The Raps may be without any and all of Chris Bosh, Antoine Wright and Hedo Turkoglu when they face the Clippers.
Hopefully, Toronto will have all hands on deck tonight for their tilt against the Clippers. Head coach Jay Triano said that Chris Bosh, Antoine Wright and Hedo Turkoglu were banged up and did not practice yesterday.
"Not sure, it'll be something that we will have to watch through our walk through here today," Triano said. "We'll monitor it throughout the day."
When asked if it will be a game-time decision for the trio, Triano answered, "For some of those guys, yes."
With the Raptors set to take on the Clippers tonight in Los Angeles, it means a homecoming for three Toronto players. DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson and Antoine Wright are all Los Angeles area products and are excited to be back home.
It will be the first trip home for DeRozan but he is taking it in stride saying that it's the same arena that he played in when his USC Trojans won the Pac 10 tournament and he walked away with MVP honours. DeRozan and Wright were showing their Toronto colours last night as they exited the team bus at the hotel. The rookie was wearing Blue Jays baseball cap while Wright was sporting a Toronto Maple Leafs number.
DeRozan is looking forward to playing in front of family and friends but he's not worrying about all the ticket requests.
"It's much different from college, with everybody coming at you for tickets and everything," the ninth-overall draft pick said. "I just tell them to go to my mom and dad and ask them. They handle everything right now and I'm just focused on the game."
Good luck to Jim LaBumbard, the Raptors Director of Media Relations as he plays "ticketmaster". It's a common issue for LaBumbard as players return home or to arenas that are close to home. Let's see, there was Reggie Evans in New Orleans, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from where he's from in the Florida panhandle. Then there is Chris Bosh in Dallas, and then Bosh and Jarrett Jack's requests will surely be numerous in Atlanta where they went to school at Georgia Tech. Wonder what it will be like when Hedo Turkoglu goes back to Sacramento and Orlando?
Traffic in Los Angeles is brutal. Exhibit A: following the 5-plus hour flight it took almost an hour to get to the hotel creeping through traffic. It forced the coaches that were doing the advance scouting on the Phoenix Suns, the Raptors next opponent, to really hustle to get through more traffic to the Staples Centre to see the Lakers take out the Suns last night.
And speaking of the Lakers, man do they look good. Los Angeles is atop the west with a 7-1 record and they are taking advantage of a favourable schedule. The Lakers have already played six home games and will have played 17 home games before December 11th. Kobe Bryant and company are in a stretch where 11 of their next 13 encounters take place in the friendly confines of the Staples Centre. Tonight's game against Denver is the only time they will leave the state and the time zone until December 12th when the start a five-game road trip in Utah. But give them credit, they are off to a great start and playing well without Pau Gasol.
The Lakers will get a taste of what every other team seems to go through when the come west as they will have the back-to-back in Denver tonight. It is one of the toughest back-to-backs in the league, leaving the west coast and then losing an hour to go to the Mountain Time zone and play the next night. I would love to see the collective records of teams in that situation, particularly on the second night in Denver, Utah or Phoenix. Speaking of the Suns, I'd hate to be their next opponent as they flew back to Phoenix following the drubbing last night here in Los Angeles. Oh wait a minute, the Raptors head to the desert for a Sunday evening match-up with the Suns.
