Linkage - March 15
How bad? Historically bad.
In one of the darkest nights in the team’s history last night, the Raptors set records for defensive ineptitude in a capitulation of outrageous proportions that will etch this version of the franchise in the record book for dubious achievements.
And as punishment, the players will see it all again.
"We’re going to watch the whole game and then we’re going back to our basics of playing defence and you have to play defence to stay on the court," said an angry Sam Mitchell. "If you’re not playing defence, you have to come sit down. It’s that simple because we’re not going to win if we don’t play defence."
"It’s indecisiveness, not doing what you’re supposed to do," said Mitchell. "When you go over the scouting report and say `no baseline drives, this guy likes to drive baseline’ … he beats you once, okay; he beats you twice, okay; the third time he beats you and the help is standing there saying, `I got your help, bring him this way’ and the guy still beats you? We just have to find guys who are recommitted to playing defence the way we played it earlier."
Not having their top scorer is no excuse for not putting out effort, which is exactly what plagued Toronto in the first half last night.
"I think sometimes this kind of game is good to change everything," said Jose Calderon. "It’s a terrible game, our defence was terrible and I think we have to learn a lesson. From now on, we have to be another team.
"It’s everything, it’s everybody. It’s the team. It’s little details but sometimes it’s too many little things together."
"The last two games we’re not guarding anybody," a visibly upset Mitchell said. "(Today) we’ll get a chance to practise. We’ll watch the whole game. It’s like I told the guys, we’ve now gone from 12th in the league defensively to (something like) 17th. We’re not guarding, and if you’re not guarding, you’re going to have to come out of the game.
"We just have to find guys who are going to be committed to playing defence like we played earlier and made us 12th in the league and those will be the guys who will play."
The records came early. The embarrassment, though, was from start to finish.
The Nuggets scored 44 first-quarter points, the most the Raptors have given up to an opponent in franchise history.
By halftime, the Raptors had set another record, one they didn’t want. This time it was the 79 points in a half, the most a Raptors opponent has on them in either the first or second half.
Speaking at yesterday’s shootaround, Ford was more than willing to take some of the blame for the Raptors fourth-quarter failures of late, just not all of it.
"It’s just our personnel," Ford said. "Sometimes when guys feel they are not in a comfortable situation, they are not going to take chances they are not used to doing. I think that just comes with the personnel and guys who are on the court. Certain guys are good at doing certain things and certain guys know things they are not good at doing, so, why put themselves in those situations."
Raptors forward Chris Bosh is part of a new series of cups launched by McDonald’s that feature NBA players in their All-American and USA Basketball uniforms. The Cups show the progression of the players from their McDonald’s All-American appearances to their roles on their respective USA Basketball teams. The other players featured in the series included Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd and Carmelo Anthony from the NBA and Seimone Augustus from the WNBA. This being a U.S. promotion, though, don’t expect to find the cups in Canada.
Darrick Martin, a California guy through and through, or so we thought, was actually born in Denver and his mother still lives here. So Martin and some teammates headed out to celebrate his birthday with his family. Martin’s sister Jessica lives here also and works for the Nuggets community relations department.
The Raptors president and general manager is embarking on a long-scheduled trip to Rome, Barcelona, Istanbul and Athens next week.
During that time, he likely will see Spanish basketball federation officials to discuss the lawsuit the Raptors filed yesterday, suing the federation for money Toronto says it is owed on the Jorge Garbajosa insurance claim.
The lawsuit, believed to have been filed in Toronto, was launched "for non-payment of insurance proceeds related to Garbajosa’s injury," the team said in a statement.
Raptors officials were mum on the specifics of the deal.
It’s not clear how much of the $1 million (U.S.) insurance policy they seek or how much of the $4 million salary they paid Garbajosa this year they might want to recoup.
But Iverson was more impressed with Denver’s defensive performance on Friday. The Nuggets held the Raptors to just 3-of-12 shooting from 3-point range. Toronto came in with the top percentage in the league at 41 percent.
"If we come in and do what we what we got to do defensively, nine times out of 10 we’re going to take care of business," Iverson said. "We weren’t trying to beat them by 30, we just wanted to beat them convincingly."
The Nuggets got their point across.
"We were nonexistent today and Denver did whatever they wanted offensively," Parker said.
Sam Mitchell says that his wings sometimes just hand the ball back to Ford when he does pass it, but that could be the first sign that they are peeved, especially if Ford only gets them the ball late in the shot clock. As in: ‘I’m not going to take a low percentage shot up against the clock, since you like the ball so much, here, you bail us out of this mess.’ If players are putting teammates in bad situations out of spite, that’s dangerous.
The other potential pitfall has to do with Calderon. Presumably, his teammates like it better when he is at the point, but Calderon cannot try to overcompensate for Ford’s lack of playmaking. He can’t refuse open shots he would normally take just because the ball doesn’t move as well when Ford is on the floor. He can’t let the new-TJ create a new-Jose.
