Tip-In: Slokar Time

PS - Chris Bosh is going to be on Global News tonight at 6 PM. Not sure when exactly he'll be on in the news segment, but saw an ad for it last night during the Apprentice and thought I'd pass it on.

You're so right about the new Raptors TV adds. I really like the one with CB4. He looks so mean and tough in them. Its awesome. Also, the one with Calderone is pure genius too. The should do more of them.

Re: last nights game. Even though Raptors were not playing that great, I always knew that would win it in the end. It seems that teams just can't hang around the Raptors for 48 mins. Raptors just keep finding ways to score and they play solid D when they need it.

Joey G has been great, no doubt. But, I keep waiting when he's going to revert back to bad Joey.

A.P. and Calderone have been amazing. Another great thing about these guys is that they have a TON of experience in big games. AP was euroleague champion and Calderone was WC with Spain. Thats priceless right there.

A question: I was watching highlights of Kings vs. Clippers last night and I thought that Brad Miller would be such a good fit for the Raptors. He's a great passer and has a soft touch, plus he's a legit center. What do you guys think? Also, any chance BC can bring him here next year?

Good win even though they really didn't play that well.
Good point lads, love the new ads on RapsTv, which leads me to saying still waiting for bad joey to show. Very disappointed joey when you receive a great pass from Calderon, and when Calderon wants to celebrate it, you are to cool to acknowledge it. shame.
Also noticed that guy Bob McGowen owen, or what ever his name is, that guy I never listen to because he always talks hockey on Fan590. Sitting second row at the reporters table, haven't seen him there all year. I guess since hockey is over, your real job is to learn some winning team ball.
Looks more and more like Vince is coming to town, bring em on, can't wait to ruin my vocal chrods at those games.

I'm liking seeing all the zone against the raps recently. They need to play against it to figure it out. It seems like a strategy that negates much of the ball-sharing and perimeter passing that raps hang their hat on and the solution is to drive into the heart of it, attack the shot blockers and hope for the best.

A few times AP did just that and one time at least, spun and passed it back out when it seemed like he could have went straight to the hoop or at least drawn the foul. I like humphries in that situation because he goes right at the cup 99.9% of the time. Bosh could do a little more of that against the zone too I think, though using him as a decoy has been working for them.

Did anyone else think the joey g's basket at the end was the wrong play? If he had missed the free, NY would have had the ball with 3 seconds left, whereas if he'd avoided the foul and just dribbled past the hoop into the open floor, the clock would have run out.

Looking forward to seeing extended minutes for the benchers. Pape sow was playing so well around the rim in the nbdl before his injury, would love for this guy to succeed.

I'm sure the networks are all drooling over a raps/nets first round match up. it would instantly give them something to talk about, setting the playoffs on fire right from the get-go.

and, to be pefectly honest, I would love it. first off, I really don't think the big 3 can hold off the raps over 7 games. they'll steal a few games, I'm sure, but not the whole enchilada.

second, to take out vince in the first round of the playoffs would, I think, finally give the fans and this city closure. I'm pretty sure it would seal the deal.

of course, I could be incredibly wrong, in which case having the raps lose to vince in the first round would pretty much haunt this city and season for the rest of time.

who's with me?

papa, i think the same way, but also if the nets could beat the raps, they could also beat the cavs/bulls and we might have to meet them again in later rounds anyways. For now, i comfort myself with the fact that most of the players don't have the same, or any, feelings about vince and would likely just stick to the plan and play their guts out as usual. Even if we lost in seven games, only a total meltdown would really upset me and I don't see that happening.

calderon flat out embarassed the knicks. how many times did he finish at the rim in the second half?

a note on the bottom of the ESPN recap of this game says that Isiah Thomas still sees the Nets as the favorite in the Atlantic. Huh??

Ossington:

Thomas also thought that he made a good deal when he acquired Eddy Curry, when he signed Jeffries, when he signed Jerome James, when he....you get the picture.

Nobody pinch me, because if I really am dreaming I don't want to wake up. Playoffs? Team best record? A likely date witN Vince in the 1st rnd? Home court advantage? Next you'll try to tell me Joey Graham has turned out to be a decent basketball player! What? He what?

Like I said, don't pinch me...

