Game 1 - Pacers @ Raptors, October 31, 2012
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:38 am
7:00 PM ET, October 31, 2012
@ Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
Random Facts About October 31
1. 1967 - Vanilla Ice is born
2. It's National Caramel Apple Day
3. 1990 - Singer Billy Idol dumped 600 dead fish on his opening act, Faith No More, during a Seattle concert and put four pigs and a goat in their dressing room. The group retaliated by parading naked on stage during Idol's encore.
4. 1992 - Regina Johnson, Michael Green, and Daniel Salcedo displayed history’s largest jack-o-lantern in Nut Tree, California, carved the day before from an 827-pound pumpkin.
Starting Lineup
Granger's absence will definitely be missed, although 4 of the 5 starters from last year should be available to start the season. Green will slide into the starting lineup, and by doing so will keep us a threat from 1 through 5 on the offensive end. Really looking for Paul George to step up in Granger's absence. Let's also hope Hibbert and West can provide some big time inspiration up front.
Hill is listed as likely, his quality will be needed in the guard rotation.
Bench Players
Mahinmi and Augustin are the two big additions to the bench, as will Green be when Granger returns. I suspect Stephenson and Young may get a few minutes in this one. Watch out for Mahinmi's length and athleticism, which has been a highlight so far this pre-season. Augustin's suspect defense has me worried, here's hoping his distributing more than makes up for it.
Rotation
PG- Hill/Augustin/B.Hansbrough
SG- George/Stephenson/Jordan
SF- Green/Young
PF- West/T.Hansbrough/Plumlee
Cc- Hibbert/Mahinmi
Starting Lineup
Lowry, Fields and Valanciunas join DeRozan and Bargnani for this upcoming season in the starting lineup. Lowry is always crafty and a big handful, I'm very interested to watch the very athletic Valanciunas too. Fields was an interesting choice for Toronto, but his mutli skilled game should work well with this unit. Bargnani should be dangerous as always, restricting his shot selection could well be key to this one.
Bench Players
I'm interested to see how Terrence Ross gets his career off and running, he looks like a really nice prospect. Kleiza, Johnson and Calderon give this second unit a lot of experience and quality. If it comes down to bench play, the Pacers might well be in trouble.
Rotation
PG- Lowry/Calderon/Lucas
SG- DeRozan/Ross
SF- Fields/Kleiza
PF- Bargnani/Johnson/Davis
Cc- Valanciunas/Gray
Injury Reports
Pacers
- Danny Granger SF - Oct 29: Out
- George Hill PG - Oct 29: Day-To-Day
Raptors
- Jose Calderon PG - Oct 28: Day-To-Day
- John Lucas PG - Oct 28: Day-To-Day
Preview
Via ESPN.com
After winning a playoff series for the first time in seven seasons, the Indiana Pacers want to take the next step.
Preseason predictions that the Toronto Raptors will suffer through a fifth straight losing season have them motivated to prove the naysayers wrong.
The Pacers won all three meetings with the Raptors in 2011-12, and they'll look to make it four straight in the series in the teams' opener Wednesday night at Air Canada Centre.
Indiana went 42-24 last season for the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers knocked out Orlando in the first round for their first series victory since 2005 before losing to eventual champion Miami in the conference semifinals.
With Derrick Rose injured to start the season for Central Division champion Chicago, Indiana believes it can finish even higher in 2012-13.
"From looking at a playoff standpoint, we got to the second round last year, so we're hoping to get further than that. We got a third seed in the regular season and we're hoping to do better than that," coach Frank Vogel said. "Those are probably the first steps in terms of taking that next step as a franchise."
Star swingman Danny Granger is back to lead a promising group that includes Roy Hibbert and Indianapolis product George Hill, both signed to long-term deals in the offseason.
"We do have high expectations and with that comes a different kind of burden," said Granger, who has been slowed throughout the preseason by a patella tendon injury in his left knee. "With the guys coming back, I feel like we're further along than we ever have been."
Toronto went 23-43 a season ago with star forward Andrea Bargnani missing more than half of it with numerous injuries. His absence was a big reason why the Raptors were the third-lowest scoring team in the NBA at 90.7 points per game.
Not surprisingly, little improvement is expected from Toronto this season -- which the club seems ready to use as a rallying point.
"Some people say they don't read the negative stuff and everything," said swingman DeMar DeRozan, who has also been the target of criticism despite averaging 16.7 points last season. "I use it as motivation. It's frustrating at times. It makes you want to work that much harder at the end of the day, prove everybody wrong."
The Raptors have some new faces, and their most anticipated debut will be by rookie 7-footer Jonas Valanciunas. The Lithuanian center, Toronto's first-round pick in 2011, missed training camp but averaged 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in six preseason games.
"I think I'm learning something from every practice so whenever you're moving, whenever you're doing something, you're learning something," Valanciunas said. "So I am trying to learn as much as I can."
Toronto has added point guards Kyle Lowry and John Lucas as well as swingman Landry Fields to complement the nucleus of first-round picks Bargnani, DeRozan and Valanciunas.
In some ways, the Raptors are building their team in similar fashion to the Pacers. Indiana posted five straight losing records before last season.
"We have something special here," the Pacers' Paul George said. "That makes it even more exciting knowing that everybody's on the same page."
George, Granger and Hill all averaged 14.3 points in the 2011-12 sweep of Toronto. DeRozan averaged 18.3.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey is 3-0 in season openers.
Inspired Images
Tradition
Related Content
http://www.nba.com/pacers
http://www.nba.com/raptors
Behind enemy lines (keep it civil guys):
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1210282
General NBA gamethreads of the day found here:
viewforum.php?f=6
Let's Go Pacers!!!!!
@ Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
Random Facts About October 31
1. 1967 - Vanilla Ice is born
2. It's National Caramel Apple Day
3. 1990 - Singer Billy Idol dumped 600 dead fish on his opening act, Faith No More, during a Seattle concert and put four pigs and a goat in their dressing room. The group retaliated by parading naked on stage during Idol's encore.
4. 1992 - Regina Johnson, Michael Green, and Daniel Salcedo displayed history’s largest jack-o-lantern in Nut Tree, California, carved the day before from an 827-pound pumpkin.
Starting Lineup
Granger's absence will definitely be missed, although 4 of the 5 starters from last year should be available to start the season. Green will slide into the starting lineup, and by doing so will keep us a threat from 1 through 5 on the offensive end. Really looking for Paul George to step up in Granger's absence. Let's also hope Hibbert and West can provide some big time inspiration up front.
Hill is listed as likely, his quality will be needed in the guard rotation.
Bench Players
Mahinmi and Augustin are the two big additions to the bench, as will Green be when Granger returns. I suspect Stephenson and Young may get a few minutes in this one. Watch out for Mahinmi's length and athleticism, which has been a highlight so far this pre-season. Augustin's suspect defense has me worried, here's hoping his distributing more than makes up for it.
Rotation
PG- Hill/Augustin/B.Hansbrough
SG- George/Stephenson/Jordan
SF- Green/Young
PF- West/T.Hansbrough/Plumlee
Cc- Hibbert/Mahinmi
Starting Lineup
Lowry, Fields and Valanciunas join DeRozan and Bargnani for this upcoming season in the starting lineup. Lowry is always crafty and a big handful, I'm very interested to watch the very athletic Valanciunas too. Fields was an interesting choice for Toronto, but his mutli skilled game should work well with this unit. Bargnani should be dangerous as always, restricting his shot selection could well be key to this one.
Bench Players
I'm interested to see how Terrence Ross gets his career off and running, he looks like a really nice prospect. Kleiza, Johnson and Calderon give this second unit a lot of experience and quality. If it comes down to bench play, the Pacers might well be in trouble.
Rotation
PG- Lowry/Calderon/Lucas
SG- DeRozan/Ross
SF- Fields/Kleiza
PF- Bargnani/Johnson/Davis
Cc- Valanciunas/Gray
Injury Reports
Pacers
- Danny Granger SF - Oct 29: Out
- George Hill PG - Oct 29: Day-To-Day
Raptors
- Jose Calderon PG - Oct 28: Day-To-Day
- John Lucas PG - Oct 28: Day-To-Day
Preview
Via ESPN.com
After winning a playoff series for the first time in seven seasons, the Indiana Pacers want to take the next step.
Preseason predictions that the Toronto Raptors will suffer through a fifth straight losing season have them motivated to prove the naysayers wrong.
The Pacers won all three meetings with the Raptors in 2011-12, and they'll look to make it four straight in the series in the teams' opener Wednesday night at Air Canada Centre.
Indiana went 42-24 last season for the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers knocked out Orlando in the first round for their first series victory since 2005 before losing to eventual champion Miami in the conference semifinals.
With Derrick Rose injured to start the season for Central Division champion Chicago, Indiana believes it can finish even higher in 2012-13.
"From looking at a playoff standpoint, we got to the second round last year, so we're hoping to get further than that. We got a third seed in the regular season and we're hoping to do better than that," coach Frank Vogel said. "Those are probably the first steps in terms of taking that next step as a franchise."
Star swingman Danny Granger is back to lead a promising group that includes Roy Hibbert and Indianapolis product George Hill, both signed to long-term deals in the offseason.
"We do have high expectations and with that comes a different kind of burden," said Granger, who has been slowed throughout the preseason by a patella tendon injury in his left knee. "With the guys coming back, I feel like we're further along than we ever have been."
Toronto went 23-43 a season ago with star forward Andrea Bargnani missing more than half of it with numerous injuries. His absence was a big reason why the Raptors were the third-lowest scoring team in the NBA at 90.7 points per game.
Not surprisingly, little improvement is expected from Toronto this season -- which the club seems ready to use as a rallying point.
"Some people say they don't read the negative stuff and everything," said swingman DeMar DeRozan, who has also been the target of criticism despite averaging 16.7 points last season. "I use it as motivation. It's frustrating at times. It makes you want to work that much harder at the end of the day, prove everybody wrong."
The Raptors have some new faces, and their most anticipated debut will be by rookie 7-footer Jonas Valanciunas. The Lithuanian center, Toronto's first-round pick in 2011, missed training camp but averaged 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in six preseason games.
"I think I'm learning something from every practice so whenever you're moving, whenever you're doing something, you're learning something," Valanciunas said. "So I am trying to learn as much as I can."
Toronto has added point guards Kyle Lowry and John Lucas as well as swingman Landry Fields to complement the nucleus of first-round picks Bargnani, DeRozan and Valanciunas.
In some ways, the Raptors are building their team in similar fashion to the Pacers. Indiana posted five straight losing records before last season.
"We have something special here," the Pacers' Paul George said. "That makes it even more exciting knowing that everybody's on the same page."
George, Granger and Hill all averaged 14.3 points in the 2011-12 sweep of Toronto. DeRozan averaged 18.3.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey is 3-0 in season openers.
Inspired Images
Tradition
Related Content
http://www.nba.com/pacers
http://www.nba.com/raptors
Behind enemy lines (keep it civil guys):
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1210282
General NBA gamethreads of the day found here:
viewforum.php?f=6
Let's Go Pacers!!!!!