Raptors F Bargnani leaves game (PA SportsTicker)Yahoo! Sports - NBA - Toronto Raptors News
Written on March 5, 2008 by (author unknown)
Bargnani leads Raptors to season-opening win over Sixers
Written on November 1, 2007 by admin
10/31/2007 TORONTO 106, PHILADELPHIA 97 -
The reigning Atlantic Division champion Toronto Raptors got off to a successful start in defending their crown on Wednesday.
Andrea Bargnani led five players in double figures with 20 points as the Raptors posted a 106-97 victory over the division rival Philadelphia 76ers in the season opener for both teams.
Chris Bosh had 16 points and T.J. Ford added 14 and 12 assists for the Raptors, who went 47-35 last season en route to the first division crown in franchise history.
“Down the stretch, we hit a wall and couldn’t score, and they hit some tough shots,” Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said. “But our guys made plays when we needed to make plays.”
The Sixers, who trailed by as many as 22 points in the third quarter, scored 15 straight in a 27-7 run to cut the Raptors’ lead to 88-87 with 5:24 remaining.
Bargnani answered with a four-point play to push Toronto’s advantage to five, and Philadelphia never had possession to tie or take the lead the rest of the way.
“It was a very important play based on how close the score was,” Bargnani said. “I received a nice pass, I put it up and hoped that it went in. I was a little lucky.”
Philadelphia guard Andre Iguodala saw Bargnani’s 3-pointer as the biggest play of the game.
“We had one really bad stretch,” Iguodala said. “When Bargnani was hit on that four-point play things seemed to fall apart for us just as we were coming back. That was the turnaround point.”
The Raptors, who were ranked 27th in the league last year in rebounding, did not fare much better in the opener as they were beaten on the glass, 47-35.
The Sixers also held the edge in fast-break points, outscoring the Raptors by a 17-2 margin.
Trailing late in the second quarter by three points, Toronto used a 17-4 run towards the end of that period to take a 10-point lead - its biggest of the first half.
After the Sixers scored the final basket in the second, the Raptors opened up the third quarter outscoring Philadelphia, 19-5, in the first six minutes to take a 77-55 lead.
“They (the Sixers) showed a lot of heart,” Ford said. “I’m pretty sure nobody in the NBA is talking about them either. But the atmosphere was great, the energy in the building was great. Everybody stepped on the court and gave the fans their money’s worth.”
Iguodala had 23 points and Kyle Korver scored 20 - shooting 4-of-7 from the arc - to lead Philadelphia, which has lost five of its last six to Toronto.
“I’m pleased the way we came back but we put ourselves in such a hole, and we can’t do that against a team like Toronto,” Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks said.
Bargnani has become important piece of Raptors’ puzzle
Written on November 1, 2007 by admin
Matthew Sekeres , CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
TORONTO - In golf, they say the progression from triple-digits to double-digits is easy, but that the 10-stroke improvements - the ones that separate 90s golfers from 80s golfers, 80s golfers from 70s golfers, and 70s golfers from professionals - come with much more difficulty.
Golf shares little with basketball, but the same level-to-level development could be applied to sophomore centre Andrea Bargnani as the Toronto Raptors embark on the 2007-08 NBA season tonight at the Air Canada Centre.
After becoming the top pick in the 2006 NBA draft, the gangly Italian went through a year of many adjustments and many firsts, and emerged not only with his confidence and game intact but, based on his solid rookie campaign, with even greater expectations for the rest of his career. In short, Bargnani moved quickly out of the triple-digits and into more respectable scores, but the jump from where he is now to where many think he could be is where the tough sledding is found, and that sledding begins tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Andrea, as a player entering his second season, clearly came a long way in just his first season and now you’ve got even that much more to anticipate in future years,” said Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo. “What we see now is a player who seems to get better each and every time he steps on the floor. His confidence just seems to come on a little more every day.”
The education of Andrea has become a running theme for the Raptors ever since Bargnani became the first European player to be selected first overall in the draft. This season, however, with the exception of superstar forward Chris Bosh, whose wonky foot and knee are of concern to the team, perhaps no player will have a more dramatic effect on Toronto’s fortunes than Bargnani.
