Modesty prevents me from taking credit for last night’s show, but given my pre-season pessimism and dour predictions, you knew a blowout win over a supposed Eastern Conference powerhouse was a near mortal lock. Thank me later.
Anyway:
1. One of the biggest ovations last night was provided for Alvin Williams as an assistant coach, which I thought was great. Toronto fans take a beating for various things, but one of them is embracing the wrong guys a lot of the time – Tie Domi comes to mind and for different reasons Jerome Williams, whose likeability was offset – for me at least – by his flair for self-promotion. But with Alvin Williams they’ve got it just right. In my experience Alvin Williams has never begged for attention and he certainly wasn’t the kind of player, in terms of flash, that commanded it. He was simply a pro’s pro with a burning passion for his work. That Raptors fans recognize that and made the special effort to acknowledge it last night reflected well on them.
2. I have to say the opening night was pretty good. They had a full orchestra and choir on the floor and maybe the most amazing thing, with all the noise, was that about halfway through I realized that the music accompanying the whole deal – one of those 19th-century pieces with minor key vocals and big percussion – was live. My only regret was that they didn’t tone Herbie down a bit so that they could be heard. Overall a very impressive show though.
3. It was kind of amusing though, that in the pre-game montage, when they were showing all the guys doing dunks or dribbling tricks they showed Rasho kind of leaning on an imaginary defender and slowly backing him down. That’s about right, I guess.
4. And the designated hugger is……Marcus Banks! Well done Marcus, but obviously he had the advantage of Sonny Weems being in street clothes. Antoine Wright, I saw worked to get some hugs in, too. But Banks staked out his territory by the scorer’s table early, held on to it despite some challenges and is clearly the Raptors designated pre-game hugger until something changes.
5. Was it just me or was Calderon being a bit braver with some of his passes? You don’t lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio without being a bit cautious. But there was Calderon throwing a little running alley-oop to Andrea for a layup and a gutsy bounce pass on the run in traffic that got Bargnani fouled. That will be an interesting trend to follow.
6. To me the most impressive aspects of last night’s game was when the Cavaliers went small in the first half and put James on Bargnani, his response was to head for the block, demand the ball and then convert twice in the post. That is a huge development and something that was hinted at last year but it clearly going to be more of a fixture this year. I’ve written this many times: if Bargnani plays with authority in the post, particularly against smaller players, and the Raptors can exploit it, he becomes close to unguardable.
7. Credit to DeRozan: on his first touch as an official NBA player the ball was swung to him and he wasted no time in attacking the rim and picking up the foul. On a couple of other occasions he hit those mid-corner jumpers that are going to be there all season, too. He got lost defensively a couple of times, but otherwise an encouraging debut.
8. The Cavaliers looked like a very unhappy team. James looked frustrated; Shaq looked fat – check that – I saw him tugging on his jersey and he is definitely carrying some extra weight and his lack of lift was alarming. He’s obviously in his “use the first-half of the season to get in shape phase” and I’m not sure that’s going to fly on a team that won 66 games and last year and is trying to get better.
9. Got a good look at Bosh’s tattoo last night. There’s a big tree growing out of the base of his spine and spreading up and over his shoulders with a big tiger attacking it. Apparently he’s only done five hours of the estimated 40 hours of work it’s going to require. There you have it.
10. Here’s an interesting take by Cleveland Plain Dealer beat writer Brian Windhorst:
“Bargnani, perhaps showing why the Raptors saw fit to give him a $50-million extension in the off-season, was masterful moving in and out. The Cavs' big men could not stay with the former No. 1 overall pick when he was outside. When the Cavs tried James on him for a stretch, Bargnani took him into the post and scored down there. He finished with 28 points on a slick 11-of-15 shooting, which including two three-pointers.
"Then there was Bosh, who was his normal prolific self with 21 points and 16 rebounds. There were times when the Cavs guarded him effectively with either Anderson Varejao or James, but there were very few times when the Cavs could guard both Bosh and Bargnani at the same time.
"Add in Hedo Turkoglu and Jose Calderon creating offense by spinning off pick-and-rolls with Bosh and Bargnani, and the Raptors looked formidable.”
