Tip-In, Toronto Raptors Post-Game: Major Problems

Dismal performance which can be attributed to lack of preparation. Plain and simple.

How many people think that Rasho guarded Dwight Howard one one one well? I personally think that Rasho did a good job defending Howard. Howard got near his average points which is good considering how well he played for the entire game.

I think our perimeter defense hurt us when TJ Ford was trying to double team Howard. TJ Ford would leave his man which would lead to an open 3 point shooter.

I hope we do more one on one defensive schemes on Howard. So what if we foul him, the guy shoots FT 60%

One other point, it's interesting how nobody commented on CN4's stupid foul at a critical point in the game late in the third quarter. Late in the third quarter we were making our run and then Chris Bosh made a mental mistake. With 3 fouls he tried to aggressively swipe the ball away from Dwight Howard, while all the Raptors were still at the defensive end of the court.

I see CB4 make a lot of mental mistakes. He makes a lot of turnovers in crunch situations, he has a hard time getting by defenders in pressure situations, And he has yet to raise his level of play for the playoffs.

Maybe he is a playoff bust! Like A-Rod for MLB. LOL.

Maybe?

Feschuk's analysis was right on in my opinion. None of this should be a surprise. I really don't think anybody with half a brain (never mind that, a tenth of a brain)can argue on behalf of Mitchell's coaching prowess in light of yesterday's display. Hell, even Bosh is calling him out. I can't wait for that press conference announcing the new coach. This team is just a wasteland of poorly implemented talent, ridiculously poor fundamentals and disorganization in defensive and offensive sets. All of that falls in one guy's lap, a lap I hope will be shown the door in the coming weeks. On another very sour note, does it not seem that TJ is almost giving opposing PG's lanes half the time. He doesn't even seem to be directing them towards help, which he relies on almost EVERY SINGLE DEFENSIVE POSSESSION, just sort of getting out of the way, so as not to complicate their lives with a bit of defense. Only positives from yesterday for me: their were actually plays to get Kapono shots (what a novel idea), finding out Bosh doesn't think much of Sam's coaching too, Andrea effort on the defensive end, Parker's offensive effort.

I do want to add however, even with the lack of preparation, if the players had not given the Magic perimeter players such open shots the result would have been much closer.

Another thought:
How impressive was Philly's win. Talk about playing to your strengths and knowing how to use you personnel. Caught bits and pieces of the game myself. That Thadeus Young kid is Moon on uppers or something. Kid has got some hops and loads of athleticism, plus wants to take it to the hole (the mystical fairyland that Moon seems to think is some sort of myth). Anyways, Mo Cheeks deserves all the credit in the world for that win. To walk into Detroit with such youth and shut down Rip and Billups the way they did was amazing. Who knows if they pull out the series, but I am suddenly interested in the contract status of Cheeks.

@Branden

You are absolutely right about TJ...I noticed this towards the end of the season as well. For one of the quicker guys in the league, he gets blown-by almost every time! He should be able to stay in front of his man, but he just turns and watches them. Very strange, and very frustrating.

The only positive to take from this game is the fact that the Magic shot the lights out, we shot horribly, and we still kept it relatively close. They played out of their minds (especially guys like Nelson)...it won't happen again.

If we play defence.

Agree 100% on your analysis Franchise, I'd go so far as to say the point guards lost this game for us. And where's the full court press? Do the raps even have one?

And where's the pressure on the other end? It's like no one wants to attack on offense. And if you're under the hoop with the ball, get your body into howard, don't just come with some weak mini-hook.

If all the magic have to worry about is stopping chris bosh and they can somehow send three guys at him seemingly without leaving anyone open, it's just too easy for them.

On the flip side, at least two of howard's blocks could have been called goaltending and, and... well that's about it for the flip side.

Anyone notice sam yell at kapono for not shooting an open shot? Why doesn't kapono realize he can win games for us by chucking a little more?

