That was the longest subway ride ever. From Eglinton to Union. It seemed like 4 hours but it was only 20 minutes. Just like that last play. I’m just sad, not even upset, just extremely sad over what just happened. It’s too painful to go over the details, let alone the final play. It flat-out hurts and depresses to even think about what the possibilities were if Calderon’s poss to Bosh would’ve been an inch or two higher. Not even a bad play coming out of a timeout, pick ‘n roll and Bosh seals off his man, which he did, but the service was a little too low. That pass is made and the Raptors visit Cleveland in round 2. It really is that painfully simple and straightforward. I don’t even have the energy to break for a paragraph. Here, I’ll do it.

We played well, so well that I wonder how we were so bad in the previous two games in this building. I guess it has to do with having the perennial backs against the perennial wall, something about survival that brings about the primal fear and fights to stave of extinction. Fights so hard that you actually believe that they might come through, that we can pull off a win so big that it can define a franchise. So big that it can forever bury the betrayal of Vince Carter, so big that it was too good to be true. I had no doubt in my mind that we would score in the final eight seconds, I was sure, sure as there is snow in Canada, sure as RJ is gay, sure as Calderon has balls, sure as rice is white, sure as Kidd is a great player, sure as Parker is a keeper, sure as Bargnani is a future star, sure as….well, you get the point, I was pretty sure. But the man I least expected to make a fundamental mistake actually made one as Calderon gifted the Nets a turnover. Season over.

I don’t even feel like going over how we were schooled after every timeout or stoppage of play, how Anthony Parker missed two crucial FTs after getting fouled on a 3 pointer, how VC almost cost the Nets the game with an ill-advised shot, how we left Nachbar wide open so many times, these are all moot points. The season is over and there is nothing we can do, no chant or cheer that will bring that back. It’s all over. There’s no point breaking down this game except to say that we played hard, we played competitive and even outplayed the Nets, a few lucky bounces, a couple missed FTs, a few bad calls, it all worked against us today, but I can say that I’m proud of the way we came out, we went down fighting and it was just a few funny bounces of the ball that saw the Nets through.

Is Sam Mitchell going to be back?. Probably not. Colangelo wants a coach of his choosing and I think he’s seen enough mistakes by Mitchell to have the motivation to find one. Mitchell being in demand also helps to justify looking for a new coach. I want Mitchell out because his offensive sets are a joke (even though those curls were effective today) and I don’t think players are being utilized to the best of their ability. It doesn’t matter, too early in the off-season, which I don’t believe just started.

Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Let’s Go Raptors.

Greatest T-Shirt Ever

[digg=http://digg.com/basketball/Raptors_vs_Nets_Jose_Calderon_saves_the_day_again]

If this game is two minutes longer, we lose. TJ Ford gets plowed by Vince early on and is forced to leave, and as inhumane as it sounds and I’ll probably go to hell for it, it was the best thing to happen to the Raps. After he threw his first quarter pass in the second row everybody in the arena was like here we go again. His injury plus the unproductive Bosh picking up early fouls meant our theoretical two best players are out of the game. Great! They’ve been stinking it up anyways. Enter Calderon and Bargnani who light up the first quarter from inside and out to put the Raps up 20 by the end of the first. From then on the Nets kept on shaving the lead at a steady mathematical rate with Calderon, Parker and Mo Pete providing just enough buffer to last the 48 minutes. When Nachbar launched that final three to win it, here’s what went through my mind: Oh shit, he’s already missed one game-winner plus he’s been off tonight so the law of averages is about to catch up to us and he’s about to put the final nail in the coffin and I might just have a coronary. Luckily he missed.

Quitter Carter

The Let’s Go Raptors, VC Sucks chants work. I have no doubt about it. Every time he’s on the line and the chant is on, he invariably goes 1 for 2. He missed 4 free throws today and we won by 2. How’s that for proof? VC hit some ridiculous shots to bring the Nets back and even though he struggled early, he found his way around Mo Pete and Parker’s inspirational defense. Mo Pete hit 3 massive treys to keep the Nets at bay, all three came at crucial times. Nobody still has any clue why Mo Pete was glued to the deep end of the bench for so long by Mitchell, this guy is a veteran who plays with passion even when he’s playing five minutes a game. Mo Pete came up big for us tonight and without him we would’ve lost. The best part is he kept it simple, nothing was forced and when his shots come naturally, he’s deadly.

