Linkage - April 10
"It wasn’t like we squeaked it out or anything," a satisfied Chris Bosh said. "In the second half, we pretty much dominated them. We played good defence, we ran out and we moved the ball well. We just gave them fits on offence and we have to continue to do that and play team basketball at both ends."
Villaneuva put an early scare into the Raptors with 25 points in the first 15 minutes at which point he started blowing on his fingers as he ran back up the court just to make sure everyone in the building he knew was red-hot. There were also some pointed stares toward the Raptors bench by the former Raptor.
Villaneuva had just 13 points in the final 33 minutes.
"After he started making shots — and mainly he was getting open because I was trying to help off the ball and everything — but after I didn’t leave him he scored what, like six points?" Bosh asked.
At one point midway through the second quarter after the Raptors had taken the lead and the Bucks took a timeout, Bosh angrily gestured at the fans to get off their hands and show a little support.
"I was just saying it was quiet," Bosh said. "I’m just saying: ‘I’m excited’. I don’t know if anyone else is excited but I’m excited. I’m not waiting for next week. I’m trying to do it right now and that’s the mentality we have to take as an organization."
And as for the fans.
"If the crowd just reacts, it’s a tough place to play," Bosh said. "We go to places like Dallas and Utah, Cleveland and Detroit and it’s loud. It really makes a difference and really gives them an advantage."
Perhaps the biggest improvement for the Raptors last night was defensively where they held the Bucks to 42% shooting but more importantly played the type of team defence with the kind of energy they need to have to be effective.
"Everyone was on the same page," Nesterovic said of the defensive effort. "These past two days we had two really good practices and we got back on the same page."
While there are those who hold out the wildest of hope that somehow the team can summon the qualities successful sides need to make a meaningful run in the post-season, these Raptors seem incapable of playing playoff-style basketball.
Never have been, never will, at least not as currently constituted.
That is why the four-game tuneup for the post-season will represent, in essence, an exercise in futility.
Even if the Raptors had more time to iron out the many kinks to their game and even if the likes of Andrea Bargnani and Jason Kapono were able to regain their shooting form, the Raptors are not equipped to beat any opponent in a seven-game series.
This is a time when good teams tighten rotations and reinforce responsibilities, but the blunt truth about these Raptors is that they are not good and they haven’t been good from training camp in Europe.
The team underestimated Jorge Garbajosa’s presence, while Bargnani, on far too many nights, has been overwhelmed.
Chris Bosh began the year hurt and when he started to find his comfort zone, he got hurt again.
When you watch Bosh close out the season, you see a three-time all-star who is physically and mentally tired.
T.J. Ford was playing lights out until Al Horford’s flagrant foul in mid-December.
When he was asked to come off the bench at a time when Jose Calderon had emerged as a starter, one of the team’s biggest areas of strength became a distraction.
Not all has been lost, but not much has been gained, either.
The Raptors can make all the shots they want and make enough stops in crunch time to help restore some faith, but it’s a classic case of too little, too late.
Even as Charlie Villanueva was torching and mocking his former team in a first-quarter shooting clinic, there was no resistance, yet again revealing the Raptors’ soft underbelly.
So much work to do in the off-season, so little to be gained in the coming weeks.
You never want to go into a spring playoff on a losing note, but at the same time one can’t lose sight of the plight that has been the Raptors and their makeup.
Fans, undoubtedly, will get excited when the playoffs tip off next weekend, but beware. The experience will be short-lived as the Raptors’ deficiencies will be even more exposed.
"For our team right now, it didn’t matter what kind of game we played tonight, we needed a win," said Jose Calderon, who finished off a two-point, 12-assist night by playing the entire fourth quarter.
"Play bad, play unbelievable, it doesn’t matter to us, we needed to get a win. We did it, it’s a good win for us. (Today) at practice everyone has a little more confidence.
"We just have to go one more at a time, four more games, we’re going to be all right."
"Our defence overall, our traps, rotations, being where we were supposed to be, not giving up a lot of easy baskets was a lot better and we just have to build on it," said coach Sam Mitchell.
"Hopefully, guys get a little individual confidence which translates over to team confidence and we continue to build on tonight.
"We made some shots – we shot 54 per cent as a team – and we had the opportunity for some guys to finish the game who hadn’t finished a game in a while," said Mitchell. "JK (Jason Kapono) was able to be on the floor, Jose (Calderon) was on the floor, Andrea (Bargnani) played significant minutes and he did a lot of good things."
"Maybe we could have made more easy baskets but I think we did a pretty good job today and we have to continue to do that," said Calderon. "The first half for Charlie was unbelievable and that’s why we didn’t come to halftime 15 or 20 points up."
But for all Villanueva did offensively, he undid defensively. Toronto simply went to whichever big man was guarding him to match him basket for basket as Bosh, Rasho Nesterovic (14 points) and Andrea Bargnani (10 points) simply went on the attack.
And everybody in the building with a hometown rooting interest had to be thinking the same thing: We, a team without a single one-on-one shot creator, traded that shooting machine for T.J. Ford? We, with our roster stocked with pathetic rebounders, traded a guy who averages six boards a game to make room for Andrea Bargnani?
