Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, two Eastern Conference teams that both believe they can make series noise this postseason will take the court at the Air Canada Centre for Game 2 of their first round series. The Brooklyn Nets will be aiming to start the playoffs with two straight road wins, while the Toronto Raptors will try to ride the wave of their home crowd to even the series. Watch the game on NBA TV or live stream it free here. Nets fans can hear the game on WCBS 880, while Raptors fans can do the same on TSN 1050.
The Nets entered the series with age and experience finally working in their favor, while the hungry Raptors seem bothered by the wait times in between games. "It's tough," Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan said Monday. "You have a tough game, you're used to getting right back out there and making up for it."
The Nets are hoping that the rest can keep their veterans fresh, and perhaps cool off Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas, who ripped through Brooklyn's frontcourt for a 17-point, 18-rebound performance. "We haven't been great in back-to-backs all year so thank goodness we don't have to do that," Nets forward Paul Pierce said Monday.
"We have probably one of the worst records in back-to-back games. Maybe that's due to the age of this team, maybe that's just due to fatigue. Who knows? There are none in the playoffs so it's definitely advantageous to us."
Fatigue can be beaten in this series, but it remains to be seen how the Nets will handle Valanciunas. "He's trying to own the paint right now," Raps point guard Kyle Lowry said. "You can see the way he's playing with a sense of urgency that he understands the situation."
The Nets may need to increase Kevin Garnett's minutes for this one-he played just 20 minutes in Game 1, but might be the best option for covering Jonas.
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