Linkage - Feb 11
There is a case to be made for Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo not engineering a deal before the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 22.
If Sunday night is any indication, the Raptors will be getting a boost internally.
In his third game back from a neck injury that kept him out almost two months, T.J. Ford combined with fellow point guard Jose Calderon to create 23 assists, as the Raptors blew out the Minnesota Timberwolves 105-82.
The win improved the Raptors’ record to 27-22 but, with many expecting them to chase 50 wins this year, the season has been mildly disappointing. But watching Calderon and Ford operate last night was a memory jolt for anybody who forgot what Toronto’s biggest strength is.
When Ford and Calderon are both going well, the Raptors have the best 1-2 point guard combination in the league, regardless of who the starter.
The guards’ first-half exploits showcased their differences. Nine minutes into the game, Calderon already had eight assists, though it was hard to remember any of them.
Ford, meanwhile, displayed his usual flash. He came into the game earlier than his two other games this week, entering before the quarter was out. Ford hooked up with Rasho Nesterovic on a pair of nice looks, and in all, had a half-dozen assists in seven minutes.
For the game, Calderon finished with 10 points and 15 assists, while Ford ended with seven points and 13 assists.
"I always want us to come in and bury teams when we get the chance," Bosh said. "But you know, it’s the NBA and they’re going to make runs. We just kept playing. We refocused in the second half. We talked about it and we saw what we could do better and we did a good job of maintaining our intensity throughout the fourth quarter."
"We just tried to get everybody involved," Calderon said. "We just tried to find the wide-open guys and I think both of us [Calderon and Ford] did a really good job today."
Calderon said the key was to come out playing better defensively in the second half, and that opened up chances for the offence.
"When our defence is good, we get more opportunities for fast breaks," he said.
Some props for Barngani, and not just because he’s been shooting the ball well lately. He just seems a little lighter on his feet, and little more confident about where he needs to be defensively and sharper on his help. In particular he seemed very aware of when and how the Raptors wanted him to hedge out on pick-and-rolls and actually recovered to play defence on someone. But he still needs to focus on finding his man and making contact first to stop his momentum to the glass before turning to box out, hoping the other guy will run up his back. It’s an order of operations kind of deal: find your man; hit your man and then pin him with your back side. Bargnani is better at finding his man, but he’s still not in the habit of hitting and pinning. Good and determined rebounders like Al Jefferson don’t stop going to the glass because you tried to box them out. You actually have to box them out.
Nice win. In no way does it make up for the stinker against the Clippers. When the Raptors are complaining about their playoff seed or having to play Game Seven on the road in the first round they can look at losses like that one; the first Washington game and Philly a while before that
Cassell, who missed the Clippers’ game against Toronto Friday because of suspension, said players are more athletic today than when he broke into the league in 1993-94. But many have stopped developing specific skills.
"You had so many crafty guys," Cassell said. "You had guys who understood their role better back then than now. If a guy was a rebounder, his job was to get a rebound. You didn’t care about scoring. You don’t have any rebounding wars like there used to be."
The 38-year-old delighted in recalling battles between the likes of Michael Cage, Charles Oakley, Jayson Williams and Otis Smith, before ruing that he did not even know who led the league in rebounding this year.
Still, Cassell said the league is doing fine.
"I think the game is in good shape now with LeBron [James], Kobe [Bryant], Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh," Cassell said. "The game is in good shape. The game managed to make it without Michael Jordan."
Efficiency, frequently overlooked by fans, is a holy grail to most NBA coaches because it almost always means
- few mistakes made;
- crafty game plans followed, and
- whole team involvement.
That’s what the Raptors put together, nearly start to finish, top to bottom, in winning for the eighth time in 12 games and boosting head coach Sam Mitchell’s personal record to 7-for-7 against the franchise for which he played 10 seasons.
Toronto is heading into a soft part of the schedule, as 11 of its next 14 games are against teams with records below .500.