The funny part about the VC Sucks chant is that it starts completely randomly when he’s not even involved in a play, or even when there’s a complete stoppage of play, like here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNNjo7qH2ys]

Here’s a great Let’s Go Raptors, VC Sucks chant from the live broadcast:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLZfxoNvM6A]

Some thoughts about SuperFan. He was sitting next to Milt again and I don’t mind that but he wasn’t cheering at all. It was like he didn’t want to offend Milt Palacio by cheering for the Raps. I don’t care either way but c’mon man, wear some red or even wave the freaking free towel they handed out at the game.

SuperFan looked pretty cozy sitting next to Vince’s mom

I am shit scared of Boki Nachbar. This guy is the X Factor of all X Factors, it doesn’t matter what Vince does, if we keep Nachbar and his outside shooting and drives in check, we can contain the Nets. Vince is not our primary defensive concern, it’s the combination of Nachbar and Jefferson that kill us. Jefferson is just attracted to the rim anytime he’s playing us, we must keep him on the perimeter to contain him and today we did a decent job of that. The Raptors decided to just switch on perimeter screens rather than fight through them which was great because it didn’t’ allow the Nets to drive as much since the lane was clogged immediately after the screen. Give Smitch some credit for switching the lineup and bringing in Peterson and Bargnani for Nesterovic and Graham, going small equals going mobile and the Raps were much better getting back on defense. The start sparked Bargnani who had his first good game of the series, maybe his legs are coming back but if he plays like this in Game 6, my moneys on the Raptors.

What the f**k is up with the halftime entertainment?

Jose Calderon needs to play 40 minutes in Game 6 and Chris Bosh finally needs to have a decent game on the road. The recipe for success is that simple, we can’t rely on Bargnani and Mo Pete to have great games again, although both are capable, anything they give should be considered a bonus of sorts – it’s upto Bosh to make something happen. This was the third game in a row where he did nothing of consequence and if it hadn’t been for him making 3 of 4 FTs in this game, everybody would be ripping him for costing us the game. Butch Carter said Bosh is a “fake all-star”, this is the time where you prove your critics wrong. CB4 needs to do that now!

Sam Mitchell’s out-of-timeout plays pale in comparison to his counterparts

Out of timeout plays. It’s this simple: Sam Mitchell’s suck while Lawrence Frank’s rule. I was paying attention to this, the Nets always got a good quick shot coming out of a timeout while the Raptors struggled. It was for this reason that I hated the Mitchell timeout during the Nets’ final run. Calderon was stripped off the ball and we were lucky it didn’t kill us. I was hoping to catch video proof of this but Sam actually one-upped me:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSmJYCCC3pQ]

I know it’s sick of me but I wanted some free pizza and was starting to think if the Nets actually tied the game and sent it to overtime, maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

The Raps didn’t score a 100 points so this ticket is worthless

The question is whether to take a flight to New Jersey or not? The answer is I need to sleep over this and see what the financial situation is and whether the Raptors have a legitimate chance of winning. I’m pretty sure of the latter. Here are the final minutes as seen from Section 102, Row 11, Seat 2.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C40EXlyXgyw]

Don’t forget, Chasin – unofficial Raptors MVP – has got the highlights. More discussion of this post here.

Before I start describing this pathetic night, let’s focus on the one positive of this game: us. It’s time to give props to The Dirty Dozen that drove down to New Jersey to support the Red. The Raptors gave them nothing but they gave everything to the Raptors. We were the loudest bunch in the arena and the entire arena was looking and staring at us as we cheered everything even when the Raptors were getting crushed. We cheered the players, coaches, management, trainer, TV people, everybody! We even forced Sam to sub-off the ineffective TJ Ford for Jose Calderon in the first half which had an immediate impact on the game. We even made it on TV.

Chuck Swirsky was nice enough to mention to TSN to focus on Section 112 where the Raptor fans were, I’m guessing thats why they put us on TV.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTftPKuf9wA]

We made it on Raptors.com too:

Anyways, let’s get to the actual game. Over 20 hours in a smelly van, pay over a thousand dollars in tickets, much more once you figure in the food, gas and shelter and what do you get out of it? A front row seat of your favorite team getting their ass kicked like it’s been never kicked before. If that wasn’t enough, you get heckled out of the stadium because you were actually dedicated enough to stick through this “game” and cheer as loud as anybody in the arena. I can live with all the above as long as the Raptors do something to help the cause, something, just a little, anything, even a little fight. But alas, nothing of that happened here last night. The Raps got buried by the Nets so fast that Calderon didn’t even get a proper chance to rescue the Raps from another big early deficit. Franchise player, ahem, Chris Bosh played as well as he did in Game 3 which meant he only bothered to trouble himself with shot attempts of the most perimeter kind with only a couple exceptions when he was spoon fed near the rim by Calderon.

