Built Ford Tough

I'm going to be honest, I will be stoked if Pierce actually misses 2 months of action. Boston is undoubtedly going to be a weaker team without Pierce and that is something that obviously appeals to fans of the majority of teams in the East (no matter what they say). If this means that the Raptors could manage to steal away an Atlantic Division banner from the Celtics, and home court in the first round of the playoffs, then fan-[expletive]ing-tastic. I guarntee that the majority of Cav, Magic and Hawk fans feel the same way as I do as well, regardless of what they say.

I am watching SportsCenter on TSN right now, and I glanced at the ticker, which just so happened to "say" that Pierce may miss a significant amount of time with a broken left foot. If this is true, how much of an impact will it have on the Celtics? They are already sliding a bit and this, combined with Garnett clearly hurting, could really send them into a downward spiral EDIT: I just read on another forum that it could be 2 months. EDIT #2: Just came across this: http://www.nba.com/2010/news/02/02/pierce.foot/index.html?rss=true&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nba%2FKGkm+%28NBA.com%3A+News%29 EDIT #3: Turns out Pierce is fine. God dammit! http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press_release/press020210-pierce-injury-update.html

Sounds like Turkoglu will not play tonight and Marco Belinelli will get the start in his place. I like putting Belinelli into the starting lineup as he is a somewhat similar player to Turkoglu (ball handler, shooter and can create). Wright has been playing really well off of the bench, so I like keeping him there.

With both Charlotte and Miami losing tonight, the Raptors need a win against the Pacers tomorrow to increase their lead on both of these teams in the race for 5th. Also, Chicago looks like they will probably pick up a win tomorrow night as well, considering they are playing the Clippers at home. That makes it even more important that the Raptors take care of business against the Pacers. Last I heard, Turkoglu is going to be basically a game time decision with his small orbital bone fracture, but the Raptors really didn't need him on Sunday against the Pacers. If both Wright and Weems play like they have been recently, I don't think that they will really need Turkoglu all that much tomorrow, either. Bosh needs to get Granger in foul trouble early, like he did on Sunday. If the Pacers want to go small and have Granger guard Bosh, the Raptors need to exploit that matchup, like they did on Sunday. Lastly, and probably the most obvious comment to make, but the Raptors need to guard the 3 point line. They did a relatively poor job of closing out on shooters on Sunday and it almost bit them in the [expletive]. If you guard the 3 point line effectively, you basically guarntee yourself a victory because Indy doesn't have anybody who you need to actually worry about down low. To be honest though, I probably won't be watching much of this game as I will most likely be tuning into the Leafs game instead. I'm more interested in seeing Dion Phaneuf and JS Giguere make their Leaf debuts than watching this inevitable chuck fest. PS: Am I the only one who is extremely happy that this is the last game of the season series between these two teams? I find Raptor-Pacer games to be absolutely painful to watch.

Lets be honest though, is there really a point guard in this years draft class, aside from John Wall, that is worthy of a top 5 pick? Hell, is there even a point guard excluding Wall who is worthy of a top 10 pick? If I had to guess, I would imagine that the Kings will be picking around the 4-7 range and, in my opinion, there are absolutely no point guards who are worth taking with that kind of a pick. I wouldn't mind a Turner pick if I was a Kings fan simply because I think that the ball handeling abilities of Turner and Evans together could possibly compensate for not having a true point guard on the floor, but unless the Kings land a top 3 pick, I don't think that Turner will be around. If you are a rebuilding team with a nice draft pick, I think it is absolutely foolish to not go with who you consider to be the BPA, regardless of position. The Kings really only have one player on their roster who should be considered untouchable, and that is Tyreke Evans. No matter how high they are on Thompson, Hawes or even Casspi, if you are the Kings you are making a mistake not drafting the BPA, and, realistically, that is looking like it will be a big man, or maybe even a small forward like Aminu or Johnson.

Oh relax. It was clearly a joke, evidenced by the emoticon and me starting the next sentence with "Seriously though". And this is the first time, as far as I can remember, that I have brought it up outside of that Raptors-Heat game thread. But yeah, I keep on bringing it up.

Let me guess, it was the "Chalmers' Effect"? Seriously though, I haven't watched the Heat play since the Raptors game last week. What is going on with them right now? They are looking really bad (judging from box scores and what not) and have fallen down to 8th place in the East. Any specific reason, or is this just a typical slump that teams are bound to go through during the course of the season?

My guess would be either Tony Parker or Chauncey Billups. Billups will probably get the nod as the Nuggest are in 2nd place in the West with a fairly decent lead over the Spurs. I'm not sure who has the better numbers anyways, and I am too lazy to look it up right now. I think that Billups is a pretty safe bet at this point though. Ellis won't make it. The coaches didn't select one All-Star from a losing team and with players like Billups and Parker as potential replacements, I highly doubt that they will break that trend now. Ellis has the numbers that certainly deserve it though, but the same could be said of Kevin Durant last year, who missed out because of team record.

I knew that Carter was struggling mightily this season, but I looked at his numbers in January and was absolutely blown away by how awful he was during this month. Check out his numbers this month: 9.2 ppg 2.7 rpg 2.3 apg 29.3 FG% 22.9 3PT% 27.6 mpg I haven't watched a single Magic game this month, so I can't really comment on anything specific. I just couldn't believe my eyes as to just how poorly Carter has been playing this past month. It seems like the Magic are winning games inspite of Carter. Is that the case? If so, how much better would this team be with Carter playing like the Carter of even last season?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AhI1KNE6aL6Hdcw8feHa1UC8vLYF?slug=ys-paulsurgery013110&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Terrible news for the Hornets. They were really starting to play well but this injury is definitely going to have a huge impact on their season. Hopefully guys like Collison and Thornton can step up big time in Paul's abscence. They played well earlier in the year when he was injured.