Further to the CB4 comments about "new wrinkles" - this is just a BIT concerning:

Bosh: Trying to add tweaks to the offence. That kind of confused us a little bit. I know T.J. and Jose, they didn't really know what to run sometimes and if we did they we were in the wrong spots. Maybe it's the jitters of the game. Maybe them making shots like that kind of shell-shocked us a little bit and kind of put us on our heels. The next game, if we're more aggressive and do the things we know how to do and play our basketball, the outcome will be a lot different."

As Grange put it this morning, not quite throwing your coach under the bus but obviously some frustration on CB4's account considering how the team played.

Branden - Totally agree and the other positive for me yesterday was Rasho. It's unreal that he's almost the go-to guy offensively now. That says a lot about the state of affairs of the club. I thought he did a pretty solid job on Dwight yesterday (almost 10 of Dwight's points came from the line) and his hard wack on Howard that was ruled a block was great to see. It was one of the few times the Raps pushed back yesterday.

BargsBust - Tons of mental mistakes yesterday...from that foul of Bosh's to TJ doubling Howard for some strange reason in the first quarter. TJ is not exactly going to be an effective "second-man in" on Howard and furthermore, why double Dwight when at that point he hadn't shown he was too much for Rasho to handle?? The result? TJ's man draining a wide-open 3.

Also ridiculous? Delfino shooting jumpers in the fourth when Kapono, who was an absolute flame-thrower, was wide open.

Agree with everything Franchise says above. Was also wondering what TJ was doing on the play with the double team.

Along the same vein as OneandDone's most recent post however ... the Magic shot the lights out, and the Raps were completely outcoached and unprepared, yet this was still a game a 5 point game relatively late in the game.

Raps had plenty of opportunities to roll over and die yet still made a game of it. With all the Raps problems and flaws -- and there are many -- the Magic are not perfect.

It looks like the Magic are not that different from the Raptors. When their jumpshots are falling, they can run up the score quickly. But what happens when the shots are not falling? Sure, they have Howard who is a beast, but Rasho seems to play him as well as anyone.

Some people need to chillax. If Toronto steals game two, and I do think game two will be a lot closer, then the complexion of the entire series drastically changes.

Just a few tid-bits -

There is no reason to call out Sam based on new plays. I discussed this with someone who played high level basketball and he mentioned that the new plays were likely tweaks of the same sets they have used all year. We are not talking about mini-basketball here, new plays are not that big of a deal. New sets are a slightly bigger deal but these guys are pros and should be able to understand what they are doing pretty easily. This is not the NFL where the playbook is hundreds of pages long and written in a different language. If guys at this level can't get up the curve quickly that shows a low basketball IQ and I don't care who it is, they have to go.

The biggest reason for calling out Sam is the change in the starting line-up. Think Bargs had a tough time understanding his role before this game, try now. A three? A Five? A starter? From a chemistry standpoint it makes ZERO sense to change the starting line-up in a game 1. By the way the parallels between this playoff series and last years are quite evident. The Raps adjusting to the opponent as opposed to vise-versa and Bosh struggling.

What does Sam do now? Changing the starting line-up is something you do after game 1, not for game 1. This series, my friends is going to be over very quickly if these are the decisions. The worst part is we will never know if any of the assistants were against the move. Didn't Triano scout the Magic before the series? It would be interesting to get his thoughts....

My prediction is the Raps go down 2-0, then 2-1, 3-1 and done for the year. There are just too many flaws.

A win in the next game will certainly change the mood on this board.

However that shouldn't happen. This team has a lot of problems and they really need to be addressed. TJ has shown he is perfectly healthy (physically anywas) so move him in the offseason. Duhon is a great defensive minded pg....bring him in.

Pray that Rasho exercises his 7 million dollar option and doesn't opt out. His vet experience is really showing right now as he seems like the only raptors who continued to get better as playoff time roled around and was by far our best player yesterday and the only one who played well with the execption of Kopono.

and parker

Franchise: good read as usual…thanks for the props.
Do we even deserve to be in the playoff? When there should a calm assurance in the clubhouse we have surreptitious team chemistry destroying issues surfacing.

Does Sam Mitchell have the confidence of GM and players?
Do team members still have confidence in TJ Ford?
Does TJ Ford recent play reflect his desire to move on to another team?
Does Bargnani still give-a-darn?
Is a major overhaul required or fine-tuning?

