Game 1 Hawks at Raptors Opening Night!

The day has finally come!! After a long off-season and 8 meaningless preseason games the Toronto Raptors' 2014-2015 season officially begins tonight with the Atlanta Hawks coming to town!
Will Drake be in attendance? Will the ACC be packed with screaming Raptors fans like the last time we saw it in the Playoffs? Will any former Raptors be courtside? We'll have to wait an see!!

A few things to look for

• Lou Williams squaring off against his former team. Him and Kyle Korver will likely be trading 3-point attempts all night
• Al Horford, Atlanta's dominant big man, is back. Valanciunas and Amir Johnson will have their hands full trying to contain him. If Horford goes off, it will be a long night for the Raptors.
• Kyle Lowry and Jeff Teague will go head to head as starting point guards. Both men were overlooked in last year's All-Star Game. Will those chips on the shoulders be in full view tonight!

Ladyhawke is a singer/songwriter based out of New Zealand who took her stage name from the 1985 movie Ladyhawke. After playing a few bands, she broke out on her own and released a killer of a self titled debut album. Though clearly influenced by indie rock and synth-pop most of the songs on the CD have muscle behind them and refuse to be ignored in the background of record shops and smokey bars. "Magic" is the song that I first heard by her, so i'll include here as the first official Raptor Track if the 2014-15 NBA season. And if the Atlanta Hawks don't call their cheerleaders the Lady-Hawks, they've missed a big opportunity.

Let's hope for some magic tonight! Go Raptors!!!!

Preseason Game 8 Knicks at Raptors

PRESEASON IS OVAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

With a 83-80 victory over the New York Knicks the Raptors' preseason comes to an end and the regular season is just around the corner on October 29th with a home opener against the Atlanta Hawks.

• Tonight's game was played in Montreal, QC in front of what appeared to be a sold out crowd. Good to see another Canadian city get amped for NBA Basketball. Time will tell if a new franchise could be supported there.
• Though downright filthy and sloppy times, the contest tonight had some intense moments. Iman Shumpert shutting down DeMar DeRozan on multiple occasions and 4 technical fouls handed out to players and coaches. It's clear to see the players (and refs) are ready for the season to start.
• Triangle. Triangle. Triangle. Definitely the buzzword of the night. We'll see if the Knicks' new offensive style can get them to the post-season this year.

Of Montreal are a band from Athens, Georgia, the same city that gave us REM. Lead singer Kevin Barnes named the group after breaking up with a woman from Montreal. Since their beginnings in 1997 Of Montreal have had a successful and critically acclaimed career. One of their funnest songs and videos comes from the 2006 EP Deflated Chime, Foals Slighty Flower Sibylline Responses, it too has a longer than usual title "Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games)"

Let the season begin!!!

Preseason Game 7 Maccabi Haifa B.C at Raptors

This is a little later today than I would have liked, but since i'm in Ottawa and certain terrible events transpired today, we'll have to live with it. It's times like these that we need these happy distractions so people can come together and celebrate the freedom we hold so dear.

Maccabi Haifa B.C are an Israeli Basketball Club who play in the Israeli Superleague. This passed season they made it all the way to the finals only to lose to Maccabi Tel Aviv. The PreSeason is chalk full of games like this. Either played in a foreign country to boost international interest in the NBA or against a team from a foreign country to boost interest in international play. This preseason Haifa BC have already played against the Washington Wizards, Portland Trailblazers and Sacramento Kings. They have lost all 3 games.

• Tonight could mark the preseason debut of Lucas "Bebe" Nogueira who has been sidelined with a groin injury. Looks like he's been activated!
• Maccabi Haifa B.C. have 5 players of US nationality playing on their team
• After tonight's game there is one more preseason match up on Friday against The Knicks which will be played in Montreal. Then it's off to the regular season!

Silverchair are one of those bands that comes to mind when someone mentions 90's grunge rock. Sure they were quickly signed to be the next Nirvana, even their line-up and style of dress mimicked Kurt Cobain and co. They were, thankfully, a great band though and their debut album Frogstomp still ranks high on my favourites from that decade. 

