If the Toronto Raptors hope to be competitive this season, they have to start winning at home, a task that has proven to be pretty difficult thus far.
Fresh off a pair of victories away from home last weekend, the Raptors open a three-game homestand Wednesday night against the Utah Jazz.
Raptors rookie Jamario Moon is turning heads in Toronto.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
Playing on the road in the second of back-to-back games, the Raptors turned in an inspired effort and trounced the Bulls 101-71 in Chicago on Saturday. The previous night in Philadelphia, the Raptors edged the 76ers 105-103.
Those wins helped the Raptors improve their record to 4-3 on the season and move into second place in the Atlantic Division.
Looking to extend their winning streak to three games, the Raptors could find the going tough against the Northwest Division leading Jazz (6-2), even though they will enjoy homecourt advantage.
The Raptors have struggled this season at home, losing two of their three games at the Air Canada Centre. Toronto is also shooting a meagre 40.9 per cent from the field at home compared to 48.2 on the road.
"It's still early in the season and we have a lot of things we need to get better at," Raptors point guard T.J. Ford said at Monday's practice.
"We have three games at home, big games we need. We have a tough club with Utah to start it off."
Utah will prove to be a difficult opponent.
Winners of four straight games, the Jazz lead the NBA with a stellar 111.9 points per game and are shooting 50 per cent from the field. Last season, Utah averaged 101.5 points and finished tied for second in the league in field-goal percentage (47.4).
One player the Raptors will have to keep close tabs on is Carlos Boozer. The Jazz forward is leading the NBA with seven double-doubles in eight games and is sixth in scoring (26.2 points per game).
"We're just trying to move the ball offensively and hit the open man and the guys are shooting the ball with confidence," said Boozer, who scored 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Utah's 117-93 win over Sacramento on Monday.
High-flying dunks
"The thing we are going to try and continue to do is to hold teams under 100 and today that's two games in a row for us. Hopefully we can keep that up on the road."
Against Chicago, rookie Jamario Moon started at small forward for Toronto and posted his second straight impressive performance — using a dizzying array of high-flying dunks to notch 12 points, six rebounds and three steals.
One day after an impressive block on fellow high-flyer Andre Igoudala of the Philadelphia 76ers, Moon had more impressive stuff against Bulls talented swingman Luol Deng and limited him to just 2-7 shooting from the field.
"We thought we could use his defence against this team," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "I started him because I felt like taking a roll of the dice, I would take a chance tonight."
The Raptors play the Indiana Pacers Friday night and then host the Golden State Warriors Sunday afternoon.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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