And sure, Denver shot 61% in the opening half, a nice number. But they also missed nine of their 14 three-point attempts. The prolific total was mostly on the Raptors’ shoulders. One unofficial tally had Denver with 14 lay-ups in the first half.
Give the Raptors credit, however: They mixed it up, finding new ways to allow easy buckets. On one play in the first quarter, Anthony Carter threw the ball in to play on an inbound play, and no Toronto player thought to stay with him. Camby passed it right back to Carter, who was comically open under the hoop for two easy points.
There were some mildly positive notes for the Raptors. Carlos Delfino, who had missed 26 of his last 28 three-pointers coming into the game, found his stroke in the track meet. He drilled two of his five three-point attempts, finishing with 16 points.
Anthony Parker also continued his solid recent play, with a team-high 19 points.
And more important than both, Chris Bosh watched the game from the Raptors’ bench, and told Raptors NBA TV he was nearing a return. Bosh has missed Toronto’s last eight games because of a sore right knee.
Of course, the negatives outweighed the positives by a fair amount. Toronto’s poor point-guard play, from both Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford, continued; Andrea Bargnani had little impact on the game, which is the case more often than not; And most notably, the overall team defence was nothing short of appalling.
Anthony Parker led the Raptors with 19 points, and Carlos Delfino had 16 points and had seven rebounds. Radoslav Nesterovic added 15 points for the slumping Raptors, who have dropped three straight and seven of nine, and hold a 1 1/2 game edge over the idle Wizards for fifth-place in the East.
"They’re probably one of the most underlooked teams in the league - even without Chris Bosh," said Denver coach George Karl, making reference to Toronto’s injured all-star. "One of the best shooting teams - if not the best shooting team - in the NBA. And those teams have given us trouble."
Ball Don’t Lie: Let’s play the ‘best’ game. What city/arena has had the: Best fans? Best food? Best music? Best in-game entertainment? Best dancers? Best mascot? Best scoreboard? Best concourse? Best overall experience?
Drew: Best fans: Granted, I only get a single game experience and the fans are often relying on the happenings of that particular game … but I really liked the Rockets. They have a cheering section closest to the bench with drums and chants that get everyone in the arena going. It really gives the game a "high school basketball" atmosphere. Portland and Toronto were my other favorites.
Best mascot: Another tough one … um, the Suns’ ‘Gorilla,’ ‘Rocky’ from Denver, ‘Raptor’ in Toronto, and ‘Benny the Bull’ were all entertaining. I am, however, going to give it to ‘Hip-Hop’ from the 76ers. His intensity is unmatched and he made a helpful contribution to my tour.
Portland, Toronto, and Washington also offer some great experiences that can be shown more in depth on my site.
But honestly, in the big picture Bosh’s absence and this Western Conference road trip might be good for Toronto’s playoff chances, as where things sit now they stand in 5th place, 2 1/2 games both ahead of Washington and behind Cleveland. I don’t know about you, but LeBron James in the first round of the playoff, home court advantage or not, is not something I want to see as a Raptors fan. But I like our chances a lot more against an unproven Orlando team. So Chris, please rest as long as you want to and Agent Zero, your Wizards and max contract hopes need you as quickly as possible.
None-the-less though, it’s sort of depressing to see the Raptors seemingly stuck in mediocrity all season, showing flashes but never breaking through. What makes it even more humorous though is that their mediocrity has them 5th in the Eastern Conference. So while I never advocate throwing games, I just think that Chris Bosh should just take his time and come back whenever he is completely healthy, besides it gives our role players increased minutes to get them sharp for right around the time we need them at the end of the season.
The Raps have been exposed as a poser without Bosh. I find myself wondering this. Do the Raptors have less talent than the Sixers? Magic? Wizards? I would think they are all pretty even. So is Stan Van and Mo Cheeks better coaches than Smitch?? Starting to look that way.
In what easily could have been a 150 - 95 blowout, the Denver Nuggets took it easy on the embarrassingly awful looking Raptors. Nuggets took it easy on them in the 4th but still blew out Toronto by 50.
It was just one of those games where one team was on fire and the other didn’t bring their A-game (or their B-game).
I’ll provide more of the gaudy box score, but first I want to point out two reasons why the Nuggets won their fourth game by more than 30+ points this year. First, Denver played good defense and started their break off a majority of the Raptor’s misses. The Nugget outscored Toronto 33-9 in fast break points, and at certain points in this game the Raptor’s defense resembled an And 1 exhibition. The other point of emphasis that I want to stress is how the Nuggets took care of the ball and caused Toronto to turn it over. Entering tonight’s game the Raptors had the second lowest nightly turnover average while the Nuggets came in forcing the second most turnovers. The Raptors average a mere eleven turnovers a game, but tonight were forced into 16 turnovers resulting in 23 Nugget points. The flip side of this assertion is how the Nuggets, one of the worst in the league when it comes to turning it over, limited their miscues to ten turnovers resulting in only ten Toronto points. Anytime the Nuggets can win the points off of turnover battle by double figures they are going to be tough to beat. Combine that with a supercharged fast break and you have the makings for a 32-point blowout.
