No time to waste in shorter pre-season
Roster continuity helps — unlike new-look Clippers after off-season overhaul
HONOLULU— The compressed nature of this year’s NBA pre-season has given exhibition games a bigger sense of urgency.
Most teams are playing a maximum of five — the Raptors included — when they would have played seven or even eight in other years.
“You get in a hurry a little bit, in terms of getting things in quicker,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said the day before Toronto opens its pre-season here against the Los Angeles Clippers. “You’re kind of doubling up on things you get in offensively and defensively. If we had seven or whatever the number was before, you had time to put it in.”
Abenefit for Toronto is that three of five starters, and basically the entire regular rotation, is already familiar with each other.
“That’s one good thing about having continuity from last year,” Casey said. “The older players know exactly what we’re doing in special situations. Some of the new tweaks we’re making offensively, everybody’s picking up on that, but again, that’s why it’s great to have a game against someone else . . . to be able to work on some of the things we need to work on.”
While the Raptors have continuity to help them through, their opponents for the first two games need all the time they can get together. The Clippers are no longer run by all-star point guard Chris Paul, who is now in Houston, and J.J. Redick is in Philadelphia. They are going to have a much different dynamic to them. They have added point guard Milos Teodosic and forward Danilo Gallinari to a group that still has Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan in the front court.
EURO WATCH: European television viewers are going to get an early look at the Raptors. Toronto’s home game against the Washington Wizards on Nov. 19 has been moved to a 3:30 p.m. start, from the original 6 p.m., to satisfy primetime TV commitments overseas. Originally, a game between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers was scheduled for that slot, but it was moved to later in the day after an NFL game involving the Miami Dolphins was rescheduled.
FOR NIGHT OWLS: Sunday’s debut (10 p.m. Eastern time) will be broadcast on Sportsnet One, Raptors officials said. Each of the team’s five exhibition games will be televised, and all except the Oct. 10 home game against the Detroit Pistons will use the opponent’s broadcast feed.