kingofkings

One guy who is going to go off is Morris Peterson. As I keep saying, all we need to do is to make this game into a scrap and your shooters will just keep clanging shots like they usually do.Peterson killed Stackhouse in the playoffs last season and will run your defenders ragged on offense. Our guys just do not stand back and watch on offense, so we will target and hone in, on your suspect defensive players.

Just check out the shooting percentages of Stackhouse, Hughes, Russell and Jordan last year. Like I said, we kept Stackhouse to 30% shooting in the first round playoffs last season and to 16 points per game. We are going to force your shooters to shoot jumpshots and see if they have even improved their shot this year.

All respect to Jordan, but I am encouraged in the fact that he is going to have to jack up 25 shots per game, just to get 20 points,as he did numerous times last season.Jordan needs to be judged on the player that he is today. We will run at him.

Lenny has talked about upping the ante on defense in this game and we will play this game on our terms. The Wizards are coming to our home court and no way are they going to just come in to our arena and blow us off the court. Who is going to stop Carter and Peterson?? Stackhouse, Hughes?? Please.Carter is fit and firing and ready to go. Can Bryon Russell stop Carter?? No

When the heat is on, like it was in the playoffs last year, Stackhouse gets found wanting, in games whereby the intensity and the pressure builds. We are going to play tight tough man on man defense. Stackhouse is your #1 player and will be all season. We are going to target him, becasue he is a suspect player.He will shoot you out of games and will turn the ball over at crucial and critical times. Yeah, thanks Jerry for the win!!

bluudclatt

BCH.yer dreamin.face it.michael jordan is a parody of his old self.stackhouse is gonna have flashbacks of his miserable performance in the playoffs against the raptors last year.hughes is blinded by the bling bling and is still playing embarrased from his pitiful performance at the slam dunk comp 3 yrs ago,he couldnt handle the pressure of a dunk comp,hugh sucks.old man russell and oak>retire pls...vince is healthy,and hes pissed,hes got the same attitude as when he was on the olympic team,and does evryone forget who the best player on that team was,yup VINCE CARTER.washington isnt going anywhere this year except for the michael jordans 5th time retirement party.go preach how well the wiz are gonna do to washington fans theyre the ones who need convincing.RAPTORS BLOW OUT WIZ -read the headlines.

bluudclatt

i find it amusing.everyone outside of toronto and being fans of the raptors think vince fell the fuk off.he played far to long on one knee last season.and people think his skills have diminshed?wtf.these are people who have never had ligaments torn or muscle strains or physical ailments.basketball is the hardest sport on the joints and playing injured you never really have focus other than that twinging accompanying pain.been there done that.i spent the whole summer getting smoked by my good friend whom id owned on the playgroung my whole life.why?i snapped my ankle dunkin on him 14months earlier.and it hasnt healed.so to all you haters hatin on vince when your watching him on the highlites and the victories start piling up stay off the band wagon we dont need any of u.

NorthEast Wiz

I'm backing BCH is this dabate. Not just because I am a Wizards fan but because of the improvement we have made to the overall team:

Haywood - a year more experience and also this is early in the year. Last year he peaked early and faded. This year he should have made the adjustment. Good weak side defender.

Brown - Much more confidence, has gotten stronger and has worked on his footwork. Good weak side defender

Etan Thomas - He will be one of the sleepers this year. Workhorse type player that does not try to do too much.

Hughes - Tremendous upgrade over C Whit is almost every category

Stack - improvement offensively (Rip not a #1 guy). Defense is better than Rip also. Gets to the line. We will deal with the turnovers.

MJ - won't have to carry the entire load like he did last year which is a tremedous positive. He will not start to begin the season.

Russell - upgrade from T. Nesby

Oak - if you want to get rough

Our only set-back was losing Popeye Jones.

Forgive any typos as I am typing fast.

BCH

NEW,

You forgot though. The Raps have the might Jelani McCoy.

Shadows

Indeed we do

Brown has proven nothing since being in the NBA. He's still a lost pup in the league.

We had Oak in Toronto for 3 years. He's more then washed up. He hardly got 10 MPG with the Bulls in the 2nd half of the season. If you guys feel he's gonna do anything productive this year then
it shows the quality of your frontcourt.

WHO?

I'm sure Etan Thomas will have a HUGE infulence on this game's outcome.

One name Morris Peterson, Watch last years playoffs.

Put your money on VC having the better game then MJ. It's his comming out party and he's allways had the better numbers whn the 2 go head to head.

I guess we can say we've also seen what type of players Baron Davis, Ben Wallace, Shawn Marion, Paul Pierce, Andre Miller are going to be?

BCH

Brown and Etan have both proven more than McCoy and Bradley.

I will be interested in seeing how the Raps play now that their "best" player is back. They obviously had chemistry problems last year, hence the run without him.

