Tip-In: Net Loss

I too had to head down to the local fine drinking establishment. What happened? The Raps had no energy, that's what happened. They started out going 0-9 and it wasn't until Calderon came in that the team picked up their offensive game at all. Where the Raps' offense suffered, so did the defense -- New Jersey shot something like 55% for the first half (and 31 in the first quarter). The Raptors gave up so many retardedly open looks in that first quarter it just had me shaking my head and wondering if somehow they'd been replaced by impersonators, and the team was really gagged and drugged in a closet somewhere. There were failed rotations, Raps stealing rebounds from one another and throwing 'em outta bounds, and for a while it seemed like most of the time on D the Raps were actually there just to watch a Nets shootaround.

At one point, I believe in the second quarter, one of the other intent watchers made the observation that it seemed like Calderon was the only one who really wanted to win, the rest looking like some hapless guests on "Thank God You're Here." They picked up their game and went on their run, but New Jersey just proved yet again that they have what it takes to lock down games in the playoffs and maintain leads.

The Raps did basically everything they could have to lose this game -- they started off on the wrong foot, didn't really get it going, and let the Nets get up by more than 20.

As bad as they were, they brought it to 8 with like 11 to go in the fourth after being down 19 at the half, but just couldn't close it out.

It was a messy messy game, and had that first quarter been even moderately good for them the Raps would've walked away with a win.

I hope they bring a bit of intensity with them and take home a win on Sunday.

CB4 must get to the rim jumpers all night long and Raptors will lose the series in 3 more games.

Hit some of the nets players take some hard fouls let them know U came to play.

You didn't miss alot, trust me.

Basically, Vince came out motivated in the first quarter, and we couldn't do anything to stop him from getting in the paint. They were up 14 or so after the first quarter, and the Raptors never really challenged again. I think the closest they got it was 8 in the 3rd.

Bargnani got on track a little, so I suppose that is a positive, but otherwise, there wasn't much to take from this game.

As for Mr. Bosh, he only got up 10 shots because it took him about 15 seconds to decide what to do with the ball. When it's usually, around 10 seconds into the shot clock before a post player even has a chance to get the ball, you can't take another 4 or 5 seconds to figure out what you're going to do. Not only are you letting the defense set, but they know that they can completely collapse on you if you drive, because there's no time to move the ball. You also put the perimeter guys in a bad spot if you do kick it out.

If it wasn't for TJ, this would've been a 30 point loss.

Speaking of TJ, this is what I wanted to discuss....

I can't believe I'm saying this, because I've discouraged this all year, but maybe we have to let TJ run wild in this series. Instead of forcing it to Bosh, maybe just get it to TJ at the top of the key, and let him attack. Jason Kidd was getting abused by him last night, even when he knew that TJ would be driving to the hoop.

We have to make the Nets adjust to something that we do....as opposed to us always adjusting to them. Watching the Golden State - Dallas game last night, Bill Walton made the point that Don Nelson is a master at dictating the terms of the conflict, which to this point, he has been quite successful with. Maybe we need to start doing the same.

The biggest mismatch on the offensive end is not Bosh vs. Collins (although it really should be), it's TJ vs. Kidd....so why not make NJ pay for that matchup?

I also think we have to consider going big and playing ALOT of zone. Put Rasho, Bargnani, and Bosh out there, and show them some 2-3 zone. We're getting killed in the paint, surprisingly enough, from all the layups and dunks, a zone should negate alot of that. If they beat us with 3's, then so be it.

But we have ZERO chance of winning this series if some serious adjustments aren't made.

There was an unfortunate lack of intensity on the part of the Raps, with the exception of Mo Pete, Calderon, and TJ Ford. AP was neutralized on the defensive ends by multiple screens set mostly by the Jersey bigs to get Carter free, and AP uncharacteristically just could not get around them. The paint was totally unguarded.

Another big factor was that there seemed to be calculated decision to let Bargnani get signifcant burn. There is a theory that without him we can not win. But honestly I wish I had seen more of Nesterovic, as he was a key part of the 3 Q run.