Raptors are now 4 games above .500 for the first time since 2008, I believe. I could be mistaken, but I think the best they were was 3 games above .500 last season (the first 3 games). Raps move to a full game ahead of the Bobcats for the 5th seed now. Also, Raptors are now only 4.5 games back of Boston for the Atlantic Division lead. Atlantic Division Champions, here come the Raptors. Seriously though, I pray that we don't hear too much about how the Raptors are only 4.5 games back of Boston. Just enjoy the 5 game win streak, but don't overrate it and make it seem like the Raptors are actually going to catch Boston.

How embarassing is the Pacers interior defense? Bosh literally just got a rebound over 4 Pacers and went up for basically an uncontested dunk. Amazing effort on Bosh's behalf grabbing that board and throwing it back down, but an absolutely despicable effort by the Pacers there. No way should Bosh have gotten that rebound and he sure as hell shouldn't have been able to go up and dunk the ball with very little resistance. Raptors up 13. Just go for the throat and put an end to this game please. I want to see a blow out win for once.

I'm really not liking the way that this game has gone so far. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been paying too much attention to the game, but seeing the Raptors only up 5 isn't what I would like to see, especially considering how the Pacers can shoot theirselves back into a game like nothing. On the flip side, they can also shoot theirselves out of games just as easily. Granger looks terrible tonight though. He definitely doesn't look as good as the Granger that we saw last season, from the limited action I have seen of him this season. He almost looks like he doesn't even care anymore and wants out. Not saying that is the case or not.

Back off, hes mine!

That was a beautiful pass by Calderon. He is usually pretty terrible at throwing lobs, but that one was right on the money. Quite possibly the best lob I have ever seen him throw. Right in Johnson's hands over two Pacer defenders thrown from just over half. Impressive.

Antoine Wright has really improved his jumper over the course of the season. I used to hate seeing him even touch the ball on offense because he couldn't hit a jumper to save his life and he is a complete liability putting the ball on the floor, but now he seems to pick his spots so much better and is actually knocking down shots. I still cringe seeing him try and create though. EDIT: Nice move by Amir in the post. Nice to see him not doing his usual charge into his defender at full speed and pick up an offensive foul, lol.

Huge block by Bosh. Great effort and hustle to get back on defense. He timed that perfectly. After a somewhat slow start, the Raptors seem to be picking it up. Bosh has looked very good so far tonight. I'm liking the effort that he is playing with down low. Sonny Weems has looked solid as well, which is nice to see. When the Raptors actually get production from the 2/3 spots, they are a much more dangerous team.

I don't want to sound over confident, because usually when I actually do get confident going into a game the Raptors lose, but there really is no reason why the Raptors should lose this game. They are one of the better home teams in the Eastern Conference, and have been one of the best home teams in the league since the beginning of December, while the Pacers are a team looking to the future. I haven't really been reading about any pre-game stuff today, as I have been more focused on the two blockbuster trade that the Leafs have made. I imagine that DeRozan will be sitting this one out again, right? Oh wow, didn't realize the time. I guess the game is about to start, lol. I just have one more thing to say: Ball.

Technically, I did. The big bolded "Ball" in the first post links you to a video posted on TSN. There wasn't a youtube up yet, but yeah, what Poe just posted was the video.

It is absolutely, positively, undeniably, the best thing that Turkoglu has done so far this season. After hearing that interview, he is almost, almost, worth the money the Raptors are paying him.

After watching the Knicks-Raptors game earlier today, I am going to have to take back this selection. I knew that Harrington was an absolute balck hole on offense, but I have only watched 2 Knick games all season long (the ones against the Raptors) and I didn't realize exactly how much of a black hole that Harrington is. I'd probably go with Nate Robinson. I would go with Gallinari, but at this stage in his career, I don't think that he is reliable enough to create his own shot in a pressure situation.

Ball. http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w189/misternam/hedoball.jpg

I don't think it was. Lee could've passed to Harrington on more than one occasion during the inbounds but looked him off. The Raptors did a good job of guarding everybody else though, and Lee had no choice but to pass it in to Harrington or else it would've been a 5 second count. PS: What a [expletive]ing awkward interview from Turkoglu. Man, that was just strange.

Lol, where the hell was the foul on that? Did the Knick player even touch Jack? Way to anticipate a foul, and not actually call the game. ****, Jack misses the 2nd. Terrible officiating on that one and that blown call could very well be the difference in this game. They don't call the phantom foul and Jack gets another 4 seconds off of the clock at least. BS. Huge defensive stand for the Raptors. Harrington is the biggest black hole I have ever seen in my life. I don't think that he passed the ball once in the entire game.

Huge move by Bosh. I have to wonder where the foul call was though? There was definitely more contact on that play than plenty of other calls that we have seen. I guarntee if that happened in the 2nd quarter, Bosh is headng to the frew throw line. Nice block by Bosh on Robinson as well. Too bad nobody rotated over to help the helper, which left Lee wide open for the putback. 1 point game with 10 seconds left. Just make your free throws and guard the 3 point line. You do that and the game is over.