From that album here is "Israel's Son" which was the third single released behind "Tomorrow" and "Pure Massacre". Before Silverchair  took a hiatus in 2003 "Israel's Son" was the only song from Frogstomp that the band still performed live.

2 more games to go!

Preseason Game 6 Raptors at Thunder

Still on the road and finally a preseason game against a team that was over .500 last year. Though it is still preseason so anything can happen. The Raptors are in Wichita, Kansas to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

• The Intrust Arena in Wichita is home to the Wichita Thunder an ECHL hockey team and the Wichita State Shockers are an NCAA basketball team that went undefeated headed into the March Madness Tournament last year.
• OKC's star Kevin Durant is out an estimated 6 weeks due to a fractured foot bone. This very injury is the very reason many teams rest key players for preseason games.
• Last year the 2 regular season games between these 2 teams wer very hotly contested. With the Raptors taking the first game and ending the Thunder's undefeated home streak and the second game went to double overtime with the Thunder coming out on top.

I'll keep the "Thunderstruck"s and "Thunder Road"s for another time. This is Thundercat time. Thundercat is a very talented bass player from California and has worked with Flying Lotus and Suicidal Tendencies. "Oh Sheit It's X" is a crazy-funk track that is almost too fun for it's own good. So many high points, much like a basketball game. So much to take in.

KD to TO in 2016!!

Preseason Game 5 Raptors at Celtics

Another battle of the Atlantic goes down today in preseason action. The Raptors face off against the green machine Boston Celtics. This game will take place in Portland, Maine. I suppose it's because the Celtic's D-League affiliate team The Red Claws play in Portland.

• In the preseason game against the Knicks the Raptors sat Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas for rest. There's rumours that DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson get the pass tonight
• It appears Raptors rookie Bruno Caboclo will get the start tonight. He had an impressive showing on Monday night on both ends of the court
• T-Ross is likely out for the game as well as Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. Probably another battle of the benches

The Maine are a rock band from Arizona. Their first full-length album was released in 2008, though our featured track comes from their 5 song EP released in 2007. "The Way We Talk" was first introduced to my world via the Vans Warped Tour compilation CD in 2008. The Maine have played that tour several times and have toured with acts such as Good Charlotte, Taking Back Sunday and The Arkells. More recently The Maine have released an acoustic album, again with only 5 songs. Wonder what it is about that number? If anything...

T.O GET LOUD!!

Preseason Game 4 Raptors at Knicks

The Raptors head to Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Sports in North America to face the New York Knicks tonight. The Knicks have had an eventful off-season. They got a new GM in the legendary Phil Jackson, former coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers taking both teams to multiple championships. They re-signed Carmelo Anthony and got a few new players in a trade with the Dallas Mavericks

• For Canadian fans NBA journeyman Samuel Dalembert finds his home in New York and was part of the trade that sent Tyson Chandler to Dallas
• 3 ex-Raptors now suit up for the Knicks. Fan favourites Quincy Acy and Jose Calderon joined via free-agency and a trade over the Summer. And former Toronto 2006 #1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani is in his final year of contract with the Knicks after being traded by Masai Ujiri in 2013.
• New York has a new head coach in Derek Fisher who played in LA under Phil Jackson. Should be an interesting dynamic there.

Going to keep this one simple for now. There are plenty of songs written about New York and the Raptors will face them a bunch more times before the year is out. So here's Ryan Adams' "New York, New York". An interesting thing about this video is it was filmed just 4 days before September 11, 2001 and features the WTC heavily. After it was released it became a tribute to one of the gretest cities in the world.

Battle for Atlantic!!

Preseason Game 3 Celtics at Raptors

The Toronto Raptors come home to the ACC for the first time in this young preseason tonight to face the visiting Boston Celtics. Us Toronto fans have gotten used to seeing the Boston green many times over the years, as Atlantic Division rivals the Celtics and Raptors square off 4 times during the regular season.

