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Raptors @ Cavaliers Game Thread: Mo Pete is BACK!

FOR MY CANADIANS: 7:00PM ET, TheScore

Quote:

Cleveland hasn't shot the ball well all season, but in its last outing, the team hit a new low.

The Cavaliers look to bounce back from a disastrous offensive effort when they host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Cleveland (10-7) ranks near the bottom of the league with a .443 shooting percentage and 94.9 points scored per game. The Cavs nearly broke a team record by shooting 28.2 percent in Saturday's 81-63 loss at Houston.

They failed to reach 20 points in any quarter and eclipsed their previous season low for points by 24. Cleveland scored a franchise-low 59 points in 1997 against San Antonio.

Coach Mike Brown credited Houston, which came into the game with the league's top scoring defense, and a number of players said it was the best the Cavs had seen all season.

``For us to only score 63 points and shoot 25 percent from the field, you know that team's defense had a lot to do with it, and I give them a lot of credit,'' Brown said. ``We tried a lot of different things, and none of them seemed to work. It had to do with how good of a defensive team they are.''

Cleveland star LeBron James, who scored 21 points but made just 7-of-22 shots from the field, said the offense deserved its share of the blame.

``Most of the shots we missed were good looks or shots we usually make,'' said James, who is averaging 27.4 points per game on 46.4 percent shooting.

Cleveland was coming off a 106-95 win at Atlanta in which it reached 100 points for just the fifth time this season. The Cavs have failed to score 90 points in five of their 17 games.

Cleveland could have a chance to bounce back against the Raptors (7-10), who are allowing opponents to shoot 46.9 percent and score 101.0 points per game, ranking them near the bottom of the league. Toronto has given up at least 100 points in each of its last three games.

The Raptors, though, have won four of their last five, including Saturday's 103-100 victory at New York. T.J. Ford had 20 points and 10 assists and helped the Raptors hold off a late Knicks rally, while Chris Bosh, who leads the team with 21.1 points and 12.2 rebounds per game, had 26 points and 13 boards.

``I just understand that there's two people who are going to have the ball, either me or Chris,'' Ford said. ``One of us has to make a play. And I just wanted to continue to build the confidence in my teammates to know that down the stretch, if we need a play or we need a shot ... they're going to have just as much confidence as I have in myself that I'm going to make the right play.''

Toronto has won two of three on the road after losing its first seven away from home this season.

The Raptors beat the Cavaliers 95-87 on Nov. 22, ending a four-game losing streak in the series. Bosh had 25 points and 14 rebounds, while James had 30 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Toronto has lost three straight and five of its last seven visits to Cleveland.

Road game vs a solid team, can't say I think the Raptors will win but whatever, go Raptors!

we need a tough road win like this going into chicago. our offense is struggling early tho... cleveland isn't doing much better...

also... why the HELL isn't the shot clock working in this game? the announcers are saying "15 seconds, 10 seconds," etc to make up for it. absolutely rediculous, this is the NBA.

Really wish I could watch this but still stuck at the uni(1.25 am here), so I guess I will have to settle for commentary + boxscore for now.

Can anyone tell me how Daniel Gibson looks ? He's getting a lot more PT lately, which might be a good sign, his stats aren't impressive though.

God the cavs suck lately, had my hopes up with the 10-4 start then Raptors go on a 13-0 run ....:banghead:

mo petes mvp campain is back on track

bargnani looking solid so far... needs to step it up on the boards tho.. raps are being out rebounded.

lmao @ swirsky with the throw back joke. "The arena is having electrical problems with the shotclock, i know today is throw back day but come on"

he just had a pretty nice Canadian joke also about hockey.

Looks like another poor game from the cavs, sub 40% shooting and 6 turnovers vs none ...

We need Hughes back badly, what the hell is taking so long with him anyway ?

the announcer is getting kind of annoying with the shot clock counting... :confusedshrug:

Mo Pete?

I don't think he is playing...

Is Mopete going to play?? I don't think he's been in yet...

Good effort by the Raptors in that half. They actually played solid defense and contained the Cavs.

- Lebron could tear apart the Raptors anytime he wants. I don't know why he only started being aggressive at the end of the half. He is passing up too many opportunities.

- TJ Ford sat for too long IMO. Calderon did have 4 assists but the offense just seems to get stagnant when he's in there. Ford had a great half. I love seeing him in there creating easy shots for everyone.

- Good half by Parker. He, like Garbajosa, needs to start stepping in on those 3's because it doesn't seem like he has the range but he's playing really well so far.

- Good half from Bosh as well. Doesn't seem like the eye infection is bothering him much. The Raptors really need him on the floor because their rebounding disappears completely when he's on the bench.

- Garbajosa playing solid D as usual as well.

- Bargnani needs to use his size as an advantage more. He did that in the last minute of the half but it has to happen more often on both ends. Right now he is a 7'1 SG and that's not good. Get him touches in the post, GET SOME REBOUNDS PLEASE!!

As much as I love Bargs, and got really excited by his last minute post score and block, I was sad to see Rasho being taken out, especially after he had a nice tough foul on LeBron going to the basket. That's exactly what we need a real center for - to protect the paint, and yet Mitchell gave him the yank for, as Q put it, a 7'1 SG. :rolleyes:

Mo-Pete is dressed for the game, I don't know why Mitchell hasn't put him in yet. I'm pretty sure we could use Mo to guard Lebron.