Do we miss Garbo or what?

It became clear to me with about 6 or 7 minutes to go in the game, the Raps were not going to win. At that point, shouldn't the team goal be to get Bargnani going to take at least ONE positive going into the next game?

After Bargs hit his 3, TJ didn't even look his way on the next sequence down the floor. Feeding the hot hand has never been one of Ford's strong points, and until TJ starts thinking with his head out there, the Raps are going to get outclassed in this series.

The problem is anything but TJ's decision making. If the whole team is content to just stand around outside the arc, there is nothing he can do.

Players (especially the bench) needs to start moving better without the ball, to open up some holes in the D.

The Raps COY is too coy! We need a few more set plays and planning based on the Nets looks. Isn't one of Smitch's strengths supposed to be motivation? I saw none yesterday. AP was hot last game, why wasn't he given more shots? Why do they end up with mismatches like Carter/TJ or Carter/Rasho and we can't get a Bosh/Kidd or AP/Big mismatch? Why didn't we switch to a zone when Carter was carving? We really miss Garbs, good Joey made us forget, Bad Joey reminds us. Glad to see Colangelo in the stands, cause the team deficiencies were glaring last night. If the raps lose the next two, Mitch has to go for failure to motivate and adjust...

Wow, that was probably the worst first half effort of the year... Off the top of my head:

-Very disappointing bosh performance. Either he starts producing inside the painted area or the raps have no chance to win this series. I can't understand why he settles for jumpers all day long, Nets' bigs are really not that threatening but he seems intimidated by their defense like they were Camby or Duncan.

-Please no more Joey Graham. Let us not waste a season more on him and trade him for something while he still has some market value.

-We miss Garbo a lot. Can't help but think this would be a very different series with him defending (or helping with) Jefferson and Carter.

-Both PGs were superb last night. Maybe the only positive thing so far to see how they have stepped up a lot for the playoffs after an already notable regular season.

-An aging Mo Pete is still a better player than Dixon or Graham.

-I am generally supportive of Mitchel, but i feel he is not responding quickly enough to the challenges arised in this series. We can't keep sticking to our old gameplan, it's not working, let's try something new already: on offense we may try playing both PGs (we're not getting any production from the 2 spot anyway), and in defense i totally agree with Jeff about playing a zone a lot, sounds like an interesting idea to mess with their very established offensive patterns (a lot of screens for RJ and VC, and the ball on Kidd's hands).

-Here's one more reason why i think Graham should not start: If we try to feed Bosh in the post, we gotta put AP, Bargs or Mo Pete in the 3pt line to keep prevent and punish doubleteams. If we try to do that at the beginning in the game with Rasho and Graham on the court it just doesn't work, so Bosh can't establish himself in the paint from the beginning and be a threat.

I knew we were in trouble when on our first position of the game, TJ dribbled the ball up the court in a pace that would have been lapped by a man with a walker. Isn’t our strength getting out on the break? Moving up the court fast? Why have we forgotten this?

Maybe I’m not that good at understanding this round ball thing, I think they call it basketball. Can some help me with something? When the refs are calling the play so tightly that if you are in the same area code as a defender there is a whistle, why are the Raptors not driving to the bucket? Why is Chris Bosh becoming a small forward again? I don’t care if there are four defenders on you, I don’t care if you are scared of the big bodies of Kidd and Carter. Seriously? Do the Nets have big bodies to be scared of?

If I was coaching the team I would have taken a time out and said that anyone taking a jump shot outside the paint gets left behind in the swamp.

One possession typified the game for Bosh. He got the ball in the low post against I think it was Collins. Instead of making a quick spin move to the bucket, he dribbled out to the middle of the key where he was met by a double from Vince. He then proceeded to pass it out for some ill advised shot by someone else.

