Yeah, the offseason is slow and to top it all off we don’t have a pick in the draft. I don’t care how many Jose Calderon trade rumours are out there, he’s not going anywhere. So naturally the only thought that comes to mind is to wonder who the best white players in the league really are. Usually this list consisted of Toni Kukoc and Arvydas Sabonis but thanks to the continued injection of European players and the development of basketball in rural neighborhoods like Orange County, the list has grown. So here’s some of the top white guys in the NBA:

Dirk Nowitzki: Follows the prototypical white guy forumula: tall and white. Most white guys prolong their NBA careers by a) being a banger or b) being a great shooter. Dirk’s obviously the latter but he can also take it to the rim with force and can use his size to his advantage, something fellow whitey centers (like Shawn Bradley) could never do. That high arching jumper of his is damn near impossible to stop because you end up touching his elbow or it looks like you’ve touched his elbow and whistle-happy Steve Javie is not going to miss it. No sir he’s not.

Manu Ginobili: Argentine import that looks like you could guard him but blows by you at will and can pull up for deep threes and leave you wondering what the hell to do to guard him? The answer: force him to go right. There are stretches in the game where he’s unstoppable to the point where the coach will use up all his timeouts just to give his defender a breather. Arguably the best foreign player to play in the NBA after Nowtizki, if he figures out how to drive to his right, he’ll be an MVP candidate. But then again, he plays with Tim Duncan so the last time he saw a double-team was in South America.

Steve Nash: Most white guys make up for their lack of talents by height, not Steven Nash, he’s NBA short and still manages to dominate games through meticulous fast-break runs, perfect pick ‘n rolls and a deadly jumper. It’s abnormal how good he’s become over the last five years. Canadians used to roll their eyes at him when local media used to showcase him as one of the few Canuck NBA players (along with Rick Fox) on Sunday afternoon halftime shows. It must be said that the the man is highly erratic at times and a horrible defender. But despite that he managed to win (steal?) 2 MVPs. As cousin Shahid once said, you can’t hand out the MVP award to a player who is below average in 50% of the game.

Andrei Kirilenko: Yes, I know the guy cried after Game 2 but in physical speak, he is one of the most gifted athletes (white or any other color) to play in the NBA. AK47 was reduced to a Super Soaker in the playoffs but still remains a man that can take over any given game with his slashing ability and dominating defensive play. It’s too bad Jerry Sloan isn’t trading the guy to the Raptors; if/when he gets his head sewed on straight, he’ll realize that unleashing that DPOY kind of talent isn’t that difficult. He also needs a barber so that he stops looking like the villain from Die Hard movies. This is not related but his wife lets him cheat on her once a year.

Kirk Hinrich: As you can see the list starts to get pretty thin once we classify it by race, but take nothing away from Hinrich. He’s a good shooter of the ball, very good defensive player (long arms) and is competitive and tenacious. The Kansas product is a fundamentally sound point guard that will never become a superstar but does have what it takes to have a long career while playing at a high level. I think any team would gladly have him on board and he’s one of the main reasons of the Bulls’ resurgence. He’s got Mark Price written all over him.

Mehmet Okur: Damn, I don’t believe its already come down to Okur. Mehmet is starting to look like a real NBA player and not the guy that bags your groceries. It all started to happen for the Turk when he got traded to the confines of Jerry Sloan’s structured offense and out of the thuggish atmosphere that is Motown. The Jazz offense is more structured than a Detroit correctional facility and Okur has found in it his niche as a bruiser and as an outside shooter, the latter when coming out of a set-piece is damn near lethal. If he learns a few more lost-post moves, he might be one of those guys that hinges on the outskirts of the All-Star ballot.

At this point I’m searching for names like Mike Miller, Luke Ridnour, Andres Nocioni, Adam Morrison and Andrew Bogut, who are all decent players but nothing to write an entire paragraph about. I’d say Andrea Bargnani might make it to the top three over the next few years and if those Nowitzki comparisons hold true, might even make it to top spot.