Only two Raptors showed up: Jose Calderon and Morris Peterson. Jose played decent as usually but Mo Pete deserves an honorable mention, he was fired up and angry every time his teammates missed a defensive rotation (once very possession) and was downright pissed off at the lack of ball movement by the Raps. Mo Pete played hard if not great, which is more than what can be said for most other Raptors. The most shocking thing to see – even more shocking than playing no defense – was the lack of any offensive creativity on the part of the Raps. It didn’t matter if it was coming out of the game, timeout, quarter, tv timeout, the Raps had nothing. Their entire game plan seems to be “swing it around the perimeter, fake a drive and pull up for the jump shot”. Instead of the simple enough pick ‘n roll, this has become our primary play. Failing to execute the most on this play were Andrea Bargnani, Juan Dixon, Anthony Parker, TJ Ford, Chris Bosh….you get the idea. Another uneasy thing I finally realized was that Anthony Parker has serious difficulty creating his own shot against athletic forwards and guards, the best he seems to be able to do is pull-up for a jumper or a semi-fade. His game thrives when there’s movement and Mitchell’s offense has none of that which is making Parker look much worse than he actually is.

At halftime, Embry looked like he was really pissed off and the Raptors braintrust got into the visitors tunnel and started talking, Colangelo was making all these basketball-move type gestures, Embry actually had to sit down.

TJ Ford has a bad game, not because he took too many shots, because he took horrible shots – early in the shot clock, no rebounders, heavily challenged, really no idea what he’s trying to do. Maybe he’s trying to get into a pissing contest with Jason Kidd which is a bad idea to start with since Kidd appears to own TJ in both the post and perimeter. Chris Bosh decided to take off another night after his miserable Game 3 performance, I even feel disgusted saying CB4 anymore or cheering him on, either he’s just not playing hard enough or he’s very, very confused about what to do on the floor. He’s resigned to sticking to the perimeter and “faking the drive” to launch contested jumpers. All Sam can do is shake his head and call the same play all over again. It’s quite amusing to watch it in person.

Continental Airlines Arena sucks compared to the ACC but the event staff there do a much better job of making the fans louder, they hand out those noise-making sticks to EVERYBODY in the crowd so when noise needs to be made, it’s quite easy to just bang them together than to yell at the top of your voice. Although I think the ACC is louder, Continental Airlines seems louder because they actually crank their speaker volume up making the crowd seem louder. Although this might look retarded if nobody’s there, on a night like last night when there’s a decent enough crowd, it sounds nice. I think the ACC can learn a few things from them.

Prior to the game, some people from Toronto showed up who wanted to burn a Vince Carter jersey, we helped them out. Some hardcore NJ fan came up to us right after this and wanted to rumble but his wife held him back. My friend goes to him, “Aren’t they moving to Brooklyn next year?”. It was jokes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63PupM7vOys]

James Cybulski showed up and preferred TJ Ford over Jose Calderon. We disagreed:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXsji6xvPDQ]

I filmed the tip-off and our first missed wide-open shot by Anthony Parker, an early sign of the impending disaster.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BUi_FkySTg]

In the meanwhile Tim Micallef came by and chatted with us, we made him feel better by taking a picture of him.

At the end of the half I decided to tell Jess Kersey that he’s doing a crappy job. He did not like what I had to say.

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

Here’s some more random noise being made in the first half:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuOx9Rh_CI0]

After halftime when the Raptors down big, we tried cheering up the Raptors players and staff who were coming out of the tunnel. Even Wayne Embry felt the love.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O92t6VJZAKc]

The videos and atmosphere are a nice distraction from what actually happened which is us getting destroyed by a team that just seems better. Nachbar is playing like Bargnani should and RJ is playing the way Anthony Parker should. Bosh is getting shut down by Bosh and helped by Moore/Collins/Boone. TJ Ford is self-destructing and clearly trying to take over the game way too early and digging the Raptors into holes that they can’t possibly come out of. Vince Carter is hitting everything and even Jason Kidd’s starting to drain the outside three. The turning point in this game was in the second quarter when after doing down by 19 the Raptors made a run (courtesy Calderon) to cut it to 11. Jason Kidd came back to hit two consecutive threes to push it back to 17, the crowed got really into it and effectively the game was over. The Raptors never recovered.

