That was an extremely hard fought win which required our starters to play capacity minutes, anything less from them would’ve meant a loss. Chris Bosh, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon and Rasho Nesterovic logged 46, 41, 36 and 28 minutes, respectively, as Sam Mitchell’s hand was forced by the ineffectiveness of the bench who managed to net only 7 points. It’s a good thing our starters were somewhat rested in the New Orleans spanking otherwise this one could’ve easily gone south. Last time we played them they outrebounded us 50-37 and had 32 second chance points, this time around we won the rebounding battle 39-38 and that kept us in the game. Down the stretch when we needed points Chris Bosh delivered more often than not by attacking Jared Dudley and getting to the FT line, effectively punctuating a somewhat inconsistent evening for the Raptors.

The terrible perimeter defense was terrible once again. Raymond Felton and Early Boykins had little trouble getting past TJ Ford and Jose Calderon, the latter getting exploited seemingly on ever possession. Once the first line of defense was penetrated, Charlotte’s options opened up with the beneficiaries being Jason Richardson, Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor. TJ Ford was on fire in the first quarter and could do no wrong in leading the Raptors to a 39-32 advantage. Zero bad decisions, excellent passes and timely shots earmarked TJ’s performance but then again giving up 32 in the first quarter isn’t exactly great defense. The tide turned in the second quarter when Calderon was introduced to face Earl Boykins who ran circles around him and completely changed the dynamics of the game. It went from being a Raptors offensive showcase to Charlotte giving us a lesson in fast-break basketball, aggressive takes to the rim and open jumpers all created because of guard penetration.

It wasn’t just Boykins and Felton that had success in blowing by their man, Jason Richardson and Gerald Wallace were doing the same and offsetting hard-fought Raptor scores on the other end. Anthony Parker’s sound 20 and Rasho Nesterovic’s 14/11 were absolutely massive in this game and lifted the pressure off of Bosh who had his hands full with the tight-checking Jared Dudley. Our offense labored in some stretches of the game but for the most part, there was more movement in our sets than we’ve seen in some time. Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker filled up the lanes well and were always in motion in the half-court sets, that’s what happens when TJ Ford is at the top of his game. He’s so quick and decisive when he’s at full-steam that his teammates need to keep up with what’s going on in his head. Twice he found Moon early on the break for dunks and once Parker found him on the break for a layup, these are plays that happen because of sheer hustle and TJ brought that tonight. Sure, Felton’s 10/10 were impressive but he did not finish the game strong and made some very bad decisions tilting the advantage in favor of the Raptors. Kinda disagree with this article that calls the Raptors effort “dismal”, I thought they played well enough given their recent form.

Charlotte was killing us on the weak-side cuts all-game long (especially in the second quarter), we were a step too slow fighting through screens and Wallace and Richardson were getting easy scores. What was adding to the misery was Charlotte pushing the ball up court, getting into their sets early and executing them by getting guard penetration. The Raptors looked fatigued and didn’t have a defensive answer. TJ Ford’s introduction into the lineup eased things up a little and we went on a 4-0 run to end the second which cut the lead from 9 to 5 giving us something to build on in the third. By that time Bosh was rested, we were sharper on defense, hit the glass hard and Rasho/parker picked up the scoring. It was evident that if we played a 5 on 5 game from this point out, we’d have a good shot to win it because our defense had picked up and Charlotte’s offense wasn’t nearly as active or efficient - it’s that first game back from West theory again.

Jason Kapono didn’t see the light of day after starting against the Hornets. Good decision on Sam’s part, unless he was guarding Matt Carrol there wasn’t a damn chance that he’d be able to guard anybody on the Bobcats. They’re 2/3s are too quick and too good. Chris Bosh’s primary advantage against every PF in this league save Kevin Garnett is that he’s significantly quicker than them and he put that quickness to good use against Okafor who can’t stay with Bosh. Charlotte switched Dudley on him in the second half but Bosh still managed to get to the line. Dudley made his life harder but give credit to Bosh for still having a say in this game.

If you got the game PVR’d, fast forward to :30 seconds left in the second half and listen to Jack Armstrong talk about the Raptors situation, I’m going to try and summarize: This team needs to find a consistency going into the playoffs that it hasn’t been able to achieve all year long. They don’t bring the right defensive attitude and concentration on a game-by-game basis and their perimeter defense need a lot of work. The way we’re playing right now it’s a first round exit and we need to be a lot better in the first round, especially on defense.

Once again Jack is bang on about the team. We’re fortunate enough to have a somewhat easy schedule to end the year which is an excellent platform of going into the playoffs on a high note in terms of confidence and on-court play. The biggest thing we need to work on in these last few weeks is our defensive mindset. We can’t allow guard penetration based on a pump fakes, we can’t be late in our close-outs, we need to do a better job of fighting through screens, rotating when our teammates are beaten, concentrating on keeping our man in front of us, reading the scouting reports and playing to the players’ weakness. Just take today’s example, why are we playing Felton so tight knowing that he’s a 39% shooter? It’s things like these we need to iron out before the post-season starts and it’s a race against the clock.

I think Jamario Moon’s play deserves some mention, very solid night 6/7 for 15 points and 2 blocks which would’ve been converted to 4 points easily. There were a couple instances where he passed up opportunities to drive but he did run the break well, stuck the mid-range jumper, never forced a shot and played good enough defense on Gerald Wallace who can be a lot to handle. Write off Calderon’s bad game to the pest that is Earl Boykins. The game was played at a frantic pace when Boykins was in command which did not suit Calderon who was left chasing the little munchkin all around the floor.

The Raptors show good concentration in the second half in pulling out a win on the road against a team that’s been playing really well. Can we win consistently with 7 points from our bench and the starters being worked like mules? No, but I’ll take this win. I don’t want to be the guy who said I told you so but I told you so. TJ hit rock bottom in Utah and from that point on his performances have been controlled and very much in the context of the team game. I think he’s going to have a huge say if this team is going to finish strong and threaten in the playoffs. Having said that, I do think he’s a gonner in the off-season, but that’s a subject for another post on another day.

Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night and we got two reasons to beat them: get a grip on the 6th spot and help NJ get into the playoffs. Yeah, I want to see Boston vs. NJ, I think the Nets can win two games in that series.

Oh yeah, check this out, it’s Chris Bosh vs. Phil Jackson.

Top Rap? TJ Ford.

I never quite figured out how the Raptors had won their earlier meeting with the Hornets so going into this one there was some optimism that we might be able to get a win against the West-leading Hornets who by all accounts are a vastly superior team. And that superiority showed throughout the game as New Orleans was rarely threatened and remained in complete control with the exception of some inspired play by the Raptors bench late in the fourth.

David West took it upon himself to establish New Orleans early by taking it straight at Rasho Nesterovic and Chris Bosh getting results in both matchups. The Raptors started Nesterovic on him but it quickly became evident that barring intervention, West might just eat Rasho for dinner. Midway through the first quarter Bosh was given the task of handling West but it hardly mattered, West ended up going 8-11 in the first quarter helping the Hornets to a 37-28 lead. The other player who we didn’t have an answer for in the first quarter was Bonzi Wells who was using his strength to easily back up the frail frame of Jamario Moon for easy hoops around the rim, leaving the eager shot-blocker’s swat-attempts flailing. It wasn’t until Linton Johnson was introduced in the fourth quarter did Bonzi finally get a matchup that he couldn’t exploit with ease. More on that later.

Looking at the stats, everything’s fairly even across the boards: rebounding, assists, turnovers, blocks, steals, second chance points etc. But the one thing that sticks out like a virgin in a whorehouse is the obscene 60% that the Hornets shot. I was at the game courtesy of Alt Raps and here’s how I saw it: the Hornets got the matchups they wanted very easily. TJ Ford’s guarding Chris Paul and the next thing you know Peja Stojakovic is posting him up, Jason Kapono’s trying to check Mo Pete and you turn around to see Tyson Chandler scoring over him etc. etc. Ford was by far the most exploited matchup and the Raptor failed to hide him properly. The Raptors were unable to fight through on simple screens and allowed New Orleans that half step going to the rim. Once Chris Paul had any daylight, waiting was Chandler in the paint and Stojakovic on the perimeter to make the Raptors pay for their negligence in deciding when to switch and when to stay. Mitchell did his usual “throw your hands in the air” like there was nothing we could do:

“You try trapping him but he backs out of it and splits it. He made some passes tonight and I don’t even see how he found the guy and he didn’t miss any shots. They’ve got great shooters and some nights you have to hope the guys don’t shoot the ball as well. He just makes the right plays. I can’t tell you one time tonight that he didn’t make the right play.”

Chris Paul’s 16 assists weren’t off the spectacular kind, the decisions he had to make were easy because the Raptors defense was so out of sync and and so prone to allowing penetration that the hardest pass he made all night was an alley-oop to Chandler for a dunk. In short, we didn’t make life uncomfortable for them with Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Chris Bosh and Forderon all failing their respective defensive assignments. Anthony Parker was a complete non-factor going 2-2 and played some shoddy defense on Stojakovic - somewhat to be expected given Peja’s craftiness.

On a night when Chris Bosh had 21/7, we needed him to have a much bigger game, if not on offense by getting Chandler/West out of the game, then by establishing himself as a defensive presence against the agile and impressive David West. Bosh came up short but at least he tried, the same couldn’t be said for Jason Kapono or Andrea Bargnani. Kapono was inserted into the starting lineup to matchup with Morris Peterson (nice welcome by the crowd) but went a quiet 0-3 and was a non-factor. Note to Sam: Stop relying on Jason Kapono to create his own shot. That’s not his game, that’s not what he was hired to do, that’s something he’ll never do. He’s a shooter, a pure shooter who needs an offense around him to get him shots. Start drawing some plays for him because if you want him to be more than a 5th wheel on offense come playoff time, he’ll need your help.

Pre-game Andrea Bargnani was practicing shots from behind the backboard which I thought weird for a 7-footer center. As I pointed this out to Alt Raps, he correctly quipped, “That’s probably because that’s where he ends up when he tries to drive”. Hahaha. Seriously though, WTF? He may as well have been shooting from there in the game because his inconsequential 0-3, 3 rebounds and uninspired defense on Chandler was stuff made to forget. He’s like a ghost on the floor, he doesn’t have a clue of what to do and he just drifts around waiting for something to happen that’ll get him involved in the game. And that something hasn’t been happening of late because he’s being far too passive in his approach to the game. Sure, Sam is to blame for not having a legit play for him but he doesn’t have a play for Moon either and he doesn’t have any problem jacking up shots, grabbing a rebound or two and getting involved in the game. Maybe Bargnani should talk to JM on tips on how to have the announcer call your name out more often other than to specify a foul. Before you call me a hater, let me just say he did have one good play: a drive and a lay-off to Bosh for a dunk. Not exactly #1 pick stuff but hey, it’s early, we got to give him at least another 3 years ;)

Let’s talk about the heart-warming comeback featuring our very own Linton Johnson. Johnson, Humphries, Calderon, Delfino and Moon cut a 20+ Raptor lead down to six with 90 seconds left before West and Chandler answered with layups to ice the game. Johnson was able to stop Bonzi Wells, Humphries hit the offensive glass against Chandler, Delfino and Moon dropped a few bombs and suddenly this was a game. Now with the score that tight you might wonder why Sam didn’t bring back Bosh into the game and have a go at things. I say he made the right decision, Bosh/Kapono/Rasho were getting banged around too easily by the Hornet big guys and didn’t deserve the chance at a win. The bench deserved to be in there down the stretch and its just unfortunate we couldn’t get a couple more stops.