He started just five games last season, including three in a six-game playoff defeat to the New Jersey Nets, but has unseated veteran Rasho Nesterovic for the first-string job in the middle. He will almost certainly play more than the 25 minutes per game he averaged last season, and, at a bare minimum, he will be expected to score more than 11 points per game, to say nothing about the other facets of his game still under construction.
“It is accurate to say that Bargnani’s growth could be a key factor in what kind of a season we’re going to have,” said Maurizio Gherardini, Toronto’s assistant general manager and the former head of Bargnani’s Italian club, Benetton Treviso. “In one season, he has become an important piece of the mosaic.”
That mosaic, centred by Bosh and Bargnani, will be an intriguing story for NBA observers if for no other reason than it combines a uniquely talented 7-footer with another near 7-footer whose game is not stapled to the low post. Bosh and Bargnani offer so many possibilities, but those possibilities only arrive if and when Bargnani does.
Last year, few outside Colangelo, Gherardini and the team’s scouts knew what to expect of Bargnani because he was so young and so foreign to North American basketball. He only turned 21 days before the season and found himself in a new city, learning a new language and a new version of basketball against the best players in the world.
In time, he became one of Toronto’s top reserves, averaging 11.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game before missing almost all of the final month of the regular season after an emergency appendectomy. Those are hardly superstar numbers, but for a raw rookie with so much room to improve, they were splendid and exceeded almost everyone’s expectations.
“I might surprise you but when the major Italian newspaper asked me the question (before the season), I said ‘Andrea is going to do in Toronto the same numbers he did with Benetton Treviso,’ ” said Gherardini. “He was in line with what I was expecting. He adjusted very nicely to a different kind of basketball and the different rules. We all must appreciate that adjustment given his age - and I can tell you, he can do even better.”
National Post
Raptors revel in the spotlight
Written on November 1, 2007 by admin
STEPHEN BRUNT
October 31, 2007 at 9:52 PM EDT
To be in good hands is a fine feeling, for the sports fan or anyone else. A little trust, a little faith, goes a long way.
In Toronto, in an era that increasingly seems like ancient history, the fans of the Blue Jays once lived in that kind of cozy world. During the years between Stand Pat, when his teams fell just short and he was criticized for failing to pull the trigger on a big deal, and the post-World Series blues, when he was on his way out the door and the club’s ownership came into play, Pat Gillick’s presence alone made the paying customers secure.
It certainly wasn’t a one-man show — Gillick benefited greatly from committed, deep-pocketed, humane bosses, and from having Paul Beeston as his running mate, confidante and supporter. But the focus naturally falls on the person moving the chess pieces, and through the ups and downs of the baseball calendar, Blue Jays fans could sleep well understanding that their proxy was the smartest guy in the room.
The truth is it hasn’t been like that since, not for the Jays, despite their efforts to convince consumers that J.P Ricciardi was made of the same kind of genius stuff, certainly not for the Toronto Maple Leafs (but for a brief shining moment during the Cliff Fletcher regime), not for the Toronto Raptors, who were reduced to laughingstocks under Rob Babcock.
At least it hasn’t until now.
Last night, the Raptors tipped off the second season of the Bryan Colangelo era against the Philadelphia 76ers in front of a full house at the Air Canada Centre, and the sense of well-being was palpable, bordering on the smug.
It has been a little more than a year since Colangelo took the team apart and brilliantly put it back together. During that time, Sam Mitchell went from the firing line to being chosen the best coach in the NBA and his players gelled into something that looks very much like this year’s model.
All that was required heading into the new season was a little fine tuning. The existing roster was already young, already spoke to the organization’s cutting edge Euro-saviness, already looked to be the work of someone who was a step ahead of his peers.
Plus, the same Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment board members who are rightly blamed for their hockey team’s perpetual woes seem content to thank their lucky stars that Colangelo fell into their laps, and to leave well enough alone. That’s why this fall, the questions that would usually send the Toronto crowd into a tizzy — Is Chris Bosh really healthy? Why don’t those American prognosticators give the Raps their due in the preseason picks? Surely they must know something we don’t know — are just rolling off.