So now it’s the old cliche, “one game at a time”. If we win Game 5, we just need to beat New Jersey once in their arena (aren’t we due?) to force a Game 7 at home. Sounds simple enough.

More discussion here.

Chris Bosh gave a weak performance which
cost his team

F*****g garbage. That’s the best way to describe the Raptors performance on Friday night. We didn’t deserve to win nor did we want to win and rightfully lost to a team who knew exactly what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it. We responded to Jersey’s aggressiveness by being passive on defense, turning the ball over and taking horrible shots. We barely attacked their defensive frontline which somebody should remind Bosh, at last check, sucked. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but one particular player should step forward, assume responsibility, raise his hand up and say, “We lost this game because of me”. And that player is Chris Bosh. For a guy who talked about understanding how playoff basketball is meant to be played, Bosh appeared unsure, weak, unready and most significantly, not up to the task of stealing back home-court advantage.

Toronto’s basketball superstar allowed himself to be shut down by the likes of Mikki Moore, Jason Collins, Josh Boone and the archaic Clifford Robinson who all had success guarding the young all-star. Bailing out defenses by taking 20 footers will never do you any good but if you take 15 seconds of the shot-clock trying to “make your move” and allow the defense all the time in the word to setup, it’s offensive suicide. That’s exactly what Bosh did on Friday night. When the Raptors did make any significant runs, he never touched the ball and when he did, it was no doubt a run-killer. The best example of this was when he stepped out of bounds after holding the ball for about 10 seconds in the middle of a run where NJ was under pressure. NJ scored on the ensuing possession effectively gaining back the control/tempo of the game.

Prior to Game 2 Bosh talked about how he understood playoff basketball and how he understood that every possession counts and how even though you’re not going to score, you still have to play a role on each possession. Well, he did play a role and it was anything but positive. I don’t know how much of the blame should go to Mitchell for not using Bosh properly and not ensuring that the talent on his team actually has an effect on the outcome of the game, but it was evident that Chris Bosh was not ready to play the game and was not prepared to handle New Jersey. Chris Bosh should have brutally attacked the rim and either scored or given himself a chance to be fouled early on when the Nets went up 9-0. It would’ve set the tone for the game and maybe he himself would’ve been motivated to show up. It never happened and Bosh’s night sunk into meaninglessness soon after through horrid shot-selection, poor spacing and a lack of desire to assert himself. Bosh a franchise player? I think not.

Jason Kidd faked a knee injury to give the Raptors false hope

Jason Kidd has a bad knee? My ass he does. That was a total play on the parts of the Nets; giving the Raptors false hope that Kidd might not play – the guy had 16 points, 19 rebounds and 16 assists and wasn’t even trying. In a lot of aspects this game was too similar to Game 1 where the Raptors defense was non-existent and the Nets scored at will on the break. I just realized that Richard Jefferson is the type of player Raptors fans want Joey Graham or Mo Pete to be like, but it’ll never happen. I thought Morris Peterson played well, he didn’t score many points but he played hard on both ends and did his part, it’s just that none of his teammates had a good enough defensive game to compete for the game.

Sam Mitchell doesn’t fool me How many plays do you need to have to win Coach of The Year? None. Sam Mitchell offense looks eerily similar to the one I play when I pick up four random guys at the local gym. We had a sizzling third quarter start where we cut the lead down to nine and immediately you might’ve thought that Sam Mitchell had made some adjustments at halftime. Don’t be fooled, we just made some shots and the Nets missed some looks. That’s all. There were literally no changes made at halftime. Bosh still wasn’t into the offense, NJ still beat us down the floor, there was no help on VC, no effort being made to stop Kidd and there weren’t any plays run for Parker. The halftime may as well have been a 20-second timeout. After watching them play tonight, it’s hard to believe this team won 47 games with a coach whose offense relies on hoping that his players make the right decisions rather than teaching them what they are. We’ve gotten by without having any offensive sets or plays all season but this is the playoffs where defense counts for something. Our lack of defensive philosophy combined with having no plan for playing the Nets is killing us the most, even more than Chris Bosh. We have not even attempted to stop their transition game in two games, how can a coach explain this?

