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The Toronto Raptors will be in East Rutherford tonight to take on the team that ended their season on May 4 in six games in the first round of the playoffs. That would be the New Jersey Nets, who defeated the Raptors 98-97 in the concluding game.
It seems premature to be talking about statement games, but the term was heard around the Raptors' practice court yesterday at the Air Canada Centre as the team prepared to visit New Jersey.
Perhaps these first games in the NBA regular season take on a little more significance because the Raptors are opening against teams within their division, the Atlantic. It is a division they won last season, but it might be more difficult to do this season because of the improvement of the Boston Celtics.
The Raptors opened the season with a 106-97 victory at home on Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers. After playing the Nets at the IZOD Center tonight, the Raptors will return to the Air Canada Centre for a game on Sunday against the Celtics, the team that took away much of the preseason hype from the Raptors.
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- Boston Celtics
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- Toronto Raptors
- Chris Bosh
- T.J. Ford
- Kris Humphries
The term "statement game" was presented to reserve forward Kris Humphries in the midst of a discussion about his signing a three-year contract extension worth about $9-million (U.S.). Point guard T.J. Ford used the term "statement game" on Wednesday.
Humphries picked up on the theme.
"I think we've got to come out and show them [the Nets] that we've got a little bit of a different team this year," he said. "We're older, more mature. I think that they think that [because] their core group has been to the finals a couple of times and done this and that, that they can just come in and you know we're going to fold up."
The Raptors are 7-16 in New Jersey over the years in the regular season, including a 0-2 record last year. They were 0-3 there in the playoffs.
"We're eager to win, we haven't won there in a while," Raptors forward Chris Bosh said. "Not only is it a regular-season game, it's a division opponent, it's against the team that put us out of the playoffs last year. So it's going to be a really good game. We've got to come out with a lot of focus and be intense."
The Raptors also would like to establish that they can win on the road in places like New Jersey, which is something they must do to go to the next level and be a championship contender instead of merely a playoff contender.
It is also another step in the return to top form and fitness for their most important player, Bosh, who missed three weeks of the exhibition season because of a knee injury.
He scored 16 points in 26 minutes on Wednesday.
