just 9.8 points and five boards in only 25 minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Raptors, Villanueva seems inspired by every trip back to the ACC.
Toronto’s All-Star, Chris Bosh, is off to a monster start to the season. The 6′10″ forward is estimated at 240 to 250 lbs. this season and has been throwing his new weight around. In the first three games, Bosh has averaged 31 points and 14.7 rebounds.
Against the Pistons’ big men, expect Bosh to have another monster game.
Advantage: Raptors.
Center
The Pistons are thin at the center position, resulting in the 35-year-old Ben Wallace assuming the starter’s responsibility.
An under-sized career defensive center known for blocks and rebounds, last season Wallace had the lowest numbers of his 13-year career since his rookie year. At 2.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks, Wallace’s impact on the floor has greatly diminished since he was last in Detroit.
Wallace has gotten off to a better start in Detroit, averaging 10.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 1.5 steals in his first four games.
The Raptors’ 24-year-old Andrea Bargnani, at 7′ tall, has more than a three-inch height advantage over Wallace. And with an effective outside jump shot, Wallace will be challenged to defend the more skilled Bargnani.
Andrea Bargnani has started the season averaging 22 points and shooting 62 percent from three. Plus, Wallace offers Bargnani little to worry about on the defensive end of the floor. Wallace could be in for a long night.
Advantage: Raptors.
While the Pistons match up well against the Raptors’ guards and wings, the loss of Rasheed Wallace leaves them with suspect defense and inconsistent offense from their big men.
Plus, after playing the Orlando Magic the night before, the Pistons come into Toronto at a significant disadvantage.
This is an important early season test for the Raptors, and one they should easily beat. Concerns about early season jitters and team cohesion apply equally to both teams. The Raptors have everything in their favor on Wednesday.
No excuses, the Raptors need to establish their superiority on home court against a direct competitor for a playoff spot in April.
By Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter… The end result, a 2-1 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, was not the desired outcome for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That said, with everyone in Leafland watching, Phil Kessel performed admirably Tuesday night in his debut as a Leaf.
When Kessel was signed as a free agent by Leafs GM Brian Burke, there were plenty of fans that were ready to start the Stanley Cup parade route and just as many that were ready to show up on Burke’s doorstep to kick his door in.
Tuesday night, Kessel’s on-ice performance went a long way in proving his worth. He led the Leafs with 10 shots on goal (a career high), led the team with 23:50 of ice time, survived a massive hit from T-Bay’s Mathias Ohlund, played a solid two-way game, and seemingly made his linemates better.
Sure, the end result was a 2-1 loss, but it was the intangibles that Leaf fans should be focusing on. Kessel’s speed was very evident and his compete level was off the charts. Clearly, Kessel came to play and has served notice to the other 29 NHL teams that Toronto will no longer be a “gimmie” on their schedule.
Many writers have been questioning whether or not Kessel would be able to handle the pressure of playing in Toronto. Let us not forget that this is a 23-year-old kid who went through testicular cancer and a serious shoulder injury already in his short NHL career, playing in Toronto? No worries, pardon the pun, but this kid plays “balls out!”
Besides Kessel, the Leafs can take a ton of positives out of their game against Tampa. They were able to muster up 41 shots on T-Bay’s Antero Niittymaki (who played excellent), Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson made 30 saves and was exceptional between the pipes, and the Leafs were able to keep the NHL’s hottest player (Steven Stamkos) off the scoresheet.
Did they play a perfect game? No, but given the Leafs improved play of late, you have to believe the Leafs are not as bad as they appear to be on paper and may very well be able to turn this season around.
Underrated defenseman Ian White scored a power play goal and registered four shots on net, Lee Stempniak had six shots and defenseman Mike Komisarek stayed out of the penalty box- which is something short of a miracle.
Despite the loss, it was a great night for the Leafs. Gustavsson looks better with every game played and, with Kessel in the lineup, the Leafs are sure to play with a lot more confidence and passion, something that was missing early on in the season.
Up next for the Leafs? The Leafs visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, followed by an Original Six matchup against the struggling Detroit Red Wings at Home on Saturday night, both of which are winnable games.
The Phil Kessel era has arrived and, so far, “It’s all good…”
by Stoker MacIntosh… “He’s flat-footed and has no technique, but he can punch. That always helps.
“He’s accurate. He’ll follow you right to the floor, so he’s aggressive. But that aggressiveness can be used to an advantage, I think.
“If you give him momentum, he’ll kill you.
“A lot of guys lose the fight before it starts, because he is similar to Mike Tyson, guys are scared of him. So the mental game is so important that you can’t be scared. You have to be fearless against him.”
Roach was hopeful, if nothing else, that the man who he had just finished weeks of training with—Andre “The Pitbull” Arlovski—would somehow be able to stick to a game plan and emerge the victor over Emelianenko—whose rumored greatness, in this writer’s opinion, still remains very much unjustified.
Emelianenko in my view is nothing more than “the best of the minor leagues,” an untested, and as yet unproven, heavyweight-cagefighting-urban-legend.
Still—in the imaginative young minds of many of his 15-year old fans Emelianenko remains the equivalent of some larger-than-life, legendary, heroic, ancient, Greek War God.
It’s as if Emelianenko ruled the now defunct Pride FC with a magical golden hammer while seated in a silver chariot pulled by two powerful winged stallions.
He would then propel his Russian Hammer and Sickle through the air with scalpel-like precision, beheading all 30 of his former low-level opponents.
Sorry kids, “here in the real world,” Emelianenko is just an ordinary man. Nothing concerning his personality or demeanor speaks to any Greek legend.
Emelianenko is of average height, 230 lbs, and certainly possesses no such “winged chariot” or “golden hammer;” he’s only got two hands and two feet just like any other human-male on the planet earth.
And, although he is a well known professional cage-fighter, if you met him on the street and weren’t a fan of the sport, you may pass right by him without so much as blinking an eye.
What Emelianenko does possess, however, is a tremendous amount of strength from years of weight training. In addition, he involves himself in a notorious conditioning program that is said to be the best in the world.
So last January during the heavyweight WAMMA championship fight in Anaheim, Calif. Roach’s hopes and predictions for his fighter—Arlovski—were short-lived.
Because—although he was winning the fight in superb fashion with accurate well timed combinations—Arlovski, perhaps sensing that the end was near, decided to abandon Roach’s carefully crafted game plan and do a little improvising on his own.
After delivering an effective front kick to Emelianenko’s midriff, which sent the Russian hype machine reeling backwards against the cage, Arlovski obviously became far too overly excited.
Arlovski, with only ten seconds left in the round, attempted a flying knee but instead ran head-on, crashing full force into Emelianenko’s fast-ball-pitcher-style overhand right.
Emelianenko scored a home run that night, only instead of a baseball, it was Arlovski’s head that almost landed in the upper-deck.
Next batter? Well the man on-deck is undefeated cage-warrior Brett “Grimm” Rogers.
Rogers is 10-0 and a 6′5″, 265-pound mountain of a man, and he plans to make it 11-0 when he faces Emelianenko, who is now 29-1, 1 NC, in the latest event offering from the MMA promotion known as Strikeforce, which can be viewed live on CBS TV this coming weekend.
Yes Rogers is the proverbial underdog, a dark horse, a long shot. The metaphors are many, and the chances of him winning are few, albeit the ol’ familiar puncher’s chance, that’s if he can somehow keep the fight standing.
Grimm definitely brings lots of explosive knockout power. He is a heavy-handed fighter with a boxing technique that would undoubtedly make even coach-Roach proud.
And speaking of which, somewhat ironically “Grimm” has also sent the “banger from Belarus,” Mr. Arlovski, to an unplanned trip to dreamland during the opening seconds of their fight, which took place last June.
In 1974, when the greatest heavyweight boxer who ever lived, Muhammad Ali, was preparing to meet the most terrifying fighter in the world at the time, George Foreman, in Kinshasa, Zaire, for the heavyweight championship of the world, he was ridiculed by sportscaster Howard Cosell.
Needless to say, Cosell didn’t think much of Ali’s chances against the murderous punching Foreman and had become extremely outspoken concerning Ali and his predicted outcome.
The Greatest then retorted by uttering one of my of all time favorite “Ali quotes.”
“Cosell, you told everybody I don’t have a chance. You told them I don’t have nothing but a prayer.
“Well, chump, all I need is a prayer, because if that prayer reaches the right man, not only will George Foreman fall, but mountains will fall mister!”
The question now, in the minds of many, is if “Grimm” Rogers can become Emelianenko’s “Grimm Reaper?”
If he can, it would bring a welcomed ending to all the hype and hoopla surrounding Emelianenko—which understandably, so many of us are tired and sick of hearing.
So let’s go, Grimm.
Step up to the plate and hit that grand slam to win the world series. I’ll be rooting for you, underdog!
by Jon Neely… The more things change, the more they stay the same.
For the fourth straight game the Leafs were tied after 60-minutes and went into overtime and for the fourth straight time the Leafs lost in or after that extra frame.
But not all is lost; in fact things are looking up in Leaf land with points in five-straight games, and the addition of Phil Kessel who finally made his debut in the lineup Tuesday night against Tampa Bay.
He played exceptionally well, recording 10 shots and causing problems around the Tampa net all night. His speed and skill with the puck were on display every time he stepped on the ice, but he just couldn’t light the lamp as the Leafs fell 2-1 in overtime.
Needless to say, Kessel’s performance was better than you would expect for someone who hasn’t played a game in six months, not to mention for a brand new team. Ron Wilson suggested prior to the game that he would ease the 21-year old in to game action, but it turned out to be the complete opposite.
