Tip-In: No Magic in Win 42

I just looked at Miami's cream puff closing schedule and I could see them winning every game. We have Detroit twice and Chicago...yikes! It's going to be tough to get that 3 spot

Wonder why Joey flip-flops so much?

And Jose did not seem to have a good game either.

Team play a little ragged?

I'm one of those fans intrigued by his talent level, and what grooming him could lead to, but that Darko pout and push to get T'd up turned me completely off. Hopefully, Colangelo saw the same thing and will avoid the guy.

Kevin Willis? We have to be able to do better than that. Seriously.

As you pointed out, Joey Graham was one of the keys to the win last night with 19 points, and he's lowered the '1 good game for every 10 bad' down to 1 for every 4. If he keeps improving he might really be a force.

I gotta say, love the Hump. How was it this guy wasn't taking minutes away from Mo Pete earlier? Watching him throw his body around against much bigger and heavier guys (Shaq, Howard) without fear is breathtaking. Shame he can't hit a shot to save his life.

Is there any question Juan Dixon and Luke Jackson stick around next year?

I'm still getting my head around the Raptors as a playoff team. Watching them hold off a team like Orlando - a team I thought at the beginning of the year was reaching for greatness, well, it just makes this wet coasters heart go all warm inside.

Go Raps!

don't know what I think of this schedule. Being battle-tested against Chicago and Detroit just before the playoffs could be just the thing, who knows?

Miami IN Cleveland? If TO wins in Philly, and Miami loses, then Miami is 2.5 games back, with only 7 games to go. I think it will be close...

Fantastic review. I also was stunned by smitch's gamble with juan dixon which usually pays off with a bunch of points but not lately. You have to wonder if the honeymoon period is over with this guy, although he was obviously mismatched.

However, I for one would much, much rather darko's passion over howard's indifference, although either of these guys would make the raps instant contenders. I don't think you can rightfully criticize the magic point guards and darko's frustration in the same breath. They just can't or don't know when to feed the post. Also, darko didn't cost them the PG pick, the gm did. Maybe they had their priorities out of whack.

I personally like the idea of a nasty, mean, passionate large centre and think that's exactly what we need. And our PGs could actually utilize him.

I really don't want to start harping on the whole tj thing after a win...but I will!

it's pretty apparent that tj thinks that one spot of his, just above the key, (either a bit to the left or right of it,) his is magical spot. he pretty much does everything in his power to get there.

it's even his 'break the glass in case of an emergency' back up plan. (which obviously isn't much of a back up plan.)

...I need more time to think about this.

I watched the game in the U.S. on the Orlando feed, and the announcers mentioned that in the 3rd quarter, Bosh was going off on Ford. This apparently continued for a few minutes leading to a conference btw the 2 of them at center court. Then shortly after, Ford threw a bad pass and/or Bosh took his eye off the ball, and the ball skipped out of bounds. Announcers said "It looked like Ford intentionally threw Bosh a bad pass. There is something going on between the two of them." Anyway, for what it's worth b/c I'm sure that the Canadian announcers didn't mention it. My thoughts are that Ford looked frustrated, especially in the 3rd quarter and started to over-dribble and ignore Bosh. I also caught Martin giving Ford an intense stare in the middle of the quarter, and wouldn't be surprised if the two of them had words over the next couple of days.

nyfan: That's some great insight. I'm sure it's nothing too serious but I did think there was some tension between some of the players last night. Did anyone else see Bosh glare and bark "DON'T Foul!" after he hit that last free throw of the game? It was the right thing to do for sure.

Don't sleep on TJs Defense. Sure the Magic guards stunk, but TJ was part of the reason for that.

Why is it with TJ that we always forget there are two sides of a court?

intentionally threw a bad pass!! what a huge load of crap.

FRANCHISE
The KEY to this win was the Point Guard play. The lack of it with Orlando and wealth of it with the Raptors TJ & Jose. TJ was innefective in the 1st quarter just as the rest of the starters. When Jose & the bench came in for the 2nd qtr they settled down the team & started to play Raptorball, & brought the score from -15 to -5 @ the half (Jose 4ast &6pts).
To start the 3rd TJ was back in control (6ast & 6pts)& the starters took off for 32pts & the lead +5. The MVP for the game was Calderon who got the team organised & going in the 2nd qtr. Why are you complaining about TJ shooting 50% 6/12 & 16 pts,8ast for the game?? About 1/2 the teams in the NBA would love to have the talent @ PG the Rap's have.

Arenas is out 2-3 months after tearing his meniscus. He's having surgery today.

How important is that 3rd spot now? It's almost a guaranteed free pass to the second round!

hey I wanted to add, was that not some of the worst reffing seen all year? we were on the right side of a lot of the calls, but man it was bad. let 'em play

The only way we keep third is if we keep pace with the Heat. We are one game ahead of them and need to finish the year at least one game ahead of them. Therefore, we have to win out the season or hope for some help from unlikely teams. The best chance comes tonight with Cleveland. If the Heat lose this one, we get one bye the rest of the year. Don’t count on the Heat losing many others.

I believe this is possible. If you look at our schedule, we have 4 home games against Chicago, Detroit, New York and Philadelphia. The toughest being the CHI and DET games. However, we are at home where we play phenomenally well. We’ve only lost 2 home games since Jan.1 to eastern conference teams (CLE & MIL). I expect us to sweep these four games.

We also have 3 road games left @PHI, @MIN and @DET. I expect PHI to be a tough match for us but we should be able to pull it out. The Minnesota game will also be tough, but Min doesn’t have the greatest home record and we must find a way to pull this one out. Lastly, we come to Detroit. I’m really hoping that Detroit would have clinched 1st in the east by the 17th which will allow them to rest their starters and give us a bit of a break. Hey, Chicago got two huge breaks in their 2 wins over Detroit with injuries and ejections, why not the Raps? In either case, if Cleveland can pull off a win tonight, we can still afford one more loss.

Random thought: Does anyone remember the last game the Raptors won the opening tip off?

erezona - I only noticed the tip offs the last couple games, has that been a trend? I was impressed with jg (I think) winning a couple jumps against miami

-or should I say: Don't they practice opening jumps?!! I can't believe they let bosh jump for those!! He can't jump!! fire sam mitchell!!

With Gilbert Arenas out for 2-3 months, there's no guarantee that Washington will hold down the 6th spot. It's quite possible that they might fall to 7th or even 8th.

I agree with Art. Be careful what you wish for!

Wizards have a 4 game lead on the Nets, but they play the Nets twice! And they play Cleveland, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, Miami and Indy. In fact, they are the "gimme" on the schedule. We might have a VC sighting in Toronto for these playoffs yet.

Axl, from my recollection, I honestly can't remember the last time they've won the tip. ESPN doesn't keep that stat. That suggests to me that it happens more often than not. Let's see what happens over the next several games.

Art, I was thinking about that as well. But there are just not that many games left in the season for NJ to make up the difference. Washington would pretty much have to play Grizzlies ball the rest of the way. But I'm just as happy facing NJ.

Graham remains an enigma, but at least he has the odd breakout game. That's more encouraging than if he consistently produced 8 & 5 or whatever his averages are. It shows he has the potential to do better. It's sort of like a power pitcher who throws a no-hitter and then walks 8 batters in his next start. At least you know he has the talent to throw a no-no.

did not know that about TJ and Bosh. Hmmm...That is not good. Hope TJ has the maturity to take it. Bosh is the captain. And Sam needs to back him up with the playing time message...

Who are you to criticize rotations? No pleasing anyone.
We got about 9(?) games yet to tweak. We just lost a guy who averaged 30 minutes a game.
Franchise your not a coach, your a fan of the game and last few posts don't sound like a Raptor fan. Losing by a point to Miami at home, giving the ball to one of the few who can create his own shot - best players in the world miss half their shots. He missed an open look!
Praising Sam one day , laying into him the next. Look at what this team is- bunch of kids with plenty of room to grow.
This team has by far exceeded your expectations this year - accept a loss with grace. Pointing fingers at two big reasons for this teams success(TJ and Sam- yes Sam). Don;t need s**t like that going into the playoffs. Two more wins in a row and you'll be singing their praise - getting dizzy watching yopu jump on and off the bandwagons. Young kids with lots a room to mature - thats what we got. Playoffs this year are gravy.

Franchise, I am happy with your analysis. A few fans in here just want to sit back and cheer. Rah rah. I actually like thinking about the game, how it could be done better.

If we weren't fans Tinman, Marcia, then why would we be following this team at all? Why would we be writing comments? Why would Franchise set up his own WEBSITE and write essays that are thoughtful and timely - the only one that I can find on the entire internet that actually does that for the Raptors (esp timely - most neglect their sites for weeks on end)?

If you guys don't like the analysis, then make your own website and wax the praises of Sam and his crew there. I won't spend time visiting that site or making comments. I promise. And I wish you could do the same for this site.

Is it me, or does Mo Pete always play like crap in contract years? Didn't he have a horrible season last time he signed a deal?

Hey, finally some analysis in the Star, buried under golf news, but what the hay...

http://thestar.blogs.com/starsportsblog/

Looks like this guy thinks the same way we did about TJ's shot selection.

When you raise your level of play (winning a division), raised expectations should come with the territory, and criticism is part and parcal of that. That is what fans do. Some of us, anyway.

Gerry - FOR THE RECORD THIS IS THE BEST SITE OUT THERE -but its too easy to second guess after game is over. Dis you second guess when MoP came in cold and sank the 3 to tie? - or was that a brilliant coaching decision?
Raised expectations - its the same team we started the year with,with odd move or two by BC. Give Sam credit for raising your expectations.
Lets be honest about this team - we are not a championship contender, we are somewhere between the 4th and 6th or 7th best team in the east. Don't base our team on potential talent at the moment we are are very young team with plenty of room for individual and team growth. In my opinion only two teams out there play near perfect ball, Dallas and SanAntonio(Pheonix record without Nash is horrible - they are not an elite team without him). Both these teams have been together for years and average about five years older. Detroit(a level beneath above two teams)and my darkhorse Chicago(a team thats taken five years to put together - amazing what you can do with lottery pick after lottery pick) have been together for years.
Bosh, as good as he is, still needs to not turnover in the post as much.Him, TJ, asnd Barghani are still years away from their peak(you do recognize that?).Although I don't consider Garbosa and Barghani rookies(championship Euroleague experience- playing key roles)the are still adjusting to this league. I expect the same improvement from them next year as Jose Calderon has shown us in his second year.Same goes for Parker - next year watch out.
Earlier this season we had a stretch where we took advantage of teams missing key players due to injury, which might help explain your raised expectations - yet we managed to hold our own when our key guys went down - surely you have to credit the coach for some of that.
Want irony - I think at this point in time Jose is the better point guard- there -said it, but our investment is with TJ, a 24 year old pg who has shown me he is determined to win. I think a key part of our championship contention in two years is resigning Jose as our second point guard. Really hope he accepts that role.
Also for the record as much as I praise what Sam has accmplished with this team I think he's gone at end of year. I understand a new GM wanting his own man. Sometime life is not fair.

gerry - look at the photo accompanying the blog you link to. Look into j-will's eyes, he knows he's beat, TJ is wide open. They attack the weakest defender with their quickest player who beats his man and gets a good shot. If you watch other teams or much basketball at all, you know this is a common situation and it's always a gamble. We got a better shot to tie it than lebron did last night.

And you don't need to question peoples' fanhood, that's just immature. I enjoy your opinion, but be a man.

huh? axl, do you even read this thread? I am not questioning fanhood. I am defending it.

I do not define comments posted anonymously as being akin to "manhood". Can we leave the personal epithets out of dialogue?

Testing...