A few points here

• Jared Sullinger is a big time up and coming player in the East and much like Demarcus Cousins, he typically has big games against Toronto.
• Another Canadian prospect plays for the Celtics, Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops, BC is in his second year with Boston. He's the one with the hair.
• Bruno made his debut Tuesday night in Sacramento and brought energy and a couple 3-bombs to the table...he also hit the hardwood rather unceremoniously going for a rebound. Love the effort kid, but pick your spots.

Plenty of options to choose from here, but i'm going with San Diego band Augustana who got their start in the early 2000's. Their most well known song is called "Boston". Not very hype, pump-up song, but they all don't have to be. Mix it up a little.

Let's go Raptors!!

Preseason Game 2 Raptors at Kings

The first Preseason meeting with The Raps and The Kings is in the books, with the lizards coming away with the W (99-94)

Here's a few points on that game before we look at tonight's match in Sacramento

• I'm a dumb guy and totally forgot the Canadian boy Nik Stauskas is on the Kings squad and looks pretty good. Nailed some confident shots and showed some great energy and tenacity. Great pick up for Sacramento.
• Raptors' bench looks strong with Vasquez, Williams (Sweet Lou), J. Johnson and Hansbrough having some great on court chemistry. Tyler Hansbrough hit his first NBA career 3-pointer!! Spawning the twitter trend #PSYCHO3
• Raptors #20 pick in the 2014 draft Bruno Caboclo did not see any playing time. We'll see if he can get in there tonight

Now on to tonight's game which is a rematch with the Kings only in their hometown of Sacramento.

• Terrence Ross is out for Toronto tonight after Ramon Sessions banged knees and stepped on Ross' foot. Patrick Patterson and Bebe Nogueria are also inactive for the Raps. Maybe there is a chance Bruno gets in
• It'll be interesting to see Sacramento play in front of their home crowd and see how the fans react to the new players.
• No, there is no Canadian broadcast for this game. Let's not shit ourselves folks, it is only preseason after all and these games count for nothing. Maybe we can find a lucky feed from the Sac-Town arena

There is a Vancouver band called The Kings who had one hit back in the 80's and it is almost too perfect considering Sunday's game was in Vancouver. I can't stand that song however, so i'll mention it but won't feature it. So here's a new band called Kyng (close enough) and this song is great it's called "Electric Halo"

BRUNO!!!

Preseason Game 1 Kings at Raptors

Today marks the first day of the Toronto Raptors preseason where they'll be facing the Sacramento Kings in Vancouver, BC. The last time we saw the Raptors in action it was a one point loss in Game 7 of the first round of playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets. Expectations are high for the Toronto squad this season, and with plenty of familiar faces returning, there is a good chance that they'll be met.

A few things to mention here.

• Ex-Raptor Rudy Gay has picked up his player option on his contract and still plays for Sacramento after being traded to them last year. 3 of the 4 players TO got in return for Gay remain on the Northern Uprising in Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes.
• 7'4" Canadian prospect Sim Bhullar is fighting for a roster spot on the Sacramento Kings. He went undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, but was picked up by the Kings. I'm sure his height alone was enough to entice a few teams to take a second look at him. It will be interesting to see the Canadian crowd react to their countryman. 
• DeMarcus Cousins has always had the Raptors' number, seemingly always having big games against us. Him and Toronto centre Jonas Valanciunas got into a little scuffle at this year's World Cup match. We'll see if any of that carries over to this game.

But this Blog is called "Raptor Tracks" for a reason. I'll feature a song for each Raptor game...or after each game...haven't decided yet. One that fits along the theme of the team, city or player involved. To kick it off I decided to go with Canadian artist Matthew Good. Good was born in Burnaby, British Columbia where the Raptors set up Training Camp at the Fortius Centre there. 

And what better song to played at a sporting event in Vancouver, especially right before tip-off? The national anthem of course!

So here is "The Vancouver National Anthem" by Matthew Good.

LET'S GO RAPTORS!!!