Linkage - April 24
"It’s now a five-game series and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do," Mitchell said after yesterday’s practice at the Air Canada Centre. "The worst thing that can happen is what, we lose? We lost the first two, so we’ve got to do something … As a coach you can’t be afraid to try things."
Point guard T.J. Ford, who has been taking much heat from critics after going 2-for-17 from the field in the first two contests, is the most obvious candidate to be replaced by Jose Calderon, though don’t bet on that.
"Whatever they want to do," Ford said with a shrug yesterday. "If they feel that it is necessary for us to win, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m all for it. If people want to put the blame on me, I’m cool with that. It’s nothing different that hasn’t been done before."
Mitchell was being coy about any changes, but went so far as to suggest that Ford will start.
"If Jose struggles, where do I go?" Mitchell said of that possibility. "I’m going to need both of them to win the series."
all-star forward Chris Bosh already has forgotten about Tuesday’s miss that fell harmlessly off the rim and is looking forward to another shot tonight.
"I’ve replayed it a lot," Bosh said yesterday of the failed buzzer-beater in the 104-103 Game 2 loss to the Orlando Magic.
"I can always say I did this or that, but at the end of the day that’s the shot I took and I’d take it again if I had it.
"It just didn’t go in. It’s over, I have to look forward."
"I wanted Jose (Calderon) or Chris to get the shot," Mitchell said. "We ran the play that we wanted. We got the ball into our best player’s hands and you know what, I trust his decision. If he drives to the basket, he drives. If he feels like he’s got the shot, he takes the shot."
The Magic has been physical in its attempts to slow Bosh, but nothing that wasn’t expected going into the series. For the most part, Bosh has handled it well, though he admits to being weary after Tuesday’s heartbreaker.
"It’s the playoffs, you understand it’s going to be tough," guard T.J. Ford said yesterday. "They’re going to throw different people at Chris and they’re going to crowd him.
"He did the best he could (Tuesday). We had a good look at the end of the game, giving the ball to the best player and he just came up short."
To date, other than being mountain climbers, we’re not sure what to make of the Raptors in the playoffs. They have put themselves so far behind in the first two games that before they’ve broken a sweat their opponents were halfway to winning the series.
That, by the way, isn’t Magical. But it’s clear right now that this Magic team doesn’t necessarily need any help from the not-ready-for-first-quarter players.
"Without those first quarters, we win those games," said Jose Calderon, the plucky point guard, who may be correct. And except for the million dollars, I’m a millionaire.
"Rather than have faith in ourselves, we’re thinking too much," Kapono said. "We know what we have to do. Now we have to go show it.
"If we put pressure on ourselves and think too much, it doesn’t happen. The pressure, that’s not something we need at this point … We have to be ourselves to play well. I think we’re thinking too much. We’re trying to think our way through the game, rather than playing it."
"I’ve seen it all," Kapono said. "I’ve been on a championship team and never played. I’ve played in a ton of games over the years. I don’t try to panic. We’ve shown, even if we get down 15, we’re still up one with two minutes to play."
And so even though he missed the shot that could have spared his team from a 2-0 deficit in its first-round playoff series, the clued-in loyalist lives with that crunch-time clank.
Bosh, after all, did what team leaders are supposed to do this time of year – he elevated his game with a mad-eyed fervour that should have been completely infectious. Except that it wasn’t.
While Bosh was stretching his limits, too many of his teammates – say, the other four-fifths of the starting lineup – disappeared. Considering those vanishings happened in the biggest game of the season, and that losing tonight’s Game 3 would essentially end all hope, changes are necessary.
Orlando’s winning, too, because they’ve got better second-echelon talent in Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, and because the contrast between Toronto’s Ford and Orlando’s Jameer Nelson, the starting point men, has been striking.
While Nelson is a career underdog overachieving, Ford shrugs and says it’s not his fault he gets bad press. It’s unfathomable that the Raptors, bent on re-signing Calderon this summer, move past this season with Ford in the fold. But for now there’s a series to try and salvage. And for Ford, there’s a once-good name to try and begin to restore.
The stock excuse – "We’re young" – doesn’t cut it. Bargnani’s 22. Howard’s 22. The league’s elite aren’t geezers.
"We stick to Chris like leeches," Jamario Moon, the rookie forward, was saying not long ago. "We go where he takes us."
Forgive Bosh if next season he’d prefer being flanked by a fellow shark or two rather than being dragged down by so many bloodless suckers. Tonight’s the last real chance for so many Raptors to prove they have a pulse.
The "tweak" will undoubtedly involve the removal of Rasho Nesterovic from the starting lineup, which might give the Raptors their desired matchup of Dwight Howard on Chris Bosh.