When a certain super star scored 81 points on this team, there were many NBA players reacting to how they would have handled the situation and surprised at Toronto’s lack of response. My feelings at the time were summed up best by Walker who said of the situation something to the effect of "at a certain point, you have to have some pride. If someone was scoring 81 points on me, I’d closeline him". I bring this up because I think there was a huge parallel last night. No, luckily Vince didn’t go off for 81, but he may as well have. He kept getting to the lane at will with most shots being accompanied by touch fouls (very questionable touch fouls). Don’t you as a team at some point have to have some pride? Someone needs to knock him down hard! Especially with Vince who shy’s away from contact. Make him think twice about coming into your paint. That’s what other teams would do. That’s the type of leadership Oak would provide. Maybe that’s what Garbo would do. Maybe we’re still missing that leadership.

Even with the run in the 4th to bring it to 8 I knew we were toast. Because despite some life on the offensive side thanks to TJ, we still had no defence to speak of and I knew the nets could get whatever they wanted coming back.

There is absolutely no surprise to Vince’s game. He has always been bothered by the booing and has not played well at Toronto. I see no reason for this to change. On the other hand, he is a good player and will play very well when not bothered by the fans. What’s with all the confusion about "I knew Vince would eventually come out of it" in the media? It’s not rocket science. Vince will have a good game again in game 4 and 6 and bad games in games 5 and 7.

On the bright side, the Raptors always seem to have difficulty playing well after long lay offs. Just look how long it took to recover from the All-Star break. I think the quick turn around for Sunday will help the team. Also, we are a better team than we’ve been playing. For some reason the guys can’t seem to get motivated to play. Not sure how you play in the NBA and can’t get up for a playoff game, but none the less, if we do start playing like it’s the playoffs instead of a summer league game, we should have a good shot at winning number 4. After all, this is New Jersey. They are not as good as the Raptors are making them look.

By the way, for those of you who wished for the Nets, congratulations. I hope you are happy with the results.

The Raps are my team but they need to start being aggressive and physical. No cheap shots just hard fouls whenever someone tries to drive the lane.

COY Mitchell needs to get some kind zone going or this will be a quick series.

Mo Pete seems to understand this but CB4 was way too passive when he was in the post. By the time he figure out what he was going to do the double team was upon him.

TJ and Calderon brought the juice but Calderon had too many turnovers. AP tried his best but the multiple screens got VC free.

The lack of a bench TO's strength in the reg season will be their downfall if they don't produce and soon.

The game was painful to watch. The Raps would make a run, then turn it over a couple times or play this weird defense where there was essentially no help-side and where they just ran beside there man as he slashed to the hoop. Also they missed at least 7 uncontested layups...that, their defense, and Bosh not touching the ball enough, oh and turnovers galore at the exact wrong times, led to the Raptors' demise this particular night. They are still going to win this series though.

There was absolutely no reason for Coach Mitchell to start Joey Graham last game. The previous game (Game 2)Graham played horribly, and he didn't change at all for the game in Jersey. On the other hand, Mo Pete showed a lot of positive signs in the second game, plus an intensity that was sorely lacking from the other Raps. How was he rewarded? If Graham starts the next game, I'll have a coniption. Nesterovitch, Bosh, Parker, Peterson, and Ford. End of story. Also, it wouldn't hurt for Hump to step into Carter or Jefferson a little.

It played out very similar to game one, raps were just totally psyched out. The rotations and game plan were also like game one. They tried to play the team game where the first guy to get a open look takes the shot, which unfortunately meant dixon shot what seemd like 10 shots in a row, wide open, good looking shots that did not go down because the nets left him to double bosh and disrupt parker. They basically played a shut down parker and bosh and let the rest of the team beat us game and only ford was able to come through. The nets offense was perfect, they had moore mug parker on the elbows so bosh had to switch to vince who took it to the hole. Nobody helped, nobody communicated as parker ran into screen after screen.

Mitchell really blew it by playing too small and seemingly not running plays for any specific player or calling for hard fouls.

Even his experiments playing luke jackson and calderon and ford at the same time were huge mistakes, even if they may have worked out if he'd stuck with it for more than one possession. I mean playing jackson without having shoot a three or hard foul in the paint (since he got scored on anyways) is just a gift to the nets.

IMO if we try to run with the nets or in from the perimeter, raps'll lose, they're best defense is on the perimeter. Raps need to play careful slow half court ball and pound it in to the guys that can score, bosh parker, rasho, bargs.

Sorry to sort of contradict you erezona (because I agree with everything you say), but I'm talking about playing with a purpose, not lethargic like tj was on the first possession.

Erezona:
"By the way, for those of you who wished for the Nets, congratulations. I hope you are happy with the results."

I wished for the Nets, and I am happy with the results. If the Raps had faced an injury-riddled Washington team what would they really learn? Nothing. They'd get to the second round and get spanked by whoever they faced of Chicago/Miami.

If they can go 7 games and lose, I'm still incredibly happy. This team will learn some things about itself, and we've all learned something about the coach.

Overall, I'm happy with what Mitchell's done this year. He definitely deserved Coach of the Year, and he definitely showed his critics wrong. That being said, he seems really stubborn at running the same plays over and over, and he makes really odd personnel decisions (ie Bargnani vs Rasho). Now, I'm not in his shoes, so I have no idea why he makes the decisions he does, but from the fans' perspective, it seems like attacking the Zone is just something he either doesn't get himself, or something he and his assistants are just downright incapable of imparting to the players with any degree of success. It's happened ALL season long, and this is nothing new to this series -- the Raps have just been weak at attacking the Zone.

While I'm being a realist, I still wanna see them win this series, but let's not kid(d) ourselves here, anything beyond 40 wins was gravy in most people's eyes. Tying a franchise high for wins, winning a division title, Coach of the Year, those are all icing on the cake as it were.

Winning a series in the playoffs a year removed from 27 wins is just... wow... Has that kind of turnaround EVER happened before?

Axl, if they play slow half court ball they stand no chance. The past three games have been slow half court style. NJ gets into their defencive stands and we’ve just not been able to do anything. We need to break down the defence and the best way to do it is attacking it. That’s not what got us here and it’s a little late to change the only way this team knows how to play. The only reason we won game 2 with this style is because NJ sucked worse then we did.

Shep, sorry buddy, couldn’t disagree with you more. A Washington series would have allowed us to get our feet under us, get some momentum, get Bargnani back into the rotation and get Dixon’s wrist healed. Also the flu which has destroyed our team would have had a chance to move onto another team.

With winning, come higher expectations. Once you win the division, you have to prove it wasn’t a fluke but that the Raps deserve to be there. That’s where the higher expectations set in. If we lose this series, it justifies the critics claims that we had no business winning the division and that NJ is clearly the better team. At the beginning of the season, I would have been thrilled to squeak into the playoffs. But given how we performed during the year, if we don’t make it to the second round that has to be considered a disappointment.

But, staying positive, we only need to win one game in NJ. That can be game 4 or 6. We have a team that can do it. We need to make adjustments and I’m sure we will. We came out much better in game 2 after the disappointment of game 1. If we win game 4, we get home court back and the momentum swings our way again.

I expect to see Joey back in the starting line-up on Sunday. It’s a low risk proposition. He either gets it and plays like the good Joey, which is much better than the Mo Pete option, or he’s out in a couple of minutes.

Boy, did the networks peg this series right? This series has no business being on ESPN or TNT.

It's all about our defense because they've got our number on offense and
no turnovers = no running. Just my opinion that jersey is playing us perfectly on defense. Would be glad to be wrong and we suddenly start firing on all cylinders and outscore them...

I kinda like what they do. Once they find something that works, they run it the entire game. Seems like the raps just take turns going 1 on 5 sometimes.

The series is not over, I expect a better fight tonight.That being said Jersey's about as healthy as they've been all year, finishing the year on a streak better than the Raps.If experience is a factor, they have more than us.