Game-day Dino-Bytes, Raptors at Nets

Our game-day look at Saturday’s Raptors game.

 

TORONTO (0-1) at BROOKLYN (0-0)

TV: Sportsnet, NBA-TV; RADIO: FAN590

Probable starters

Toronto: Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Landry Fields, Andrea Bargnani, Jonas Valancuinas; Brooklyn: Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez.

Key backups:

Toronto: Alan Anderson, Ed Davis; Brooklyn: MarShon Brooks, Andray Blatche.

 

What happened this morning

Much to-do about this being the regular-season debut for the $1 billion (with a ‘b’) Barclay’s Center and, of course, the Nets.

No word on what the pre-game festivities will be like but there’s sure to be fireworks and celebrities as the revitalization of the edge of downtown.

Building looks imposing from the outside and the parts everyone got to see Saturday morning were okay; nothing too special but certainly new.

“We just have to weather the storm, they’ll come out flying,” said Dwane Casey.

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Biggest matchup issue for the Raptors will be Williams and Johnson, which might make it hard for Toronto to counter with Lowry and Calderon.

“We have some schemes and some things we can do,” said Casey.

Could this be the debut of any Raptors zone defence? Possibly but no one is saying for sure.

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This is a bit of a scheduling quirk:

The Nets, thanks to the postponement of their original home opener last Thursday, haven’t played since a pre-season game on Oct. 24. That’s a lot of idle time.

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You can’t turn around without seeing someone with the Nets with a connection to Toronto.

There’s Humphries and Reggie Evans in uniform and P.J. Carlesimo and Popeye Jones on Avery Johnson’s coaching staff.

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Cue the scary music:

First game the Raptors ever played was against the New Jersey Nets.

The first game the Brooklyn Nets will play will be against the Raptors.

The last game the New Jersey Nets played was in Toronto, making this basically an April-November home-and-home, right?

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Game starts a four-games-in-five-nights grind for Toronto and is first of 10 November road games for the Raptors.

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Comments

[sportschic]

I sure hope it's better than that last game. Do you think the Nets will try a little harder tonight ;)

Seeing that Bruce played in that benefit concert and that someone mentioned the fact that he had a song with the alternate title (Sandy) sent me spending some time this afternoon on the Born to Run songs. How I loved that album, and yes, I'm showing my age.

[Don Biderman]

I was at the Argo game on Thursday and it was as good as you said it was. I was surprised by how well the Argo substitutes played especially because it was a nothing game for the Argos. I was also surprised by the size of the crowd. I expected a small crowd because the game wasn't important to the Argos but my section which has been empty all season long was packed and not too many of them were Ti-Cat fans. There were a lot of them on the other side of the field and they were loud. Too bad were not playing them in the playoffs.