Sure, Bosh is out but how hard and how long can you ride that excuse? I don’t care if you’re dressing 8 players and 3 of them are gimps, you still have to come out and compete. Nobody has a problem that you get blown out by 30, it’s the way you get blown that says a lot too. Speaking in intangibles, this team lacks toughness, grit, desire and emotion. Speaking in basketball terms, they lack the lateral quicks to stay with opposing guards, they lack the agility to play interior defense, they lack the physicality of playing a gritty hard-nosed contest and finally, they lack the instruction to do any of the above. Chris Bosh is injured but that doesn’t mean you get a free pass to lay an egg every time.
The Raptors defense was being abused the Nuggets were shooting 72% after one quarter of play. Raptors were in the high mountain air of Denver but were drowning on the basketball court. It looked more like a Nugget shoot around than a NBA contest. Allen Iverson was 7of 7 from field with 17 points. Raptor fans have seen this movie before many times. Sam Mitchell would get frustrated to the point of drawing a technical of his own. Had he been smart he’d have got 2 to avoid watching his teams disgraceful effort.How bad did it get? A Raptor Record for an opposition in First Quarter scoring with the 44 points and in a half of basketball with 79 points.
Interesting note, all 24 players in uniform tonight not only played but scored points.
A.I. 28 pts
Melo 22 pts
Camby 17 pts 10 reb
Atkins 17 pts off the bench
A. Carter 12 pts
JR Smith 12 pts off the bench
Chris Bosh needs to get back in this line-up.
The Raptors need to truly assess what the hell is wrong with Andrea Bargnani… 6 pts, 2 reb. If this kid is supposed to be a future star then the Raptors need to figure out what is wrong here because 2007-2008 has been a complete loss for Il Mago.
We’re pretty sure this isn’t part of the George Karl playbook. (Video)
I was excited for him when he signed his big deal with Toronto, and I felt like he played hard, going for 14 and 6 a night on a team that should have been better than it was. I didn’t get to watch a lot of Raptors games, but liked what I saw when I did. He was pretty decent, but the knock back then was that he still couldn’t shoot well. He did get better that year though.
I have to interject here that I really liked Mike James when he played for the Rockets. He was the anti-Rafer, a terrific shooter and instant offense at all times. He came in and lit a fire under the Rockets. He was everything that Rockets team needed and what I thought they still needed the next year. And it’s a little out of the timeline, but the Rockets really did need that offense when Yao and Tracy went down for extended periods of time that year, but I truly feel that Rafer was the better player long term for the Rockets, no matter how much he upsets me sometimes.
Cash is King and Bank of Montreal (BMO) has launched a campaign this week their “BANKSHOT” contest where the winner is eligible for a prize of $100,000. Partnering with The Score and Toronto Raptors where The Score’s Cabral “Cabbie” Richards will shoot a half court shot during the Toronto Raptors game versus the Milwaukee Bucks April 9, 2008.
Without making any trades or adding any new players …
Q1. What line-up can the Raptors use to give themselves the best chance possible to win their 1st-round playoff series?
A1. By ‘thinking outside the box’ …
Exhibit A
STARTERS
PG - Jose Calderon
OG - Jamario Moon
SF - Joey Graham
PF - Kris Humphries
C - Chris Bosh
KEY SUBS
PG - Anthony Parker
OG - Jason Kapono
SF - Carlos Delfino
PF - Andrea Bargnani
C - Rasho Nesterovic
RESERVES
PG - TJ Ford
C - Primo Brezec
… like a top-flight NBA coach is paid big $$$ to do … if he actually knows what’s he’s doing (e.g. Phil Jackson).
* Did someone turn back the clock to 1985? You would think so looking at the 137 points the Nuggets dropped this evening. But with Alex English in the house tonight as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors there was just something fitting about the way the game transpired. And somewhere underneath his scowl and folded arms Doug Moe was really smiling. Of course, if Moe were coaching he would have been upset the Nuggets didn’t find a way to score 150.
* Speaking of Alex English, I’m not sure most people understand just how good he was. Dude scored more points in the decade of the 80’s than any other player. Last time I checked, there were some pretty good players who played during that decade, too.
* I’m surprised Sam Mitchell didn’t try and find a uniform and suit up at some point in this one given how bad the Raptors were defending. Needless to say, Mitchell was less than pleased after the game.
For the Raps to pretend that they are a playoff team after tonight’s effort is a complete farce.
I was ready to abuse T.J. tonight, however I came away from the game realizing that the whole team put on an absolutely terrible performance.
So what we’ve decided is that the boys here at the HQ are going to take a little break until the Raps decide to start putting in some effort.
Depth:
There is none. This team is filled to the brim with soft players who wouldn’t get more than 12-15 minutes on ANY team in the NBA.
Chris Bosh:
Get your ass back on the court. Kobe is playing with a busted shoulder and mashed up pinky. Iverson is perpetually banged up. Pride man…show us you have some.
Mar 16th, 2008 at 1:22 am
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