Vince Carter had an unbelievable game but that was to be expected after two sub-par performances. He took over in the first and fourth quarter to thwart any hopes of a Toronto comeback. He was great, let’s just leave it at that. Jose Calderon and TJ Ford played well in spells and played horrible in spells. I don’t really blame TJ for jacking up shots midway through the shot-clock since he probably knows that nobody else is seriously considering taking the shot anyways. Bosh was shying away from the ball so TJ was like, “somebody’s got to do something”. Same for Calderon who had an unusual six turnovers in the game but did make all six of the shots he took. Those two kept this game from being a complete blowout.

Andrea Bargnani. How the might have fallen? Forget about deer in the headlights look, he’s got the look of a man who’s about to face the firing squad right after the judge turned down the appeal. Did they take out his appendix or his heart? He’s playing like absolute shit, his jumper his flat, his lateral quickness is gone, he’s not hustling and he’s not defending. When the game was in question he didn’t do anything but allow himself to get caught in screens, accidentally set picks on his own teammates and generally speaking f**k up any offensive and defensive possession he was involved in. Bostjan Nachbar is stepping up for the Nets, Andrea Bargnani is not. That is one of the major reasons we are down 2-1 in this series.So now we need Game 4 as bad as Mitchell needs a playbook. So we’ve had one bad game from which we managed to claw out a win and two exactly similar horrible games. Obviously we need to improve defensively if we have any chance of beating NJ in NJ. GET BACK ON DEFENSE should be the cry in practice followed by TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BOSH BEING GUARDED BY SCRUBS. We need to find a solution for Jason Kidd. Kidd can score in the post on TJ Ford, we know that. Put Calderon on him and if TJ Ford does defend Kidd, do not double. Kidd will score on Ford once, twice maybe three times but he is far more dangerous when he’s passing out of the double team and racking up 16 assists so DO NOT DOUBLE KIDD BUT PLAY HIM TOUGH is another banner that should be hanging in practice. As I said a few posts ago, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stick someone like Graham or Mo Pete on Kidd to make his life a little more difficult.

I’m driving down to Game 4. I hope I’m not doing this for nothing.

>> Scroll down for the videos <<

What a game, after RJ hit that three all signs pointed to an 0-2 hole but Ford hit some big FTs and AP came up with a huge steal to pull the Raptors through. This might be the first ever playoff game which was won without the winning coach ever running a single play in the game. No joke. Sam Mitchell almost ruined the night: With the Raptors down 3 and about 10 seconds left, New Jersey was actually able to get an open three for Nachbar, a shot he had drained a few times during the course of the game. If that shot would’ve gone in, Sam would’ve probably been fired after the game. How Nachbar was allowed to actually attempt a three that wide open with that little time left is perplexing, you would think the Raptors would foul and play the FT game. We got lucky in that regard. Big Time.

The crowd was UNBELIEVABLE. The ACC staff gave away red flags (had to fight for mine, they ran out) and the arena looked awesome at times, especially during a Raptors run. Playoff games are far and away more exciting, more tense and more fun than regular season games. I don’t think I’m going to another Raptors regular season game ever, it’s a waste of money compared to this. The major chants were “VC Sucks”, “Defense, Defense”, “Let’s Go, Raptors” and “Bullshit”. Bullshit was used consistently after the refs blew several calls – all going against the Raptors. That offensive foul they called on Mo Pete was complete garbage and could’ve cost us the game.

Our transition defense was excellent and that scum RJ was trying as hard as he could to cherry pick some points but we completely shut that aspect of the game down for New Jersey. You could tell that New Jersey wanted to duplicate their success from Game 1 in that area and the Raptors made the correct adjustment. For what its worth, kudos to Mitchell on that one. Anthony Parker was looking for his shot much more often tonight and hit some big ones with the defense all over him. If his feet are set he is about as automatic as Allan Houston. His late steal plus the TJ Ford late FTs and huge three were what pulled us through.

TJ didn’t have the same success he had in Game 1 and neither did Calderon but both managed to limit Kidd’s passing to a degree which the Raptors could handle. There were only about two bad TJ moments (out of control, erratic) in this game which is a number I’ll take any day. When Calderon came into the game the Raptors used the pick ‘n roll much more and a couple times he nailed a jumper to keep the NJ lead low. The PGs weren’t spectacular but they played through a tough night and came though on defense and in TJ’s case, late in the game on offense.

Chris Bosh’s stat-line looks impressive but I have to say he looked very tentative early in the game repeating some of the mistakes he was making in Game 1. Even in this game he didn’t make his move quickly but instead took time and allowed the defense to set. On the couple occasions he made his move immediately after catching the ball, he either got fouled or scored. One of these was the huge three-point play dunk. If we would’ve lost this game, I think I would’ve had to hold Bosh responsible for not asserting himself more. Lucky for him Anthony Parker volunteered for that chore.

