Opening Night with the King and his Jester

I have to admit I tried a couple of times to gather my thoughts around this 09-10 Raptors squad to no avail. There's just too many unknown variables, hence the tagline.

However, I am approaching this season with cautious optimism, we all learned a lot of hard lessons last year talking ourselves into the Jemaine O'Neal project.

With that being said, what a great start last night!

First things first: Alvin Williams: Assistant coach?!? I was always a big fan of "Boogie" (Swirsky was such a nerd, but I miss him so much) but a lot of people I know were not. Mostly because he struggled with nagging injuries. Regardless, great to have him on the bench.

Barney pretty much looked like Jesus playing basketball for the first couple of minutes... doing a little bit of everything until missing that breakaway dunk (we all knew he would...). In the past that would have shot his confidence for the season, I get the feeling he's potentially beyond that now. He looks hungry and mature. The two two handed throwdowns later in the game were big boy basketball plays.

Bosh was taking it too Shaq early in the game... which wasn't pretty, but was a great plan as he drew a foul every single time.

Pretty crazy that Calderon was presented with a trophy before the game for setting the NBA free throw record, and then steps up to the line early in the game and clanks two in a row. Dude didn't miss a FT for almost the whole season last year!

Bellinelli kind of looks like a wolf. I feel like he's gonna be fun to watch.

Mo Williams missed like a thousands shots... I'm gonna check the stats: 4 for 14... seemed like a lot more than that.

Players I was impressed with:

Andrea Bargnani

Demar DeRozen

Jarret Jack

Marco Bellinelli

Reggie Evans

Players I was kind of unimpressed with:

Chris Bosh - looked soft

Hedu Turkoglu - looked lazy

Players I wanted to see more of:

Amir Johnson

WHERE ART THOU HOWARD????????

are you kidding me!!!!!!!! if the raptors were my team i'd give up not only barney and parker, but i'd add triano, solomon, kapono, and vernon wells to that list.. my 2nd favourite active player in the league, a bonifide allstar, a work first show off later kinda guy, and most importantly a baller who thinks before he acts... please let the rumours be true................. oh howard, oh howard, where are you?????????????????????

REVAMPED AND AMPED!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR RAPTOR FANS AROUND THE GLOBE!!!!! THIS IS SINGH STEELE REPORTING TO YOU FROM THE L.O. AND HAPPY TO BE BACK WHERE I FEEL AT HOME THE MOST, WITH YOU GUYS... RAPS ARE PLAYING WITH A PURPOSE AS OF LATE AND BRINGING A DIFFERENT TYPE OF INTENSITY TO THE COURT THAT HAS BEEN LOST FOR A LONG LONG TIME. EVEN TONIGHT'S GAME..... VERY DISAPPOINTING I KNOW, BUT THEY ONLY MESSED UP IN THE LAST TWO AND A HALF MINUTES OF THE GAME. THE MAJORITY OF THE GAME WAS PLAYED TO PERFECTION ALMOST, AND THEY RUINED IT BY GIVING KING SOLOMON TWO SHOTS IN A ROW WITH LESS THAN 100 SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME. HE EVEN MISSED A WIDE OPEN LAYUP WHEN THE GAME WAS ALREADY DECIDED!!!! SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE A BUTCHER KNIFE AND STICK IT RIGHT UP HIS ARMPIT!!! BUT A POSITIVE GAME NONE THE LESS, IT LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE BACK ON TRACK AND ONLY THREE GAMES OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS. THINK POSITIVE PEOPLE.. SUNDAY ILL BE AT THE GAME WITH MY PARTNER IN CRIME SHERWOOD AGAINST BOSTON WHO LOOKS A LITTLE BEATABLE THESE DAYS.. KEEP YOUR HEADS UP RAPTOR FANS BECAUSE I AM GUARANTEEING A VICTORY ON SUNDAY!!!



STEELE IS SINGHING HIS WAY TO TORONTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!