I never understood Don Nelson. He’s been around long enough and looks like he’s got all the basketball know-how a guy needs, but at the same time something tells me he doesn’t have a clue of whats going on. His teams average 100+ ppg but yet I firmly believe he has maybe two plays in the book, if he has a book. His white hair reflects decades of experience and success but somehow he’s the last guy I’d pick to draw up a play with the team down 1 and 10 seconds left. He’s one of the greatest NBA coaches of all-time and I have no clue what got him there.

His Golden State team could’ve beaten Utah in Game 5 if only the Warriors didn’t jack up 4 straight ill-advised threes late in the fourth quarter, they even would’ve won Game 2 if the Warriors had made an effort to not have Mickael Pietrus handle the ball. If the Warriors would’ve shown even a little self-restraint in Game 4, that also would’ve been a W. My point is that late in the game the Warriors shot themselves in the foot every chance they got. After Stephen Jackson tried in vain to split his third double team leading to a third turnover you would think Nelson would’ve given him a talk about quitting his little mission of going through Utah players, but no, no reprimand or even advice was given. Same goes for pulling up for threes in transition (Jason Richardson) and stepping back to get a three when you barely have a look at a two (Al Harrington). All these silly mistakes cost the Warriors, but nobody can argue against Nelson because its this crazy philosophy of playing open basketball that got them there in the first place.

Over the last 30 years the guy has only not coached an NBA team for three of them! He’s won Coach of the Year three times so he must know what he’s doing (although Sam Mitchell winning it this year confirms that the award doesn’t mean much). A firm believer in Hack-a-Shaq, Don Nelson once tried a Hack-a-Rodman technique that almost worked but the Jordan-led Bulls prevailed in the end. He’s probably the only coach to have cost his team the game by getting a technical foul with less than a second left! I mean how many coaches that have been asked by the NBA to stop bringing beer to news conferences?

His offensive philosophy can be summed up in two words: Just shoot. Wait, lets give the man the credit due, its actually more complex than that, it’s more like: You shoot and you rebound and if you rebound you get to shoot too. As for X’s and O’s, Nellie keeps it simple enough so even Stephen Jackson can understand without consulting his agent. Nellie believes that plays are too confusing and detrimental to scoring, its much better to actually just “take what the defense gives you” on every single possession. It doesn’t matter if the defense is only giving you a 26 footer, you are obligated to shoot it if it presents itself. But maybe he’s on to something, maybe playing the Miami Heat style of basketball isn’t the way to go, who needs to dig down on defense and battle for offensive rebounds when you can just come of a screen and fire one up, why bother savoring and cradling every possession when you can just pull-up in transition with zero rebounders underneath the rim just to do a “heat check”. Is there any logic in tiring yourself with the nitty gritty aspects of fighting through picks and sticking to your man when you can just drop and play the zone? Don Nelson asks these questions in every game he coaches and usually the answers are in his favor.

Defensively his teams have never been good but the offense usually hides the glaring holes presented by the porous defense. His Dallas and Golden State teams are recent testaments to this. In both Dallas and Golden State, Nellie lacked a true big guy who could dominate the glass and provide a scoring punch inside – Shaq and Carlos Boozer ate his frontline up when it started to count in his last two playoffs runs. As I think about this more you can’t really have an amazing offensive team without having defensive gaps, Nellie has just chosen to make defense priority #2 and that’s really cost him in his recent years.

I think Don Nelson is a fine coach for a fairly mature team with decent talent, he gives free reign to his players which can be both good and bad, good because it allows a player to play his natural game and bad because it kills off the structure and discipline required to execute in the half-court set, something that is paramount in the post-season. That Jazz series really exposed Golden States inability to execute late in games, but that’s something I knew they were going to have trouble with given their coach. Don Nelson: great run ‘n gun coach, not the man you want if you want to go deep into the playoffs.

Let’s end this with a really weird and out-of-place Don Nelson quote:

Reporter: Is it important for you guys to see how your small lineup works against the Mavs?
Don Nelson: I’m impotent, too. I just went to the doctor, he told me I was impotent so I went out and bought me a new suit.

Don Nelson, the greatest coach who never had a playbook.