Some guy in the second row held up a sign last night: "Bryan Colangelo for Leafs GM." But Colangelo’s honeymoon as the basketball head honcho has, more than two years into his tenure, been over for a while.
And never mind mastering shinny; the high-collared Ivy Leaguer has enough on his plate turning his .500 NBA team into something worth worshipping.
Chalk Ford’s troubles up to a career-threatening injury or chemistry-killing selfishness – either way Colangelo knew the risks and weighed them, and now the team is saddled with a starting point guard too stubborn to play backup and perhaps too damaged to fetch real trade value.
This corner, don’t get it wrong, lauded the Ford-Villanueva trade when it happened, back when Jose Calderon was a rookie who couldn’t shoot. And for all the sensational work Villanueva did last night – 38 points and 12 rebounds, both game highs – it’s written in granite that his presence on an NBA court will forever mean stats for everybody. You’ll note Bosh had 32 and 11 in retaliation, many of both with Villanueva in the disinterested vicinity.
Still, you’d take Villanueva’s occasional brilliance over Bargnani’s sophomore-season disappearance. And again, here’s an observer who believes that a 22-year-old 7-footer who can shoot is worth your patience. But no one is calling his doubters blind pessimists.
Maybe the Italian is worth waiting for. Maybe Ford’s salvageable. Those are Colangelo’s decisions to make in the coming off-season, and there are plenty of reasons for the fans to have faith. But as Villanueva made it all look so easy last night – in a Raptors season in which very little has come without strain and pain – it was worth remembering that Colangelo, who built the Phoenix Suns when they won 62 games in the Steve Nash renaissance, built the Suns when they won 29 games. As Bosh found out yesterday, getting the crowd off its feet, season after season, game after game, is more finicky art than hard science.
Yes, Charlie scored 38. Yes, TJ was anchored to the bench in the fourth quarter. But, yes, I still make that trade. Today, tomorrow and yesterday.
Chuck V was on fire in the first half – relatively invisible in the second half, mind you – but he still defends as if he can’t wait to get up his next shot.
The Raps ran nearly every play at him, including post-ups for Rasho which are few and far between, and it worked nearly every time.
This is why Anthony Parker is good for your team.
Early in the third quarter, he’s got three fouls and a lesser player would have hidden on the defensive end.
But, no. Parker strips Michael Redd trying to make a shot under the basket – a surefire way to pick up Personal No. 4 and a seat on the bench – and about a minute later he takes a charge on Redd 25 feet from the basket.
That’s playing for the team ‘cause a handful of guys would have shied away from either play trying not to pick up another foul.
The playoff urgency didn’t come across early. The Raptors hit just one of their first seven shots and three of their first 10, while coughing up three turnovers. Fortunately, the Bucks were good on just two of their first 13 shots, with four turnovers.
One member of the Bucks front office told me that they thought Charlie V. had a better feel for the game than Bosh, let alone Bargnani, and I can see why. The guy is really talented. He looks all old mannish one second and then blows by a bunch guys to the rim, or rises high for a dunk. He’s one of those guys who rebounds merely by being on the floor; the ball comes to him because he can’t help but adjust to shots and anticipate where they’re going to end up – you can’t teach this. His offensive arsenal could use some consistency, but it’s pretty complete: he can drill threes; pull-up off the dribble; finish at the rim and post you up. And he’s slick a passer. These are all the things the Raptors hope and expect Bargnani to do, but get it only in small doses, every other week.Now that Jose is Jose and Brandon Roy is Brandon Roy and Ford is suspect for several reasons, there’s no way Colangelo makes that deal again. Jose and Roy in the backcourt; Charlie as a sixth man; Rasho and Bosh up front and more money to spend on additional depth would have the Raptors further ahead than they are today. I wouldn’t have said that last season; and if Bargnani can get his stuff together, maybe I won’t next year and the years after. But hoping for that to happen is a gamble too.
One game does not a season make, for a player or for a team. For example, the fact that the Toronto Raptors managed a win Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks was a good thing. "It was not a must-win, but a must-improve," said centre Rasho Nesterovic.
Trading Villanueva was the right move, but you want two reasons the Raptors are scrambling to escape the No. 7 spot in the East, those are two big reasons. Ford’s injuries, and then his disruptive attitude when forced into a backup role when he came back, have hurt. And Bargnani’s season-long stink bomb - Wednesday night, he managed 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting in 23 minutes - hasn’t exactly helped.
Bosh’s Double-Double Helps Raptors End 3-Game Skid
Toronto’s Chris Bosh scored 22 of his 32 points in the first half and grabbed 11 rebounds. "We always tell Chris if he can take the block early, take it and I thought he was very aggressive," said coach Sam Mitchell. "He didn’t catch and hold, he was decisive in his decisions and he played a great game."
"After the third quarter we talked about, ‘Hey, let’s see what happens if we pass the ball a few times’," said the coach. "And, lo and behold, right in front of us, we’re getting open shots and made the game a lot easier.
