Tip-In:  Grindin’

It looks like a 7-game series, but the next game is key... I am convinced that if the Raps can win game 3 at NJ, they will also win game 4 there and then finish it off in just one or two more games.

I think the Raps' physical interior D is exposing Carter's softness. I saw him get bounced about several times throughout the early part of the game on no-calls and seemed from that point on to just give up on driving the lane.

How huge is AP though? I mean, seriously. The guy is money, pure and simple. His experience is shining through right now for the Raps.

Bargs has got to stop forcing the shot...

As a guy who wasn't on Sam Mitchell's bandwagon at the beggining of the season, and for the most part, still not in regards to the Xs and Os, his value of COY is his ability to impose his will on the team. He commands respect from his group and gets it. And in the NBA world, may be the most important aspect of a head coach. NBA basketball isn't rocket science, as Smitch put it yesterday, there's only 4 ways to defend a pick'n roll, and if you think you've thought of something Red Auerbach hasn't, we'll think twice. The best example of Smitch's ability is to look at Mo Pete. As much as he's been sat, watch him in interviews. Mo still uses "coach says this and do this and we'll win". An obvious sign of respect. When TJ Ford is sat down for the last Quarter of play, he still vouches that him and coach have gone through so much since Ford's rookie season and Smitch as an Assistant. When you see Smitch call his players to join him to accept the COY it's a sign of respect for his players that I can't see a Scott Skiles or a Greg Popovich doing.

Is there another coach that has the respect of his entire team like Smitch? Not Riley, definitely not Phil Jackson. Maybe Mike D'Antoni and Avery?

FYI TJ is listed at 6 foot, even though he's 5-10. Vince is 6-6. By my math that's 6 inches, not 4. Well 8 if you go by TJ's real height.

Ha, just giving you a hard time. Good work.

What a nail biter. TJ and AP really stepped up in the 4th. I think I have the same bug that Bosh has, and I hope we all get better soon. Great grinding win!

I don't see this going to 7. in my opinion the are just getting started.

IMO:

bosh is going to get stronger and stronger and there is no one on that team that can stop him. period.

bargs will eventually show up and start making his shots. he's too much of a competitor to settle for his play of late. he's going to expose the zone sooner rather than later. all he needs is one of those baseline pump fake drives to the hoop, followed by a big jam to get him flowin' again. and give him space to shoot the 3. as his conditioning gets stronger, I'm sure we'll see it happen.

mo pete is back. (I hope.) he didn't score a ton, but he got his feet wet, his confidence up, and I think he's going to step it up over the next couple of games. let's hope the circus is back in town.

so, to me, the perfect storm is coming and I just don't see the nets being able to withstand it. I'm talking about the 3's raining down from mo, bargs, parker, even dixon, and bosh dominating down low, passing out of doubles and rocking the rim with monster jams.

we haven't even come close to seeing this game and they're tied at 1 a piece heading into the swamp with a weak crowd that I think will actually take some of the pressure off the boys in red and let them play a looser game.

can't wait until friday.

Thoughts:

-I want to see both PGs in the game and see what happens when the ball swings side to side and the threat of dribble penetration from both wings materializes.

-I am not confident that Bargs can get his fitness level back in less than a week. We might need to be in Round 2 for him to get his bearing back. He seems to have lost all confidence.

-The longer we stay in the series the better chance we have to having Dixon, MoPete shake of their maladies and give us something from the bench.

longest 12.5 seconds I ever had to sit through if what U call what I was doing sitting? Nice to see Mo Pete back in and playing with the passion I expected to see. and what about EJ (Euro Jordan) what more can U say about this guy other than He is great. But I feel there is more from Him yet!

Great win for the Raps! Hopefully this win plus going on the road will calm them down enough to start playing their game offensively.

Some random thoughts:

Why not foul? I was thinking the same thing. But I think you have to be really careful with intentionally fouling down the stretch. With the foul coming, a player could simply shot the ball and be awarded 3 free throws thereby tying the game. In addition, you could have a Wallace type play with the desperation shot going in and the foul and give up a 4 point play. Why take the risk when you’ve been playing good defence?

I think Chris Bosh made a mistake rotating off of BN to help with Vince. Let him drive and get the two instead of leaving the best 3pt shooter on the floor open to tie the game.

It was nice to see Bosh aggressive last night, he needs to keep it up.

Calderon was taking what the defence was giving him, that was the right play. However, he couldn’t knock any open shots down. Great substitution bringing Ford back in. I would have made it a couple of minutes earlier, but it worked out well.