But who replaces him is a tightly-held secret and the list is about two: Kapono or Carlos Delfino.
Jamario Moon might get some consideration but when the Raptors started Moon over Nesterovic to begin the third quarter Tuesday, the Magic countered by having Rashard Lewis guard Bosh, Hedo Turkoglu cover Bargnani and they had Howard nominally check Moon.
But Howard did little more than stand near the basket as a last line of defence while leaving Moon all alone and the Raptor rookie’s 1-for-5 shooting quarter showed that to be a wise decision. Either Kapono or Delfino, who are both better slashers and shooters than Moon, might force the Magic to alter its assignments.
"I think someone told me that (Game 2 was) the first time I played 30 minutes since Jan. 1 so obviously when you’re playing a lot, you get a lot more shot attempts," said Kapono, who had actually played 30 minutes in one game since Jan. 15. "I’m just glad to be playing. At the end of the year it was tough for me because I was playing five, six minutes, I wouldn’t play in the second half and as a shooter, it’s kind of hard."
the fine folks in the rapture dept. at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment at least are avoiding asking the customers tonight at the Air Canada Centre to dress in the third-jersey colours of the visiting team, the way they did last year.
That’s progress. Now if only the team could make some.
"It’s been what it’s been and it is what it is,” philosophized Sam Mitchell of the early no-shows. "We’ve just got to come out and play better.”
Then he thought of one other thing to say about his team’s slow starts, albeit a view not unanimously held by everyone who watched both games.
"It hasn’t been that we’re not playing hard to start the games," he said. "We’re just making a lot of mistakes."
Nothing changes the ugly 0-2 arithmetic, though, and remember that this was the series matchup Raptor fans and chroniclers suggested provided them their best chance (and perhaps it still will).
There was a lot of talk a year ago about "wanting" New Jersey in the playoffs and we knew how that worked out. This year most people "wanted" Orlando, which really meant steering away from Boston, Detroit and Cleveland. Once again, this falls into the category about being careful what you wish for.
"As a coach, you have to look at that thing and you can’t be afraid to try things. Y’all are going to kill me anyway. If I don’t do something, you’re going to kill me and if I do do something and it don’t work, you’re going to kill me. I’m not trying to win with you guys anyway, I’m trying to win the game. I’m not trying to win with you guys because, come on, I think I’ve been around long enough to realize I’m never going to win with y’all.”
Guy goes for 29 and 10 and six assists, a block and two steals, plays 45 minutes hard at both ends, carries the team back at both ends of the floor and some of you are dogging him?
Un-freaking-real.
You want to know why he didn’t score much in the second half? Because other guys were. Because the Magic were playing off him on the screen and roll because he was killing them and Calderon made five of six shots, because he had three of his assists passing off to Kapono or Delfino or, yes, Bargnani, who made four jumpers in that half. Oh, why’s that? Because he was more open because Bosh was attracking so much attention.
Guy misses a jumper at the buzzer (ok, maybe it was 17 feet, not 15; maybe it was 19, maybe it was 16 feet 6 inches, it’s all just an educated guess at the scorer’s table or press row) and you’re killing him?
Yeesh.
"We just have to come out and play better," Mitchell said. "Understand something, it’s not like they’re trying to fall down. We are trying to win and I think you can see that by how we’ve played. As big a deficits as we’ve had, we’ve come back and gotten back in the game and had a chance to win.
"In Game 1 we got within five but the game [on Tuesday] we had a chance to win. … So it hasn’t been that we haven’t played hard we’ve just made a lot of mistakes."
The audiences for the Toronto Raptors-Orlando Magic first two playoff games illustrate just how fragile the appeal of the Raptors is in Canada.
Last year, after winning their division, the Raptors, in their first two playoff games, produced audiences of 330,000 on TSN and 247,000 on The Score. It helped that the Raptors were playing the New Jersey Nets and much loathed Vince Carter.
This year, coming off a mediocre season, the audiences are substantially lower. On Tuesday, for the second game of the series, The Score drew 168,000, down 32 per cent from 2007. Last Sunday, TSN had 218,000 for the first game, down 34 per cent from the comparable audience a year ago.
Using perceived slights — real or imagined — for motivation is a time-tested formula for inspiring performance.
Does having his shorts handed to him by a working-class professional bother Ford? Is it going to help him raise his game to new heights, or even old ones?
Hard to tell.
"[But] we just need to get off to a better start and not give up easy baskets in the first quarter, that’s what’s killing us"
No one would argue that point, but it’s a cliché in basketball — though one with its share of truth — that point guards set the tone for their teams, at least ones with all-star credentials do.
