Tip-In: Toronto Raptors Post-Game - Looking in the Mirror

by RaptorsHQ - Archives on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST

Lacing Them Up:

On a night when Earl "The Pearl" Monroe’s jersey was retired the Raptors sure could have used some of his ball-handling wizardry.

Especially to get to the rim.

Instead, without any inside presence whatsoever, the Raptors heaved jump-shot after jump-shot en route to a four point loss to the Wiz.

The interesting thing was that when I was watching this game I kept thinking "wow, if we never had Bosh and they never had Arenas, these teams would essentially be the same!"

Both can score with the league's best when the shots are falling and neither has much in terms of an interior presence or perimeter defence. The Wiz lay claim to a few extra All-Stars of course but these are two very similar clubs down to the styles of their respective coaches. Post-game Washington coach Eddie Jordan even made numerous Mitchell-esque remarks including going off on a tangent about the great job his team's sports psychologist does when the players are "pissed-off."

Um...I guess when you have Agent Zero, Andray Blatche and the tag team of Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas on your club, comments like Jordan's shouldn't come as a surprise...

A Numbers Game:

11.

I’m getting pretty sick of putting numbers like this up in this section. But without Chris Bosh or a TJ Ford who’s back to 100 per cent efficiency, I’m not sure it’s going to change. As much as I thought TJ forced the issue last night, he and CB4 remain the main players on Toronto who can put easy points on the board with the clock stopped.

And this was really the difference in the end. Toronto lost the war of the jump shots but if they had gotten to the line 21 times like Washington, you can bet they would have hit more than the Wizards 13. In a game they lost by four, well...you can do the math.

Turning Point: There were a few twists and turns in this one but I felt that the game’s momentum really changed for good in the second quarter. The Raptors were rolling offensively, starting to get out on the Wizards’ shooters, and looking comfortably on their way to win number 10. Then the wheels started to come off. Bad passes, lax defense on the perimeter, and a Roger Mason Jr. explosion spelt trouble. Toronto never really recovered and while they got close numerous times, Washington ran variations on their screen and roll that kept the lead until the buzzer sounded.

Temperature Check:

Hot - Caron Butler. I’ve always been a huge Butler fan and it’s great to see him putting together another All-Star season...but not against the Raps! Butler started off on fire and the Raptors didn’t do a great job containing him all night.

Hot - Antawn Jamison. This is the other player Toronto had a tough time with all night. Jamison’s ability to play inside and out gave the Raps fits and he grabbed two key rebounds near the game’s conclusion to basically seal the deal.

Hot - Jason Kapono. It's great to see Kap-One start to hit his stride with this second unit. As mentioned before, he seems to have a great chemistry with Jose Calderon and Carlos Delfino and was really the lone bright spot tonight for Torontno. I'm hoping now Toronto looks to him more often and starts running some plays for the sharp-shooter from UCLA.

Cold - Andrea Bargnani. It’s almost 20 games into the season unbelievably and I’m starting to notice a trend with the Raptors. The only way this team has success is if their wings are shooting the lights out, or if they get some sort of inside presence going to open things up. You could see echoes of this in the first quarter of last night’s game. Toronto’s defence wasn’t great and Washington was getting some easy looks, but the Raptors’ offence was purring like a kitten. A big part of this was that Andrea was making shots and forcing Washington to double-team. Make no mistake - without CB4, Il Mago MUST be the number one option and must look to make Washington react to him. Unfortunately, after hitting his first few looks and being aggressive around the basket, Andrea got blocked by Jamison, appeared to injure his other knee on the awkward landing, and then settled for shaky looking jump shots the rest of the night. I realize he’s learning the ropes, but if this team really wants to take the next step forward towards becoming an elite club, Andrea needs to help carry the torch.

Cold - Sam Mitchell. This is the first game this year that I really questioned some of Mitchell’s moves. I’m not saying he cost them the game...but there were some things that stuck out in my mind.

First off, I felt he left TJ Ford in too long in the third quarter. Ford was forcing the issue all night and while I understand he’s trying to get back into the swing of things, it’s the coach’s job to recognize this and make adjustments. By the time Calderon returned it seemed too little too late.

Also, Washington played small ball almost all night. The Raptors followed suit but just didn’t seem to take advantage of any strategic mismatches. The jump shots weren’t falling so why not try something else? How about Hump backing smaller guys down? And if the Wiz want to go small, I can’t think of a better idea than to try using Joey at the 3 or 4 and get him to post up. In a case like last night’s game where the Raptors were basically facing a slightly more talented version of themselves, I expected more from the Toronto coaching staff.

Moving On:

What really hurts about this loss is that a win really would have had the momentum going towards Phoenix this Wednesday. Charlotte is up next Monday night but after watching them get beaten by the hapless Bulls tonight, I didn’t feel like they were a worthy foe for the Raptors. No, I was ready to see the Dinos play the kings of the West, as they will later this month.
Instead, as fans we’re once again left with that "what if" thought in our heads. If there was a time to play without Bosh and TJ it was now, against teams missing their respective superstars as well.

Toronto got part of the job done by beating Cleveland, but unfortunately last night, neither Morris Peterson nor Michael Ruffin were in the building...

Where's Michael Ruffin when you need him?

