On this day in Raptors History: January 16th 2002- The Raptors took care of business at home defeating the Houston Rockets 109-103. Vince Carter had 29 pts while Alvin Williams added 21. Hakeem Olajuwon had 6 pts in 31 minutes on 2-7 shooting. Moochie Norris had 28 pts and 9 ast for the side from Houston.
Starting Lineups
RAPTORS
CELTICS
PG-Kyrie Irving
SG-Marcus Smart
SF-Jayson Tatum
PF-Marcus Morris
C-Al Horford
A couple days rest is well deserved for the Raptors after playing 58 minutes in Washington on Sunday. The 2nd half of that one was not ideal, but a win is a win and Toronto got some much-needed crunch time practice. The winning streak, coupled with some bad execution in a few of those games, can be a blessing in disguise for T.O as it provides Nick and the coaching staff with some areas that can be improved upon. The Raps head into bean town to face a potential playoff matchup that will be nationally televised in the U.S. If the first 2 match-ups are any indication, this one will be a must watch game with a playoff type atmosphere. The home team has picked up the W in each meeting thus far this season, with each game coming down to the wire. Toronto will hope to buck that trend and take a big mental advantage over the team most pundits saw as the biggest threat to win the East this season.
Boston come into this one fresh off 3 straight loses and some in-team fighting between the roster. A rough stretch has the Celtics showing some cracks in the cohesiveness of the locker room. The over confidence of declaring themselves the East’s best team prior to pre-season ball tipping off has begun to bite them in the backside. Although they have struggled as of late, the Celts are going to treat this like a statement game and play with intensity. In the last match-up, the Celtics were able to pull away in overtime on their homecourt tying up the season series at 1-1. Kyrie Irving missed the Celtics last game but has said that he expects to be ready to suit up on Wednesday night. Regardless if Irving is in the lineup or not, expect the Celtics to come in biting and scratching in an attempt to grab a statement win over the best team in the league.
X factors
Serge Ibaka: The big man in the middle has the potential to impact the game on both ends of the court in this one. If Serge is hitting his patented hook shots and mid range jumpers it will open up a lot of the Raps offense. On the other end, Mafuzzy matches up with a key cog in Boston’s offense. If he can defend Al well, it will go a long way to securing the Raps a road victory.
GO RAPS!
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