"All coaches get that question (about keeping their players focused), but what are we supposed to do?" Mitchell said, prior to last night’s at Minnesota. "Come in the locker room with a chair and bang it against the wall? Threaten people? At the end of the day, guys, it comes down to who you are as a player … and being professional and coming out and doing your job. No coach ever made me play hard. I hear that, ‘Well, he’s going to play for this coach, because if he doesn’t …’ What is the coach going to do to you? There’s only one thing he can do: Not play you. Period."
Considering how many parents yell at their kids and get zero results, Mitchell said, no one should be surprised when the tactic fails on men with guaranteed contracts. And his days of enforcing his wants physically, apparently, are over.
"I’m 44 years old. I can’t go in there and wrestle with these guys," Mitchell said. "I’ll get beat up."
"You can’t get much better out of your point guards," said Sam Mitchell, the Toronto coach. "We’ve just got to continue to do that. You can never pass enough. … We’ve got guys who can make shots if we move the ball and get a good shot."
If it took a while for the Raptors to warm up, consider the climatic conditions. As an advertisement for playing in the NBA’s lone Canadian outpost goes, last night’s game in this U.S. prairie settlement was priceless. You think Canada is cold? The wind chill was residing at about minus-32 come game time.
"They got polar bears out here," Ford joked in the post-game locker room.
"This," said Anthony Parker, "is another level of cold."
Action: League adds Rasheed Wallace to Eastern Conference all-star team.
Reaction: Bad for Jose ‘cause now if Caron Butler has to bow out, they’ll likely take Ray Allen or Hedo Turkoglu ahead of Calderon.
Wittman called Sunday’s loss the biggest step back his team has taken in weeks.
"I didn’t see this coming," he said. "I thought our guys would respond after a tough loss like that (against Boston). You have to. Obviously we proved tonight if you don’t have that concentration coming out of a tough loss like that you’re going to get blown out."
Jefferson was so upset after the loss that he didn’t have many answers. He didn’t disagree with Wittman’s assessment that the team’s focus was on offense and nowhere to be found on defense.
"I don’t really know what it was tonight," said Jefferson, who led the Wolves with 18 points and nine rebounds. "We just didn’t have any energy from the beginning to the end of the game, and that was the difference tonight."
Wittman attributed the performance to a Wolves roster that obsessed over its offense and ignored its defense against the league’s best three-point shooting team. The Raptors made six of 16 three-point attempts — double the Wolves’ number of threes made — and shot 50 percent from the field against a Wolves team that outscored Toronto in the paint and on second-chance attempts.
how does a person quantify this victory? The Raptors were never seriously tested and while there were many different positive aspects to take from this game, they were against the worst in the west. In this month, the Raptors were seen to be able to make a lot of headway towards the end of the season because of the rough March coming up. As a tune up, this game allowed the Raptors to gain some confidence, but real measures of strength will come in the next two before the All-Star break. As is often the case, fans are left wondering if this was just a good night, or the Raptors playing an inept opponent.
In a renewed strategy, the Raptors focussed more on efficient passing of the ball than anything else scoring 41 field goals out of which 31 came with assists. Proving that teamwork is always better than the solo stars that basketball is so used to, the Raptors are out there to change the rules of the game.
last but not least the Air Max Elite II, featuring a full length Max Air, specifically made for Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors. Expect these shoes to hit select retailers including the House of Hoops in Harlem sometime this upcoming week or shortly after ASG weekend.
The overmatched Timberwolves (10-39) competed gamely to start the contest, and the score was tied 45-45 with a minute to go in the first half. But the Raptors’ Jose Calderon drained a pair of three-pointers heading into the break, and Toronto dominated the third quarter 26-14 to pull away.
"Calderon knocking down shots like that is a big momentum changer for them," said Minnesota’s Corey Brewer. "They just kept adding it; kept getting momentum and knocking shots down."
