03.01
Speaking of slow starts to the workday, the Raptors’ on-court troubles have included a persistent lack of early pep all season and last night was the third straight game in which they found themselves down to an inferior opponent in the opening 12 minutes. In a typical game, they’ve found themselves down, if you round to the nearest point, 24-21, after the first quarter. Considering they’re a plus-4.6 in full-game point differential, eighth best in the league, their game-opening woes are mildly curious.
Maybe it’s the outside shooters taking a while to get warm. More likely it’s too many jump shots and not enough Bosh, who often reserves his hard work on the block and at the free-throw line for the game’s later stages. Whatever it is – maybe Calderon could blame this nasty winter’s latest insult – it was worse than usual last night, when the Raptors trailed 32-22 after the first frame. And without Bosh, who said he was "optimistic" of a swift return to the court after the MRI revealed only minor swelling in a right knee that has been essentially free from injury since his rookie year, the home team never really recovered.
The Raps finish February with a 7-5 record that actually sounds a lot better than it was when you consider three of those losses came to the L.A. Clippers, the New York Knicks and the Pacers — not exactly the elite of the NBA.
Adding insult to injury, or in this case injury to the insult, is the shaky status of all-star forward Chris Bosh, who left last night’s game with 2:23 to go in the first quarter with a sore left knee.
He was checked out at Mount Sinai Hospital during the game and was back in the Raps’ locker room reporting no structural damage to the knee but some swelling.
Bosh said he originally tweaked the knee Monday in the win over Indiana and then felt some soreness in it following Wednesday’s game against Minnesota. When the soreness returned late in the first quarter, Bosh decided it was time to get it checked out.
He wound up playing 10 minutes and recorded seven points and five rebounds but admitted the knee was keeping him from playing effective defence.
"It’s different," Bosh said describing the injury. "I’ve never felt anything like that before. I’ve felt pain. And I don’t think this is as serious as other things I’ve seen before, so that is one thing that makes me happy."
Lucas has been retained by the Raptors as a basketball development consultant for the remainder of the season and will assist the with the development of the players’ on-court skills.
The hiring, though, is first and foremost about what he can do for Ford.
Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell said the appointment is primarily to ease Ford’s return as much as possible.
"It gives T.J. an opportunity to continue to get better," Mitchell said. "It also gives him a comfort zone. John was with him when he first came back from that injury so we’re just trying ot make sure we give TJ every opportunity possible to get his confidence up. (John) will come in periodically to monitor and make sure he is doing the things he needs to do because our training staff has no experience in dealing with that type of injury."
“I don’t remember a game that bad with so many uncontested layups and three-point shots," said Anthony Parker, who was among the many Raptors victimized by the Pacers. "I think we played hard but maybe at times we didn’t play smart."
Although they carved a 16-point third-quarter deficit to one point and had the ball with a chance to take a lead, they simply weren’t good enough defensively to have any chance to win.
They had said they needed to keep the Pacers from getting to the free throw line while also protecting the three-point line and they failed miserably on each account. Mike Dunleavy had six three-pointers and eight free throws as part of his 36-point night as the Raptors let the Pacers shoot 60 per cent in the first half and 49 per cent in the game.
It got so out of hand defensively that Mitchell went to an all-point guard backcourt of Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford, not necessarily for the speed they could provide offensively but for their defensive skills. And seeing how neither is anything close to a lock-down defender, that was a huge gamble for Mitchell.
"We were trying to put some people in the game who had a chance to keep somebody in front of them, that was it," Mitchell said.
"We were just getting beat at almost every spot. It’s tough when they swing the ball and at every spot they’re beating you off the dribble. You come and help and then they hit a three.
"You know what happens after that? Guy hits a couple of threes, everybody’s reluctant to their leave their man and it just breaks down and breaks down and breaks down," added Mitchell.
Offensively, the Raptors looked lost without Bosh, their low-post anchor. There was none of the inside-out style of play they usually use, and far too much one-on-five attacking.
Lucas said he’s fielded other offers to join specific teams since his coaching career ended in Cleveland in 2003.
"This is a nice fit here," he said. "This is a team on the verge. It’s been really, really good and the one thing that I’ve liked is this is a healthy team. Everywhere is healthy and that’s conducive to winning.
"I’ve been chasing being around a good team ever since (Cleveland)."
