The Brooklyn Nets face the Toronto Raptors Wednesday Night: Watch FREE NBA PLAYOFFS Live Streaming Online From Air Canada Centre at 7:30 PM ET
The Raptors host the Nets in Game 5 of their first round series on Wednesday night, having regained home-court advantage with an 87-79 victory on Sunday.
"It's not going to be all smiles and bubble gum and fruitcakes tomorrow night, it's going to be a street fight," Toronto coach Dwane Casey told the team's website. "And that's the way we've got to come out, with that mentality."
Such statements are almost commonplace with Casey. Before a late-season game against New York, with the Knicks still pursuing a playoff berth, Casey urged his team to be wary of an opponent that was "going to come and hit you in the head with a hammer."
All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan, who has averaged 28 points since a disappointing playoff debut, said Casey's scrappy imagery has become part of Toronto's mindset.
"We're like a fighter who worked his butt off in training camp," DeRozan said. "He can fight, but he's going into every fight as the underdog and everybody is going against him. That's how we feel, that's our mentality."
The Raptors may lack the playoff experience of the veteran Nets, but they've outplayed their opponents in every fourth quarter since Game 1. More troublesome to Toronto has been its poor play in the third, where the Raptors have been outscored by a combined 27 points, coming up short in every game. Maybe Casey should save one of his stir 'em up speeches until halftime.
"The third quarter has been our nemesis," Casey said. "That's what we've got to remedy, is coming out of the locker room at halftime with that type of desperate disposition."
In the Nets' two wins, Deron Williams has scored 22 and 25 points, respectively. In the two losses, he's scored 15 and, on Sunday, a series-low 10. The better the game it gets from Williams, the better Brooklyn's chances are. "He's in the driver's seat, he's our point guard," Nets forward Paul PIerce said Tuesday. "We feed off of him a lot. When he's been aggressive, taking the ball to the basket and getting shots up, that seems to bode well for all of us."
The game will be live streaming online at www.nbalivestreamfree.net