NorthEast Wiz

Shadows,

Oak will not be a major part of our team. We wont ask him to do much more than rebound, defend and hustle.

You will be surprised at both Etan and Kwame this year.

I'm not claiming that Stack is better than VC only that our team is much improved mainly because MJ is not our number 1 guy anymore.

Shadows

No question you guys improved in the off-season, and reading my post over I sound like a big jerk.

I guess we will just wait and see for the outcome. Raps are winning it tho

GO RAPS GO

NorthEast Wiz

We need to figure out how to place a friendly wager on these boards. If I think about it before the game I will propose something.

kingofkings

Did anyone take any notice of the Wizards against Detroit game a few days ago?? Yeah, see what happens when their shooters are off?? They only score 66 points for the game.

I have said it before and I will still say it, the Wizards shooters are all suspect shooters. I know that the Pistons defense is cranked to the max at times, but remember we matched them last season and locked up Stackhouse by crowding his space to move and operate with and without the ball.

We just need to clog up the lanes and make you guys shoot jump shots. Russell, Hughes, Stackhouse, Jordan are all coming off horrible shooting seasons, for highly rated and supposedly high caliber NBA players. When they attempt to post us up, we will instantly switch and put bigger and more physical players on your guys and stop them in their tracks.

We have underated defenders on our team, who never get any respect, because they play in a relatively smaller market. Carter, Peterson, Hunter, Davis and JYD are above average defenders. If you think that Carter is not a good defensive player, you do not know his game that well. He is athletic and gets a hand to a lot of ball, through steals and blocks. Peterson locked up Stackhouse last season in the playoffs, making him shoot 30% from the field and only 16 points per game.

I see the Wizards game plan not functioning well this season. Why, because they have too many players that need to have the ball in their hands to have an impact on the game. Hughes and Stackhouse are going to demand the ball too often, rupturing the offense and taking ill times shots at crucial times in the game.

The Wizards have three new starters in Hughes, Stackhouse and Russell and as a result, they have too many new players learning about a new system. Expect even more turnovers from mistakes,from these guys, due to them learning a new system of plays.They have not had enough time to gel. We, have the same roster, mostly from last season. Jordan is also rusty.

Why do you think that the Warriors and the Pistons got rid of these guys. Because they are another teams problem now. They are freelancing players. My former college roommate, who was at St Louis at the time of Larry Hughes, informed me of numerous instances of run ins between Hughes and the St Louis coaching staff over his inability to carry out the coaches instructions on both offense and defense. He likes to do his own thing and this is taken from a guy that was close to the scene, during Hughes' college career.

They are also turnover machines and we will capitalise on this. We are going to trap and trap some more at half court. We are going to pressure the ballhandlers and force them to give up the ball and commit turnovers. Once the pressure and heat go on, Stackhouse goes missing. Check the playoff stats of Stackhouse, for a clearer view on this. We have the best guys to capitalise on turnovers in Peterson, Williams, Junk Yard Dog and Carter, guys who run like greyhounds on offense and on the break.

When all is said and done, all you Wizards fans will no doubt come up with numerous excuses, when we defeat you. We are going to make it a scrap and take the game out of the Wizards hands. Once we up the ante on defense, no doubt the Wizards will dissappear. Deal with that and move on!!

Oh and another thing Wizards fans, you have 24 fouls to give up on Vince Carter, between Stackhouse, Hughes, Jordan and Russell. I suggest you will use them all up, because you will need to, to even put a check on him!!

And another thing, we ARE a playoff team and have been since the 1999/2000 season, so we have big game experience under our belts. We have won a playoff series and almost made it to the Eastern Conference Finals 2 seasons ago. Our roster has not really changed that much since then. We still have our key players.

GlenGrunwald

Are long, analytical posts the norm in this forum? The ESPN boards is the opposite with short, useless posts.

Anyway, I have extra tickets to the sold-out season opener that I am willing to sell at cost. They are in the Platinum section 121. They will go to the lucky person that is willing to pick them up before the Wednesday game. If you are interested, send me a private email.

One Team. Let's Go Raptors!

BCH

kingofkings,

VC is going to be busy trying to get Stackhouse's new phone number to win the game for the Raps.

I also predict McCoy goes off for 5 points and 3 boards.

And I would say for the most part, the posts in these forums are analytical, even when the person is arguing incorrectly that the Raptors beat the Wiz tonight.

Crossword

Only 35 minutes left!!!

__________________
www.myspace.com/crosswordmusic

Crossword

Raptors up 44-36, Vince with 13 and 3.

Some notes - I really liked what Vince said at the halftime interview. He's back guys, it appears.

McCoy has 2 points, 7 rebounds. How's crow taste, BCH?

And Kwame's actually looking like a number one pick. 11 points, 12 rebounds. WOW!

__________________
www.myspace.com/crosswordmusic