Kessel was on the ice for almost 24 minutes, two minutes longer than the next highest Leaf, Jason Blake. So he wasn’t exactly slowly introduced back into the heat of battle, but he sure looked good, even after taking a monstrous hit from Bolts blue-liner Mattias Ohlund on his third shift of the game.
Leaf fans, we finally got to see game one of the Kessel Era, and other than not getting on the score sheet, we saw him play an excellent game fitting in well with his new line mates.
So what did we learn, and what can we expect to see from here on in with Kessel as a member of the blue and white?
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Shots, shots, and more shots
And I’m not talking about Lil’ Jon’s annoying new song. No, I’m talking about constant rubber aimed at opposing goalies. The Leafs have eclipsed the 30-shot mark in eight-straight games, launching 41 against Tampa, and with the newest Leaf firing at will, you can bet the shots will keep on coming.
Between Kessel and his line mates, Stajan and Blake, they had a combined 16 shots and were buzzing around the net all game.
Once Kessel has completely rounded back into form and starts putting some of those shots into the net, because you know it’s going to happen soon, the Leafs can expect to be able to hang with most teams on most nights when it comes to the goal department.
More ice time for certain players
For almost 24 minutes, Kessel was out on the ice on Tuesday night, which means that someone has got to be playing with him. Whoever those players end up being, can expect to start receiving more time on the ice than they’ve been getting.
Both Stajan and Blake saw their ice-time increase, each playing more minutes than they have all year, while skating alongside Kessel for most of the night. Both players have struggled coming out of the gate (the two combining for only four goals and 14 points on the season so far) and will get all the opportunity in the world to come out of their slide.
If neither player sees much of an improvement while playing more minutes with a much more skilled player than their used to, you can bet that Wilson will do some line-juggling to find someone who is capable of stepping it up along side Kessel.
And less ice time for others
Of course, with Kessel coming in and playing big minutes, it means that someone else is forced to play less. Who that ends up being is yet to be seen, but it was clear who was most affected in Tuesday’s game.
Niklas Hagman was hovering around the 19 minute mark in most games coming into the matchup against Tampa Bay. He had been the Leafs most potent weapon so far in the young season, leading in goals with six through the first 12 games.
But once Kessel came in and played some serious minutes, Hagman saw his ice time decrease heavily. He only played 14:31 in a game that included a few minutes of overtime, clearly not seen by the coach as the go-to man now.
The Leafs had eight power plays in the game, and normally Hagman would find himself on the ice for the majority of that time, but spent less than four minutes on the ice while up a man.
Kessel played nine minutes on the PP.
It may not be Hagman who is impacted every night, but you can bet that if Kessel is heating up offensively, Leafs coaching staff won’t hesitate for a second to keep on throwing him out there for big minutes.
It’ll be up to the rest of the players to keep up if they want to see their fair share of game action as well.
Lethal power play potential
It didn’t result in a goal, but the Leafs power play with the addition of Kessel looked good.
Really good.
With Kaberle and Stempniak on the point, and Blake and Stajan roaming around with him, Kessel came close a number of times with man-advantage and was repeatedly found open around the net, but couldn’t get the puck past Niittymaki on his numerous chances.
With Kaberle and Stempniak forming an excellent duo together on the point, and the addition of Kessel to the already sixth-ranked power play, the Leafs could be lethal when up a man.
If they can gel together as a line they could be one of the most dangerous teams on the power play.
Speed kills
One thing that was very obvious throughout the entire game was how the Leafs used their speed. Mikhail Grabovski and John Mitchell were noticeably quicker on the ice, and after watching Blake and Kessel blow by them down the ice on various occasions, you can imagine they were eager to impress as well.
With Kessel’s ability to break down the wing at a very quick pace, line mates will once again have to learn to catch up or get out of the way. The Leafs as a team seemed much quicker as a whole, and the addition of Kessel was a major reason for it.
Every time he got the puck and headed up the ice, the players around him bolted towards the net in hopes of gobbling up a rebound or receiving a pass.
In the NHL today speed can play a huge factor with the crack-down on clutching and grabbing. Kessel is fast, we know that, and now the rest of the team will need to pick up the pace as well.
With a team built on speed, well, you can expect the Leafs will be off to the races.
The game wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but Tuesday night at the Air Canada Center was livelier than it had been since opening night. The fans sense of hope was renewed and they once again had something to look forward to.
Kessel brings a ton to this Leaf team that is crying out for a savior, but he won’t be able to solve all the team’s woes on his own, he’s going to need some help. If help is what the players can give him, then fans in Toronto can anticipate this team to get back into the playoff hunt.
And even though it ended in a loss, fans left the ACC after the game Tuesday night a little happier than they normally would after losing. The potential to be great is there; all this team needs to do now is work together and learn how to win again.
Forget Terrell Owens, there’s a new number 81 playing in Toronto this season.
And if the first game was any indication, he won’t be dropping the ball.
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