Too many questions at the wrong time for my liking.
I must mention though that as disappointing as the loss was, I was somewhat disappointed in the lack of postings on this site after the game. I was eagerly looking forward to a flurry of posters offering their viewpoint but instead got intermittent entries. Is this an example of the waning passion that was a Raptor fan hallmark or do I need to get a life…lol?

Just throwing this out there, start Moon at the 3. Bring in Bargnani for Rasho, move Bosh to the 5, Bargnani to the 4 and also bring in Kapono for the 3 with Parker and Claderon in the back court. Sounds like an interesting mix but look at it like this, its not a small lineup (yet it could fast break for long periods of time). You would have 3 3 point shooters to space out the floor so that could leave Bosh with multiple one on one chances against Dwight. And lets face it, when Bosh attacks Dwight he can't be stopped. On defence this would make sense to. Rashard Lewis rarely goes inside. Instead he sits outside and waits to shoot 10 3 pointers. Kapono should be able to at least keep up with Hedo and that leaves Bosh on Howard. Sounds like a mismatch BUT if Bosh actually denies the ball then this could work well.

And if that doesn't work send in Joey Graham for comical purposes.

I disagree with the comment about Bosh's foul in the fourth. It was a clean swat and should have been a no-
call and Raptors' ball. It was an aggressive move that should have been rewarded. Even Leo admitted that it should have been a no call and he rarely sides with the Raps in these situations (he is too busy trying to sit on the fence.)

I also wasn't thrilled with the officiating. Bosh still gets no respect along with his Raps teammates (i.e., Jose)...yet on the other end of the court…..

...and it should have been cylinder interference, especially when we were working hard to make a run. My dad with his limited BBall IQ called it goaltending as well. You can't miss these calls in a playoff game (especially when a team has shaved a lead down significantly.) I felt that this was a turning point and led to Orlando's run at the end!

I ain't panicing. I thought before this series there would be one game that each team would get hot and shoot lights out and the others would be evenly matched. It just happens Magic got theirs first.

We were not dominated on the boards but outrebounded (and we have won being outrebounded!). PGs were surprised by Nelson and they were probably reading the press clippings as to how they would dominate Nelson & Dooling. Welcome to humble pie! But that said, I will be shocked if TJ & Jose do not respond in game 2.

Raps in 6!

As I said yesterday, I thought starting Bargs at the 3 was a good idea. Bargs has the height to challenge Hedo's shot and Moon has been atrocious guarding the 3-pt line all season. People need to relax as well. I severely doubt that Moon and Bargs are confused about their roles, they know their roles were changed due to match-ups.

To me, the game was lost because their PGs played better than our PGs at both ends of the court. I don't see that happening 3 more times.

Well if I've learned anything this year its we usually bounce back after a poor outing. Lets hope that trend coninues.
Bargs has played Orlando well this year- could of gone either way.
Bosh, although deserving to speak his mind, should just play the game.

The main problem with game 1 was the over-reliance on help d. I was screaming at the TV anytime a perimter guy was leaving their own man. With the way they were shooting in the 1st Q, why not take your chances of Nelson finishing the lay-in (or more likely alley-oop to Howard). Also, on offence, Bosh was getting the ball at the wing. With Rashard on him, Bosh should come to the block and post him. Rashard is way too quick for Bosh's drive.

There you go. No need for lineup changes or nothing.

People need to chill. A series doesn't start until someone loses at home... I think all of you people talking about how soft Raptors are should take a second and realize that after getting BLOWN OUT in the first, Raptors had a lot of mental fortitude. They stuck with it and eventually got it down to 5, even after doing all the terrible things everyone has pointed out.

