What's up Tdot? Other than Danny, Q and Hek, I don't recognize anyone else in this thread. I've been away for too long, lol. Anyway, for those going tonight, feel free to drop by the Sprite Zone (317/31
ers.
A sprained right ankle will keep T.J. Ford on the shelf for a second straight game while Jorge Garbajosa's strained right calf muscle will force him to miss the game.
Ford was hurt in the final minutes of last Friday's loss to Chicago and sat out Saturday's game in Memphis; Garbajosa was hurt in the final minute of that loss to the Grizzlies. Both players are being listed as day-to-day.
So, as they welcome back Chris Bosh, the Raptors must face one of the best teams in the NBA after suffering a huge hit to their rotation.
Jose Calderon will get the start in Ford's spot and he'll have to contend with two-time MVP Steve Nash while Bosh will replace Garbajosa as a starter.
But no one should expect Bosh to be back to his usual 20-10 self after missing 12 games.
"He's practiced well and his stamina's been okay but game speed is different," coach Sam Mitchell said this morning of Bosh. "We'll just have to see how he holds up."
The 23-year-old Bosh said he's not worried about the toll playing will take on his injured knee.
"I've been listening to my body and that's the reason I'm coming back now," he said today. "I've waited enough; I'm as close to 100 per cent as I'm going to get."
The last thing the Raptors want is for tonight's game to turn into a track meet. They don't have the athletes, the quickness or the size to keep up with the Suns over 48 minutes.
"I don't think we're going to try to run with Phoenix," Mitchell said. "We'll play the way we play.
"We'll take layups if we get them but we're not going to run with them."
The divergent styles may lead Mitchell to tweak his starting lineup a little bit.
It's blatantly unfair to ask Rasho Nesterovic to try and chase Amare Stoudemire up and down the floor Stoudemire had about nine dunks in his first 10 baskets when the teams met in Phoenix last month but with the absence of Garbajosa, he'll have to.
One thing Mitchell is likely to do is ask the first big man back on defence, Bosh or Nesterovic, to guard Stoudemire because he'll be out on the break on almost every Phoenix possession.
That'll leave the other big to either catch up with Boris Diaw or Shawn Marion, although Joey Graham will have the primary responsibility on Marion.
"Everybody on the team and the coaching staff expects to win this game," said Bosh. "We have to make some minor adjustments.
"We'd like to have T.J. but I'm sure they would have liked to have had me for the last month. That's just the nature of the game."
Meanwhile, Garbajosa, the 29-year-old who was named the Eastern Conference's rookie of the month for December, keeps piling up the awards.
The Italian weekly magazine Superbasket named Garbajosa Mister Europa 2006 for his play with Unicaja Malaga in the Spanish league and Spain's national team.
Garbajosa was named the MVP of the Spanish League finals and had 20 points and 10 rebounds in Spain's gold-medal winning outing against Greece in Japan last fall.
He beat out the likes of Dallas's Dirk Nowitzki, San Antonio's Tony Parker, EuroLeague Final Four MVP Theo Papaloukas of CKSA Moscow for the 33rd edition of the award.
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