Steve Nash doesn’t look to Raja Bell to get the Phoenix Suns rolling. Chris Paul is dominating the Dallas Mavericks, which is why the New Orleans Hornets lead that series 2-0.
It’s a theory to which Mitchell subscribes. "They have the ball," he said. "The quarterback sets the tone in the NFL. … They understand that, they’ve played the position their whole life."
The Raptors’ advantage at point guard is still out there to be taken. But with Keyon Dooling and Carlos Arroyo taking effective turns behind the determined Nelson, it’s clear that it’s an advantage that will have to be earned of 48 minutes with both of the Raptors point guards contributing.
Ford has high hopes for his basketball career. Tonight would be a perfect occasion to try and remind his fans and critics alike exactly why by playing Nelson at least even in the first quarter.
If the Toronto Raptors are looking for increased focus to start games, perhaps sliding Jason Kapono into the starting lineup is not the best idea.
The Orlando Magic, after all, have outscored Toronto 78-41 in the first two first quarters of the teams’ first-round series. And during Tuesday’s Game 2 Magic outburst, Kapono admitted that his mind wandered just a bit.
"What I saw in Game 2 was a guy behind the bench, he had his headphones on," Kapono recalled during Wednesday’s practice. "I was wondering why he came to the game if he had those on."
Kapono said he will step up his defensive game if need be, even if it means stepping in front of Orlando’s mammoth centre, Dwight Howard, which he has done on occasion already.
"That’s a big strong guy, 6-10, 260 pounds," Kapono said, underestimating Howard’s size by an inch and at least five pounds. "If you notice when I do try to block him out, I turn my back because he’s a real strong guy, and I don’t want to let my face get all messed up."
if Ford was not holding the franchise hostage, Mitchell could start Jose and go back to Ford. But when Ford was shoved into a backup role after missing eight weeks due to another neck injury this season, he turned toxic. He dominated the ball, shot too much, poisoned the waters. Eventually, Calderon volunteered to go back to the bench to help the team.
You can be sure that Ford will not do the same. The 5-foot-11 guard got this far because of his stubborn belief in himself, and that won’t change. He admits he hasn’t played well, but he vows that will change.
"I think the only thing I can do different is make some shots," said Ford. "Other than that, I think I’m playing pretty good, besides us getting down. Defensively, just try to be more active, pressure the ball, make it tough. But like I say, it’s playoffs, I don’t want to struggle. But the reality is I’m struggling. I’ve just got to find a way to get through it, and keep believing in myself.
"[The Magic are] doing a good job, but they’ll pay for it."
So far, the Raptors have paid for it. Without naming names, general manager Bryan Colangelo admitted before Game 2 that his club had some chemistry issues this season, and in a locker room full of nice guys, Ford is the only one who could qualify as a bad actor. It’s not that he’s trying to be a bad guy - it’s just that he is all about T.J.
And that, perversely, is why he will start. Mitchell is hoping that Ford, who shot 59% against Orlando in two regular-season games, will give him something to begin the game. He can’t count on Ford coming off the bench.
"This is the playoffs - teams are picking up full-court, teams are pressing, [so] neither [Ford nor Calderon] can play 48 minutes, not at a high level," Mitchell said. "So we’re going to need both of them.
"We’re better when they’re both playing well. And so we need to get T.J. playing well. And I think in a seven-game series, I don’t think at that position, when we still had a chance to win both games - let me stop saying both games, when we had a great opportunity to win Game 2 - that you [change the lineup]. That is too critical of a position."
In 2003, Mfon Udoka played 25 games for the Houston Comets in the WNBA, while her brother Ime Udoka played four games on a 10-day contract with the Los Angeles Lakers during that same season, technically making them the first sister/brother duo to play in the two leagues at the same time. Udoka now plays for the San Antonio Spurs.
"I don’t know if we’ll be the first, but we’ll be the best," joked Anthony Parker earlier this week before the Raptors left for Toronto and Game 3 of the Magic-Raptors series.
Their Game 1 was the matinee presentation on national cable TV Sunday and drew the smallest audience of the first six games at 1,730,000. And while Games 2 and 3 were and will be on Sun Sports here, they are relatively hidden on NBA TV nationally — which is why Raftery and partner Ian Eagle are working the games.
"But now, [Toronto] knows what their best lineup is, and that’s what we’re going to see," Van Gundy said.
"We’re not going to get the advantage of playing against some of those other lineups, so it will be tougher."
If you’re a Magic fan, you are probably feeling as if your underwear is too tight. But let’s be honest, the playoff series against the Raptors is starting to feel like a pair of mink boxer shorts.