Having said all this, with the way Kapono played Sam's time as our coach is almost over. No way BC let's Sam ruin his reputation any further. Isn't Larry Brown looking for a new gig?

for me it was absolutely no surprise what took place last night - and it shouldn't be for anyone else either. the raps have been struggling mightily over the past few months and to expect them to just turn things around come playoff time is just silly.

being as neutral as possible here, and without emotion, I can say for me what is apparent is that there is a chemistry issue. not necessarily a 'bad chemistry' issue, where the players don't like each other or their coaching staff. absolutely nothing personal about it. it's just a matter of gelling together on the court - somethings missing.

and, of course, the coaching staff has now become truly suspect. whatever they're trying to do/implement (and they've had a whole season to do it,) isn't working. the players aren't responding to it consistently.

changes are coming, for sure.

man is it ever hard to keep the spirits up for this playoff run!!

should be a fun off season though...which I'm looking forward to already!

To me this loss was a collection of things and more than anything, i worry that this team just doesnt have any sort of continuity. Look at Philly yesterday. They played the way they know best by getting up and down the court and bagning down low with Dalembert and Evans. Toronto yesterday to me looked like they were saying:

yeah - maybe we'll try this now...

Series is far from over but I agree that we looked far from prepared yesterday.

This is a very good assessment of the game Franchise and I totally agree with Howland..I could believe that Sam change the starting line up prior to game one..that is not a very smart move. Barg only had what 5 points and 3 rebounds, Jamario would have done way better scoring and rebounding, Bargnani looks lost out there, Jamario would have done a better job I think defensively in the game. How are you going to change the line up before the series start...what do you do now..put Jamario back in and what will that do to Andrea's confidence as a young player...The Raps look like it was there first time in the playoffs last night. Of all the games played, the Raps is the only team that look like it was a regular season game they were playing. But on the bright side hadn't it been for the 1st guarter the Raps outscored the Magics 77-71 over the next 3 quarters. So lets be optimistic here this series is far from over, Orlando will not score 14 3's in anther game in this series. Sam need to get his mind together and just let the guys play ball without trying to complicate things with these line up changes......Raps4Life

oh and another thing, people keep saying that orlando isn't going to be able to come out and hit all those 3's again...like we should be relying on that to get a win.

I say there's no reason they can't come out and put up another 3 point parade.

they drained more 3's than any other team in the league this year. (something like 800 or so) and they did it shooting a crazy high percentage.

combine that with what is pretty much a hide and seek defense toronto likes to play, and that's more than enough to stir up another first quarter helping of pure embarrassment for the raps.

seriously. it could happen again.

I loved Leo Rautin’s pre-game rationale for why the move to bring Bargnani into the starting line-up was such a great idea: "Euro’s really get up to play other Euro’s". HAHAHA what a load of crap! So let me just make sure I have this strieght… Bargnani has been playing like dog crap all year, and suddenly, FINALY, because the guy he’s guarding happens to be European, he will become a good player!?!? First off, Turkoglu is Turkish (not that it matters because this whole argument is ridiculous). What utter nonsense!

I can not for the life of me understand how starting Bargnani in game 1 makes any sense. Now where do you go from here?! Extremely disappointing lack of foresight by Sam Mitchell. Usually you make adjustments AFTER you get your ass handed to you, not before. I think Smitch out smarted himself on this one...

Eric Smith's blog on Raptors.com... some interesting insight:

"Like it or not, there may have been some method to Sam Mitchell's 'madness' (as some people see it) in Game 1.

The decision to bump Jamario Moon to the bench and insert Andrea Bargnani into the starting line-up was one that was not spur-of-the-moment. In fact, Mitchell said he even hinted at it during Wednesday's final game of the regular season against the Bulls.

I won't take credit for "knowing" that this change was coming -- I had NO clue. However, during Wednesday's broadcast in Chicago, Paul Jones and I did point out that Andrea Bargnani was the first one off the bench against the Bulls and we spoke about how we found it "interesting" that Mitchell was playing three "bigs" at once (Bargnani, Chris Bosh, and Rasho Nesterovic) with Bargnani playing the three-spot.

Well, that was Mitchell showing his hand a little bit. According to what the coach told us today in Orlando, he had been toying with that idea for a couple of weeks; even running Bargs at SF during practice quite a bit. But he and the coaching staff wanted to see it in a game before they felt comfortable enough actually making the move. Thus, the move was made against the Bulls.