The coach is secure. The game plan is plain for all to see. No stars are demanding a ticket out of town. No one’s job is on the line.
Raptors fans are feeling like wise guys, heading for Las Vegas and betting the over on wins for the year, happily taking the long odds the bookies have set against Toronto winning the division, even the conference.
They’ve figured out that a team with two exceptional point guards and two blue-chip young big men and the depth to simply run other teams ragged is going to win more than its share.
Last night against the Sixers, Mitchell went 11 deep before the first quarter was finished. Toronto briefly blew the game open in the second half, then survived a furious Philly rally (in part thanks to Andrea Bargnani’s fourth-quarter four-point play) before securing a 106-97 victory. In the NBA, there are a whole lot of regular-season games just like that, there for the taking against inferior opponents, against even the best teams if they’re having an off night, and these Raps seem constructed to take advantage.
Pick them apart if you like, posit a series of cataclysmic injuries, imagine young players regressing, remind everyone (and this is certainly legit) that success in the playoffs is an entirely different matter.
You’ll be met with a serene smile from anyone who has followed this franchise from its birth pangs. They think they know better, and there’s good reason why.
Movin’ on up the East side?
Written on November 1, 2007 by admin
All the pieces seem to be in place for coach-of-the-year Mitchell’s squad to meet their ever-increasing expectations
Oct 31, 2007 04:30 AM
DOUG SMITH
SPORTS REPORTER
A season like few others in Toronto Raptors history starts to unfold tonight, one of high expectations, a campaign to build on surprising success.
Even in the halcyon days of Vinsanity, there wasn’t the same sense of optimism that surrounds this team, coming after a franchise record-tying 47 wins, the first division title in team history and a playoff appearance that was unsuccessful by every measure except the one that teaches the players that the post-season is entirely divorced in intensity from the 82 games courting that position.
The core of last season’s team remains intact; changes to the playing rotation are minimal. No one got fired in the summer, no one got hired, there is no first-round draft pick to integrate into the system, the coach isn’t on the hot seat, the general manager is wildly respected here and throughout the NBA.
Still, there are questions.
Here are five of them:
Who are these guys? Rodney Dangerfields?
Forty-seven wins. Division title. All-star power forward.
Should bring some love, shouldn’t it?
Not so much. Look at the prognostications – guesses, actually – and it reveals something just south of respect for Toronto, who some see as a one-year wonder. Last year.
Does it rankle?
“It doesn’t surprise me, that’s been the plan since we’ve been here,” Chris Bosh said. “I tell you, we have a championship mentality coming in this year, we expect to win. Nobody else expects us to, but that’s our job, to make sure we play championship-level basketball.”
If you believe that being spurned by writers from websites and newspapers and television commentators can provide inspiration, it would seem these guys have it.
Of course, players and coaches know who the Raptors are. “As far as I’m concerned, the Toronto Raptors are the defending champs and until someone beats them, they’re the defending champs. They’ve proven they can win it,” Boston’s Doc Rivers said. So any motivation might be tempered.
Big Rook, Bigger Soph?
It’s not too much to suggest the Raptors will go as far as Andrea Bargnani carries them. The second-year big man has to be more diverse on offence, more capable on defence and he has to stay out of the foul trouble that he used to find himself in during far too many games in his rookie season.
Bargnani has had a great pre-season and possesses the kind of non-plussed attitude that should allow him to ignore any pressure and expectations.
Still, if he suffers any sophomore jinx, or doesn’t get how to defend without fouling, it will diminish his impact and the Raptors can’t win without him contributing.
“Andrea gets it, he knows what we need him to do,” coach Sam Mitchell said. “We just want him to do what he has to, not try to do too much.
“We work with him every day on his defence, footwork, just getting better.”
One knee, one foot, one worry?
Chris Bosh took most of the summer off to rest his foot and a chunk of the pre-season off to rest a sore knee and his fitness is one of the major concerns heading into the season.
The 24-year-old thrives on the consistent work of a regular season, practices keep him sharp, extended minutes in games helps him polish his skills and if he has to take time off, it hurts him in a hurry.
Mitchell said early in camp that one of the most important aspects of Bosh’s game is how he works in practice, honing the defensive principles that revolve around teamwork and facilitating much of the offence through his high-post presence.