Please, not TJ Ford, please God not TJ Ford again. Not the same old drive to the right and throwing up a half-ass excuse of a shot. It’s already failed us shitloads of times, not again. But lo and behold, Smitch decides to go with the play which every fan watching, no, praying hoped he didn’t go with. Sure enough poor Ford expectedly missed it and gave the old “Aww man, almost had it” look which we’ve seen too many times in the past. The Raptors deserved better in this game, they fought back from a late deficit only to be sacrificed at the altar by Mitchell who wanted to prove that the only “game-winning” play in his book does actually in fact work. It bit us in the ass again.

Considering we have Parker, Dixon, Mo Pete who are all better shooters than Ford, why Sam Mitchell opted to go with a one-on-one move is puzzling, especially seeing how we were having good success against Miami anytime we did move the ball on offense – we didn’t make a lot of shots we usually make but they were still there for the taking. If that wasn’t bad enough, with the Raptors down three now, he again ran a play for TJ Ford, not exactly a prolific three point shooter, of course he missed it and you can hardly blame him. Hitting threes isn’t in his repertoire and why me as a fan can realize that and Mitchell can’t is beyond anyones comprehension.

Let’s ignore Ford’s three point attempt for a second (although it was a sorry play given the three point shooting on this team) and talk about Mitchell going with TJ Ford alone when down one and the game on the line – remember this is just a one-on-one move with no picks or anything of the sort being set for him. Maybe he felt that Bosh (24 points) couldn’t break down Miami’s forwards even though Shaq was out of the game and wasn’t there to play help defense. What gets me is that the ball didn’t even go through Bosh, our primary double-team threat, just so we could see the options on the floor if Miami did double-team. If they would have chosen not to double-team, CB4 could’ve kicked it out for Ford’s desperate attempt or even made the move himself.

Botched crunch time plays are what kills team down the stretch in the playoffs and despite the Raptors’ success this season, I have little faith in Mitchell’s X’s and O’s when the game is on the line. This same play has burned us four times this season and it was almost shocking to see Ford drive to his right and hoist up the exact same shot he did against Seattle, Cleveland etc. with the exact same result. Ford had an overall bad game but bad games happen, he made some poor decisions but the decision that ultimately cost us the game was Sam Mitchell’s.

This was a tough loss, what made it tougher was that we could’ve easily won despite playing poorly for the majority of the game. I have to give some props to James Posey for knocking down four clutch free throws for Miami, it killed us. Here’s q quick recipe for beating Miami in the playoffs if we do meet them.

• Play them even on the boards.
• Contain their outside shooting, have Mo Pete stick Kapono.
• Move Shaq out of the paint via Rasho and run pick ‘n rolls between Bosh/Ford/Calderon.
• Give Antoine Walker all the space he needs on the perimeter. Same for Haslem, except beyond the elbow.
• Long outlet passes after made FTs and shots, force Miami to spend some energy.
• Make Wade play defense by going though his man on offense at least every other possession, thats Parker or Ford.

I know it’s easier said than done. Check out Chasin’s highlights from this game.

If anybody would’ve told me after the Philly Game 7 defeat that it would take the Raptors five years to get to their next playoffs, I would’ve laughed, asked them to STFU and advised them to immediately acknowledge the Raptors as an Eastern powerhouse for years to come. Edit: I forgot about the Chris Childs shit, somewhat easy. Many fans thought similarly and one can’t really blame us, we had Vince Carter, Antonio Davis, Charles Oakley, Alvin Williams, all playing well at the time. But all that could go wrong did go wrong starting with Carter turning pansy on us, injuries and overpaid players under-performing to such a degree that the off-season signings seemed a mistake.

But forget all that. These are the new Raptors, built around players with talent rather than reputation and quarterbacked by professional NBA point guards and led by an all-star who for a change, has got his head screwed on straight. Yeah, Chris Bosh has his ups an downs and fans complain about what he could’ve and should’ve done in games that we lost, but the man has been magnificent all year long and his supporting cast has been consistent. The #1 draft pick of Andrea Bargnani was an extremely wise one and it really shows how little fans know about player drafting, we play armchair GMs all year without really having the slightest clue of what being a real GM actually involves. Bryan Colangelo has been God’s gift to Toronto basketball and for once MLSE made a brilliant decision in pursuing him. I can’t believe I’m saying this but kudos to Richard Peddie on that one. Shout out to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as well.