It looks like the Joey Graham experiment is over. He was sloppy and slow again but this time COY Mitchell actually took him out and put in the Raptor everybody seems to love, Mo Pete. Peterson hit a couple big shots, one of them is what I would call crucial because it came at a time when the Nets looked like they might extend their lead beyond 5+ (I know its not much but in tight playoff games, its huge). Peterson only had one bad moment when he was owned by Carter on a pass/shot rejection, besides that he played good defense on RJ and even on Nachbar when he was matched up with him. I think he might even have earned a starters spot for Game 3.

Before I talk about Carter, here’s a picture of him:

Carter had a Carter game. He was settling for jumpers and if I were a Nets fan I’d be pissed off at him. The guy was shooting deep threes for no reason which I was thankful for because it kept the ball out of RJ’s hands. I think Jefferson is far more dangerous than Carter in this series for us. Vince can be contained because he makes life easy on the defense, Jefferson does not and keeps you guessing on what he’s about to do. IMHO, he’s also the better shooter and swingman. I am scared of Nachbar, I really am. He can hurt the Raptors by putting the ball on the floor and shooting it from outside, he was impressive again today and his highlight came when he took Bargnani (still bumbling around) to school on the baseline. That was epic.

Moral of the story is that even when we don’t play our best game, we can still beat New Jersey. I think the road will do good for us, it puts less pressure on the players and they can play loose and free. We can get a game in New Jersey, no doubt about it.

I’ll add to this blog post more or maybe even create a new one because I really want to talk about what a farce the Mitchell Coach of the Year award is. That’s it for now. I uploaded a couple videos I took on YouTube, check ‘em out. I’ll add some more tomorrow.

Final Minute

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESPlTFfV4pY]

VC Sucks Free Throw[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfndmrXYqwI]

VC Sucks and More Noise

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJhLI4ndJWw]

Late Defensive Possession

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRNqV57LpqA]

Make Some Noise

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekkSYbS4mts]

#1 Baby

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

Anthony Parker shot clock violation – What the hell was that?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqvBV6NbHU8]

Andrea Bargnani gets fouled, for some reason VC Sucks chants continue

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlHeYyCmBn0]

Check out Chasin’s highlights in the RealGM thread, he’s got post-game interviews and more. There’s more discussion of this post here.

Going into Game 2 there’s lots of stuff that needs to be addressed.

The wearing red thing: So RJ made fun of Raptor fans for wearing red while the Nets wore red jerseys, so should we change and wear our home whites? Of course not, that would be retarded. It’s classless of New Jersey to go out of their way to wear their alternate road uniforms just to create this awkward situation. Besides, wearing red is about showing solidarity, not about wearing the same colors that your home team wears. This leads me to another question, since when did the Raptors officially adopt the color red, I thought it was purple. So what if it reminded people of Barney, I didn’t care, to me “purple fever” still sounds a lot better than “red army”. The latter sounds something like the communist party would refer themselves as.

The game itself looms large for the Raptors, going down 0-2 is not an option and even though I was very optimistic in my Game 1 reaction, I simply can’t be the same if we lose Game 2. It’s not that we can’t beat New Jersey in New Jersey twice, it’s more to do with the psyche of the players when they’re down 0-2 going into another arena. Again, the New Jersey arena is quieter than a morgue but it’s still a pain to play on the road knowing you have to win twice in three games.

If the Raptors just play their game and play transition defense and not turn the ball over, they’ll be fine. One switch I would like to see made is have Morris Peterson defend Vince Carter or Richard Jefferson, Mo Pete was not used at all by Mitchell in Game 1 and I though it was a resource wasted. Given that he is the oldest Raptor on the team and given his playoff experience (I know it’s limited), he should figure into Game 2. I think he’s a good athletic defender and can give Richard Jefferson trouble in the open floor while locking down Vince Carter to a commendable degree. Either way, Mo Pete must play more so that Anthony Parker can concentrate a little more on the offensive end. I don’t know if Mitchell has thought of this but it might not be a bad idea to stick Parker on Jason Kidd and take away Kidd’s post-ups, Kidd isn’t the quickest of cats and Parker should be able to give him problems.