I hope that next time Jefferson talks about the fan support in Toronto (all wearing red), someone should remind him that at least the Raptors have fans.

Ugly 1st quarter. I’ll bet ESPN was wishing that they had aired the game on ESPN8, the Ocho, instead.

Peterson was adequate. I hope this is the springboard for better games ahead. He’s stats weren’t much better then Joey’s in game 1. I suspect this was a message to Joey and he’ll be back next game in his usual spot. Good Joey can bring so much more than Mo Pete can at this stage of his career. I hope the best for Mo Pete, but you can’t ignore what he’s done (or hasn’t done) all season. No consistency. You can’t live in the past.

TSN is back on with game 4. Rumour has it that Rod Black has a conflict with lawn bowling. Who should replace him?

The Curling crew? No, they’ll speak so softly no one will hear them
The Poker crew? No, they’ll get kicked out of the game by Stern for gambling
The Wrestling crew? I think so. They will at least have the right level of excitement.

well i was completely wrong - i thought a big game from bargnani would be key last night...

the nets obviously played solid D on bosh, he just stepped up. parker is outplaying carter, and it isn't even close.

ugly, maybe, but i had a lot of fun watchin' that one. especially the bosh dunks and block. go raps.

Excellent post Franchise, and solid comments, all.

One quibble, Erezona, Calderon was 0-3 from 3; it's not like he's Damon Jones. Even if he was open, jacking up 3s allows for long rebounds which, on many spots, allowed NJ to quickly come back the other way. Even my girlfriend, who thinks Jose is dreamy, wanted him taken out in the 4th.

Other than that, it appears that Smitch somehow listened to all my requests from my post the other day:

1. Nesterovic should play even more than the 23 minutes; he's a big lug just like Collins (who played 26 minutes) and the Raps do well with him on the floor. Humph can't really hold his own against Cs in the playoffs (he's okay in the regular season when widebodies like Shaq don't give 100%).

2. Loved the short leash on Joey. Yeah, Mo Pete wasn't that much better stats wise, but the Nets respect Mo's shot (unlike Bad Joey) -- just as the Raps should respect NACHBAR (glad he missed the 3; should've fouled but only if he or Wince were inside the arc, so it was a tough call).

3. It is still too bad that the bench is so banged up (Mo's knee, Dixon's wrist, Bargs' confidence, er, conditioning). I'm glad this series is really spread out (Sat->Tues->Fri) because that will allow the above three to get healthier and CB4 to get over the flu.

I have to conclude that this series, win-or-lose, is SO much better than playing the Arenas/Butler-less Wiz; a true test of playoff mettle.

What an ugly game to win but ya can't complain with a W.

Sitting Joey and bringing in Mo Pete to guard RJ. Subbing in TJ for Jose with about 3 minutes left in the game. Switching AP on VC and Mo onto RJ. All good moves. Is Sam the best X and O's coach out there? Nope, but he's no dummy and now he's COY.

I love the game that CB4 and AP bring every night. You expect it of Bosh but when AP goes off it makes the team a thrill to watch. CB4's block on Jefferson was the highlight of the night.

It was wild to see the adjustments mitchell made last night. I could hardly recognize it as "raptorball". I mean, 12 assists? Is that a season low? This may sound like a complaint, but it's definitely not. Raps are just playing differently to defeat the zone. Fewer guys are getting touches, but our best players are those guys. Still would like to see bargs post up collins and moore. I know it's not his strong suit, but he'd probably draws some fouls if he can't make those shots. The way NJ is playing the three point line, it doesn't seem like he's going to get any of his usual looks from there.

Nice article about Raptors fans including quotes from our HQ webmasters! Check it out!

http://www.macleans.ca/culture/entertainment/article.jsp?content=20070424_102353_8228

Jjdynomite, not sure I understand your point. I was all for taking Calderon out.

One big difference between the two games that hasn’t been talked about yet is the refs swallowing the whistle. After a really bad 2nd foul call on Bosh in Q1 of game 1, do you think they were spoken to? There was a lot of contact that went uncalled last night. I prefer it that way, hopefully this continues.

Bargs will figure it out. I did notice last night that he was open on a couple of occasions and the ball was not delivered. Once he was in a post up, had pretty good positioning but the PG didn’t deliver. He was also looking for the ball for a wide open three but the ball never went there. The Raps need to find him at the right moments to get him going.

One other nice move yesterday, the bench was wearing red. It avoided unnecessary passes to Martin. I hope they stay with the theme and the bench wears white on the road.