Here are some other thoughts;

- We won the game despite playing Kilo, Hump and others for longer burn. Good stuff. Hump in particular has that low-key, all-hustle quality to him I really like. I don't even know what to think about Graham anymore. He was my poster child for under-performing poor draft choice inexplicably still with the team. Now, he's gunned for double digit points in like five straight games, and the site of Graham leaping in the air at every ball-fake has subsided to just once or twice a game.

- We just tied the teams all-time win record, yet the only mention this will get in Toronto papers is a perfunctory 'why can't the Leafs rebuild overnight the way the Raptors have'? Heh

- I know some stats geek out there has the goods on this - "How often has TO won when they've lost the rebounding edge?" The Raps won again despite NY eating way more glass, a fact I think is indicative of better defense than the Raps usually get credit for.

- Anthony Parker appears to come from the same bio-pod that Colangelo originally hatched Raja Bell from. "Get Ainge back into the cloning tank, I need another 2 guard who can defend Kobe, pass unselfishly, and hit the three".

- Am I correct that we no longer even have a 2nd rnd pick in this draft?

- Whither Roko Ukic? I thought for sure this guy would be here by now, and his background makes me think he'd fit right in. I recall this guy was getting some good buzz when he was picked - what happened?

I've been following Ukic but so far he is considered a bit of a disappointment here in Barcelona. There's no denying he is very talented and has lots of potential, but he is not developing as quickly as expected. He is not starting and coach Ivanovic doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in him. His average stats are 15 minutes, 5.9 points and 1.8 assists per game.

Also he is very skinny and a bit weak phisically, i don't see him playing in the very phisical NBA league until a couple of years at minimum.

On the bright side, he has been playing better the second half of the season and has shown sporadic flashes of brilliance (very good 1x1 going to the rim, Calderon-style), so there is still hope. However at this point he is still very much a prospect (albeit a promising one), not a change he is making the Raps squad this summer if Jose and TJ stay.

Oops, in that last sentence, I meant "not a chance".

Random thoughts a la Swirsk:

-Where has CB4's cornrows gone? He looked a lot more meaner with the previous do.

-"Joey's gawt a jump-shot"..twang twang (courtesy Aerosmith)

-Noticed Bob McClown too. Maybe the hometown b'ball team gets a 10 minute segment today on Primetime. Something to the effect of "how come the game was so close against a bunch of Yankee scrubs?"

-Feeling bad for MoPete. Go through the roughest years any Raptor has had to go through, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and he's got shades on.

-Swirsky is growing on me. Metaphorically.

Perspective

Perhaps more telling than the 20 game improvement this season is how the team has improved their fortunes in the Atlantic division. In relative terms, the Raptors have gained 30 games on NJ and BOS from last year (games ahead this year plus games behind last year.) That’s a 30 game improvement over the best of the rest (at least with Jersey)! PHI comes in at 24 and NY at 11.

PS the Globe had the Raptors on the front page of the sports section today for the first time in … well … in a long time. Even had a picture!

Thanks for the Ukic update Sergi P!

"Hey Vince Carter, you'll never win a ring. Never win a ring. Never win a ring."

(to the tune of 'Yellow Submarine')

The above came from an earlier HQ post. Genius. Pure Genius. I hope that Raptor fans everywhere get a chance to sing this at the top of their lungs.

Some great points here.

1. Bedhead - The Danny Ainge cloning comment killed me. I can actually picture that. I said it earlier in the year but is there any difference between Parker and Battier (or yes, Bell for that matter.) Maybe cranium and contract size but that's about it right now. What a steal. With more minutes Parker would even be a top 50 fantasy player - he's rated 68 in my league right now!

2. Benjo - Interesting on Brad Miller. He's struggled this year in Sacto and not sure you want to take on his extra 3 years at almost 12 a season. Rasho and Dixon for Miller would work financially but I'd rather hold both for now and scour the draft for a legit shot-blocker.

3. Funny stuff on Bob McClown...it's like all of the city's sports journalists are begrudginly having to accept that the Raps are the real sports team in Toronto...especially after sitting through the Jays collapse on Saturday.

4. Axl - Was so caught up in the fact that Joey scored, didn't even realize that you're absolutely right. Scoring risked giving the Knicks another kick at the can...like to see the replay again now to see if Joey could have indeed dribbled it out.

5. Sergi - Thanks for the update on Roko. We've been slacking on the Euro updates this year with only Roko over there but we'd heard similar things. Maybe the Raps can swap him to an unsuspecting club this offseason to get their second round pick back if they feel he won't pan out...

Marc Stein of ESPN has the Raptors ranked ahead of the Pistons: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking

IMO, that's quite generous.

Battier vs. Parker

Battier: 80 GP, 36.8Min, 10.1pts, 4.2Reb, 2.2Assists, 1stl, 2.42 A/To

Parker: 64 GP, 33.4Min, 12.3, 3.9, 2.1Assists, 1stl, 2.16 A/To

Salary? Parker $4.1, Battier $5.3

Just about anyway you cut it, the stats say Anthony Parker.

To be non-homerish for a second, in 16 more games played Battier has hit 38 more 3s and is over 3 years younger. But I love what AP brings to the team.

The Roland stats at 82 Games has;

Parker - +4.5

Battier - +0.4

Hollinger's PER stats;

Parker - 14.5

Battier - 11.91 (and I should note that both MoP AND Kilo-Graham have better PER stats than Battier)

Food for thought, non?

To be fair to Bob McClown, I think he's a much bigger basketball fan than a hockey fan. I think he's stuck talking hockey all the time because that's the Fan's audience. It's the hockeyhockeyhockey attitude on TSN and (increasingly) Sportsnet that drives me nuts.

Howland, I'm sure the most esteemed Talmudic scholars couldn't actually figure out what Isiah's worst move as a GM actually was. Bill Simmons suggested that it was buying out Jalen Rose's contract, if only because he could have used his expiring contract to trade for a bona fide star. The funny thing is that Isiah generally drafts pretty well. David Lee at the end of the first round is a steal, Frye was a good pickup and even Collins and Balkman don't look too bad, although he still should have drafted Marcus Williams. I can't figure it out.

It should be noted that if NJ wins tonight, Wsh has to win both games to keep the sixth seed as NJ owns the tie-breaker.

I think you're wrong acie b/c wiz have 2 games left, but I have to admit the possibilities are confusing. Great info on all the possibilities:

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AuCef8RXZJgMlTG1OzpnBEy8vLYF?slug=ys-playoffscenarios&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

It's conceivable that the raps could move up to 2nd seed and still face the nets if the nets lose to chicago and wiz win one of their games and cavs lose one - and the raps win both their games. I think.

I predict cavs win both, raps stay in third, wash wins one and nets lose to bulls to each stay in 6&7 spots.

Raps can't get 2nd as the best we can do is tie Chicago and Chicago has the tie breaker.

Also, with tonight's win, Washington only has to win one of their final 2 to retain 6th. If NJ beats Chicago, than Washington will need to win both. They just have to keep pace with NJ.

I had sent an e-mail to the Globe with a copy to Michael Grange about the level of basketball coverage in their paper (see copy in "Tip-In: Point Made".)

To my surprise, Michael replied:
"I can understand your frustration, but all I can say is I think we'll be picking up our game for the playoffs.
Don't give up on us yet!
thanks for reading and writing...
mg"

Maybe some hope for BBall fans for the future?

Erezona:
Go to globeandmail.com/basketball
for all storys re Rap's and NBA. You can make comments also .

With Jersey's win tonight, the Raps can no longer play the Magic due to the Nets holding the tiebreaker over the Magic.
Wash 40-40 - ORL, @Ind
NJ - 40-41 - CHIcago

Although the Magic can't be 6th they can still move up to 7th with 2 wins and 2 Wiz losses. Nets are still in the driver seat for 6th as they hold the tiebreaker.
Magic # for Nets and Wiz to clinch 6th: 2

Should be interesting...

according to yahoo:

"The Raptors will be the No. 3 seed unless they win twice, the Bulls lose and the Cavaliers split (and all finish 49-33). In that case, the Raptors would be the No. 2 seed by winning a three-way tie based on the best head-to-head record against the Bulls and Cavaliers (5-3 to 4-4 to 3-5; the Raptors won three of four against the Cavaliers). The Bulls would be the No. 3 seed and the Cavaliers the No. 5."

Erezona - I am soooo glad you wrote to the Globe. I was going to do the same thing. As mentioned yesterday was the first time the Raps made the front page, but it was only a small corner pic and then you had to go all the way to page 8 to read the story!! That's after Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Baseball, Soccer, and even Cricket!!!!