By Andy Charlies

Can we start the title talk yet? Well, there were certainly some scribes predicting big things after the Raptors opened the NBA season with a fantastic 101-91 win over the heavily-fancied Cleveland Cavaliers at the Air Canada Center.

Even LeBron James, he of the other-worldly stat-lines, couldn’t beat the Raptors on his own as his 23 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists failed to inspire the rest of the roster and meant they dropped to an 0-2 start after losing on opening night to the Boston Celtics.

And it would prove to be supposed draft bust Andrea Bargnani who was the main hero, his 28 points sparking an excellent second quarter run which gave the Raptors enough of a lead to overcome LeBron’s excellent third period.

But the victory was certainly not a one-man show as Chris Bosh again showed his star quality and Hedo Turkoglu opened up with an efficient performance that actually included less in the way of high-scoring and more defense – three blocks for a player who has never averaged more than 0.4 per game in a 10-year career!!

All my criticism from the last pre-season report came back to haunt me as Cleveland repeatedly took bad shots and ended the night shooting only 34.9% from the floor. Indeed, one of the few worries for Raptors fans was that the Cavs actually shot better from beyond the arc, so maybe defending the three might need a little work on off-days.

There was also a nice little cameo from Marco Belinelli, who had his contract option for the 2010-11 season exercised on Thursday – he only scored 10 points but he was on the court when the Raptors went scoring crazy and he produced a +19 efficiency line to lead the team.

So, finally, there was something for fans in Toronto to cheer and those fans who have seemingly deserted the Leafs already this season (one win in 10 games – oh dear!!) might just get cheering for a successful hoops franchise instead.

Let’s hope this one early win is translated into a solid season, the play-offs and maybe even some silverware…long way to go though as far as NBA Picks are concerned.

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