Erezona, all I was responding to was your point that "Calderon was taking what the defence was giving him, that was the right play." In his brief NBA career, Calderon averaged 27% from 3 (16% last year, 33% this year), but this year he improved his non-3 FG% to 52% from 42%. I just don't think he should be taking 3s; he's so efficient when he finds a path to a basket. Anyway, small quibble, it was a great defensive game. Clutch shots by AP and Bargs and the block by Bosh on Jefferson, wow.

Great post and comments everyone. Some other thoughts:

- Bosh's block on Jefferson was a series changer. Really shut RJ up, after all the whining he was doing. I’d be surprised if he does anything significant the rest of the series.

- When Nochbar is playing the four, Mitchell has to find someone other than Bosh to guard him. Bosh has to cheat inwards, because he's needed for rebounding (and shot blocking), and Snackbar can't be given any breathing room. - I really miss Garbo. he would have shut Nachbar down (or jefferson, maybe even carter).

- Great adjustment by Mitchell not to double Kidd when he posts TJ up. Kidd does not want to shoot! His post-ups are merely for passing. Doubling plays right into his hands. Ford's quickness can annoy him enough to prevent the easy layups. I say let him shoot! That’s not the Nets game. Without Kidd finding them in the open floor, RJ is useless, and Carter is a fadeway machine. And while Kidd did hit some threes early, after he cooled off, he turned down a lot of open shots.

-As this series wears on, the undersized and OLD nets will wear down, and the raps will find their confidence and stroke.

-As everyone has mentioned, imagine these games if Bargnani starts hitting shots.

-While Dixon didn't impact our offense, he had some key steals. Imagine when he finds his offense again.

-Man it's a good time to be a Raptor's fan.

Clutch shots by AP and Bargs and the block by Bosh on Jefferson, wow....huh?

My top ten of the game (and please forgive my double posting - I got this in late, late last night on the preview only to see that I missed out on the conversation)

10 - Bosh is still rocking his 'Predator' dreads. This is by far his scariest look.

9 - Bosh has the flu and still abused the Nets D almost at will. You can see he had to fight to stay focussed and active throughout and that it was exhausting for him. He was amazing.

8 - Nesterovich and Mikki Moore have mirror image games: 6 pts and 8 rebs for Rasho, 8 pts and 6 rebs for Moore. A fair trade off you'd say c'ept that Rasho played a full 10 minutes less than Moore did.

7. Carter may be 18-43 from the floor, but he is now giving the best interview of his career.

6. Apparently good Joey comes to watch bad Joey's games. For five full seconds, I was actually in the twilight zone.

5. Bryan Colangelo has now come out and said that 'The red promotion is a good idea' - which has me worried. You see, I had previously thought it was a huge screw up to have the fans wear the same colour as the opposing team, but as soon as I heard Colangelo, I instantly said to myself 'of course, he's right, the red promotion really is still a good idea!', and I realized I could actually feel the cult conditioning as it takes effect. Go Red!

4. Bosh humiliating Jefferson with that outrageous, monstrous block. I think we may have actually seen the precise moment a man's spirit is snapped in half.

3. Kobe turned an ankle tonight in a blow-out loss to the Suns - completely wrecking my evening. That is if by 'completely wrecking' you mean 'cherry on top'.

2. Has a coach ever gone doghouse to penthouse faster than Sam Mitchell? All class, he invited his team to join him for the ceremony.

1. Anthony Parker is Money.

Was in town and at the game last night, second row 305. Place was rocking, memories of game 6 against the Sixers. Mo Pete with the early call! Too bad about those two charging calls, but they were both valid. Offensive rust. But he and Parker were a perfect defensive match against VC and RJ. I especially liked how either was able to finess the double team on that high-low two-man game engineered by Kidd, who was posting up TJ at will. Joey G was getting eaten alive on that play.

We were all expressing concern about how clearly exausted Bosh looked out there: he had his hands on his knees constantly. Now that I know about the flu thing, it makes his fourth quarter clutch dominance even more heroic. And in only his second playoff game! Could it be? Is Kevin Garnett destined to be the right-handed Chris Bosh?

I hate writers. Especially writers who know nothing.

Bill Lankhof (Toronto Sun - Last Word): "Reggie Jefferson, the Game 1 hero, was just 4-for-16 from the field. Meantime, Toronto scored 31 fourth-quarter points."

Reggie Who?

"Coach Lawrence Frank, who looks about as intimidating as Opie from Mayberry, has led the flawed against the vulnerable and takes his team back to Jersey having stolen home court advantage -- if not the series."

Who cares about Opie? Excuse me? They stole the series? I'm pretty sure most of the "experts" had this series going 6 or 7.