Sure, Toronto could still take the series from Orlando. Canada could also invade the United States and install British Columbia native Pamela Anderson as prime minister.
This series would feel like a pair of burlap boxers if Chris Bosh’s last shot had gone in Tuesday night. It clanged off the rim and into the night, and so did any reasonable chance Toronto had of winning the series.
Will the real T.J. Ford please stand up? Then there’s the whole Andrea Bargnani thing.
Synopsis — Guy rides pine most of the season. Becomes starter in Game No. 83. Offense starts sputtering like a ‘73 Vega. Team loses more faith in embattled coach.
The Magic are in control largely because of:
* Dwight Howard’s dominance. He’s becoming a Shaq-like star in these playoffs before our eyes, recording back-to-back 20-20 games. He also has eight blocks in the two games, intimidating the Raptors inside.
* Point guard Jameer Nelson’s sterling play. Nelson was on the hot seat before the playoffs as most people were giving the Raptors the match-up edge, but Nelson has averaged 21 points, five assists, four rebounds and 2.5 turnovers. When he plays well, the Magic can contend.
* Hedo Turkoglu is coming up with some big plays at the end or in clutch situations — like he did all season.
* Defense. Howard is a monster in the paint, but the Magic have been focused. Rashard Lewis played well against Chris Bosh in Game 1. Although Bosh broke free for 29 points in Game 2 and Jason Kapono had 20, the Magic had 10 steals, including several early to force turnovers and jump to a big lead.
Sam Mitchell, a former Pacers assistant who would be high on Walsh’s list, is considered in jeopardy if the Raptors, down 0-2 to Orlando, are bounced in the first round. Unless Jackson bowls him over, like Larry Bird once did, Walsh indicated he may wait.
"You’ve got to think about that, unless you become really convinced there is a guy suited for your team before that happens," Walsh said. "Then, yeah, I think you see what happens."
Bird and Walsh wanted to interview Mitchell in Indiana last year when it looked like he’d be fired. It’s known Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo is not crazy about Mitchell and might want to hire his own coach.
"Muhammed is the most commonly used name on Earth. Read a book for once."
This quote could only apply to the Raptors, who are composed of Chris Bosh and several foreign-born players that the casual NBA fan knows nothing about. Don’t worry though, Toronto’s poor play down the stretch means there is no reason to get to know these guys for more than a week.
Jose Calderon hit a late three and flopped to draw the foul that allowed the Raptors to get the ball back down one for the final possession of the game. Unfortunately for the Raptors, their final shot ended up being a long Chris Bosh jump shot, which he missed. It is completely inexplicable as to how T.J. Ford ever gets playing time considering how much better the Raptors are when Calderon is in the floor. Maybe last season’s coach of the year Sam Mitchell will figure this out as the series heads back to Toronto.
Top 10 Things Sam Mitchell Possibly Said in the Huddle Before the Final “Play” in Game 2
Delfino will put it on the floor and drive as well. And even on the defensive end, he’ll put his body on the line. Think back to Game 2 when he went up to attempt a block on Howard. Delfino got crowned and picked up a foul … and he drew a technical on Howard after the big man taunted Delfino by trying to get in his face. However, the fact that Delfino even ‘tried’ to stop Howard was all I needed to see. He went chest to chest with Superman. He wasn’t backing down.
Raptors TV has been telling you about a new feature on Raptors.com called Shot Caller. I figured being a responsible somewhat journalist I would go check it out. I mean if people that are reading this blog might be part of this thing I needed to see what it was all about.
Until Toronto’s best players are put into these specific types of End-of-Game situations more times during their NBA careers, it is likely that they will continue to come up on the short end of intensely played playoff games that are usually decided by individual player execution during the final three minutes of the game.
Apr 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Alt Raps beat me to the punch today. So you can read today’s blog as well. I wanted to offer a small word on the post they have selected. I was approached by LiveHive(Creators of Raptors Shot Caller) to work with them on do a look at the game. I thought it was a cool thing to try for helping build my blog. I wanted to thank AltRaps.com for their Support of my blog and all that read it. This site is a great place for all fans,bloggers and any NBA minded person. You folks do great work.
Apr 24th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Even though it’s from the New York Post, that bastion of fine journalism …
———————————————————————-
re: Bird and Walsh wanted to interview Mitchell in Indiana last year when it looked like he’d be fired. It’s known Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo is not crazy about Mitchell and might want to hire his own coach.
———————————————————————-
this is simply an amazing quote to me … published on the day of Game 3 in the Orlando/Toronto series.
khandors last blog post..Knowing how to be a friend
Apr 24th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
exactly, Khandor….exactly.