Lucas’s duties with the Raptors will be primarily to work with individual players in practices. He’ll sit behind the bench rather than on it during games, joining Eric Hughes as a basketball development consultant.
The great Jose-T.J. experiment fizzled and it’s probably the last time we see it for any stretch of time. But the reasoning behind it was solid: Everyone was getting torched by dribble penetration (like we haven’t heard that before) and it was a futile attempt to get some quick guys on the floor. And trying something, anything because it was obvious 10 minutes in that none of the perimeter guys were getting the job done. Guess he could have stayed with them and the game would never have got close.
If Sam screams at Jamario to get up on the perimeter and guard his man one more time, I swear the coach’s head might explode right in front of us. Half a dozen times every game it happens. And it generally ends with the rook on the bench. It’s the fatal flaw in Moon’s game. And I don’t know what you can do to fix it except scream at him, and wait for the explosion.
Here’s one simple and undeniable fact about this team’s roster: Of the four swingmen – Moon, Parker, Delfino and Kapono – you have no idea for sure what you’re going to get every night. That’s why you see a lot of shuttling in and out of those two spots, trying to find the combination that’s working that game. And that’s why you’re going to continue seeing Sam shuttle the four of them in and out even in the playoffs trying to figure out who’s going well in any particular game.
The Raptors were led by Andrea Bargnani, who scored 27 points on 12-for-25 shooting. Anthony Parker matched his season best with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting.
The Raptors surged in the third quarter as two three-pointers by Bargnani sparked a 15-0 run by Toronto that pulled them to one point behind with four minutes to play in the period, but Dunleavy scored 13 points in the final three minutes of the quarter to push the lead back to 10 and the Raptors were never any closer than six points the rest of the game.
The Raptors will play in Charlotte tomorrow. Bosh expects to be on the trip, but doesn’t know whether he’ll play. He said only he won’t return until his knee is healed, though he was optimistic it won’t be long.
"I don’t think this is as serious as anything I’ve seen before," he said.
"So that’s one thing that makes me kind of happy."
"I couldn’t play that well on defence," Bosh said. "I gave up some buckets that I normally wouldn’t give up. I didn’t think that I would be effective out there."
"There was no one play where I said, ‘Oh, my knee hurts,’ " Bosh recalled of Monday’s game. "I don’t remember really feeling it pull, really feeling a sharp pain at [any] immediate time."
Bosh said that he felt some soreness after Monday’s game, but that he felt fine in a 28-point performance against Minnesota on Wednesday. He woke up with some soreness on Thursday.
Bosh was plagued with knee problems last season, as well as during training camp this year. But those times, his left knee was the problem.
The only time Bosh remembers having right-knee ailments was during his first year.
"I’m not frustrated. I’ve seen a lot worse. I’ve been in a lot worse [situations.] This is old news for me."
The Pacers, who won for just the second time in the past eight games, were without starters Granger (NBA suspension), Jermaine O’Neal (knee) and Jamaal Tinsley (knee).
They made up for the trio’s absence by shooting 49 percent and getting at least 16 points from four players. Kareem Rush scored 23 points, Troy Murphy 18 and Stephen Graham 16.
"I’m very aware of what Primoz Brezec had to say, and my only response is I’m happy Primoz is playing in Toronto," Vincent said. "We gave him the ball in Charlotte and we wanted him to score, and it didn’t happen for us. Maybe his conditioning has gotten better or he’s gotten more confidence."
Brezec had a promising Toronto debut, scoring 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in 13 minutes of a victory over the New York Knicks last Sunday. He racked up another DNP-Coach’s Decision the next night, but believes he’ll get an opportunity with the Raptors to prove he’s the player he thinks he is.
Jose Calderon: Toronto Raptors: There was not only hand-wringing going on in Toronto over the well-being of point guard T.J. Ford when he took yet another bad fall on his already delicate spinal cord, but what would happen to the Raptors chances of competing in the East. Calderon picked up the ball and ran the club without missing a beat and featuring extraordinarily effective numbers. Although 12.7 points 8.7 assists and 1.0 steal aren’t special numbers, his clutch play and shooting percentage really are. Consider that he’s shooting 54 percent from the field, 46 percent from 3-point range and 92 percent from the free throw line. In fact, those kind of numbers scream that as the season progresses, he probably should be shooting the ball more than nine times a game, and start scoring in the 15-point range. On the other hand, they are only 11-9 when he scores 15 or more. Just know that his consistency is the key to what makes Chris Bosh and everybody else on this exceptional 3-point shooting team work.