The Canadians simply had more hustle and desire, as the only Wolves player with a positive plus/minus was Antoine Walker, with a +1 for the evening. The third quarter was the dagger, with Toronto outscoring us 29-14. As was pointed out frequently in the broadcast tonight, we have never beaten a Sam Mitchell led team.
Petersen tried to sell the fact that since McCants tweaked his ankle during the game, it would be hard for the Wolves to generate the offense needed to compete with Toronto. Given the recent contentiousness between those two, I don’t think that explanation holds up, having played Boston close while Shaddy sat on the bench. This game was primarily lost on the defensive end, along with Jefferson being ordinary, and no one else bothering to show up. The only other Wolf tonight in double figures was Jaric; the majority of his points were in the first half.
The score continued to go in the wrong direction for the Wolves; Toronto bumping their lead to as many as 18 points, eventually taking a 77-61 lead into the final quarter. Toronto continued their hot-shooting into the fourth, leading by as many as 26 before eventually defeating the Wolves by a final of 105-82. Toronto shot 50.6% from the field for the game and dished out 31 assists on their 41 made baskets.
Any praise that is given tonight should be scaled down by half just because we were playing the worst team in the league, with that being said it’s appropriate to give Jamario Moon some credit. I thought he had a bad game against the Clippers but bounced back nicely and passed up chances to test his broker jumper in favor of either a drive or a pass. All of the shots in his 4-4 FG performance were high percentage dunks or layups which is the only place he should be getting his offense from. Uncorking 20 footers isn’t his thing no matter how open he is, especially when you have a quick first step his. Yeah, he only had 1 rebound which is somewhat pathetic but let’s look past that seeing how the rebounding didn’t come to bite us.
Former Gopher Kris Humphries, traded by Utah after his first two seasons there, is finding his way in his second season with the Raptors. On Sunday, he played eight minutes and scored four points, but he might be most remembered by the Target Center audience for a powerfully missed slam dunk late in the game that bounded far away.
"He has improved from last year, and we still think he has a lot more improvement and growth to do," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "I like Kris. He’s a good kid. He says some things that are hilarious."
Intentionally? Mitchell paused.
"It turns out to be funny," he said. "Where he gets them, I don’t know. Kris is just a good-hearted person, he really is. He doesn’t have any malice in his heart, and he works extremely hard. … He’s going to continue to get better."
This might sound strange, but I think the injury to Ford actually did him some good. I think he was able to sit back and evaluate the game, his life and how they fit together. I also think that he thought about his game and how while he still needs to attack and work at high speed for his game to be effective, he also needs to find some more control. When you team that with being able to sit back and watch Jose run the offence, Ford was provided with a good vision of how he can use his skills to be a more effective player. He has played limited minutes since he has been back, but he hasn’t been forcing any plays nor turning the ball over. Maybe the time off was just some good learning time for TJ. When you have a 22 point-22 assist night from your PGs, that should strike a bit of fear in the rest of the league. Now please, can we not talk about who is the starter? Seriously, who cares? Go with Jose or TJ, as long as that production stays the same.
Before we move on, did anyone else relish seeing Humph’s parents in the crowd? His dad looks like one stern fellow, the type that won’t let you come in for dinner until you hit 300 free throws blindfolded with your off-hand. I bet Kris missed a lot of meals
Five represents the number of Raps who were in double digits for scoring and 11 is the number of players who found the bottom of the hoop. This win was definitely a team win as a variety of guys contributed. The Raps are always better then they get scoring from all over the floor and they don’t have to rely solely on CB4. Of course the Raps numbers got a boost in the second half when the T-Wolves essentially mailed it in and baskets came a whole lot easier. Nevertheless, this was a good confidence building game for a variety of guys.
Back in my day, you’d get beat up for having shoes that ugly.
Also, how does 15+13 = 23 assists?
Manu & Calderon had a big night. What a game!!!!
Would like to hear yoir comment on that…
http://mundoalbiceleste.blogspot.com/2008/02/nba-news-big-hit-from-manu.html