Back to the scene of the crime! The crime, of course, being how awful the Raptors played in Orlando in last year’s first-round playoff exit. They were terrible, let’s not mince any words.

Orlando returns pretty much the same; they’ve added Michael Peitrus on the wing, replacing Maurice Evans in the starting lineup. Toronto, of course, had added Jermaine O’Neal and he should help defend against Dwight Howard.

Howard is a beast. He obliterated the Raptors last spring, averaging 19-18. Yes, that’s 18 boards per game. He’s putting up his usual gaudy numbers this year, 22 and 14, and actually, what’s amazing is that he doesn’t score more. No one can stop the guy! Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s shooting only 50% on free throws. He shoots almost 12 a game! And makes just over 6! Think about that. If he shot 75%, that’s almost three more points per game! He’s basically throwing these stats away by not becoming a better free throw shooter. It’s actually a little sad that he’s not willing to put the work into it.

Of course, they don’t seem to be suffering for it. They’re 7-3 and have won 3 straight. Raps are 5-4 and have lost 4 of 6, and haven’t beaten a playoff-caliber team yet.

It’ll be interesting to see how the new starting lineup fares against the Magic. If you’ll recall, Bargnani started a couple games at the SF position in the playoffs and well, it wasn’t pretty. He was overmatched by Hedo Turkoglu. Of course, this year’s Bargnani appears to be a much more capable defender. I’ve been suitably impressed with Andrea’s game on the defensive end; his offense is still a little inconsistent but he’s contributing on D every possession, which he didn’t do last year. Plus, he’s got a capable help defender and shot blocker behind him in O’Neal, which he didn’t have last year. So I don’t think it’ll be as much of a mismatch as it was last year.

On the other end, Bosh can’t allow himself to get complacent against Rashard Lewis. Lewis is long and athletic, but I don’t believe he has the foot speed to keep up with Bosh. Bosh needs to be driving on him every time - making Dwight Howard come over to help, and that should either get Howard in foul trouble, leave Jermaine open for dunks and putbacks. But, if Bosh plays like he did in the playoffs last year - settling for long jumpers, not getting to the line - it’s going to be a long night.

My personal strategy, although it’s one I hate, has to be to foul Dwight Howard

No word yet on if Calderon plays, but if he does, he’s got to play some defense on Jameer Nelson. We made him look like Isiah Thomas in last year’s playoffs; as good as Turkoglu was, I’d say Nelson was their second best player (behind Howard) because he did so many things - he really forced the defense to react to him (and naturally, the Raptors’ defense reacted poorly).

I have to be honest, I don’t have high hopes for this one. I think Orlando simply has too many offensive weapons, and even if the Raps play a great defensive game - which we know they won’t - they’ll still put up a lot of points. The Raptors, meanwhile, have struggled to score all year long, and I can’t imagine the size and length of Orlando is going to lead to easy buckets on Toronto’s behalf. Truth be told, I expect an Orlando blowout, by about 17.

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