"Still the Nets havve never had it so good this year. Going into Friday's game, the Raptors have won just seven times in 23 tries in Jersey."

Spelling aside, the Nets were 0-2 against the T-dot in the regular season. Did that mean anything?

Adam Proteau (ESPN.COM):
"Canada's next top model athlete (Bosh) -- who missed most of the first half in Toronto's Game 1 loss due to foul trouble -- was far and away the best player on the court during the Raptors' 89-83 victory over New Jersey in Game 2 Tuesday at Air Canada Centre."

Far and away best player on the court? Paging Anthony Parker? Hello?

"He (Bosh)was a one-man Tony Robbins motivation clinic, and he silenced his cynics with the most powerful game of his burgeoning young career...He was part of Anthony Parker's much-improved stroke, which looked smoother than a Vegas con job. "

Excuse me? I'm pretty sure I saw TJ yaking it up more than anyone and trying to be the motivator. Bosh was focused -- but Tony Robbins?

What qualifies these guys to actually write?!?! Do they even watch the same game we do?

On a side note: Was anyone as disapointed as I was to see LT take off his Raps jersery faster than he can break outside to score a major from the inside 30? He had it off before he got back to his seat, folded it up and shoved it under his seat. I love LT (ok, well I love the original LT even more) and even sat at Rich stadium in the first snow storm of the season in -10 weather to see him kick some Bill's butt. It just hurts a little, that's all.

I love Bosh, but he's got to be more decisive when he gets the ball. When he holds the ball for too long, it gives the Nets D a chance to adjust. Bosh is at his best when he makes up his mind right away. He used to be too hesitant earlier on in his career, and I think he's reverting a bit back to that now. Attack, Chris! ATTACK!

www.vincecartersucks.com

U-Station - Great points on the terrible Raps' media coverage. Read Mr. Proteau's piece on ESPN.com last night. Worst part for me wasn't even the "over extravagance" of the writing but the fact that he's a writer for THE HOCKEY NEWS!!! AAAGH! Couldn't ESPN have gotten someone in the BASKETBALL COMMUNITY to write about the game? Hell, we would have done it for free!

Also, didn't notice LT taking off the jersey from the nosebleed seat I had...that IS a slight punch to the gut considering the mascot's attempts to incorporate him in the action.

Some interesting takes on Sam Mitchell today and it will be interesting to see how the rest of this series plays out. Check out his interview on the fan this morning:

http://www.fan590.com/

Scroll down to the second link under "hot audio."

Right now Frank and Mitch have a bit of a chess match going on but I totally agree about the Bosh coverage of Nachbar. We need CB4 under the glass so it makes it tough for him to guard Bostjan on the perimeter. I expect to see more lineups of Carter, Jefferson and Nachbar next game from Frank which will force Mitchell to adjust accordingly. The scary thing right now is NJ's X Factors are beating ours (Nachbar and Moore) yet the series is tied. If we can get even a bit more offense from our bench considering the defense we're playing, NJ's in trouble.

PS - Ryan - Good call on my 2 AM height stats ha ha...you're right, should have been an eight inch difference and maybe more considering VC's vertical.

Hey RJ, choke on this:

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070425/capt.180efc873f524248b658df70266060f6.nets_raptors_basketball_ajw111.jpg

And this is one of the greatest ball photos (ok, maybe Raptors photos) I've ever seen:

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/73/fullj.getty-73901445rt015_nets_raptors_10_42_09_pm.jpg

UF - that second photo is unbeleivable. not many people can block a dunk attempt like that. unreal

i wonder how the acc or all of toronto in general would react if VC had a garbo-like injury on the freshly waxed floor of the ACC and had to be wheeled off on a stretcher. would we applaud as a sign of remorse for his encouragement? or would we crack a little smile and realize that revenge is a bitch? hahaha talk about mixed emotions.

Ok two thoughts.
1. I agree completely with Rubik Kube's suggestion to roll out two pgs to attack the Nets zone. You give a little bit up on the defensive side but you can start breaking down their zone and maybe cause them enough confusion to carry over after reverting back to a single PG spot.
2. Bill Langkoff is a jackass. That is his role at the Sun. To piss people off with his ridiculous rantings about sports. Apparently it worked.
3.( I know I said two things, so sue me) the truth of the matter is I really don't think that the "Carter Sux" chants and booing get to Carter in the way most people think it does. Carter is simply too good of a player to be affected by opposing teams fans booing and saying things about him. What is going on though is that he is putting a lot of pressure on himself to win the game on every possession to shut the fans up. At the end of the day, the cat calling is effective so Everyone keep it up. I boo him every time I see him on TV even if its not in a game.

