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Raptors All-Star Weekend
Topic Started: Jun 16 2009, 03:42 AM (116 Views)
Manhattan Project
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During the All-Star Weekend there was three Raptor players who represented for Toronto, Dale Ellis, Vlade Divac and Mookie Blaylock. Dale Ellis participated in the three point shootout and was considered one of the favorites going in. Vlade Divac and Mookie Blaylock were heading to the Rookie team to battle the Sophomores.

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Dale Ellis looking to win the shoot out against competitor Mark Price.


Three Point Shootout
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In the first round of the shootout Dale Ellis came out scorching leading all the first round shooters with sixteen points. It was evident that the competition was going to be up for the taking between Ellis and sharp shooter Mark Price. After the first round Ellis had sixteen, Price had fifteen. In the second round Mark Price blazed the course pouring in nineteen points to put the pressure on Dale Ellis. Once it was Ellis turn to shoot you could clearly see that he didn't have the legs for this competition, as his jump shot wasn't suitable. Mark Price got off his balls effortlessly while Ellis was more of a jumper, using his legs a lot more. Ellis was pressing his jump shots, missed all of his money balls and ended up with only nine points in the second round. So the finals was between Price and Michael Adams. Adams went first and put up a respectable thirteen points, however this was the competition made for Price. Coming out with seventeen straight points he just started fooling around shooting the rest of the shots grandmama style. While Dale Ellis didn't win the competition, he did give the Raptors some exposure to the world.

Rookie/Sophomore Game
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Its not common for the Rookies to be the favorite to win this game, however with a certain admiral in the corner of the rookies, they were feeling confident. While the rookies had the big names like Shawn Kemp, Nick Anderson and the great David Robinson, they had two of their own in this game as well. Both Vlade Divac and Mookie Blaylock were going to come off the bench, but wanted to make the most of it. Vlade Divac overall played for a total of nineteen minutes but made the most of those minutes. He went four of nine from the field, grabbed seven rebounds, had two steals, one block and finished with ten points overall. Certainly not bad numbers at all, he felt confident and was really enjoying himself out on the court with the rest of the young talent in the league.

Mookie Blaylock logged in twenty minutes, upon entering the game he wanted to push the ball and get his teammates involved immediately. He had four assists, two steals, two rebounds and even got a block. He only attempted one shot in the game, as he was the games only person to not score a point. However he was feeling upbeat after his performance, he didn't come here to score. He wanted to distribute the ball around and wants to come back next year and try to set the record for most dimes dropped in a rookie/sophomore game.

The Rookies eventually won this game 82-78 over the Sophomores, which marks the first time the Rookies have ever won over the Sophomores in the SSBL history, all of its one grand year. David Robinson took down the MVP honors for the game, he grabbed ten rebounds, scored eleven points and had an impressive six assist for the center. Hersey Hawkins of the Sophomores led all scorers in the game with sixteen points however he struggled to get scoring from any other position aside from the center position. The Rookies are feeling good after this win and already are the clear favorites to repeat next year judging by the current rookies set to enter the league via the draft.

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David Robinson holding his MVP trophy from the Rookie/Sophomore game.


Overall it was a great experience for the Raptors, they really learned a lot from all of the talent they were around this weekend. Getting to take in the all-star game proved to be invaluable for Divac and Blaylock. It only makes them work harder because this is where they want to be in the future and now they know the work that they have to put in.
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