Sam Mitchell is an open book coach, as in everybody can see what he’s trying to do and what he’s not doing. It doesn’t say much about the guy as a coach but he has gotten the results this year, whether people say its largely because he has better players is another matter. He’s handled the Mo Pete/Joey Graham/Juan Dixon/Jorge Garbajosa minutes issues pretty effectively and although his substitution patterns are at times erratic and questionable, they’ve been successful more often than not. I think the area where most supporters have an issue with Sam is his offensive X’s and O’s and at times the completely non-existent defense. I think a lot of defense is about player communication and effort so lets not blame Sam entirely for that but the offensive sets remain an area that can be openly questioned. Overall, he’s produced enough results to cut him some slack.

The Charlotte Bobcats were in town to help the Raptors clinch the playoff berth and ironically enough there were some rumours that Sam Mitchell is in line to be their next head coach after Bicker Bickerstaff steps down (gets fired by Michael Jordan). They made little challenge to contest for this game and after watching it I cooled down on the idea of us pursuing Gerald Wallace in the off-season. He’s a good player but I’m guessing some team will over-commit and pay him way more than what he’s worth. You might say Anderson Varejao all the way but what about Kris Humphries? Maybe if this guy gets more minutes, he’ll turn into a more polished version of Varejao.

I think Chris Bosh is putting to rest anybody who might question whether Emeka Okafor and Dwight Howard are superior players. The other two can dominate in certain areas of the game but Bosh is simply a much more versatile and complete player. Morris Peterson had another bad game but as long as he can step his game up in the playoffs, which I think he will, he’ll be an asset to this team. Juan Dixon is fitting in perfectly with this team, once you look past his defensive problems against bigger guards, he’s an absolute force on the other end with an effective mid-range game and perhaps the highest basketball IQ on the team.

So we’re officially in the playoffs and in line for a division title. The Garbajosa injury hurts but as long as we finish the season without any more setbacks and Bargnani gets a couple games under his belt before the second season, there’s no reason to think we can’t win a first round series against Chicago, Washington or Miami.

You can check out all the highlights in Chasin’s RealGM thread, here’s the Game in a Flash:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaZgAoGJIrg]

Let’s see, positives, positives, focus on the positives. Hmm, nope nothing comes to mind. Wait, TJ Ford had 8 assists – but hold on, he also had 6 TO’s so that cancels that out. Mo Pete’s back in the starting lineup after grumbling about playing time, he must have made the most of his opportunity, right? Let’s check the box score: 2 points and 2 turnovers. Well that didn’t work out. Here are a couple positives though, Chris Bosh had 19 rebounds and New York lost.

In all fairness to the Raps, they were missing Anthony Parker and Jose Calderon for this one, both casualties of the New York win. But even then you’d expect a slightly better performance than the one they gave seeing motivation shouldn’t be a problem as the Rockettes returns means homecoming for Rafer Alston and Tracy McGrady. Both Alston and T-Mac did plenty damage, both are streak shooters and both were on tonight. Cousin Sean keeps telling me the Raptors can only beat the average teams, not the good ones. I would’ve liked to have given him this game as a counter-example but that’s not going to happen.

With the playoffs fast approaching, these games should serve as wake-up call for our troops who need to tighten up their defense, sharpen up their offensive sets and learn to take advantage of obvious mismatches. Chris Bosh was being guarded by a man called Chuck Hayes and still was a decided non-factor in this game, how that is even possible or plausible only he can explain. Practically speaking this game was over in the first quarter when T-Mac and Alston were at their best, building up a 17 point lead and avenging their earlier loss.

This was an expected loss, Houston is playing well and we had key players missing but what’s unexplainable is Sam Mitchell’s philosophy of outscoring the other team instead of focusing more on defense. In the post-game interview, he’s complaining that the Raptors didn’t get enough shots up.

“The only thing I can say is that it is a disappointment. We had guys in position to make some plays, but they shot the ball a little tentative. You’ve got to shoot the ball, you’ve got to drive to the basket. We got hesitant after we missed a couple of shots.”

Here’s the complete post-game interview, thanks to Chasin:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZUPd4H86Yc]

Sam, they scored 114 points on us while we scored 100, the problem isn’t the offense. I don’t care how many FG attempts you have, you’ll still have to guard T-Mac at the other end. You can’t play defense without coming out with some sort of intensity and the Rockets completely over-matched us in that department, once flustered we resorted to playing selfish and stupid basketball by committing turnovers, not challenging shots and lazily going through our sets.

This one was one to forget, on to the Knicks at MSG. One more note, Uros Slokar got in the game and scored 4 points on 2-2FG – he outplayed Mo Pete. Here’s the Game in a Flash, you can check out more of Chasin’s highlights here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPyhr1s6BBk]

Props to The Score – who have the best basketball coverage in Toronto – for coming up with a great intro to the game:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kY9nrxKaAY]

Gotta love those Knicks games at the ACC. Somehow they always have a different flavor to them. Stephon Marbury’s talking trash after hitting threes. Marbury’s lobbying for Mitchell to get a contract extension. Eddy Curry’s trying to guard Andrea Bargnani. Andrea Bargnani’s trying to guard Eddy Curry, both having little success. TJ Ford is getting it on with Francis/Marbury, Anthony Parker’s injuring ankles. Stormin’ Norman Rumack’s saying that Isaiah doesn’t have talent to work with. Cousin Shahid thinks Channing Frye can hold Chris Bosh, TJ Ford is racking up 18 assists. Walt Frazier’s throwing words out that I didn’t even know existed and all that was just part of it.

So the Knicks come out firing on all cylinders and when Eddy Curry started scoring with his eyes closed early on, I thought this might go their way but it’s great to see New York go away from their biggest strength and advantage and instead jack up shots on their first option – usually a step-back by Marbury or Francis. Note to Isaiah: Nate Robinson will not beat us, I don’t care how many points he scores. Curry should be pissed off – as he was – at the Knicks. Feed him the damn ball, Toronto doesn’t have anybody to matchup with him yet the Knicks continue to look away. Curry took 9 shots while Marbury and Francis took 19 and 12 – it makes no sense. Curry was too kind after the game:

“It’s tough because from my point of view it seems that I’m open a lot. But I’m not a guard so I can’t see what it is. I know it’s not personal. At the time I’d mad, but after the game I realize what’s going on and I’m not mad about the situation. I just want to win.”

Translation: I want the ball but don’t know how and who to ask for it.

TJ Ford was at it again, 18 points, 18 assists. It’s not like the Knicks triple-headed PG combination is long in the tooth that TJ Ford was so easily able to stroll pass them anytime he wanted to. He even pulled back a few times just to drive again on them, it was fun to watch if you’re a Raptors fan. Stormin’ Norman Rumack’s trying to spread some hate between Raptors fans and The TJ, he even went up to him and told him that fans have been criticizing him despite his good play. Now why the hell would you want to do that Norman? As I said before, when TJ plays within the confines of the offense and uses his tools correctly, he’s borderline unstoppable.

There was a 21 point swing in the third quarter when the Raptors went from being down 11 to up 10, all thanks to shooting 72%. Walt Frazier was giving Bargnani and Garbajosa props all through the game in the way only he can. The man was very impressed by Bargnani and said that he’ll become “something special” in this league. Bargnani hit 4 big threes, two in the third quarter which kept the Raptors in it until the Knicks finally had trouble scoring. Once the Knicks offense stalled, it was all over because we kept pouring it on. Bosh didn’t have a great game but he was assertive in the third/fourth quarter run that pushed the lead to 11. Bosh attacked the rim and converted FT’s while contributing a three point play in this great stretch for the Raptors.

The division lead is 6.0 over NJ and 6.5 over NY. Both are out of it. Thanks to Chasin for the highlights, here’s the Game in a Flash:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JK0mr1nPK8]

bosh is killing lately. Okur, man he’s a dangerous big man, because he can bang under the basket and he kills from three point range. his game is so much like bill laimbeer from the old school pistons. the team with vinnie the microwave johnson. lol. man i wish you could have seen this dude play. i swear there were only a few players who could just catch fire and literally be completely unstoppable. even if you put three men on them. Jordan and vinnie johnson were the two. then maybe, bernard king, alex english, dominique wilkins, kevin johnson, kiki vandeweghe. and this other cat world b. free. his name was actually lloyd free, but he changed it to world b free back in the seventies. it was a peace love and hippie marijuana kind of thing. but i saw him catch fire once and just come down the court like ten times in a row and pull up from thirty feet and just drain it. and this was before the three pointer, everything was a two. but the hottest stretch i EVER saw was from this one cat, eric ‘sleepy’ floyd. he was an ok player, nothing special. he played for the GS warriors and they faced the lakers in the playoffs one year and were getting the crap beat out of them. i was watching this game and i swear something got into him suddenly. it was like God smiled on him all of a sudden because he became unconscious and went on a scoring binge that i still have never witnessed. even with kobe scoring 81, even with jordan versus the trail blazers when he shrugged his shoulders next to cliff robinson.

interesting web site: http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/moments/60moments.html

go to this web site and its number 39. there’s even video, although it short and doesn’t do justice to the actual feat. the man was hitting shots that no human should even attempt, let alone make against a great lakers team. i think he went 12 for 13 in the quarter or sonmething.

honorable mention goes to reggie miller on the knicks scoring 25 in the fourth quarter and isiah scoring 25 on a badly sprained ankle.

in fact the greatest feats i’ve ever witnessed on a basketball court are:

• jordan playing with the flu against the jazz
• olajuwon playing during ramadan with no water
• isiah playing on a severly sprained ankle and STILL catching fire

Looking at a halftime scoreline of 66-54 in favor of the Raptors, two things pop into my mind. Scoring 66 points and shooting 70% is great but conceding 54 points to the Clippers at home doesn’t say much about the strength of the Raptors defense. Besides that instance of the glass being half-empty, the Raptors were operating at peak efficiency on the offensive end and came up with enough run-stopping offensive possessions and defensive rebounds to hold-off the Clippers. Couple this with Tyrone Lue burning the Nets in overtime and the Raptors have a three game lead in the Atlantic.

Life is good if you’re a Raptors supporter and all this positive talk is making me dizzy, Chuck Swirsky believes the combination of TJ Ford/Jose Calderon is the best PG duo in the league; Jack Armstrong agrees to the statement but suggests the domain be the Eastern Conference. I agree with the latter. There is literally no drop-off when Ford and Calderon substitute each other at any point in the game and both have shown that when playing within their games, they have the ability to quarterback the team to productive offensive sets. Although Sam Mitchell’s sets don’t fool anyone, they provide enough leeway for Ford and Calderon to create on their own. Not too sure if that’s a compliment or insult to Mitchell who is pleasantly and cautiously riding the high.

No matter how big the Raptors lead gets at times, I still can’t get comfortable with it, especially today when official Raptor killer Sam Cassell was doing his best in the second half to keep the Clippers in it. Cassell twice hit big threes to prevent the Raptors from blowing the game out but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Clippers only came as close as 8 points throughout the second half. The Raptors aren’t a difficult team to score on and the Clippers proved it today getting their points with relative ease throughout the game, if only they could play any defense, maybe they had a chance. If the Raptors sure up their perimeter defense and become a better defensive rebounding team (Brand/Kaman killed them), they’ll be a legitimate playoff contender.

Chris Bosh (27/7/4) further justified his All-Star game starting status with a professional effort which made Elton Brand play defense throughout the game, taking much away from Brand’s offensive arsenal. Mo Peterson and TJ Ford came off the bench to combine for 35 points and the trend of six Raptor players scoring in double figures continued. Andrea Bargnani chipped in with a very unforced eight points. Balanced scoring is a true measure of how well the the team plays as a unit and the Raptors’ multiple offensive threats are taking teams by surprise, especially Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker. Team’s haven’t figured out that Calderon loves to drive off the pick and continue to give him the space that makes him dangerous. Meanwhile, Anthony Parker continues to enjoy open threes as the Clippers keep pulling his man off him in the double-team rotations.

Jorge Garbajosa had his first good game in ages. Garbajosa’s jumper looked less of a chip-shot out of the bunker and more of a basketball shot; Garbo hit four straight threes and played uncompromising defense on the quicker Mobley and Maggette. He literally looked like he was wearing wooden shoes for the past few weeks when his jumper had no lift and no chance of going in. Hopefully for the Raps, this is a sign of him coming out of his funk. Shaun Livingston exposed TJ Ford early by posting him up but I was surprised that the Clippers never exploited that matchup later on in the game, especially during the fourth quarter.

Toronto was never challenged on the offensive end and that was the Clippers demise. Maybe it’s the early start time that bothers the West coast teams on Sundays but that can’t possibly account for the pathetic defensive performance of the Clippers. The one guy I thought who would have a huge game, Chris Kaman, went 1-10 and never looked like he was interested in throwing his weight around. An absolutely horrible game from Kaman.

Caught a bit of this game on the radio too and it really must be pointed out what a horrible, horrible job Paul Jones does as a play-by-play guy. If I have some time, I’ll tape the game and select some of the stuff this guy says. It sounds completely out of whack to the point of being inappropriate. I mean, he was a player, how many players do you see as play-by-play men on NBA teams? I count zero. One of the things I suggest to Paul is to stop trying to be like a highlight-reel guy and just call the game in a monotonous voice, at least that way he’ll be doing something original and not acting like a cheap imitation of Marv Albert. Also, what the hell does “dances with the dribble” mean? This subject will probably be addressed further in a future post.

Life is good, Raptors are three games up in the division.

Here are the highlights of the game courtesy of Chasin from RealGM:

TJ Ford/Jose Calderon

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hafI_Pw30os]

Jorge Garbajosa

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZhN0EOP10]

Jose Calderon

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeKIoC5YLRk]

Chris Bosh

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT5Nxp1hW4U]

Sam Mitchell

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKbjTYnAyhg]

Michael Dunleavy

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZXxq3lTWII]

Pape Sow celebrates his first
points of the seasonIf anybody gives up 53 points in a half to the Bobcats at home, things aren’t going great even if the final score is a blowout and the fans go home with pizza. The first half saw many bad things happen to the Raptors including Bosh picking up two early fouls and soon a third sending him to the bench and forcing Sam Mitchell to dust off Fred Jones’ uniform. The 3-happy Andrea Bargnani was getting constantly schooled by Gerald Wallace in the post and was eventually sanctioned to the bench in favor of Joey Graham. Graham also gave Wallace too much credit for a jumper he bluffed he had and played into the physical forward’s game by not giving him space to shoot.

The Raptors did have an early 10 point lead but it was one of those leads that will never last (somewhat like the Dallas lead) and I was just waiting for the game to be tied. Sure enough, Bobcats tied it and even went ahead; things weren’t looking promising and it looked like the team was still lingering from the Utah game.

Great part about Chuck Swirsky is that when things are going mildly well, he’ll make you think your team’s up by 20. Example: Bargnani hits a three and Chuck starts yelling it’s raining threes and all that Il Mago stuff. You know what Chuck, it’s a four point game. Calm down and let’s focus on the Raptors defense which was nowhere to be found in the first half. They kept showing the stats between Adam Morisson and Andrea Bargnani and kept saying how Bargnani was outplaying Morrison in the matchup. CHUCK, THEY WEREN’T GUARDING EACH OTHER. Eventually Leo Rautins pointed that minor detail out to restore some sanity.

After Bosh (20, 5) had a good rest in the first half, he came back with a purpose in the second and scored 8 points in the 17-2 run to start the third which put the game out of reach from the Bobcats for good. The Bobcats scored 8 points in the quarter to the Raptors 21 which left the fourth quarter a mere formality. Charlotte lacked the depth to stay with the Raps who can score on any opposition when said opposition is of the quality of the Bobcats or any other team that lacks defensive fundamentals and attempts to use athleticism as a form of defense.  Once the Raptors switched to a zone defense in the second half, the Bobcats were forced to take jumpers they couldn’t make.  That was their ultimate demise.