Not to pile on Otis Smith, but the Magic are the only Eastern Conference team currently over .500 not to make at least one roster move to improve itself in the past month.
Okay, maybe the Raptors getting Brezec from the Pistons doesn’t count, but the fact remains: the teams around us are at least trying to improve, and we aren’t. The Magic, as constituted the day of the trade deadline, were certainly not talented enough to defeat Boston, Detroit, or Toronto in a seven-game series. Now? They’re arguably not talented enough to take down Cleveland, either. Even more troublesome is the fact that Toronto and Cleveland are potential first-round playoff opponents for us, which makes the possibility of an early vacation for us much more immediate.
As for Toronto, they’re already a better team.Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard play well against each other, so the real difference-making factor for the Raptors in a series against us is the point guard tandem of Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford. There’s no way that either Jameer Nelson or Keyon Dooling can shut both of those guys down; they get into the lane at will and have the three-point shooters to make defenses pay for collapsing on them. The Raptors, as a team, shoot 40% from beyond the arc, is tops in the NBA.
John Hollinger’s opinion of the Raptors has drastically changed over the course of 56 regular season games. He drew the ire of Raptor fans in the pre-season by saying Toronto would be fighting for aplayoff spot. Now, with many fans and scribes saying the Raptors aren’t ready to go deep into the playoffs, Hollinger is bucking the conventional wisdom once again, saying that the numbers show the Raptors are the fourth-best team in the entire NBA at the moment, and that they have the fourth-best chance at both making the finals, and winning the NBA title.
Here then, is my conversation with basketball statistical guru John Hollinger from ESPN.com:
This isn’t all going on Jose’s shoulders however. Yes, he was getting beat at the first point of defence, however Jamario Moon might as well have been a chair tonight and Carlos Delfino and Jason Kapono weren’t very far behind as a recliner and a loveseat. Seeing Dunleavy Jr. blow by Moon time after time had me screaming at the TV…and eventually changing the channel to watch Rider versus St. Peter’s of the NCAA’s MAC conference. And while Andrea Bargnani really showed some guts on offence and man-to-man defence, his overcommitting on “help” situations and switching onto smaller men caused havoc for the Raps’ D.
Anyways, I fully blame the loss on Moon, seriously. With the Raptors in the middle of a 15-0 run to cut the Pacer lead to 1, Moon, for the first time all season, decides to post up, and commits an offensive foul. Dunleavy hits an open trey when Moon forgets to cover him. Dunleavy hits a sweet finger roll, after blowing by Moon. Then blows by Moon again, hits the layup and the free-throw. Moon personally swung the pendulum in favour of the Pacers…joke is he is a Raptor
Sam Mitchell will say that Bosh or no Bosh the way his team played defense it would not have mattered. Constant beating of players on the dribble and a dependence on help. Jack Armstrong always says that HELP is the weakest word in the defensive vocabulary and he is right. There is no excuse for not being able to guard the Pacers when they are a team of 9 guys missing it’s top 3 guys. It is unacceptable. This kind of mental break down games are the major reason the Raptors have not been able to put together any kind of major winning streak. The seem to get 3 or 4 only to drop a game they have no business losing. It has lead to frustration in the fan base and with good reason.
Ugly doesn’t even describe this loss against the Pacers.
If there was a better time for the Raptors to really show what they were made of and put a bad team away, today was it. Instead, we have one of the worst losses in recent memory thanks to that lovely bit of “Prayer Defense” the Raptors played again tonight. To make matters worse, things were just exasperated when our coach didn’t make the correct substitution.
As the Raptors struggled throughout the first half and I looked at the five chumps on the court staring me back in the face, it became clear that Sam Mitchell’s greatest weakness was rearing its ugly head again. Against a depleted Indiana team, Mitchell refused to insert Rasho Nesterovic, Kris Humphries, or Primoz Brezec for the injured Chris Bosh in any kind of meaningful minutes. Instead, he decided to go small, and at one point, had Jason Kapono, Jose Calderon, T.J. Ford, Anthony Parker and Joey Graham on the floor. If the Raptors weren’t lost on the floor, they were lost on the bench. Mitchell’s usage of substitutions was highly suspect as the Raptors had various groups that were unfamiliar with each other and worse of all, could not run the bread and butter play of the Raptors.