After missing nearly two weeks of the pre-season, Bosh returned to limited minutes for the final two exhibition games and looked predictably rusty. However, he’s had a couple of good practices since then and should be as close to 100 per cent as possible for tonight’s opener against Philadelphia.
Keeping him at that level is of paramount importance.
How deep is deep enough?
The Raptors are going to play nine guys every night, they’ll play 10 on many occasions and everything will be predicated on specific matchups.
They will need to get production from Jorge Garbajosa and Kris Humphries when they are called on and the big thing is they might not be called on every game and they have to be ready.
Mitchell will likely use Humphries against big bangers in the frontcourt and Garbajosa against more athletic power forwards; he’ll go to Humphries when it’s more of a defensive assignment, use Garbajosa to draw defenders away from the basket with his outside game.
One of the coach’s favourite points to make is that he needs everyone to win and just because someone doesn’t get into one game doesn’t mean he won’t be asked to play significant minutes the next. Players like Humphries, Garbajosa and Joey Graham, who could see their time on the court fluctuate greatly one night to the next, can’t sulk and ease themselves into games when they’re called upon. They have to be ready hit the court and make an impact right away. It takes a true team-first mentality to do that, one the Raptors sorely need.
How does Mitchell handle success?
The head coach loves to point out that coaches get too much credit when teams win and too much blame when teams lose and he’s probably right.
But that doesn’t change the reality, which is that the reigning NBA coach of the year has to improve his performance as well if his team is to improve its record.
Mitchell’s greatest strength is his ability to motivate his players and create a sense of mutual respect in the locker room. His next step up the ladder will be his ability to devise plays on the fly in crucial situations. He and his staff – holdovers Alex English and Jay Triano and newcomer Mike Evans – need to put the players in positions to succeed in every crucial situation in a season that is going to be chock full of them.
Nash, Bargnani top vote-getters in sixth annual NBA GM survey
Written on October 26, 2007 by admin
Canadian Steve Nash was the runaway favourite as the NBA’s top point guard in the sixth annual survey of the league’s general managers.
Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani was voted the international player most likely to have a breakout season in 2007-08.
Nash received 85 per cent of the votes as top point guard in the annual survey on NBA.com, released Wednesday, while his Phoenix Suns were voted the most fun team to watch (73 per cent).
Bargnani received 26 per cent of the votes for international breakout player.
In other survey results, for the fourth year in a row, GMs predicted the San Antonio Spurs will win the championship. The Spurs earned 37 per cent of the votes, beating the Suns (26 per cent), and the Dallas Mavericks (15 per cent).
Cleveland Cavaliers swingman LeBron James was the GMs’ pick to win the regular-season MVP award (30 per cent). He beat out the Spurs’ Tim Duncan (22 per cent) and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers (19 per cent).
San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich was voted best coach (73 per cent), Boston’s Kevin Garnett was voted the acquisition that will make the biggest impact (96 per cent), and the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen was voted best defensive player (39 per cent).
Cuban Advances on ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Written on September 28, 2007 by admin
What a guy - he does it all.
Sep 27, 2007 12:12am ET
In THE STAR-TELEGRAM, Ed Bark writes, “Mavericks owner Mark Cuban barely survived “Dancing with the Stars’” first elimination round of the new season after sweating it out in the hit ABC show’s bottom two with model Josie Maran.
Andrea Bargnani - Conference Call - Sept. 26, 2007
Written on September 28, 2007 by admin
From NBA.com
Q: What is the biggest improvement you need to make?
A: I have to improve a lot in the rebounding area and my game in the low-post. That is what we worked a lot with my coaches last year. This is what I have to work on this year.
Q: Is it a challenge to have the training camp in Italy with so many people wanting your attention?
A: It’s very unique to go to my country with my NBA team. I will play in front of my family, my parents. That will be very special.
Q: How excited are you about your first time in Rome as an NBA star?
A: First of all, I am not an NBA star. I still have to work on my game to become a star. Of course, I am very excited to go to Rome with my NBA team. This is something very big; I will be nervous to play in front of my family and my fans. It will be the first time all my family will be able to watch me play.