The fans started booing in the third quarter when the Raptors were in a funk and down by 17 or so. Pathetic, why do these shits even bother coming to the game if they don’t even understand that we’re playing the best team in the West. Then they figure to cheer really loud on a meaningless three at the fourth quarter buzzer? Wankers.

Charlotte tomorrow, I imagine the Raps will be looking for revenge after that 32-0 second chance point drubbing. At least that’s what I hope. Anybody else glad TSN might die?

This is Chinese commentary but good quality. I can’t bear listening to English hyperbole anymore, I prefer chipmunks instead.

Great fight back by the Gunners. All seemed lost at halftime, we were dominating play but Bolton was the one in the lead. Bad defending on their first goal and a giveaway led to the other. Diaby was sent off (rightfully) for a similar tackle as the one on Eduardo. We were creating half-chances all through the first half but it was embarassing to be down two goals to a relegation threatened Bolton side who are basically a bunch of talentless gypsies.

The outset of the second half was dominated by Bolton much to everyone’s shock but Arsene Wenger responded by replacing Bendtner for Emmanuel Adebayor and mixing in Theo Walcott. Immediate dividends followed. Adebayor has been taking a lot of heat since the goals have dried up but his pace was a key catalyst in this one.

Gallas who was having a terrible game scored off a poorly defended corner which should be enough for him to keep his captaincy for another week. Soon after, Adebayor’s run in the box was followed by a nifty back heel to Flamini who’s shot was blocked but Hleb was fouled trying to get to the rebound. RVP smashed one in from the spot and the Gunners were back. The final goal was sheer desire to not settle for a tie, a bit of luck on the deflection but the run by Fabregas was something to relish.

Gunners come back from the dead. Is it going to be enough to win the league? Probably not but it’s exactly what we needed going into the big Champions League clash against Liverpool.

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Beggars can’t be choosers so we can’t be getting too picky about the type of wins we get as long as they’re wins. Despite missing Robinson, Marbury, Randolph and Curry, the Knicks put up a very commendable fight and if it weren’t for their bad FT shooting and blown gimme layups, this one might’ve been one of those “I don’t believe we just lost that” games for the Raptors. The sense of urgency that we expected to see in these final 12 games was only there for the first quarter and after going up big on the Knicks early, we shifted down a few gears and expected NY to fade. A trend far too disconcerting for anyone.

No matter how big or small the Raptor lead was there was a general feeling that it was a comfortable one, aside from Jamal Crawford, the Knicks didn’t have a firepower scorer that could propel them to a win. Crawford and Jared Jeffries did their best in cutting a 17 point deficit down to 3 in the second quarter but fortunately for the Raptors, that was the last of the big Knick runs. We had serious trouble putting them away because our offense couldn’t handle the zone and the pressure they were applying on Bosh (5 TOs). Our defense couldn’t contain the Knicks’ playground style of ball which consisted of one-on-one moves and jacking up the first chance at a shot. If the Knicks had been a little more patient or if Fred Jones didn’t suck, they’d have a lot more to say in this one.

Neither team played very well, the Raptors struggled stopping the Knicks and the Knicks never got into any sort of offensive rhythm. If the Raptors had played better defense and played with more intensity, there was no reason why the Knicks wouldn’t have been blown out of the water by the third quarter. This might cost us against New Orleans because Bosh ended up playing a game-high 47 minutes! Yup, our superstar needed to play 47 minutes against the second worst team in the East who happened to be missing 60% of their starting lineup. Yikes!

Chris Bosh (29/10/1) had his hands full with Jared Jeffries (21/10/3) who was running the break, hitting the glass and being very aggressive by attacking the rim. Bosh had a strong but quiet night, he spread his points across the game and seemed to come up with timely baskets whenever the Knicks were about to get too close for comfort. Isiah Thomas noticed it too:

“Toronto did a good job of keeping us at bay, whenever we tried to make a run, Bosh was there to answer it.”

Stick Rasho Nesterovic into any role and he’ll produce, tonight he was at his best and kept getting deep position on David Lee and Jeffries for scores around the hoop. The beautiful part about the 18/8 from Rasho is that they all come naturally, not a single shot is forced and not a single shot can be considered a bad shot. Needless to say his play has been superb, what does get lost in his performances is what he’s been able to do on the defensive end by throwing his wide load of a body around to block out players from getting offensive rebounds. Unless there’s a serious helter-skelter under the rim, you’ll never see his man pick up an offensive rebound.

It wasn’t pretty watching the Raptors trying to figure out NY’s zone defense nor was it any fun to watch us crumble when the ball was pressured. TJ Ford did a good job of figuring out what NY was doing and never forced it by going blindly at the heart of the zone but choosing to penetrate just enough so that zone would somewhat collapse on him in the paint and he’d pick out his options. A very controlled and impressive 10 point, 9 assist and 0 turnover performance from TJ which included an ankle-breaking move on Jared Jeffries made for Sportscenter (the ESPN kind, not the TSN garbage).

