If you bought the tickets two days ago, the value just double or maybe even tripled. The hell with Washington, this is destiny right here. Vince returning to the house that he built only to find a new set of faces running the show and running it better than ever. Kidd/Carter/Jefferson versus Bosh/Ford/Parker and a whole slew of a supporting cast that promises to make this one of those playoff series you’ll tell your grand-kids about. Clear up your schedule, this is as good as it gets.

Jersey is playing really, really well and Vince is playing up to his potential for the last two weeks making them an extremely dangerous team. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see them favored by many experts in the series. Jersey is an athletic team that can cause any teams problems on a given night and have two players the Raptors should be weary about - Kristic and Moore. One is a skill guy who can cause trouble in the low post and the other is a hustle-type that must be canceled out by Kris Humphries.

As good as the Raptors season has been, what will eventually be remembered is the outcome of this colossal series which means so much more than just playoff advancement. A win here would completely seal the Vince Carter situation and justify the franchise decision of trading Carter for almost nothing. This will be a hard test for the Raptors and if they can get by New Jersey, they’ll have all the confidence needed when playing their next opponent, if it ever gets that far. This is going to be a long series, probably decided in 6 or 7 games with both teams having an equal chance of getting an away win.

NJ is good but the Raps are better, we will win this series. It might take 7 games to do it but the Raptors are NOT going to lose to the Nets. It’s just not supposed to happen. I don’t care what Marc Stein says, he’s wrong about this one. A weeks worth of form is not enough to supplant an entire season built on teamwork, fundamentally basketball and consistent play.

The ACC will be a madhouse on Saturday and it’s a chance for all Raptors fans to give the team a real home-court advantage. I’ll be there on Tuesday for Game 2, hopefully we’ll be up 1-0.  Here are a couple pics of my Raptors Division Champs T-Shirt: