Tip-In, Toronto Raptors Post-Game:  Scorched

i don't know, maybe the raptors should have um... put a man on barbosa, you know consider limiting his open looks. Just a thought

Excellent points, Franchise. I actually missed Garbo a lot today - watching Graham, Hump, Kapono and Moon playing defence today was painful.
I believe that's exactly the way we wanted to play the game and force them to shoot only J's (yesterday they had 18% against Indiana from 3-pt line)- which they made them.
The Suns' ball movement was fantastic - the addition of Hill makes a big impact on their efficiency (as long as he's healthy).
We play defensively some kind of 2-on-1 trap and switch which will leave someone open for a J. I believe Mitchell is much more strategic in his approach than we realize because he plays the law of averages: in some nights some teams will shoot better than average and in others below averages. He just hopes that our defence will be good enough to keep more teams below average than above. This strategy may work well in the regular season but then in the play-offs the law of averages may be skewed due to the small sample. He is definitely not a good in-game tactician because very seldom strategic thinkers are good tacticians too. Now the question is, who wins more championships: coaches that are more strategic (in other words playing within a pretty rigid system) or coaches that are more tacticians (i.e not so great regular seasons but in the play-offs they micro-manage each game to perfection). Example of strategists: Pop, Sloan. For tacticians: Riley.

Looking at the stats: Turnovers and rebounds were essentially equal. Both teams shot stupid percentages.

What we needed to do to win this game is jack up more 3pt shats.

(defense would be an easy answer obviously.)

How about Leo Rautins How many times last night did he say "THE RAPTORS CAN"T CONTINUE TO ALLOW PHOENIX OPEN LOOKS." Does he have a point?

Good take on the game. Great to watch if you like offence. We did give up a lot of open looks but lets credit Pheonix - they are great at creating open looks and when their shots are falling, what can you do. Grant Hill looks like a perfect fit for that team.
I agree its time for this team to make a statement - but this month looks tough(11 road games vs 5 home dates). If we get out of December a few games above 500 watch for us to make our move in the new year.
Friday vs the Celtics will be huge. Lets hope our bigs are back and game ready.

Great game for TJ, but as a shooting guard rather than a point guard. Jose played great and should be our point man of the future. The suns were really shooting well, nothing we can do about it. BTW, why the quick hook again for Joey?

dude - close your bold tags ;)

Thought JG was playing well! Agressive like good JG plays.(only SM knows what goes on in SM head) Kapone only 13 min? Nobody on this team can cover 3 point shooters not the first time we have seen this.TJ sure looked after TJ last night no team movement when He is pg.

What's inexcusable about last night's loss is that Raptors didn't play any defense. I blame Sam Mitche for that...Here's what he should have done: call a time out and say to the guys "I want you to be within 2 feet of your man at ALL times. Don't leave your man to go help out on week side, don't leave your man for ANY reason. Especially, if your man has Nash, Barbosa, Bell, Diaw, Hill, Studemire or Marion on the back of their jersey."

Seriously, I couldn't believe when Kapono at one play in 3rd quarter left Barbosa WIDE open to go help Humpries with Studemire. He practically went all the way under the basked following him, and Barbosa has been lighting them up all game; that makes no sense to me.

I don't mind the loss, I just mind open shots Suns got. Thats all.

How about the game T.J. had? Wasn't that amazing? I mean 27 points in 23 minutes. WOW! Please, how selfish was he last night? Did you see him checking at the scoreboard to see how many points he had after almost every made basket? I did! And I have a great nickname for him too; Handbrake! Because to me Raptors run their offense like a car running with the handbrake pulled: very slugish. Man oh man, when will the Raptors organization realize this??

T.J. Ford a.k.a. Handbrake

Its simple...Phx had no injured player. That was their whole team. We were without Bosh our franchise player and we lost by 14. Factor in Bosh 20 for the night and Raps win by 6. You notice I did not include Bargnani because he is still developing and he is usually off...0 - 7 against Nash and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Jose was over whelmed by Nash he even try to lie on the floor like Nash only he was on his belly and the true MVP was on his back...Hope Sam put TJ back in the starting 5 against Boston..

BENJO did you notice that TJ was the only Raptor who could make a shot...Everytime the other players including Jose jacked up a shot and miss the Suns scored that's how we went behind in the 3rd quarter..Who was it that started that quarter again ..oh Nash wanna be Jose couldn't make an assist. Nash doubled his total. You should be happy TJ was trying to get his stroke back (and he was not missing)I would like to know what TJ has done to the Toronto fans why he always get picked on. The reason we lost tonight was because of JC. You cannot have a sub-par game and expect to beat the Suns. So all you TJ haters..LEAVE TJ ALONE..HE WILL BE ONE OF THE BEST PG IN THE LEAGUE...NASH IS 32 THAT IS 7 YEARS OLDER THAN TJ SO GIVE THE KID SOME TIME....MAN

Rapss4life says
The reason we lost tonight was because of JC

How do you come to that conclusion? JC could not cover all the shooters in the game. JC one assist from another double double

Sorry Davl that was just a silly sarcastic comment to benjo for picking on TJ. Jose had a good game and you cannot blame a loss to a single player in a 136 - 123 loss. Phx was just the better team and we got out played by a more experience and talented team. NO knock on JC I love that kid. But I am so sick of reading comments where everyone is making JC God on the Raptors and TJ Satan....lol

Benjo - with regards to your "What's inexcusable about last night's loss is that Raptors didn't play any defense. I blame Sam Mitche for that...Here's what he should have done: call a time out and say to the guys "I want you to be within 2 feet of your man at ALL times. Don't leave your man to go help out on week side, don't leave your man for ANY reason. Especially, if your man has Nash, Barbosa, Bell, Diaw, Hill, Studemire or Marion on the back of their jersey."
.......is a really silly comment. If all teams followed this advice Pheonix would be 0-82. Wow - cover your man and they wont score. What an amazing analysis. Why did Sam not bring that up - Benjo you should be coaching the RAPS- you alone have figured out how to stop the Suns- they obviously need your astute analytical mind.

raps4life

peace!!!but when looking at stats JC shooting percentage was better than Nash and TJ's to get an assist a shooter must make the shot.(why JC had only 9 assissts and TJ had only 6?)How many points did TJ score in gabage time? Was that the reason TJ was looking after TJ to get his stroke back? The loss imho was due to the raptors not being able to play D Heck even the Rapts 3 pt percentage was better than the Suns.I have no problem with either TJ or JC prefer JC but feel Ford starts tomorrow. They are very different PG's and the Raptors are lucky to have them.Did benching of JG and little play of Hump hurt? I think so they were playing the game with a bit of an edge!Rapts don't ,can't cover 3 pt shooting like I said earlier we have seen this before. Looking for a win tomorrow!

Hey raps4life. I appreciate your passion for the Raps, but hear me out. I'm not trying to make T.J. be Satan. BUT, what frustrates a lot of fans is that T.J. is preferred(i.e. starting) P.G. who gets more playing time than Calderon, when its clear that Calderon is by far the better player.

Look at last nights game. Who had a better game? T.J. or Calderon?? I'd say Calderon; he once again almost had a double double; 14pts, 9ast on 6-9 shooting. T.J. had a great shooting night, but he was selfish. As a point guard he has the luxury of touching the ball on every possession. But, so often T.J. just takes a shot before trying to run anything. To me, that's a bad shot coming from a point guard. So, yeah T.J. made 12-19 shots last night, but I would argue that a LOT of those were BAD SHOTS. Last night he was selfish.

I'll be the first to admit T.J. has played good at the beginning of this season: much better than last season. He seemed more mature and was not forcing things as much. But since his injury he's reverted to bad habits. Dribbling to much and taking ill-advised jumpers.

That's just my opinion.

One thing stood out to me during small ball, when both PG's were on the floor. TJ doesn't pass to Jose at ALL...whereas Jose gives the ball to TJ all the time....

Sorry to be in this TJ JOse thing, but for some reason, TJ doesn't use the Euro's to pass to that much.....

oh well, the lose is noone's fault. Suns are good.

peace

Tinman,

Phoenx would be 0-82 if everyone played man-to-man with them?? Did I suggest that? Really??