Andrea Bargnani tends to play pretty well against the trash of the NBA so it wasn’t surprising to see him put up a decent night of 12/4 in 22 minutes. It’s the sort of performance you can build on, maybe go to bed happy tonight that you hit a few shots, managed to get a nice dunk and weren’t manned-out on the boards. But he should be anxious to get back on the floor on Sunday so that he can build pressure on Sam to put him back in the starting lineup. I want the man to be ticked off that he’s coming off the bench and it should motivate him to play harder and smarter. A lot’s been made of the “internal competition” on the Raptors - Graham/Moon/Delfino and Ford/Calderon - but the most interesting one is the minutes battle between Rasho and Bargnani. Idealy speaking, Bargnani would play 35 productive minutes a game and in the process hone his skill-set and start becoming the next Nowitzki while the veteran Rasho spells him for 12-17 minutes a game. But it’s turning out quite differently coming down the final stretch with Rasho playing the bigger role and Bargnani being part of the supporting cast. A bit of an unexpected role reversal. On a somewhat related unrelated note, Barraketh on RealGM summed it up nicely:

The problem with Bargs is that he was picked too high. The man has huge flaws in his game, and though it’s possible that he will be able to overcome them and become a great player, it’s by no means a sure thing. If we were a team like Seattle, we could let him play through his mistakes. However, we’re a playoff team, and we need to win now as well as later. He was given his shot as a starter, he didn’t learn on the job fast enough to keep him there - guess what, that’s NBA for you! It’s absurd to say that he hasn’t been given a chance to succeed. From here on out he has to earn his minutes just like anyone else - by contributing on the floor. Hopefully he’ll train hard this offseason and come back a much improved player.

A very stupid moment occurred in the game where Chuck Swirsky was openly laughing at how the Knicks weren’t running any set plays but just going around “freelancing” as suggested by Jack Armstrong. Do they not see the hypocrisy in this or have they completely shut out the fact that we are one of the worst when it comes to freelancing on offense? Also, did anybody catch Swirsky saying Amare Stoudamire is neck and neck with Kevin Garnett when it comes to who’s more deserving of the MVP? I hope this guy doesn’t get an MVP vote. I can point to at least 4 other very homerish/questionable things uttered by the Swirsk, but lets not dwell on it.

Till Sunday.

Liners:

• Phoenix spanked Philly so we’re back in the 6th spot. Big game on Sunday, Hornets lost to the Celtics so they’ll be looking to get back to winning ways.
• I wonder where the Knicks would be if they fielded the same lineup they did tonight and didn’t have Randolph/Curry/Marbury. They’d probably win the same number of games but at least they’d be fun to watch and a lot cheaper.
• Jason Kapono with 7 scoreless minutes. I’m trying to think of how this guy can have an impact on this team and right now I’m coming up blank.
• Seeing Jamario Moon pass up a jumper to drive and dunk the ball in the first quarter was a welcome sign and Jack Armstrong very correctly pointed out that we need a lot more of that. But in typical Moon style, that was the last such play.
• We played down to the level of our competition but we have good outside shooters and the 50% shooting bailed us out.
• I disagree with Swirsky/Armstrong that David Lee is the one guy you’d pick up from the Knicks. It’s Jamal Crawford by a big margin.
• After Charlotte, Detroit is the only +.500 team we’ll face and even they’ll be resting their starters.
• CB4 = Top Rap.

It used to be that you’d circle the Knicks coming to town when the schedule came out, now it’s an after-thought even on game day. Coming off the Detroit win, this should be a walk in the park for any playoff team (East or West) but we’ll see if the Raptors can match their intensity, effort and intelligence from the Detroit game against a lesser opponent. Isiah Thomas doesn’t even care about winning at this point, it’s all about developing whatever talent the Knicks have and showcasing the vets for a trade or two in the offseason.

“It’s tough when you’re trying to balance developing young players at the expense of sometimes giving veteran guys minutes who’ve been around for a long time. Particularly at the end of the season when the games, you don’t have a chance to make the playoffs but yet the guys are still able to maintain their focus.”

It’s finally occurred to Dave Feschuk that TJ Ford might be “wearing out his welcome”. The ill-timed article couldn’t be more speculative, other than quoting Colangelo from the Phoenix game, it’s nothing more than opinion. The open criticism of TJ Ford along with waving him goodbye is coming after he’s had a stretch of some pretty solid games against Detroit, Denver and Cleveland. But when Ford was struggling on the West coast trip, pieces which were packing the bags for him were nowhere to be found.

Is he on the outs with the Raptors? Possibly and maybe likely, but it’s got nothing to do with him wearing out his welcome, his talent level or his attitude. If he’ll leave it’ll be because Colangelo doesn’t think his style of play is suited for a team with our finesse personnel. This is a subject of open debate. What’s a little deppresing is that just when there’s something positive happening, the media shits on it.

The Globe chimed in with it’s two cents finally saying what fans on the Calderon side of the TJ-Jose debate have been thinking for quite some time. Nice reporting!

The Raptors signed Linton Johnston yesterday and cut Darrick Murray Martin. Except that Martin is still with the team on some level, the level where he sits on the bench and tries to give advice to PGs that are at the earliest stages of their career, ten-folds better than what Martin ever was. Is this signing supposed to have a purpose other than give Maceo Baston and Joey Graham some company? The stats aren’t even that bad given the minutes, if he can grab a couple rebounds here and there, he’s already done more than Martin ever did for us.

Motivation needs to come from two directions for the Raptors: 1) Stave of Philly and 2) Get some momentum going in to the playoffs. The current form of a team is always more important than their overall record when it comes to the playoffs. You think Orlando wants a Philly matchup? They want to play us as bad as we want to play them. If we can go 8-3 in our remaining 11 games, it would be an ideal end to an inconsistent season and would give us the confidence that’s a must when entering the tournament. If we “back in” to the playoffs, it hardly matters who we play in the first round.

Here’s some more of today’s media. Let’s get an easy win tonight.

It’s good that Jose Calderon could see what Sam Mitchell couldn’t: that TJ Ford is best suited as a starter and coming off the bench for him isn’t exactly second nature. These sentiments were being echoed by fans well before the media had the temerity to even suggest a switch in the starting lineup. So when Chuck Swirsky and Leo Rautins were going on and on about how TJ’s nature is that of a starter while acknowledging that it has nothing to do with him being selfish, I couldn’t help but wonder why they couldn’t say this while TJ was coming off the bench. Anyway, it’s obvious that TJ’s comfort level is higher when he’s starting and if Sam Mitchell had maybe recognized that earlier, maybe we’d be a couple games higher in the standings.

