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Mon, Nov 17th 2008, 09:47

O'neal leads Raptors charge

ROBERT MACLEOD – GlobeSports.com

Jermaine O’Neal’s knees were encased in ice, as was his left shoulder, and a big elastic bandage was wrapped around his upper left thigh.

It was 30 minutes after the Toronto Raptors had inflicted a 107-96 beating on the Miami Heat Sunday at the Air Canada Centre, and the big centre was feeling the repercussions of a tough, physical encounter.

O’Neal is still not scoring as he’d like — just 11 points in almost 34 minutes of work. But it was his defensive prowess, his gritty work underneath the basket at both ends of the court that set the tone for this Toronto victory, which was accomplished without the participation of point guard Jose Calderon, who sat this one out with a sore left hamstring.

O’Neal was a horse, gobbling up a game-most 18 rebounds, including five off the offensive board. He also had two blocked shots as Toronto improved to 5-4 on the season.

His fierce temperament is also rubbing off on his teammates, as the Raptors outrebounded the Heat 52-35. It was Toronto’s largest rebounding total of the season.

“He’s definitely brought an element of toughness to our basketball team,” head coach Sam Mitchell said of O’Neal, who was traded by the Indiana Pacers to Toronto last summer. “We talk about it to our players all the time.

“You can be the nicest guy in the world off the court. But when you walk on the court, there’s certain nights you just got to become what you got to become to get the job done. And if it’s being a butt hole some nights, that’s what you got to do.”

Give the Raptors full measure for the win, coming as it did with a makeshift lineup.

Will Solomon got the start at point guard in place of Calderon, his first NBA starting assignment since 2001-02, when he was still a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. Solomon did not try to do too much, but provided a steady hand directing the offence. He did commit four turnovers, but that was more than offset by the 15 points he scored along with a game-most 11 assists.

And he wasn’t the only newcomer to the lineup.

In an effort to try to get some production from the wing, Mitchell inserted seven-footer Andrea Bargnani into the starting rotation in place of Jamario Moon.

And Bargnani was effective, scoring eight of his 12 points in the first quarter, in which the Raptors managed to grab a 29-27 lead.

With 6-foot-10 Chris Bosh at power forward and 6-foot-11 O’Neal at centre, the Raptors held a decided height advantage over the Heat, and that proved to be the difference in the contest.

“I can’t remember the last time we pounded,” Mitchell said. “But we know, and we felt like we had an advantage on the glass. Jermaine wasn’t scoring, but he was blocking shots and changing shots and rebounding.”

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