Raptors not liking everything they see

MICHAEL GRANGE

Globe and Mail Update

October 7, 2007 at 2:58 PM EST

ROME — The Toronto Raptors have seen the sights of one of the world's great cities during their four days in Rome.

It's the game tape they might not want to look at after their first two exhibition contest of the 2007-08 season.

The Raptors evened their pre-season record at 1-1 as they defeated Roma Lottomatica 93-87 to follow up their opening-night loss to the Boston Celtics.

Toronto had to work for it against Roma, an Italian League club with a lot of tradition but not considered one of Europe's elite.

The Raptors trailed 45-44 at the half after Joey Graham fouled Christian Drejer as he was draining a three-pointer.

The struggle continued in the second half. A three-pointer by Raptors 2005 second-round pick Roko Ukic — the starting point guard for Roma — gave his club a 60-58 lead midway through the third quarter, a lead that bulged to seven points with two-and-a-half minutes left in the period, though Toronto pulled back to tied the score 66-66 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mitchell clearly didn't want his team to drop to 0-2 in the exhibition season and worse, drop to 1-2 against non-NBA teams during his head coaching career.

He played the fourth quarter with Chris Bosh on the floor with Jose Calderon, Jorge Garbajosa, and Jason Kapono. The only player on the floor not expected to figure prominently in the top of his rotation was Juan Dixon, and he was eventually exchanged for Anthony Parker.

In contrast, on Saturday night against the Celtics the fourth quarter was entirely devoted to the bottom half of both rosters.

It was a member of last year's starting lineup, Jorge Garbajosa who finally put the Raptors ahead by making all three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt.

Triples by Kapono and then Parker finally allowed Toronto to open a 10-point lead with six minutes to play and the threat passed.

Andrea Bargnani's visit to his hometown provided mixed results. He played well in both games but saw his playing time limited by foul trouble. Bargnani finished with 13 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes.

The Raptors started Carlos Delfino at small forward after Jason Kapono got the start there on Saturday night.

"I'm going to start some different guys [there] in the pre-season," said Mitchell. "I haven't made up my mind yet.

NBA commissioner David Stern was at the game and said the league has plans only to continue to grow its international footprint and suggested that having a regular season game in Europe is the next step

"I think that time is coming closer," said Stern. "It's a matter of Euros. It cost many Euros to buy a game because our teams do so well. But with the new arenas in London, Berlin and the proposed arena in Rome, Europe is beginning to develop arenas similar to what we have in the United States that can generate the revenue for such a game."

Stern said that the possibility of expansion to Europe was still a long way away, with economics and logistics being the issues, but he didn't shut the idea down.

"I suspect there will continue to be more conversation, speculation and gossip on the subject," he said.

While acknowledging the volume of off-court responsibilities has taken its toll and that he'd prefer to play only NBA teams in his pre-season schedule, Mitchell had high praise for his team's experience in Rome, off the court at least.

"This city of Rome is amazing, it just seems like you can't get enough of it, just the history," he said. "When you come over here from the United States, you just realize. Those cobblestone streets are 700 years old; it blows your mind, the history they have, the culture. When our arenas are 10 years old they start falling apart, they got buildings here 1,500 years old.

"I mean, in Minnesota we had two seasons: winter and road construction, they got cobblestone streets 700 years old, so you tell me? Who are behind? It seems like we're just catching up."

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