Q: How are you right now after the defeat of your National Team in the European Championship?
A: I am very upset about that, we played bad basketball and we were not a team on the center court so we have to work a lot next year to improve. We are a new team so these things can happen.
Q: How are you feeling physically? Did you do anything different for your training, preparing you for the physical year you will probably have to play with the Raptors?
A: I worked a lot physically. I don’t think I have to put a lot weight on my body. I am 255, 258 pounds, like a lot of people in the NBA. I just have to learn how to guard bigger people.
Q: You were selected first overall in last year’s draft. Have you seen the impact this selection had on the basketball culture in your country?
A: I wish the basketball culture could be bigger in Italy but compared to soccer, it is still smaller. This is quite difficult; basketball is less popular in Italy.
Q: What do you think about players like Sarunas Jasikevicius or maybe Andrei Kirilenko that want to come back and play in Europe?
A: They are good players. I didn’t know anything about Kirilenko wanting to go back playing in Europe! They can play in the NBA like they can play in Europe. It’s their decision.
Q: Do you think that your experience on the National Team can improve your style of playing in your second season in the NBA?
A: I hope, because I played against very good players that are playing in Euroleague, so I think you can always learn something from these players.
Q: When you played in the EuroBasket this summer, you were the biggest name on the team? Did you feel any extra pressure going into the tournament?
A: I had that pressure the year before the draft and in the EuroBasket of course. There was a lot of emotion.
Q: It was the first time you have been with the National Team in a major competition, how would you compare the training and the settle to that which you have in the NBA?
A: The training is very different because we worked together for almost two months and we were practicing twice a day, almost every day for two hours. So it’s a different style of training I think. Here we practice once a day, so in Europe it’s quite different.
Q: What do you think your team can achieve this year with the Eastern Conference getting tougher?
A: It will be more difficult. We’ll try to do like last year and get to the next round in the Playoffs. I think that’s the target of everybody.
Q: Did Coach Mitchell talk to you about being in The Finals? Are the expectations really high for your team?
A: Coach Mitchell didn’t tell me anything about that. It’s very hard to speak about The Finals. We know we are a good team. We will work hard and if we play good we can go very far but we still have to work.
Q: Have you set any goals for yourself personally coming into your second season in the NBA?
A: Yes, I have to improve my rebounds. I keep working and trying to improve like I did last year, that’s why I’m in Toronto.
Q: Jose Calderon said he was excited about having the team in Europe for training camp as it would be a bonding experience. Would you agree with that?
A: Yes, of course. We’ll be able to go out to dinner a lot of times and eat some good Italian food!
Q: Do you feel ready to be in the starting five?
A: I don’t know if I will be in the starting five; we have a lot of good players. I’m going to work hard in practice and after that the coach will make his decision.
Q: After the EuroBasket how do you want to work with the international team in the future?
A: We just played really bad so we have to work a lot and improve. But I’m not thinking about next year yet, I’m just thinking about being in the Raptors.
Q: So your relationship with the National Team will go on?
A: Yes, why not? I have to play almost 100 games now with the Raptors, so it’s hard for me to think about next year now.
Q: In what way can you improve as a team to make it to the Playoffs again?
A: Last year, we played very good basketball because we passed each other the ball so it was a fun game to watch. I just think we have to continue to play on this line and continue to get better. Always better and better.
Q: What impressed you most positively and negatively in your first year in America?
A: Positive, there are a lot of things: all the people that work round the league; the organization is perfect and is something amazing if we compare it to Europe. Negative, I can’t really tell you anything negative because I had so much fun. Just positive things.
Q: Is there something that you miss about Italian basketball and Italy in general?
A: Yes, of course. I miss Italy. I miss my home town. I miss my friends and family. That’s normal. It’s a different game. I have so much fun in the NBA that I don’t want to go back.
Q: Do you keep in touch with your friends and follow Italian basketball?
A: Yes. I call them up all the time and I follow the Italian league very closely.
Q: What do you think about the Italian Championship?
A: I think that Sienna is the best team right now because they have the same players as last year plus a few new players, so they have the best team right now.
