Bulls at Raptors, game-day Dino-bytes

The post-shootaround look at tonight’s Raptors game.

 

CHICAGO (21-15) at TORONTO (14-24)

Air Canada Centre

TIPOFF: 7 p.m.

TV: Sportsnet; RADIO: FAN590

WEB: Join The Star’s Doug Smith for an in-game blog beginning shortly before 7 p.m.

 

Probable starters

Chicago: Kirk Hinrich, Richard Hamilton, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah; Toronto: Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, Landry Fields, Ed Davis, Aaron Gray.

 

Key backups tonight

Chicago: Marco Belinelli (might be a gleam in the eye of the ex-Raptor); Nate Robinson (tiny point guard can score in a hurry); Toronto: Terrence Ross (comes in off two sluggish games), Amir Johnson (playing through pain, as usual).

 

What happened this morning

Rest and rehab

The Raptors didn’t have a shootaround so it was time with the training staff for Jose Calderon (hip, back) and Kyle Lowry (ankle).

They’ll do some work in the gym later this afternoon to see which, if either, of them can go tonight.

Yeah, the spectre of neither of them going is scary, is it?

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Road warriors

About the Bulls.

They’re good, they play hard all the time and defend like demons and the old say about “defence travels” has seldom been as appropriate.

Chicago is a rather pedestrian 11-10 at home but 10-5 on the road.

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Esoteric (perhaps inconsequential) stat, Vol. 1

Toronto has out-rebounded four straight opponents.

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Who’s in charge?

Scott Foster, Kane Fitzgerald and Olandis Poole blow the whistles tonight.

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A big fan

I see K.C. Johnson got to Bulls shootaround today and caught up with coach Tom Thibodeau to chat about an ex-Bull.

It’s here.

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How hot are they?

The Bulls come off a game where they held the Atlanta Hawks to 20 points in the first half, five points in the second quarter and 29 per cent shooting.

Yeah, they can defend.

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Who starts?

Coach Dwane Casey pulled a late switch Tuesday in Brooklyn by inserting Aaron Gray back into the starting lineup.

It allowed him to limit the minutes for Amir Johnson a little bit and he liked the matchup of Gray with the Nets Brook Lopez.

There was no indication which way he’d go tonight but Johnson’s speed is probably better for a matchup with Noah than Gray’s size.

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Esoteric stat, Vol. 2

Jose Calderon is a stats machine. He leads Toronto in double-double with nine and triple-doubles with two.

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Comments

[Bruce]

Any word when Bargnani is coming back?

Blogger's note: You'll be the first to know

[primo]

A lottery pick for a back up point guard? this is not good mr. smith. is this all in hopes that jose will continue to max his value or is kyle just not the playing well enough to start on a mediocre NBA team? something's gotta give Jerry.