Getting to the game, it’s important to note Richard Hamilton (sore left hip) didn’t play for the second game in a row so the Raptors caught a bit of the break with Arron Afflalo starting at SG. The Pistons are locked into the second seed and according to Flip Saunders have motivation troubles. You wouldn’t have noticed it in this game. Perhaps they were coasting in the first quarter and a half but after that it was business as usual. The Raptors played aggressive basketball and both PGs had great tremendous success off the bounce against Billups, Stuckey and Afflalo in getting to the rim. Detroit’s usually stellar interior defense was often late in rotating with Wallace and McDyess late in providing help to the beaten point guard. Give the Raptors credit for getting points in the paint by finishing when the help wasn’t there, and when the defense did cover, they swung the ball back outside to get quality shots. 26 points, 13 assists and 2 turnovers from the PG combo is reflective of their offensive dominance.

For the first time in weeks there was constant movement on offense, Rasho Nesterovic was playing the two man game with Calderon, Ford and Delfino. There were criss-cross patterns being run once the ball was dumped into the post, even Jamario Moon cut to the rim with a purpose! TJ Ford reminded us that he still remains the only Raptor that can completely and utterly break down his man, get to the rim and make a good decision once he gets there. I felt it a couple games ago against Cleveland, but I’m positive that Ford’s head is back on straight.

Chauncey Billups and Afflalo were going at TJ Ford by posting and re-posting him up to get good shots. This seemed to be a cow that Detroit was going to milk all game long but Sam Mitchell reacted correctly and played Calderon and Ford at the same time, thus allowing Billups to be guarded by the bigger Calderon and Ford to cover the smaller Stuckey or Hunter, a much easier task. Usually when both of them play together the result is defensive chaos but not tonight, the matchup fit perfectly and we were able to move the ball fluidly on offense going East-West at will and leaving Detroit reacting to our guards. In the fourth quarter, Detroit cranked the defense to NBA Finals level but the Raptors and their two guards stood tall and drained key threes to slam the door on Detroit.

If this game would’ve gone south in the fourth quarter, all eyes would’ve been on Bosh who chose to jack up some very questionable jumpers. Funnily enough, it was his 19 footer that prompted the Salami and Cheese to make an appearance after quite some time. The Raptors defense held the Pistons to 40.8% shooting while shooting 49%, quite a feat against the NBA’s 3rd stingiest defense. Calderon’s pressure on Billups was very effective and the shots (even the interior kind) were contested with the Raptors registering 8 blocks - twice the season average. Sam Mitchell’s had a telling post-game comment:

“Our defense for 48 minutes was as good as it could have been”

Delfino waking up from his deep slumber with 10 points was huge on a night where Anthony Parker’s contribution was a meager 10 points. As for Andrea Bargnani, it doesn’t seem to matter if he’s starting or coming off the bench, the problems remain the same. Aggressiveness to him is only a word that may or may not have a metaphysical meaning. He’s far from understanding and accepting what a 7-footer’s role should be on a team that lacks aggressiveness and toughness, I think Leo Rautins put it well today by saying he needs to stop being “scared” and play like a 7-foot center.

This win has given us a perfect platform to build something, New York, New Orleans and Charlotte are there for the taking. Can the Raptors have a repeat performance or will they revert to playing stagnant basketball and listless defense? If today’s any indication of how they’ll play the rest of the season and playoffs, there’s a chance we might enter the playoffs carrying enough momentum to knock off a convenient opponent.

Liners:

• Very disappointing to see the fans boo TJ after he missed a wide open 3-pointer in the first quarter.
• I’m going to miss Rasho Nesterovic. Sure, he’ll get rejected by Tayshaun Prince and Aamir Johnson once in a while but his mid-range jumper is reliable, his defense is sound and his finishing isn’t that bad. Plus he’s a legit 7-footer and uses his body well. In other words, he’s a pretty damn good backup center who I wouldn’t mind seeing on this team long-term.
• For us to have a chance in this game the rebounding battle needed to be even, it ended up 41-35 in their favor but we limited the influence of Jason Maxiell and Antonio McDyess, holding them to a total of 9 rebounds and not allowing them to dominate a critical stretch of the game.
• Jose Calderon is a team player and a smart man for figuring out what’s wrong with the Raptors. But let’s move on now and not go on about this like he gave up his first born. Jose is all about winning and seeing his team and teammates do well and the sweet part about it is that his niceness isn’t reflected in his playing stile and attitude on the floor. Love it.
• We avoid falling under .500 with a gritty and hard-fought win against a tough team. It would’ve been very easy to lose this game but the Raptors played with a sense of urgency not seen in weeks.
• Jason Kapono: 0-2 FG in 9 minutes. There isn’t a single matchup here that he’s well suited for. If we do end up playing Detroit in the playoffs, Maceo Baston is likely to have a bigger role than Jason Kapono. The Pistons are simply too good to allow a one-dimensional shooter to get off the mark.
• Jose Calderon is The Top Rap.
• If you missed the RapCast, do check it out.

Let’s start things of with an interesting discussion going on in a remote part of this blog concerning race. It’s fascinating stuff!

Once you’re done understanding what constitutes white and what doesn’t, let’s move along to Chris Bosh’s birthday bash held on Sunday night which privileged blogger Dinosty had the chance of attending. I can’t imagine the mood being too cheery after the recent struggles of the Raptors and Bosh proverbially “calling out” the team. Nonetheless, I’m sure the festive atmosphere must’ve compensated for the malaise that the on-court product has been in.