Q: Like your teammates in Toronto showed you around Toronto, are you ready to show them around Italy?
A: Yes. I will be very, very busy with lots of stuff, so I don’t know if I will have time to show them that much. For sure I won’t have time to show them Rome. To see Rome you need at least two months!
Q: What do you think this trip in Europe can bring to your team?
A: People will be so far from home that you become more of a team, as you have to stay close together. I think that’s the main difference that will be better.
Q: What do you think of the teams you will be playing against, Lottomatica and Real Madrid?
A: They are very good teams in Europe. They have a lot of players that could play in the NBA, so they will be tough teams.
Another Title No Slam Dunk for Raptors
Written on September 28, 2007 by admin
From NYKnicks.com - Sept. 28, 2007 The Toronto Raptors shocked the basketball world last season by capturing their first Atlantic Division crown with a 47-35 record, and they enter the 2007-08 season with essentially their entire roster intact.
Chris Bosh, a star at both forward positions, is the clear leader of the Raptors. He averaged 22.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game last season. The face of the franchise since the departure of Vince Carter in late 2004, Bosh is a 6-10, 230-pound monster who is a force in the paint and on the boards. A two-time NBA All-Star, Bosh is also a member of Team USA, and has improved year after year.
The 2006-07 season was Bosh’s best yet, as he finished fifth in the league in defensive rebounds per game, eighth in free throws and free-throw attempts, 10th in total rebounds and 13th in points per game. He also ranked eighth in the NBA with an efficiency rating of 25.35.
T.J. Ford mans the point for Toronto, and the 6-0, 165-pounder had the best season of his young career just two years after suffering a spinal cord injury that caused him to miss an entire season. Obtained from Milwaukee in exchange for Charlie Villanueva, the true point guard averaged 14.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 7.9 assists in his first season in Toronto. More impressively, he ranked second in the league with 12.7 assists per 48 minutes, fifth in total assists with 595 and sixth in assists per game.
After a successful, yet injury plagued, rookie year, the 2006 No. 1 overall draft pick Andrea Bargnani figures to play a large role in Toronto’s future. In his first year, the 7-0, 250-pound Italian power forward averaged 11 points per game off the bench along with four rebounds and one assist.
Bargnani was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and was named the league’s Rookie of the Month in bothJanuary and February. Look for Bargnani, who shot 37.3 percent from three-point range, to be slotted into the starting lineup, pushing Bosh into a more permanent role at the small forward position.
Anthony Parker starts at shooting guard for Toronto. In his first year with the Raptors, he averaged 12.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He led the team in three-point percentage (44.1) and free throw percentage (83.5), and he played staunch defense at the other end of the court.
Seven-footer Rasho Nesterovic is the big man at center for the Raptors. Last season was an off year for the Serbian Center, who saw his numbers dip well below his career averages. In 2006-07, he averaged just 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists, and Toronto will need to drastically improve upon those statistics if the Raptors wish to retain their title amongst a vastly improved Atlantic Division.
Jorge Garbajosa and Jose Calderon, who both hail from Spain, are Toronto’s main weapons off the bench. “Garbo” is another versatile forward who joined Bargnani on the NBA All-Rookie Team last season. Calderon, meanwhile, is a quick, “pass first, shoot second” point guard who averaged 5.0 assists and 8.7 points over the course of the 2006-07 season.
Toronto added two offensive weapons in Jason Kapono and Carlos Delfino during the offseason. Former Heat forward Kapono is a three-point specialist, who shot the ball at a whopping 51.4 percent success rate from three-point territory. Delfino, acquired from the Pistons in exchange for two second round draft picks, is a capable backup who has had great success on the international level with the Argentinean National Team, but is still looking to find his groove in the NBA.
Sam Mitchell returns as head coach of the Raptors, and over the course of his career up north, he remains under .500 with a 107-139 record. After leading his team to the division crown with a 47-35 record last season, he was named the NBA Coach of the Year and was signed to a four-year contract extension.
Bargnani Will Garner Attention In Return HomeNBA.com: News
Written on September 27, 2007 by (author unknown)
Sep 25, 2007 8:47am ET
Bargnani Will Garner Attention In Return Home