No TJ Ford in this game due to an ankle injury which was a cause for celebration after his recent couple performances which made me nostalgic about Mike James. Despite how good Jose Calderon (19pts, 11asts) is playing, we should all keep in mind that he’s a backup point guard and the position suits him well. If he’s elevated into a starting PG’s role, unfair expectations will be made and his productivity will suffer under both the demand and pressure of a starting PG job. So anytime he has a good game, the “Start Calderon” chants don’t make much sense.

Another interesting note is how the Raptors website decided to promote the game using tempting verbiage such as “come see the moustache…” referring to Adam Morisson’s facial hair. The announced attendance of 13,997 were treated to Morisson scoring 3 points of 1-6 FG, but on the brighter side they did see the Raptors get an expected win. We as Raptor fans should show some maturity and not celebrate these expected wins at all. This game also saw the highly anticipated return of Pape Sow who contributed a three point play in his three minutes making Fred Jones look even worse. It must be noted that Sow’s hoop took the Raptors from 99 to 101 to the delight of starving fans craving for free pizza.
New Jersey and New York lost tonight which means the Raptors are tied with the Nets in the win column but still trail by a game. They hold a 2.5 game lead over the Knicks who are showing a pulse of late. All signs point to a furious finish in the Atlantic.

Next up it’s the Hornets on Wednesday. Another winnable game.

Some good fellow posted highlights from NBA TV on YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyfOyQ795Y]

Based on The Score’s three minute intro to the game which consisted entirely of Gilbert Arenas hitting game winners, throwing down jams and hitting fadeaways, I thought the Raps were in for a let down. But the NBA’s second leading scorer didn’t seem to rattle anybody in a Raptors uniform this afternoon, and if anything, it might have been he who got rattled by Jose “No Way” Calderon. The 116-111 final really doesn’t do much justice to the actual events of the afternoon as the Raptors were up by 22 at one point in the fourth quarter. After that the Wizards made a big run using the half-court press to make the score respectable and maybe get a moral victory out of a dull afternoon.

Perhaps it was the early afternoon start time or his 25th birthday bash that contributed to Washington’s demise, but let’s give the majority of the credit to the Raptors, especially Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon and my favorite Raptor, Anthony Parker (6-8 FG’s for 16 points) who is simply unable to miss an open jumper and has yet to take a bad shot in his life. Calderon made life miserable for Arenas on offense and on defense, restricting Agent Zero to 7-19 FG’s and scoring 13 points to give him something to think about on the defensive end. The other early scare for the Raps was Jarvis Hayes who started of 5-5 and knocked down a couple threes to keep it close early. Too bad for the Wiz that he only took seven shots in the game.

Much like the Hawks game, the Raps set the tone early and the Wizards despite making many mini-runs, never got over the hump. Good teams always prevent the opposition from going on big runs and the last two games, the Raptors have managed to do that. Having TJ Ford and Jorge Garbajosa didn’t hurt either. Ford, whose jumper is becoming more and more reliable, had a sweet little game and outplayed Arenas for the majority of the game.

After TJ Ford turned the ball over with three seconds left in the half and Arenas hitting a buzzer-beating trey which cut the lead from nine to six, it appeared that momentum and entirely swung Washington’s way. After the break, the Raps scored the first four points and restored the ten point advantaged which they pretty much toyed with for the rest of the game.

Raptors needed to win this one before hitting the road and Chris Bosh (24, 15, 5) did a great job of recognizing when to drive to the rim and when to test out the jumper. Anytime the Raptors looked like they were ready to settle for jumpers on offense, Bosh changed their mentality by either drawing a foul or scoring on a drive. Nice to see that from a franchise player. His highlights included a high put-back jam off a TJ Ford miss and a strong two-handed dunk/3pt play over Brendon Haywood.

Even Leo Rautins is making a strong effort to look foolish on TV trading drinking jokes and insults with Chuck Swirsky. The quality of the Raptors broadcasts really suffers without Jack Armstring. Pretty soon we’ll be looking at Paul Romanuk for help.

Game in a Flash

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_JpOGM35m4]

Highlight Packages

• NBA.com Video Highlights
• ESPN.com Video Highlights
• RealGM.com Post Game Thread