Once you’ve had a chance to stomach that post, I present to you, Podcast #4 where amalgamated thoughts include Forderon, Bryan Colangelo, some of our technical issues and the playoff push:

“Nothing Cool” - Download it! (Size: 5MB, 14:13)

Coming up we have Detroit which has a significant advantage over us in every matchup. We’ve played them twice and it’s not been close, Wallace scares Bosh, Billups can cancel three Calderon’s and 2 Ford’s just by himself and Jason Maxiell gives us nightmares. For us to have a chance in this one, the rebounding battle must be even which is asking a lot of the Raptors against the Piston tall trees. Surprisingly, Rasho was glued to the bench against the Pistons earlier in the year which was questionable given Detroit’s size and the way they were killing us on the boards. Let’s see if Sam has learned anything since.

With Philly on our heels (can’t believe they’re better than us) and Washington pulling away, we need to go on a 3 game winning streak after the Detroit loss. New York and New Orleans at home followed by a trip to Charlotte to avenge the 32-0 second chance point drubbing. New York should be easy and there shouldn’t be any worries there but after that it’s New Orleans who we beat in their arena earlier in the year. In that game, Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker and Andrea Bargnani had great performances to complement a 29 point effort by Bosh and the Raptors overcame a 29/16/7 night from Chris Paul. In order to repeat that feat, the same needs to happen and judging by the way the Raptors are playing, it’s a tall order. The Charlotte game was humiliating and the Raptors need to be truly angry before heading into that one, maybe Sam Mitchell should replay the tape just to jog some memories and pump up the adrenalin.

Bryan Colangelo is really concerned about the way the Raptors are playing. Who wouldn’t be? It’s even forced him to return home early from a European vacation scouting trip where he was looking at Euro talent which apparently is running low. Thank God, I think we’ve maxed out the foreign quota allowed on this team.

I was watching Detroit and Phoenix last night and with the Pistons down 1 with a minute left, Chauncey Billups didn’t even look to pass in attacking Raja Bell and going straight down the middle of the paint and scoring on a three point play. The Pistons prevailed and I said to myself, Now, that’s a player. The great teams have always had someone who they can just go to in the clutch and get a high percentage shot. Even if they miss, you’ll feel good about the offensive decision. I don’t know if I get that feeling with Chris Bosh. He’s a very good player that can cause nightmares because of his quickness but I’m wondering if he’ll ever mature and evolve into a Kevin Garnett or a Tim Duncan type player where scoring is a matter of mechanics and routine. We’ll see I suppose but he’s got a long way to go.

I’m excited to see Chris Paul in Toronto. Mark Jackson in Peter Vescey’s column believes that Steve Nash is the third best point guard behind Paul and Deron Williams, I have to agree with that assessment. Steven Nash is great but Williams and Paul are just oozing with ability, talent and superior physical strength. Steve Nash happens to be the perfect point guard for Phoenix, Mike D’Antoni’s style of play suites him very well and he’s got great complimentary players. I think a lot of his success is a product of the Phoenix system, rather than sheer ability.

Forget the college basketball bracket, make sure you vote for the Raptors DancePak in their annual NBA.com tournament. They’re up against some skanks from the Miami Heat who are relying on immense cleavage to pull them through. On a sidenote, anybody see that special on Minerva done at halftime a couple weeks ago? I’m not feeling it anymore.

Update: TJ and Rasho back in starting lineup. Bargnani and Calderon out.

Later.

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Déjà vu. Just like in Cleveland, in a tight game coming out of a timeout with 2:09 left, Jamario Moon finds himself open from 25 feet and clangs a jumper, Denver scores on the ensuing possession and a Bosh turnover combined with an Iverson three puts this one to bed. Offense/defense substitutions seem to be a foreign concept in the world of Sam Mitchell, how can we not have learned our lesson from the Cleveland game and still allow Jamario Moon (our worst perimeter shooter) to take the crucial fourth quarter shot. What’s even more shocking is that this is coming out of a timeout. A timeout where Elliote Friedman reported that Sam’s plan was to go to Bosh, which they did but on the first pass out of the weak double, Jamario clangs a jumper, tainting his otherwise commendable afternoon.

In the first quarter things were looking bright, we had slowed the tempo down to a crawl and both teams were getting their points out of the half-court set. This favors us even though they are the better half-court team. We don’t have the personnel or talent to run with them so our best bet was to play half-court basketball and limit their fast-break points, which we did. Andrea Bargnani caught fire in the first quarter but there was no way he could sustain 7/8FG type shooting and he naturally regressed into score 0 for the remaining three quarters. Did the Raptors stop looking for him? Was he demanding enough of the ball past the first quarter? Was Mitchell benching him insane? All questions for debate but the fact is he missed his final 6 shots and wasn’t a factor for the rest of the game. How he’ll play against Detroit is anyone’s guess, he’s the most inconsistent Raptor and this game was a microcosm of the entire season.

We shot 50%, played them even on the boards (41-41) and only had 11 turnovers, so where did we lose this game? Failure of Bosh to score or create down the stretch, inability of our offense to score against a set Denver defense and the defense on Iverson and Anthony in the fourth quarter. Jamario Moon was hampering Carmelo Anthony and causing him trouble all afternoon but Anthony had shown time and time again that he had the ability to beat Moon inside and out. With no double team or help in sight, it’s no surprise that Carmelo went 4/6FG for 9 points in the fourth. The one time the Raptors applied pressure, they helped through Iverson’s man who calmly drained a dagger three. On the other end, Bosh disappointed with key turnovers, bad offensive decisions and didn’t look confident with any of his offensive moves. His “wait time” when he catches the ball in the post seemed exceedingly long (even for him) and allowed the Denver defense to easily anticipate whatever was going on in his head.

Sam Mitchell’s strategy of putting Parker on Iverson was working, he was giving him trouble with his size while Calderon was washing out Anthony Carter. Later on when George Karl put in JR Smith, Parker was forced to guard Smith while TJ Ford had to contend with Iverson, which made things smoother for Iverson and he started to heat up. He’s a tough guard without the support of the officials for anybody but the Raptors can’t say that they did anything to contend with him beyond deploying single-coverage in the form of Parker. The help defense wasn’t there and the perimeter rotations late as usual. Actually, they’re not perimeter rotations because “rotations” only apply when we’re doubling and players need to rotate over, these are more like “close outs”. We had trouble closing out even when not doubling!