Super Fan Nav Bhatia was sitting with Michelle Carter during the game while not wearing red. This has irked many fans considering he is “Super Fan”. Although the rumor is that Bhatia might have been wearing red underwear, it has simply proven not good enough for Raptor fans who are the kind that don’t easily forget any wrongs done to them. While a few fans forgave this error in judgment, they did not forgive him for not waving his customary towel when the Raptors were making their big run. So what to do about Nav? My take on this is to give the guy another chance, maybe he felt awkward sitting next to Milt Palacio…er..Vince’s Mom and didn’t know how to act since he’s close to the family. I say let’s see what he’s doing/wearing for Game 2 before resorting to any act of vengeance against him.

It was nice to see the Raptors having some fun during practice and not getting too stressed about losing home-court advantage. I think they know that they shot themselves in the foot with all the careless mistakes and as Mitchell himself said, all the mistakes can be corrected. So anybody who’s going to colossal Game 2 at the ACC on Tuesday night, make sure you cheer and boo as best as you can and make sure it’s not always directed at just Vince Carter. There was a great thread on RealGM which proposed that Vince Carter had moved on and the fans had not, there might be a large element of truth in that. Either way, after RJs comments the Raptors have many enemies to pick from.

Let’s talk about Joey Graham for a minute. He had one of the worst playoff games this side of David Robinson in recent memory, both statistically and otherwise. Sam’s leash on him should be short this time around, especially if his head is not into the game, like Saturday. We can’t afford to play him 35 minutes while he’s laying eggs on both ends of the floor. I hope Sam has the ability to recognize when a player is simply “not into the game” and can substitute accordingly. Juan Dixon on the other hand was the only guy who had the balls to shoot the ball every time he got it, it’s just too bad his shots didn’t fall. But still, it’s the right philosophy. Dixon needs to be given minutes, I think he’s a veteran and will come through this time around. Andrea was not himself during Game 1, look for that to change. He’s too good of a player to not make an impact.

The Nets have to be pretty confident that they can take Game 2 but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Deep down they’re probably all cozy and satisfied that they stole home-court advantage and if you ask the most honest of Nets fans and coaches, that’s probably all they were looking for when coming to Toronto. Obviously the Raptors can’t rely on that and must come out with full force and stop NJ from dictating the tempo of the game, and the best of doing that is to PLAY TRANSITION DEFENSE.

I was weary of Game 1 but I think the Raptors will take this one.

I’ve had a chance to have a couple cups of tea and managed to calm down to the point where I can rationally think about what just transpired at the ACC. There’s good news and bad news.

The bad news is that we played horrible for the majority of the game – our set-defense was awful and our transitional defense non-existent. New Jersey ran us up and down the floor at will and we failed to get back. Richard Jefferson had a career half simply because the Raptors did not get back on defense. Sam Mitchell’s decision to rest Bosh for an entire quarter after picking up his second foul backfired and that’s when NJ built their lead. Even when the Raptors made their run, Bosh came up short, too often settling for a bad shot (baseline fadeaway, long jumper) to make things easier for NJ. Late in the fourth, it was his missed fadeaway that sealed our fate. It’s a moot point whether the fouls he picked up were legit or not, I thought the second one was a phantom call.

Joey Graham was awful and did not deserve 1/5th of the playing time he got. Mitchell protecting Bosh can be forgiven but this cannot. I don’t remember Morris Peterson being this bad, do you? 35 pointless minutes for Joey Graham where he failed to defend, score or rebound and what the stats won’t show you is the amount of time he wasted on possessions by just foolishly dribbling in front of his defender “faking” that he was going to make a move right before he just passed it off. What the stats won’t show you is how easily Jefferson beat him down the floor and off the dribble every time he was guarding him. I’ve seen pregnant cows with better lateral quicks.

I’m getting to the good news, just wait. It would be unfair to blame this loss on one player or coach because save TJ Ford, nobody was ready to play this game. Maybe Bosh was but after he picked up his second foul, Mitchell did an excellent job of shutting him down. We weren’t ready to play and it wasn’t until late in the game that we shook of our nervous jitters and finally started to play some Raptors basketball, but it was too late by then. It took a while for Calderon to warm up but in the fourth quarter he singlehandedly brought us back in the game while TJ was resting. There’s no reason to get into the “TJ should’ve played in the fourth” debate because it carries no meaning here. Both Ford and Calderon played excellent in their stints.

Another victim of early jitters was Anthony Parker who met with little success in guarding RJ in the first half. The Raptors’ offense looked about as stagnant as a statue and a player like Parker can’t flourish in that setting. Again, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that there was movement in the Raps offense and it was then that Parker managed to get open and the PG found him for shots. There’s no need for Parker bashing, overall he had a good game and if you take away the bad defensive job on Jefferson in the first half, he had a good game.

