Daily Papers - February 10, 2008

Post #1 » by **supersub15** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:26 pm

Toronto Star
Focus the key as all-star break looms

If there is a break for the Raptors, it's that Minnesota doesn't have the dominant wing player that's given Toronto fits this year. Al Jefferson, the Minnesota centre Mitchell referred to as "a beast" yesterday, is the key cog in the offence.

"Teams go like this," said Mitchell, making the universal sign for a roller-coaster ride with his hand. "And any time you're playing at home, you play a little bit harder.

"The thing about a post guy is if your traps are good, you can go get the ball out of his hands. The thing about a guy on the perimeter is, when he faces you up, the defence is back on its heels and when he penetrates, he sucks the defence in and you open yourself up to offensive rebounds and draw and kicks."

Toronto Sun
Major week starts in Minny

"We want to finish strong. These (last three games before the break) are important because we're getting to that point where the season is short now. You're getting down to where you have 30-plus games left to go. After the all-star break you have a two-month season."

Mitchell says the only team in the East that really is beyond making a playoff charge is the Miami Heat.

"If you have 18 or 19 wins you are still in it for the seventh and eighth spots," he said. "If you have more wins -- we have 26 wins -- you don't want to be looking behind you. You want to keep playing well. Our whole thing is just worry about ourselves and not worry about anything else. Just go out and play."

Consistency needed

Normally, a practice before a set of back-to-back games is kept to the barest minimum, but head coach Sam Mitchell had his players on the run yesterday.

"We know what our mistakes were," Calderon said. "We know what we have to do better but we had some work to do because the night before was not very good."

Contra Costa Times
Bulked up Ford provides Raptors nice surprise

"I think he forgot to do the maintenance work to keep his body up," Lucas told the Toronto Sun. "He looked more like one of those rappers, Snoop Dogg. His muscle tone had left because he hadn't done the work."

Houston Business Journal
Field of Dream: Olajuwon buys ranchland

Indeed, the property just south of the intersection of FM 1489 and Interstate 10 is a world apart from Olajuwon's typical real estate investments, which have included historic office buildings, abandoned retail centers and vacant downtown land.

TwinCities StarTribune
Gameday: Wolves vs. Toronto

Only seven teams have shot .400 or better for the season from behind the three-point arc since the shot was introduced during the 1979-80 season. The Raptors -- 370-for-877, 42.5 percent -- are on pace for the second-best percentage in history, behind Charlotte's 42.8 percent in 1995-96. ... No word yet whether the Wolves have a one-minute pregame exemption for a tribute to former Timberwolf Sam Mitchell, the Raptors' head coach.

ESPN Fantasy Daily
Daily Notes for Sunday

Rashad McCants has been remarkably consistent lately, scoring in double figures in 12 of his past 15 games and shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor over that stretch. He could be ripe for a breakout game against Toronto on Sunday because the Raptors have trouble with scoring guards and let teams shoot 37 percent from the 3-point line this season.

Coolhandbud · Post #2 » by **Coolhandbud** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:36 pm

The Sun

Ref wore a wire

"A few years ago, Kobe (Bryant) committed a foul and was talking to me," Delaney recalled. "Watching the tape later, the announcers were saying: 'Kobe's giving Delaney an earful.' But really, he was asking what wearing a wire was like and said: 'It must have been wild.' "

Major week starts in Minny

Mitchell, who is as likely to give any one game more credence than the next as he is to be found shouting the media's praises from a tall building, broke his own rule yesterday when he admitted that the club's final three games before the all-star break -- against Minnesota, San Antonio and New Jersey -- just might have some added significance.

Consistency needed

"We know the whole game doesn't come down to the last two or three minutes," Calderon said. "We have to play for 48. It can't matter what the record is of the other team. It was just a bad loss. It was a game we had to win."

1,000 pardons needed for flaws

Of the many flaws that exist, the most glaring is the Raptors' inability to defend athletic players on the wing, offensively minded athletes who can put the ball on the floor and attack the rim on virtually every possession.

The Star

Focus the key as all-star break looms

The Raptors have arrived at a watershed moment in a long and tiring NBA season, three games and four days before the much-welcomed all-star break arrives, a time when mental toughness is as crucial as physical execution.

Sam can do without wicked West

"Phoenix is tough . . . the Lakers now are nine deep . . . and not even talking about how good New Orleans have been this year, or how good Dallas has been. Those four teams right there