"Teams don’t want to defend. With a week to go in the season, they’ve been defending all year and if you come down and jack up the first jump shot you see, you play right into the hands of a team like this that wants to get out and run. And in the fourth quarter to start with, I was real pleased. We ran pick and rolls, guys made passes to open players. It makes an impact on the game. Unfortunately it was too late."
The Raptors definitely stepped up their defense in this game forcing 15 turnovers for 20 points, played the Bucks even on the boards and came up with 8 steals. They didn’t handcuff the Bucks by any means but played good man and help defense in 2nd and 3rd quarter periods. They doused the Charlie V fire in the second and got some stops and scores in the 3rd to build a 10-12 point lead. The rest of the game was trading baskets; against better competition this game goes right down to the wire. On the other hand, you can get any shot you want against the Bucks at any time - they’re very unmotivated on D. Be thankful that the Raptors showed enough patience on offense to exploit the flat out lazy Milwaukee defense which never looked to resist anything tonight. Probably fatigue from the back-to-back or maybe they just don’t care.
Bosh’s rant wasn’t a hollow one this time (this game anyways). Bosh was a man possessed, running around like a mad man on offense and defense. He was contesting shots, rotating on defense, grabbing boards, taking it to the rack, hitting free throws, and lunging at loose balls on the floor. Wow, I must say he really impressed me tonight. Haven’t seen this from the man in a while.
So Primo, Hump and Gatorade Graham all get just over a minute of playing time and guess which guy can’t find the basket? Check that, guess which guy doesn’t even get a shot off? Yep, Gatorade Graham. He did manage to get an assist, but at some point you really have to wonder how much GG even cares anymore. There’s no place for him on this team, he’s just pulling a Yogi. Show up, get dressed, sit down, go home and sleep on a bed of money. You know if Hump gets into the game with a minute left, first chance he gets, he’s going to attack. When Primo hits the court, he’s going to will the ball into the net and if not, he’s going to get his fouls. He’s probably disappointed that he played a minute and didn’t commit a foul. That’s not gangsta.
But also, I can see his point about wanting to get the crowd into the game, especially when you’re battling for a playoff spot, where every little bit counts. But from a fan’s perspective you’re beating a team that you should beat and with your recent struggles that might be reason enough to cheer but it’s really nothing to get excited about.
Although if this tight battle for positioning continues the Raptors will need every little bit down the stretch so I would encourage Raptors fans and the city of Toronto to go out and support your Raptors because they need it regardless of the opponent. I mean, there’ll be plenty of other baseball games and a very disappointing hockey season is gracefully over so go out and support your playoff team and let them know how much you appreciate them.
Much like Blue Jays outfielder, Dave Winfield in 1992 … Bosh is pleading for Toronto to bring more energy and enthusiasm to the arena … especially as the post-season approaches.
Bosh told Paul Jones and me that the ACC was so quiet on Wednesday during a key stretch in the first half that he thought “somebody died”!
The 3-time All Star admitted that Raptors’ fans are generally pretty good in terms of being vocal and passionate, but there’s definitely another level that they could bring it to … and Bosh wants to see - and HEAR - that level. He wants Toronto (and the ACC) to develop that same kind of rabid atmosphere that exists in places like Utah and Golden State.
In ‘92 … as the Blue Jays were making their stretch run towards their first-ever World Series Championship, Winfield made a similar plea to the fans of Toronto … wanting more fan participation. His words obviously resonated throughout the city as t-shirts, buttons, and signs started popping up all over the place emblazoned with the slogan “Winfield Wants Noise”.
A week after firing five employees, suspending another and accepting the resignation of a ticket department executive, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is investigating whether its employees pocketed money from the sale of personal-seat licences.
Known as PSLs, the licences are one-time payments for the right to buy season tickets and can be resold. PSLs for the Leafs range from about $9,000 to $30,000.
And then “111-93″ happened. Now recognized as a household name, much like “9-11″ and “Lebron’s Game 5″, the famous 111-93 win against the Milwuakee Bucks on April 9th turned around the franchise.
Suddenly, the calls for Mitchell’s head disappeared and eventually turned into praise. All of that has been forgotten in the euphoria that accompanies a trip to the N.B.A. playoffs and Mitchell, ever the class act, has no interest in drumming it up again in a how-do-you-like-me-now sort of way.
If there’s a definition of being in a ‘zone’ Charlie Villanueva would be it tonight. He scored the first 25 of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 29 points against the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors will not suddenly become a dominant defensive force. Mental toughness will not engulf the team.They will not remarkably gain the ability to close out tight games. The holes in their perimeter defence will not miraculously be plugged. Andrea will not start putting up consistent 20/10 nights through to the playoffs. Kapono won’t start hitting 3 or 4 treys a game. Hell, he won’t get more than that through to the end of the season - if he’s lucky!
No. None of those things will suddenly start happening in the final five games. The die has been cast. This squad is who they are, which is not very good.
Sadly, the limp towards the play-offs will continue and regardless of who the Raptors face in the post season - expect Toronto to be ousted in six games or less.
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