People wonder why the American media doesn’t talk about the Raptors and respect them as they should. It’s not because they’re biased or prejudiced, they just know that come playoff time when it counts, we have no ammunition to compete. This team has serious, serious holes starting on the defensive end which are just itching to get exposed in the playoffs. But tonight what pissed me off even more was our non-existent effort. It was pathetic. Ughhh.
What did you think of Bargnani’s performance? I liked it. He was 12-25 for 27 points and only 9 rebounds. I liked the way he played, he was aggressive, he was confident, he was driving, he was pulling up, unfortunately, he wasn’t hot enough early to keep us in the game. He needs to find his offensive rhythm so he can be a little more consistent, it’s games like these that might help him, with the playoffs coming and us being locked somewhere between the 4-6 seed, I say give him the green light so he can warm up and hopefully be a real contributor in the playoffs.
If Chris Bosh is forced to miss any significant number of games for the Raptors this season, from this point forward, this team:
i) Will not be able to secure the #4 spot in the Eastern Conference Standings;
and, without home-court advantage in the 1st Round of the Playoffs
ii) Will not be able to advance to (at least) the Conference Semi-finals this year.
The next 24-48 hours … awaiting formal diagnosis of Bosh’s injury, will hold the key to the Raptors’ long term prognosis as an elite level team in the NBA.
Everyone who’s a fan of CB4, specifically, and the Raptors’, in general, should be holding their collective breath until then.
Those were obvious plays, but there was a more subtle play that really stuck out to me. Early in the fourth quarter, the Pacers are up 9 and trying to keep the Raps at bay. Marquis Daniels rebounds a TJ Ford miss at the rim and outlets to Diener an the left wing. Four Raptors are ahead of all five Pacers in transition D. Stephen Graham starts sprinting up the right side, passing one of the four Raps and forcing him to chase Graham and drawing the attention of another defender near the hoop. Stephen continued to run through and clear out to the left side, which leaves Troy Murphy open on the right wing. Diener hits Murphy, forcing another defender to close out on Murph. Now, Quisy comes in trailing the play wide open at the top of the key. Murph hits Quisy and no one is there to rotate leaving a wide open lane and easy finish at the rim for Quisy. Beautiful.
Small things add up, and if Graham hadn’t pushed the action by sprinting up court, the play would’ve been bogged down and the Pacers would have had to run a set play. Okay, I’ll stop with the Graham love for now, but let’s hope O’B offers Stephen some more meaningful minutes even when Shawne Williams returns.
Good Afternoon
What do you think of the Lucas signing ??
Should be interesting to see how they do the next week without Bosh. BC really needs to get a supporting person for Bosh. Either thru the draft or trade Bosh physically can not carry this team. Of course this is really a good opportunity to see what the guys can do. Bosh gets some rest and the rest of the team has to figure it out.
Last comment is Boston the oldest team in the NBA ??
Actually, as of opening day, Boston was basically at the League average. Their average age was 26.90, the league was 26.91. Toronto was 27.70.
Experience is probably a better indicator. Boston was 5.14 years, Toronto 3.67, League 4.70. Not surprisingly, the team with the most experience: San Antonio with 6.64 years.
I think the Lucas signing is a smart move. It gives TJ a security blanket, but it also brings another NBA experienced mind to the bench. How much input he is allowed to give on team activities is open to question. Obviously he isn’t a coach, but I have to think Sam will use his basketball mind and the fresh set of eyes.
I have to question if this is an opportunity to see what the other guys have to give. We run so many Bosh-dominated plays that his removal from the floor brings a hodge-podge of “get what we can” plays, which is fine in small spurts, but not sure it’s great for a long stretch. One thing is true: as before, we will have to rely on our point guards to take over and run the floor. We need them more now even more than when TJ was down.
I agree that NBA experience is far more telling then playing in Europe but time will catch up with the 2 top teams in the East. Just like it did in Miami and hopefully the Raps will be positioned to take advantage of it. It’s funny how we try to analysis a game played by children. The bottom line is they need to score more points then the other team (and entertain the fans).
Tonight should be an interesting game.