Tristan Thompson has been playing 20 minutes a game and putting up 9.8 points and 5.2 boards with 1.8 blocks a game with his weakness is at the free throw line where he is 7 for 18 (38.9%) and last night in a Cavs 115-101 victory he had 16 points (7 of 16 from the floor) and 9 boards and there will be a lot of attention played to him before and after the game while he may have friends and family in the crowd and it maybe an important game for the Brampton native.
Also the Cavs have Kyrie Irving who is averaging 25.8 minutes and is scoring 14.8 points and pulling down 3.8 boards a game and is shooting and 3-ball (6 of 13) and shooting jumpers (22 of 48) and going to the basket (11 of 14 from the line) and last night he had a very smart game last night with a 8 for 10 from the floor along with 2 of 2 from the line and 2 of 2 from beyond the arc for 20 points with 2 blocks and 2 boards in 22 minutes. Antawn Jamison is the veteran leader of of this 3-2 team who has taken 13 more shots than Irving who is second on the team who is shooting 60% from the line (12 of 20) and is scoring 16.8 a game and is not sharing the ball a lot as he only has 5 assists and plays outside with only 24 boards and 6 steals to 7 turnovers. Former Raptor Anthony Parker is shooting 3's with 21 of his 34 shoots from beyond the arc and Anderson Varejao is by far the leading rebounder with 9.2 a game and the next closest is Thompson with 5.2 a game. The Cavs are jacking up 3's with 20.8 3's attempted asnd making 8.8 a game while bring down 40.6 boards and opponents are getting 41.8 a game and is shooting 46.7% and opponents are shooting 43.6 from the floor.
The Raptors will need another great first half from DeMar who had 16 of his 21 points and Andrea had another great game with 21 points and 5 boards and Rasual Butler had his first positive game putting up very important points as all his 13 points where timely and he hit the glass hard with 10 boards and will need to come up with the important points. Then there is Canadian Jamaal Magloire who has been going after the opponents big body and for the Cavs that will put him face to face and body to body with Anderson Varejao which will be almost as hard as it was keeping Chandler off the boards on Monday, Howard off the boards on Sunday in Orlando, and Brendan Haywood last Friday night in Dallas.
The Raptors if they play like they did on the road for the first three quarters in the road games they will be able to pull of a victory by putting a bunch of points in the fourth quarters but if they play down to their opponents they will have some very upset fans leaving the ACC because their opponents on the road trip are much better than the Cavs.
Lets see what happens
Tom Mehegan
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