I would like to think that Toronto sports fans would have enough class to not cheer a serious injury to any opposing player, even Vince.

Ride him for pulling a standard Vince move (pulling up lame with a fake injury when he's having an awful game to get off the floor, that kind of thing), sure, but not be happy about a true injury. In the years I've been watching sports only Philadelphia fans (thinking more of Eagles and Flyers fans, not specifically Sixers) have been that crass.

Is anyone considering going to the games in Jersey? There's still tons of tix available and a helluva lot cheaper. May just have to try and go for Sunday.

Downloaded the broadcast of game 2, and must have watched parts of it 4 or 5 times over and over again. The game sounded even better on TV than live! Loved the part at the end when TJ was on the line, and a complete hush fell over the crowd and when he sunk the tying shot with 40 ticks to go the place goes ballistic and fell back to pure silence for his second shot. Like McD's "I'm loving it".

Breaking down the game a little more, the Nets went exclusive to one play for the last 2+ minutes. Kidd posting TJ, Jefferson at the top. Jefferson hit that three under a minute when he caught Mo inbetween the double on Kidd. Still not sure why, they double, since Kidd has hit ONE post up move.

The next play (after the raps re-took the lead) they switched to Bosh on Jefferson, and with the long arms was able to be involved with helping TJ and still got to Jefferson.

I'm still of the opion of leave Kidd alone one-on-one till he makes 2 or 3 shots.

OR

Stick TJ on Vince and AP on Kidd. If you noticed the two times TJ on Vince, VC still didn't drive. But the one time Bosh covered VC, he took it to the hole. I think VC just doesn't like running into secondary help! He doesn't attack the smaller guy because he knows he'll run into something bigger. But once Bosh was on him, he knew nothing would be behind.

But end of the day - LEAVE KIDD one on one!

Not much to say except "coach of the year" made the adjustments (thank god!) and although JKidd is a vet and such, he can't lead a guy and a team that just don't want to put in the effort.

The cream shall rise to the top!

RAPS in 6!

I'm out!

Fresh 1

Ustation - me and a couple of buddies are seriously considering it for the game on friday (can't do sunday). Seems their might a good few raps fans doing the same.
Let's get a convoy going!! ha ha...that would be awesome.

If going would it be better to buy tix online and have them at will call or wait until we arrive and see what the situation is?

And yes I am so retarded in that I used "their" instead of "there"!

Don't worry I've already castigated myself quite vociferously !!!

"Kidd hobbled with bad knee" (http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/207544)

"Kidd is being listed now as a game-time decision for tomorrow's Game 3 of the series but Nets teammates expect him to be in uniform."

Carter said " it’s playoff time – you play through it and worry about it later." He would know!

Interestingly, if anyone saw the Carter post game press conference, he seemed to me to be hobbling onto the podium area and off of it. The replay is on NBA.com.

It would be really cool if there was a sea of red in NJ as well.

I've never been a fan of Sam Mitchell, and at the end of Game 1, I was thinking, Graham, and Hump vs. the Nets' starters? Oh no! There's no way that we're going to be able to win this in the long run.

Well, Sam adjusted and the line up down the stretch for Game 2 was Bosh, Nesterovitch, Ford, Parker, and Peterson. Now THAT'S the way to do it, baby. Good on Sam for making the right substitutions. Here we go!

Update: J-Kidd missed today's practice:

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/Headlines.aspx?sport=NBA

"Jason Kidd missed practice Thursday with a bruised left knee and will be a game-time decision for Friday's Game 3 against the Raptors.

Kidd was hurt early in Game 2 while attempting to draw a foul, but remained in the game and finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. "He just bumped it and we just wanted to take precautions," coach Lawrence Frank said. All indications are that he will play, but you never know. The series is tied at 1-1 and if Kidd can't play, look for Marcus Williams to have a big game tomorrow. Apr. 26 - 3:49 pm et"

I'm sure Kidd wants to play, and probably will play, as it IS the playoffs, but if he doesn't it should be fun to watch TJ and Jose torch Marcus Williams.

That knee would have to be bruised incredibly badly for Kidd to miss a playoff game. I expect he'll be in the lineup and close to his usual all-Star self. That said, it might be good to see if Ford or Jose can run him through some screens...see if we can't get him to bump that knee a few times

im expecting to see TJ and Jose exposing JKidd's bum knee any chance they get. i didnt think JKidd had the lateral quicks to keep TJ or Jose from penetrating to begin with.

The chances of Kidd not playing are about the same as me playing.