Odds and ends

Let’s cover a few matters today.

Not much else to add about yesterday’s game. If it was on the road in Boston, I would not be bothered at all by getting a lose in OT on a buzzer beater. The fact that it was in the ACC hurts more, since the Raps are such a strong home team. But to put everything into perspective, it was game 3 of 82. Long ways to go. It just would have been nice yesterday, since these Boston fans are blind with crazyness. You guys realize that you have the worst depth in the league…right?

Here is my list of surprise teams so far…

Atlanta
Indiana
Orlando
L.A. Clippers
Philadephia

No matter what there record currently is, these teams have all played well so far this season.

Here is my list of disappointments so far…
Chicago
Cleveland
Washington
Golden State
Memphis

(Miami is not on the list because I expected what we are getting)

BUT as I have to remind myself so many times…it’s early. Remember last year when both the Suns and Mavs were 0-4?? And the Raps were 2-8? Not until the middle of December will we get a good indictation of what the deal is for this season, so we still got over a month for that.

As for my Fantasy week one results, well it was a tie 4-4 and we are currently waiting for NBA.coms technical staff to get off their asses and fix some bug that is preventing us from finding out the winners. I won in FT%, Points, Rebounds and Steals, while losing FG%, Blocks, 3’s and Assists. I was WAY up in FG% until Jose Calderon and Paul Pierce combined for 4 for 24 or something like that. Our tie breaker though is Bench production, and the guy I am playing against did a silly move and picked up Elton Brand before the week started. I got Tyrus Thomas/Carlos Delfino/Jeff Green on my bench against Grant Hill and Krunas Kzbuikie or whatever his name is on Golden State. 3 players vs 2 I like my odds at winning the bench production, which would put me at 1-0 to start the season. But like I said, NBA.com has to fix the bug so that can be confirmed.

As for the week ahead for the Raps…

Tuesday at Milwaukee
Wednesday vs Orlando
Friday at Philly
Saturday at Chicago

Well this will be an interesting week.

Tuesday at Milwaukee, should be a victory for Toronto. The Raps did not have a problem with the team last year, even when the Bucks were healthy. The way I look at it, the Raps are going to be motivated to make up for the bad showing on Sunday and should take out Milwaukee. Michael Redd has historically had a tough time against us, as well as the fact that T.J. Ford always turns it up a notch against his former team. Interesting side story…last game between these two teams saw Bogut get tossed for flat out pushing Bosh as CB4 drove by him, and Ford getting all up in Boguts face afterwards. Bogut lose a few thousand dollars that night as he told his fans in Milwaukee how much he appreciated them by giving them the finger. Will these players remember that incident?

Wednesday at the ACC vs Orlando. This will be a nice tough game, as the Raps took care of Orlando last year, but this Magic team is different and Toronto does have tough times dealing with teams that have a number of shooters. Of course the game is at the ACC, where the Raps have yet to play a good game in, so I expect Wednesday to be the first. Of course, it is the second game of a back to back..so…it’s going to be a tough one.

Friday at Philly. As well as Philly played in Game one, Bosh was not close to 100% and I think the Raps will step it up a notch vs Philly. After losing that 20 point lead last Wednesday, I think the Raps will understand the type of focus they need and will get the W here.

Saturday at Chicago. Even though the Bulls has yet to get going this season, I got to admit I think that the Raps will have a very tough time this game. The Raptors depth will help out, but this being the last game of 2 sets of back-to back and ¾ road games…It’s going to be a challenge to say the least. If the Raps blow out Philly, then it will be a competitve game, but if the Raptors have a tough time on Friday, they might not have enough in the tank come Saturday. I remember last year when the Raps had a similar situation where they had a lot of back to backs in a row and some road games and went off for 5 in a row before losing in Indiana on a Saturday on the back half of a back-to-back. I can see a similar situation here.

I will be honest, I think that us Rap fans need to look for a 2 out of 4 week here. Of course I would love all four, but just like last week when I said I would be happy with 2/3, I will be happy here with 2/4. The nature of the scheduling here is tough. But that would put the Raps at 4-3 which is alright I guess. Actually, now that I look at that, I would be happier at 5-2 but whatever. Let’s see what happens.