I was saying that by playing tighter on their man, Phoenix would not get as many wide open looks.

If you're a coach and you see a team hitting open jumper after open jumper, what would YOU say in the huddle? You'd probably say, I wanna see a damn hand in the face on every jump shot! Hey, isn't it usually like that in playoffs, when intensity is notched up??

Sure, Phoenix would still make a lot of those shots, but maybe not 60%. And it would be a lot more enjoyable to watch a game like that.

benjo..I would question that JC is a better player than TJ. He runs the team better because the Raptors are loaded with shooters and JC distribute the ball better. But remember he has been playing professional ball longer and his older than TJ. Point guards take a while to develop in this league ala Steve Nash. What was NASH like at TJ age certainly not an MVP didn't win that until he was 29 years old if my math is correct. What the fans do not notice is that a lot of time when TJ dishes the ball the shot is missed mainly because the shooters at the start of the game is facing the starters on the opposing team which are usually better defenders than the 2nd unit.... It is never a bad shot if it goes in the basket. Its a tough shot not a bad shot. What I dont understand is why is it if another point guard example Stevie Nash or J-Kidd or Jose goes off for 30 points they get props for putting up big numbers but in Toronto if TJ does it he is selfish..double standard and I don't get it. All TJ wants to do is win and if the team is not shooting well he takes the shots and 7 out of 10 times will make the shot and yet he gets criticised for being a selfish player....I am a Huge TJ fan and I know he has a great upside to his game. Jose is a better floor general right now and I give props to BC for finding these 2 very good point guards. I am just waiting for the fans to get on board and give TJ some slack...You guys should read some of the post on TSN.ca with how the fans are blaming TJ for the lost..are you kidding me, TJ was the one that started the run in the 4th quarter that brought the score back to respectability. Raps fans need to go to a game in the States and see how fans support their players that's all.

Benjo:

Do you know for a fact that Sam wasn't yelling at his players in the huddle to get a hand up on open shooters? I mean, come on.

The Raps were without their superstar and another core player and they just played one of the elite teams of the NBA. Can't blame this one on coaching or on TJ.

Benjo
Do you not think Sam brought up the point of not leaving your man open. Do you think it was mentionned at half time. You know what - sometimes you have to accept a defeat gracefully and credit the other team. Pheonix worked the drive and kick to perfection and we were down two key players. Blaming this on Mitchell is ignorant!

And Benjo, for the record, I agree that at this point in our two PG careers, there is no doubt that Jose is best suited to start. No knock against TJ, but Jose, from what I've seen this year, is one of the best PG's in the game. Would like to see TJ get away from his two man game with Bosh. It goes against our flow.

I'm a great fan of TJ. He's got to be the best athlete on the team and a potential great player. However, IMHO, being physically gifted sometimes works against you, if you try to be a pass first PG. That's our dilemma. Therefore, until TJ matures and learn to defer to others, he should not be our starting PG, but our Shooting guard instead.

Nothing inexcusable about the game. Played good considering. People should be ready for a dip below .500 until bosh or at least bargs is back.

Good article about Super Jamario for all that are interested:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AsGlwREHajhMtL2lqcoy7N68vLYF?slug=aw-moon120507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I didn't see the game unfortunately. At least Ford shot a good percentage. Just for interest, I'm curious to see our win/loss percentage for when TJ scores OVER 20 points. I think we have a pretty bad record.

Bosh and Bargnani didnt make the trip to boston...this game has the potential to get ugly...expect garnett to have a big game

I would be really pumped if the raps could pull this win off with Bosh and Bargs

I must have been the only person to watch the game. TJ may have only had a few assists but he made some many sweet passes for easy buckets, they were just blown a few times. Baston and Humpty got about 4 easy dunks from his passes. JC is steady but rarely makes the tough pass that leads to an easy look, most of his assists are just him swinging it around the 'horn'. I can't remember a time where I said "nice pass" when JC made a assist.
Just my opinion though, clearly I am in the minority. People on this forum just really love Euros. I'm sure in a few weeks people will be crying about Moon too and wanting to see Garbo back (who is a walking corpse compared to Moon, I think Shaq could take him off the dribble)