You need to be determined, willing to fight through screens, get help from your motivated teammates to stop a player like Iverson, we’re just not that good defensively. The only play where we frustrated Iverson was when he drove by Parker but found a waiting Calderon to take the charge. That was the kind of committed defense that can slow down a player of Iverson’s caliber. We needed more plays like those and less of Iverson going East-West for floaters and jumpers. After the game Bosh called his team out:

“The thing that bothers me in the end of the games is (we’re) just too hesitant. If I give up the ball, guys just have to go ahead and rely on their talent. I think we hesitate too much and think about it too much. We just have to play basketball down the stretch because we don’t worry about it in the first three quarters, so why worry about it in the fourth?”

7 of our 9 players scored in double figures and the other two (Kapono and Delfino) were held scoreless. The Raptors offense has never been a problem, until of course it comes time to score late in the game. That’s when NBA defenses dig in, the opposing coach marks out a weak spot on your team, a play-specific strategy is deployed to contain your best player and the stakes are raised. That’s when the Raptors struggle. And that’s exactly the area where we need to score if we want to be more than first-round fodder for Detroit or even Orlando. Most recently, this deficiency has been highlighted against Golden State, Utah, Cleveland and today against Denver.

Can we score consistently in the clutch? No. Reason? Lack of ball movement, lack of plays, lack of a second scorer. I know it sounds simplistic and redundant, but either we don’t have the plays to utilize the talent on the floor OR we don’t have the talent on the floor. Regardless of which theory you subscribe to, one thing is clear either way: We need to find a real second scorer so that we’re far less predictable in the clutch.

Taking a step back and looking at the Denver lineup and comparing it to ours, we’re lucky to be in this game. We played well enough (by our standards) and stayed close in the fourth quarter. When the other team has two possible Hall of Famers, the NBA’s second best rebounder, and the second best offense in the league, all a team like the Raptors can do is hope they shoot a high percentage and that the other team goes cold in the fourth. They didn’t, and we lost. To win a game like this, something special is needed on the part of the players and coaching staff, something that tilts the balance in our favor. Be it applying specific pressure, taking advantage of a matchup, hiding a weakness, feeding the hot hand, calling a good play, at some point we needed to do something to contain Iverson/Anthony and get a tough score on the other end. Too much to ask.

Coming back from the West coast swing the belief was that if we had taken 2 of 3 from Cleveland, Denver or Detroit, our confidence would be back and we’d start putting a legitimate run together. After losing two telling games and Detroit coming up, it looks like we’re about to go 0-3. Sure, we’ll beat NY after that, but what does that really mean?

Liners:

• Chuck and Leo are ripping on JR Smith only to watch him score 14 first half points.
• The best Raptor on the evening was Rasho Nesterovic (ignore his +/-, that’s a bullshit stat) who recognized his advantage against Najera and Camby to score 10 efficient points on 5-7FG. The crafty veteran is playing as well as ever and maybe needed to have a bigger say in the game.
• Chris Bosh missed a triple double by an assist but did not look good in his offensive moves. He looked very shaky against the laterally-challenged Kenyon Martin and his moves were too slow to develop, the shots too predictable and was hoping for the foul more than anything. It’s likely the lag from the injury but even so, not a very fluid game by Bosh.
• The freestyling nature of the Sam Mitchell offense was in full effect today. We weren’t even efficient in running our trademark pick ‘n roll, Ford or Calderon often opting to look elsewhere after the initial screen. Even the reliable Anthony Parker looked confused running the final pick ‘n roll (coming out of a timeout) and turned the ball over. Mitchell’s offense is a bloody mess. The worst part is that I do think we have the players which might be able to handle a more complicated and structured offense but their intelligence is just being wasted away here.
• TJ Ford appears to be back to his normal medication free ways. I like the way he played and ran the offense, unfortunately we lost. The PG duo was solid: 28 points, 10 assists and 1 turnover.
• Jamario Moon is tied for second most FG attempts on the team (only 2 behind Bosh). Is there something wrong with this?
• Carlos Delfino: Do we bring him back? I can see his value on defense and in a well-rounded system he might be a good 10-12 pt scorer off the bench. But does that warrant a re-sign?
• At least the fans got their pizza.
• PodCast tomorrow!

I don’t feel like putting anything else up, let me know if you really want to see Drogba score twice on us and I’ll make it happen. We’re toast in the league, our only chance of silverware this season is the Champions League.

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Depending on your Raptor beliefs you can look at this one in a few different ways: 1) All in all a good effort by the Raps, too much Lebron in the end 2) Jose sat for way too long in the third/fourth quarter during which time Cleveland went +6, 3) Cleveland owned us on the boards 51-35 as expected and rightfully deserved to win, 4) If we don’t shoot 39%, Bosh doesn’t go 7/18 and Bargnani shows a horse’s ass worth of talent, maybe we get a shot at a win, 5) We should’ve doubled Lebron more, especially in the fourth and made someone else beat us. All 5 points are valid ones, now it simply depends on which one you want to give more weight to and assign as reasons for the loss.

Lebron James has owned us in the fourth quarter of practically every game and yet we continue to use single coverage leaving Parker, Delfino and even Calderon out to dry. In the one fourth quarter possession that we doubled Lebron before he penetrated the lane, we managed to stop Cleveland. All other times, Lebron ended up scoring on a dunk or a wide-open jumper. Maybe an adjustment and a change in philosophy was in order on the part of Sam to increase the chances of us pulling one out in the fourth. Instead we did nothing to make Lebron’s life difficult and he stuffed it right down our throats just like old times.