Trust me, I’m getting to the good news. Chris Bosh came up short, we needed him in the fourth quarter to take the game over and he didn’t. Although it sounds harsh, it’s as simple as that. This game was not about Vince Carter (he was basically a non-factor in the game), it was about Chris Bosh’s ability to step up when it counted. At least for one playoff game (his first ever), he couldn’t. I’m sorry to say this but that really is the case. Maybe things will be different in Game 2 but for now that is the reason we lost (ignoring Mitchell’s bad coaching).

Now to the good news. The Nets played a great game and we played a terrible one, yet we lost by only 5 points. All the mistakes we made can be corrected in time for Game 2. The playoffs are about adjustments and the Raptors have to make a few but they aren’t that difficult. Leo should use these as his IBM Winning Strategies:

• Get back on defense. Nets had 20 fast break points which came way too easily. Make them score in the half-court set.
• Make Bosh make his move early. Like him or hate him, Leo is right about one thing: Bosh is 100% more effective if he just makes his move quickly rather than thinking about what he’s going to do. No hesitation.
• Run your only play early and often. The high pick ‘n roll is what got us here and we should be running it early in the clock instead of passing the rock around meaninglessly. If we need to go to Bosh in the post-up, makes sure he doesn’t get the ball so close the baseline that he’s being guarded by it.
• Spaced close-outs. Why let Nachbar and Jefferson drive by you so easily? No reason to jump or close-out so aggressively that you leave the offensive player with an easy decision to drive the ball. Give them the long range jumper with the hand in the face. The Nets were driving to the rim so easily that the game opened up for them. Let’s play selective zone-defense.

This was the first playoff game for many of these players and it is 100% natural to be nervous and jittery. It just happens and we should have been expecting this. As Bill Russell said during the game, Game 1 is the least important of them all. The Raptors are the better team and with a few minor tweaks, we will overcome this measly 0-1 deficit. If Bosh makes that fadeway and Calderon doesn’t pass to Darrick Martin when we were down 1, we could be singing a different song.

Bargnani gave us nothing today and neither did Dixon, both will do better for Game 2. This is also Sam’s first playoff game as a coach. Whether you like him or not, he has done an allright job of making adjustments. Over the last part of the regular season, his halftime adjustments have always paid off with the Raptors usually overcoming first half deficits. It’s great that we have a 3 day break between games since it allows us to think about what we did wrong, analyze tape and make appropriate adjustments. I ask everybody to have a little faith in Sam (even though you might hate him) and hopefully he can motivate the team to play smarter basketball and do the little things right, because that is what was wrong today, the little things. They just added up to a loss.

The boys will play as we’re accustomed to seeing them starting Game 2. Fear not Raptor fans, all is well. This is just a minor bump on the road – one that was necessary, think of it as an initialization of the new Raptors to the playoffs.

Note: Comments are closed since I posted this on RealGM and there’s already a discussion there.

Raptors/Nets today and the Raps manage to pull of another sweet win, 90-78 at the ACC with Vince having a miserable game and fans chanting “Carter Sucks” pretty loudly and effectively in the fourth quarter. Total team win with six players in double figures. But lets leave that on the side for a few minutes.

Cameras catch Vince smiling at halftime with his team down 10 and Swirsky says something like, “He’s laughing. His teams down 10. Whatever“. OK, now Vince smiling and laughing with his team is down is NOTHING new. It’s all happened before here in Toronto and is happening in New Jersey. Vince did that thing throughout his time in Toronto and not once, not even a single time did Chuck Swirsky have the onions to criticize him or even comment on this noticeable weird trait of Vince. Chuck Swirsky first checks whose listening and then speaks. Just once I’d like to hear Chuck be honest in his assessment of players. For once I’d like to see him not exaggerate capabilities of players when they’re playing on his team and demean them when they’re playing for someone else.

Nets came out flat for the most part with Kristic and Carter both being ineffective for most of the game. Give credit to Toronto’s defense, especially Rasho Nesterovic who’s making most of the minutes he’s getting in Bosh’s abscence. Nesterovic had a Luc-Longley-with-the-Bulls type game hitting soft jumpers when created by teammates and using his size to disturb Net drives to the rim (3 blocks but changed many more a shot). TJ Ford with a couple clutch shots down the stretch along with some responsible defending gets the Raps another well deserved win.