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Comments

This is my first time posting but I'd like to start by saying I'm always reading this post and I really like it.
At one point during the game (I believe it was after Butler hit his buzzer-beater at the end of the first half) I turned to my wife and I said "the basketball gods turned against us as a payback for last year Mo Pete circus shot". All key moments during the game went in their favour.I don't even know how we stayed in the game with Wizards shooting 56% against our 44% and us going to the line only 11 times.
You could say Andrea lost this game for us by not helping the team when the shots didn't fall however I thought he was actually injured. All in all, I'm not upset with the loss. It is still early in the season and the coaching staff has a chance of running all kind of things. We are a play-off bound team (barring catastrophic injuries) and I consider every game a chance to prepare for them.

by daniel on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

bang on franchise. It would've been nice to see them pull this out, but on the road on a back to back, the night after what was probably an emotional win, they seemed tired all night. Can't expect delfino and moon to have the energy every night. I saw kapono step up, thought it would have been perfect night for dixon to come in. Can't believe joey graham can't help us in situtations like these. All that said, a decent tj night and game would have been ours. Good on bargs for keeping shooting, he looked the worst for the wear and he learning how to fight through it.

by axl on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

Raptors need an Inside scoring threat to make their offense more effective. With Bosh out and Andrea a non factor they suffer at the line and their outside shooters are easier to cover.

When they are having trouble defending ie.Butler/Jamieson they must score to offset.
They should have used Rasho more as an inside scorer when Andrea was inefective.

With that said they were still in the game at the end but unable to make the plays,like giving up offesive rebounds and turnovers and missing shots.
Without Bosh there is a very small margin for error and must have "outstanding efforts" from more than one or two ie. Kapono and Moon.

by Johnn19 on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

Basketball is really a simple game. Take high percentage shots and defend the ball. But, you have to be consistent at these two factors. The raptors have been inconsistent this season.

To be a real threat in the NBA, they need a dominant center. Andrea is not the solution. He's too slow as a defender and shoots jump shots. I love it when Bosh is aggressive because he makes everyone else's life so much easier. We are one of the most entertaining teams in the league when we play to our abilities.

Every time I doubt the Raptors of taking a step forward as a franchise, I remember that we have Bryan Colangelo and NOT John Ferguson. LOL. The leafs could take a lesson from the Raptors -- have a GM who knows how to build a franchise and not necessarily sell tickets.

Oh one more thing, for all those who love Jose, we love him for his offense. his defensive game is basically non-existent. If you watch him play he's like 10 feet off his man, what's up with that? No wonder he's a bench player.

Perimeter defense is important. Suns won't win a Championship with Steve Nash because he doesn't play defense. Spurs will win it all again this year.

Bruce Bowen guarding the perimeter and Duncan guarding under the basket, duh, no wonder they keep on winning championships.

by Michael on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

Michael, basketball is not a simple game (unless it's played on video game). And you don't need a dominant centre to be a threat in NBA: there are ebbs and flows in NBA history in terms of positions' importance. Detroit and Spurs (after Robinson) are recent examples of championship teams with no big centre.
I usually don't do this but I have to say everything you say is false or a truism: Tony Parker doesn't play better defense than Nash, Andrea looks slow only because he's learning his position but he is one of the quickest 7-footer I've seen, Calderon is not a bench player period, his defense notwithstanding (which is much better than Raptors fans give him credit for).
Perimeter defense is only one aspect of b-ball but is not sufficient to win it all. Spurs is not made only of Bowen and Duncan (albeit very important players) and their offense is nothing to scoff at. We don't know though if they are going to win again this year.
Definitely Raptors are an interesting experiment in NBA and it may succeed or fail. In the meantime let's enjoy what we have and let's stop from making general statements after one game.

by Daniel on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

Regarding Calderon's defending his position.

In 6 games as the starting PG he has averaged 11ast and 11.8pts and Raptors have won 4 games and been very close in the other 2. The oponents starting PG's have averaged 4.8ast and 12.8pts. Jose has had twice as many ast and 4 out of the 6 games has outscored the other PG. When you compare his numbers as a back up i'm sure they will be even better. I'm sure Sam and BC are more than happy with JC's play, even though he can always improve his defense as they all can.

by Johnn19 on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

wow! I'm so impressed with these fans on this website, very supportive of the Raptors. Go Raptors Go.

5 things that I enjoy when watching the Raptors
1. The GM makes smart moves
2. The Coach gets along with his players well.
3. The team has great chemistry.
4. The development of a young team
5. The Raptors brings the community close together.

Again, my post earlier today was an evaluation of the NBA. Before MJ it was thought to believe that you could only win with a dominating Center. MJ came along and challenged some people's belief for 6 years and still today.

Today in the media you look at G Hill, Jerry stackhouse, Kobe, McGrady, and Lebron, who all have at one point in time tried to win a championship as the franchise player.
But it never happened.

I read the raptorshq.com on a regular basis and there's a lot of people arguing who should start, sit, or do whatever, but at the end of the day, the Raptors are not going to win a championship, at least not with the current team.

They need to make a trade for a center. If you look at the NBA standings today, the best teams at least have a dominating center or a PF/C. We need a center to compliment Bosh.

Remember, we lost last year in the playoffs because Bosh didn't have the post skills needed to dominate. I was super surprised when Mikki Moore kept on denying Bosh. But, hopefully Bosh will get better as time goes on. Lets hope he gets healthy soon.

by michael on Dec 2, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions

Question

Bargs shot 2 of 14 and Ford forced his game thru out as Franchise states. What would the majority of NBA coaches do when faced with this during a game?

by Rt on Dec 3, 2007 12:00 AM EST reply actions