Our best stretch of play came in the third quarter where Calderon and Bosh were playing with great synergy and the Raptors were moving on offense, collapsing on defense and attacking the boards. Although Bosh wasn’t close to being his best, it was made up by Calderon terrorizing Delonte West and finding shooters for clean looks. Watching Jose play in the third, every Raptors fan must’ve been praying for him to continue at the outset of the fourth quarter and carry this team to a win on a night where Bosh was struggling and Bargnani simply sucked. No such luck, Sam intervened and although TJ wasn’t as bad as he’s been of late, he was a big time liability on defense and hit-and-miss on offense. By the time Jose was brought back, he’d been sitting for 25 minutes of real time and was cold. Game over.

The Cavs have what it takes to neutralize Bosh, Anderson Varejao gives Bosh fits and Joe Smith matches up very well against him, that’s what gives even more importance to the play of Andrea Bargnani. From what I’ve been led to believe, he’s supposed to have the quickness to take the likes of Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas right to the rim and either get those guys in foul trouble and/or score by being aggressive. But what we saw on the court was a timid Andrea that all but once looked to be more than happy staying on the perimeter and acting like there was a wall of radiation constructed approximately 20 feet from the rim. Of course Sam yanked him after two early and silly fouls but we can’t continue to blame Sam for his troubles, Bargnani’s the reason why Bargnani’s struggling. This is basketball, not rocket science: take advantage of the weaknesses of the players that are guarding you, the man simply doesn’t do that.

Sam’s out-of-timeout play with :46 seconds left might’ve been the joke of the season. Let’s give the struggling Chris Bosh a fading away while moving laterally with a hand in his face. Talk about having no clue on how to get a score when you need one. Even though this game was close throughout the fourth quarter, we never really had a chance of winning it. It’s because there was a prevalent feeling that when it came down to it, Cleveland would go to Lebron and we wouldn’t be able to stop him, and when it came time for us to score, we’d end up taking a low percentage shot and Cleveland would clean up the boards. Not shockingly, that’s exactly what happened. And a lot of credit needs to be given to Cleveland because they are the better team: more size, more athleticism, better rebounding, more scorers and most of all, they have a true superstar. So maybe we should all be thankful that we were in this game for so long. Even if we had managed to sneak this one out through some sheer luck or a player or two going hot, one thing is for sure: we can’t beat Cleveland in a 7-game series, whoever thinks that is drastically overvaluing our talent and coaching.

Rasho Nesterovic has been solid, he defended Big Z much better than Andrea, was aggressive around the rim and was sticking his jumper. It’s a pity he probably won’t be back with the Raptors because he brings a lot to this team and can be a valuable asset in a playoff series. Jamario Moon’s 10 rebounds were impressive but we need more than 4 points from our starting SF spot. Moon’s ill-advised 18 footer with 1:05 left in a 5 point game is a classic example of our offense suffering under Sam, there is just no way he should be taking that shot. You might be able to forgive that play because he was open, however he continues to bail out defenses by showing no desire to take his man off the bounce and draw contact. In one sense he’s totally wasting his athleticism on offense because the only time we see it is on defense and on rare put-back dunks.

So the Raptors lose a big statement game. Nothing new here, nothing that hasn’t happened before, nothing that should be remotely shocking. Given the talent and coaching on this team, I think the 6th seed is a fair result for the season. I don’t think we’re any better or any worse.

Liners:

• To observe just how stagnant the Raptors offense is, just focus on the red shirts on a play. Don’t pay any attention to what’s going on, don’t look at the ball, don’t look at the defense, just notice the red jerseys and their movement. You’ll be alarmed. I thought about going into another tirade about how weak and unorganized we are on offense but it’s all already been said.
• Damon Jones’ two threes should never have happened. When will Sam understand, don’t help off a shooter! How simple is this concept, instead of providing help from the wings, bring it from the paint OR double early so you won’t have to make such decisions. I would’ve just liked to see us trap Lebron early and force him to give up the ball, if he catches it again with seconds left on the shot clock, fine, but at least make him give it up and prevent him from doing exactly what he wants to do.
• It’s very hard to like Lebron. The guy is an arrogant c*nt. I’d say I prefer Kobe over him.
• We’ve been seeing more Kapono of late which I think is a good thing. Who’s he taking minutes away from? Delfino and Moon - both inconsistent and streaky players that can’t be relied upon to provide any offensive spark. I think this is a good time to give Kapono some burn and get his legs and shot ready for the playoffs. For us to have a shot at winning a series, we need outside shooting more than anything and he’s the guy to provide that.
• It’s a real shame that we don’t know what the outcome of this game would’ve been if Jose Calderon had started the fourth quarter in the same way he was playing in the third. Sam Mitchell has probably taken away the Raptors chances of a win at least 7-10 times this season based on bad fourth quarter substitutions. If the idea is to give Calderon a breather, burn a timeout right after the fourth quarter starts and that should be enough. No reason to sit him for half an hour. All Sam’s substitutions are mechanical and lacking any real thought or strategy.
• As with the previous Cleveland games, I would’ve liked to see Joey Graham guard Lebron James and see how far he gets. He’s supposed to be a good physical defender, why not give him a shot? It’s not like we got something to lose, Lebron was finding seams in our defense all throughout the fourth quarter going for wide-open dunks off the pick ‘n roll. It’s sad when your defense breaks down at the 3-pt line and nobody from the weakside steps in.
• Chris Bosh looked rusty and his jumper wasn’t working. Before we start deriding him for settling for jumpers and not showing up, let’s remember he’s coming off an injury and is clearly finding his offensive and defensive rhythm.
• The second/third quarter stretch where both teams couldn’t buy a hoop was our chance to pull away a little but unfortunately Bosh and Kapono missed some pretty good looks which could’ve easily put us up 8 or 9.
• The camera focusing on Jose Calderon on the fourth quarter was really weird. Yeah, we get it, even you think he should be playing.

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