Tonights Game At Portland - Test #1 in 10-11 For The Raptors

[Buddahfan]

Last game on a four game trip west of the Mississippi.

Portland lost a very tough home game to the Thunder in OT on Thurs McMillan will have them fired up.

In addition it is a winter Saturday night in Portland where there is nothing else to do except go to a Winterhawks game. They are home tonight.. So it will be your typical Portland angry Saturday night crowd

The game tonight will tell a lot about what the 10-11 Raptors are made of.

Will they play hard for 48 minutes or when they get behind will they give in to their tired bodies and leg weary legs counting the minutes until they get on that flight back to Toronto?

Will they come out with energy and smartness in Q1 or fall behind in Q1 as this starting lineup loves to do?

Will their tired bodies lead to committing a lot of fouls and turnovers?

48 hard fought smart minutes would speak loads about the team and its potential for 10-11.

If you are a true Raptors fan, as a opposed to a casual internet fan, you won't want to miss this game.

[JoePanini]

This game is going to be hard. I think harder than against the Lakers because Portland will be going all out on us. This game can't be predicted in my opinion. We could win by a blow-out, we could lose by a blow-out, it could be tight, could go into double overtime.
We are a very bad team when you talk about TOs... But Memphis' starters all had 3 TO each in their loss to Phoenix...
I'm also curious to see if Bargnani will be matched-up with Camby or Aldridge. Cause if it's Aldridge we will be seeing no.1 vs. no.2

Btw, I wanted to ask, how do you post links and put in words like that. Do you shade the word and press the link button like this?

[JoePanini]

Oh it worked cool!

[Employee]

Camby is questionable tonite with a migraine and Rudy is doubtful!!

[Buddahfan]

Camby is questionable tonite with a migraine and Rudy is doubtful!!

A lot of players get a migraine at the thought of Evans pulling a Kaman on them

[matt]

How is this our #1 test?? could you further explain.....

[Balls of Steel]

Not to be negative but another loss in the column. The defensive intensity is there but the turnovers are killing us. Jack is simply playing his way out of the starting line-up and presumably out of town and onto Miami.

[jrdyck]

Honestly I don't think Portland will be near as tough as LA, even if Camby plays. If he doesn't, Bargnani/Evans/Amir/Andersen should have a field day against the Blazers bigs: Aldridge, Dante Cunningham, and ahem... Sean Marks.

[Buddahfan]

Honestly I don't think Portland will be near as tough as LA, even if Camby plays. If he doesn't, Bargnani/Evans/Amir/Andersen should have a field day against the Blazers bigs: Aldridge, Dante Cunningham, and ahem... Sean Marks.

Batum is better than all of the Toronto front court players.

He may even be better than Aldridge by end of this season.

Batum has been cold from three point land so far. Hopefully he doesn't start heating it up from long distance tonight.

[Ryan_1523]

I would seriously love Marcus Banks as a backup pg if we didn't have both Jack/Calderon (and maybe if he had a lesser contract.. I mean, I like him and all, but I'd like him more for a few million less..)

Rough game. We shot horrible, defense was bad, lot of turnovers resulting in a lot of easy baskets.. Oh well, just makes me want to consider letting Barbosa go for surgery now rather than later, he'll be out at least 4 months apparently. So, why not let him have surgery now, so we can get him some time near the end of the season and he'll be 100 percent healthy for next season.

[Apollo]

Well I guess they failed the test but then again they fail four pop quizes before this so it should have been no shocker...