After a summer of intense activity -- nine new players from the end of last season, a splashy free agent acquisition in Hedo Turkoglu -- there was an aura of optimism around the Raptors. The preseason dampened some of that, and that might be good for the team. Struggling to a 2-6 preseason that included time lost to injuries for Chris Bosh, Turkoglu, Antoine Wright and Reggie Evans, the Raptors are very much a work in progress. Flying under the radar of fans and so-called experts may not be a bad thing at all.
"I don't want to get into either setting or limiting standards of where we want to be. If teams have us sixth, that's fine; if teams have us eighth, that's motivation," was how head coach Jay Triano put it.
Heading into a Friday night game at Memphis to open the road portion of the season, the Raptors need to survive an early schedule that sees them play eight of their first 12 on the road and includes dates with Orlando, Cleveland and San Antonio.
It's important that they survive mentally because the easiest thing for a young team unfamiliar with each other is to fracture when things get tough.
RAPTORS 101, CAVALIERS 91: Andrea Bargnani, too quick for Shaquille O'Neal to handle and willing to move the big man away from the basket, had a game-high 28 points on 11-for-15 shooting from the field in Toronto's upset win. The Raptors held Cleveland to just 34.9 percent shooting from the floor and beat the Cavs for the first time in five meetings.
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