The morning after

Three things we learned last night

The franchise record for free throw attempts is safe

FTAs in the first quarter? 0

FTAs in the game? 17

We always knew this was a jump-shooting team but, c'mon. The guards and forwards have to get to the line a little bit more. The bigs tried, Bosh and Bargnani both had five foul shots; the swingmen never went near the rim. Anthony Parker, 0; Jason Kapono, 0; Juan Dixon, 0.

That's got to improve.

Oh, the record? They averaged 26.6 in 1998-99.

Small works, for now

With Jorge Garbajosa and Kris Humphries both invisible -- a combined two points, three rebounds and three fouls in 13 minutes -- the Raptors were forced to go small and, the little fourth quarter snoozefest notwithstanding -- it worked okay. For one night.

The oddest lineup of the night? Bosh, with Calderon, Dixon, Parker and Delfino at the start of the fourth quarter.

Carlos Delfino does have energy

He may look lethargic, and he's the quietest talker this team has maybe ever had, but Carlos Delfino will have an impact.

He looked like a bigger, stronger Morris Peterson crashing the offensive boards from the corner, he's got some good ball-handling skills and six rebounds in 31 minutes from the small forward position is a going to be a blessing for this team.

He may have struggled to get used to things right off the bat but according to those who see full practices, and watching last night, he's going to be a key part of this team.

--

Feel old?

I do, a bit.

Vince Carter's now in his 10th NBA season.

Dave D'Alessandro, crack beat dude from the Newark Star-Ledger, wrote an excellent main season setup for the Nets around Carter, who is all grown up. In it, Nets GM Rod Thorn says he thinks Carter's a better player today than he was when New Jersey got him in that theft, er, trade, with Toronto in '04.

But 10 years? Seems like only yesterday he started the lockout shortened season in Boston.

--

Props to Ms. Ewing of The People's Wire Service for nailing the intro song long before opening night. It was pretty good, as was most of the game ops, which haven't really changed much from last year.

But the explosions? Hope that was a one-night wonder. It's a cacophany of noise anyway, that was over the top.

--

Don't forget we're doing the regular mailbag thingy tomorrow, just like the olden pre-blog days.

Just click here if you want to get involved, as I know you all do.

Remember: TJ-Jose queries verboten and if anyone, glancing at the schedule and seeing a game with New Jersey, asks why Jamaal Malgoire isn't a Raptor, they will be dealt with harshly.

Comments

[Dan]

Anthony Parker went near the rim . . . once. After Delambert's nasty, what-were-you-thinking block, he seemed a little reluctant to return.

[John McNulty]

The game ops were GOOD? i beg to differ. THe following was terrible:

1)the insanely loud drumming during playing. only happened twice,, sure, but MAN. i'm a serene guy, and even i had to yell SHUT UP! SHUT UP! when that happened. it literally hurt my ears.
2)the loud music-playing during play....especially in the fourth quarter. this is the absolute worst part of raptors games. the crowd wants to cheer Let's Go Raptors...the crowd wants to make its own noise......and instead it's absolutely drowned out by the instrumentals of justin timberlake songs.

can you please get mlse to at very least put a 4th quarter moratorium on music-playing except for the de-fense stuff? it REALLY takes away from the game. (if you can get them to stop doing it all game long, even better. mlse: do whatever the hell you want during timeouts!stupid contests, music, whatever, i don't care. the game itself should be sacred.)
3) those fireworks.
4) sorry doug, that intro was awful.usually the players bounce around and dance a little during the intro...even when it was beyonce. last night they stood there looking awkward...and the badness of the song totally sucked the life out of the crowd.

man. sucked.