Credit: Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

1. Preventing a letdown

So I decided not to copy/paste the keys either yesterday’s game the last Raptors game preview (aside from Andrea Bargnani missing the game, everything will be the same – here’s a link if you want that information). Instead, taking into consideration the lineup change, I want to look at what to expect in this circumstance.

Jodie Meeks and Nikola Vucevic returned to the starting lineup, as many of you saw last night. The switch seemingly worked as the Sixers won, though the new starters (and the whole starting lineup in general) played poorly. The struggles might be because our two best scorers come off the bench, and no one in our starting five can be relied upon for scoring because our offense is in the toilet, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, the Raptors are even more reliant now on D-Leaguers and 10-days. This would be quite the epic meltdown if the Sixers lose.

2. Turner’s body language

I usually don’t like going into player psychology. I’m not a psychologist. I don’t know the players and what they are thinking, and I try not to pretend to. I don’t believe in clutch genes and the like. But Evan Turner seemed, to me, to be the target of Doug’s rant on the “fickle” and “sensitive” nature of today’s players. He played better as a starter than as a reserve, but the team didn’t improve. So he goes back to the bench, his minutes cut, his future even cloudier. He didn’t respond well statistically, nor did he seem to be happy.

There’s a few ways to respond to adversity, like getting benched when you feel you should be a starter. Usually, the response involves how the player channels anger. Spencer Hawes seemingly used it as motivation, playing hard the entire game, getting to the foul line and having his best game post-injury in limited minutes. He felt he had something to prove. Evan has a different response – he tends to sulk and get frustrated when things don’t go his way. You can tell he wants to do well, but it doesn’t seem as if he wants to prove people wrong – he just wants to play his game.

I don’t expect him to react well to a demotion. Nor do I really want him to. But I would like him to stand up, accept what’s happened, and use that motivation to get better.

3. Foul shooting

The Sixers are a team of extremes. An extremely strong start, extreme struggles in the clutch and against bad teams, extremely good defense, extremely turnover-cognizant, and extremely foul-resistant. The last is one of the more extreme – the Sixers get to the free throw line less than any team in history. They instead settle for so many 18 footers so as to make them sad to watch offensively.

Free throws and foul shots are interchangeable terms, but the Sixers take a large percentage of “foul” shots – ones that don’t go in because of where they are taken from. 18 footers, this team’s specialty, need to be avoided in order to improve our largely stagnant offense. Getting free throws, instead of “foul” shots, will help last night’s offensive output continue into the future.

Credit: John E. Sokolowski-US PRESSWIRE

1. “Give it to the Italian”

Andrea Bargnani, by managing to score 20+ points per game last year, became vastly overrated by non-Raptors fans. He actually provided little to no value on the whole, with his inefficient style of scoring as well as being one of the worst defensive players in the NBA and a sad rebounder. Under new coach Dwane Casey, who was on the Mavericks bench last year and designed the defense that shut Miami down in the Finals, Bargnani has picked up the intensity on the end of the floor fans seemingly couldn’t care less about, becoming a much better player in the process.

Of course, the reason Bargnani plays in the NBA is because of his diverse offensive arsenal. While he’s more than willing to jack up threes, he also has a solid post and midrange game. Injuries have derailed him some lately, but he’s a tough cover for opposing centers. Look for the Sixers to rotate his defenders – you’ll definitely see our three-man frontline rotation along with possibly Lavoy Allen picking up the assignment to cover the former number one overall pick. All will have to manage the Jose Calderon-Bargnani pick-and-roll well to shut down Toronto’s offense.

2. DeMar DeRozan’s offense, or lack thereof

Assuming Andre Iguodala plays tonight (he’s listed as “available” according to Sixers PR guru Mike Preston), DeMar DeRozan will be in for the fight of his life, at least on a basketball court. DeRozan is a one-dimensional scorer, with a sweet midrange game but little else. He also has a severe case of tunnel vision, averaging more turnovers than assists – he’d be the NBA’s ball hog posterchild if it weren’t for someone named Nick Young who now plays in LA.

So you have a guy who is determined to score who is also only effective within 20 feet. It sounds like an Iguodala shut down game to me.

3. Unleash the Turner

Evan Turner, despite the loss, had another good game last night. But as I mentioned in the game review, the scoring output seemed a bit fluky, given the competition. With the majority of his minutes likely to be defended by James Johnson (a poor man’s Iguodala) or DeRozan, he won’t have as easy of a time scoring the basketball. But that doesn’t mean he can’t score – it will just be more difficult against his primary defenders. I would actually like to see Turner receive minutes at the point tonight – Calderon can run the offense well but Turner should have too much trouble defending him, and Turner can abuse Calderon on the other end.