The switch was kept VERY low-key though. Mitchell intentionally handed in his game sheet late to the official scorers so that the 'news' didn't leak out before the tip-off. Plus, he didn't want Bargnani (or Moon) to have to deal with the slew of questions that would have undoubtedly come from the media.

As far as the decision itself, Mitchell was comfortable with how things played out. He said Bargnani was fine. Would he have liked to see Andrea score more? Yes. But overall Sam said he did not regret the change to the starting five. And while he wouldn't come out and say it word for word the impression I got is that he'll stick with the same unit for Game 2 as well."

Wow Sam got outcoached yet again....It seemed like he made zero adjustments for this series besides starting andrea, which i will get to later. I think Sam needs to work on some plays involving pg to rasho who backdoors to bosh. I saw this play open up at least 5 times throughout the game. These are easy buckets which at this point Bosh needs. I really hope he steps up his game. After the mini clip of him saying he was ready for the playoffs this year I surely didn't see it.

Sam has to figure out someway to help out Bosh though because the second he gets it, a smaller three man zone seemingly sets up on his side. We need some quick swings to get our shooters going.

Which brings me to my next point, CAN WE PLEASE RUN MORE PLAYS FOR KAPONO. I know we all have thought it the whole year but seriously if this game doesn't force Sam to insert some plays for him, what will??

I see Sam's logic behind starting Andrea b/c moon just puts in his 9 and 7 and is done for the game whereas andrea can literally be the difference between us winning or not as evidenced by many of our quality wins this year ( eg. boston, detroit etc) However, if you are gonna insert him run some plays for him, this guys confidence has been in flux all season (can we really blame him after starting with three good games and then getting benched the second the team plays poorly)

Anyways overall, I can't wait for Sam to get fired. When he first came it he had a bunch of guys who just needed to get pumped up to make to the playoffs but now they are there and want someone who can actually lead them to the championship. Sam has proven time and time again that he is not this man.

I'm resigned to the fact, that with our current 2-headed Point Guard monster, we have a small chance of getting by Orlando. Even if we scratch by the Magic, it will end soon after.

Ode to be back 2 months ago, and be starting the play-offs.

I still believe, that until we resolve this PG mess, it's pretty hard to tackle the other issues.

As much as the PG's played like shit, the Bargnani experiment was interesting.

Conventional wisdom:

Re: Mo Cheeks's coaching job v. Detroit: "The other part of that consistency is the approach on the court. He knows this team's best chance to win will come if it gets out on the open floor against the Pistons. Some might think Sixers are flying in the face of convention by playing playoff basketball in an up-tempo style.

But I don't know if you can change your identity in the playoffs: witness the way the Mavericks changed their lineup and approach against the Warriors last season." (Bob Salmi, ESPN)

"Game 1 is nice, but that's the set piece in a playoff series. Teams generally play their normal rotation and see what works and what doesn't.

Game 2, then, is when the chess match begins. Playoff series are all about adjustments, and starting tonight teams will begin adjusting away." (John Hollinger, ESPN)

(both at: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080421)

Not a great start to the series but as has been said the 1st home loss starts the fireworks. AS for experimenting at this late date, I think Smitch and the organization probably felt that they had nothing to lose in light of their record in the last quarter of the season.

Game two will be different. Start Moon - Bargs off the bench.
Bosh criticizing the new plays early in the game - offence wasn't our problem in the first quarter.
Knives are out for Mitchell. Disappointed wth most comments. Lost game one, playing a horrible first quarter on the road. Everyone's jumping ship? WTF ?

http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20080421_093132_6724

Great link - BC Interview

Orlando Had a crazy first quarter. Forderon played like crap. Both these things won't happene 2moro. Raps will win game 2

I love BC because he doesn't hold back any punches. I love that he too wasn't thrilled with the officiating and commented on the two potential goaltending calls. I am also impressed that he is honest and straight up about the whole TJ and Jose situation and called the team out for their porous defense. I am under the impression that he supported a lot of the coaching moves in last nights game...anyway, thanks for the link Tinman!

I missed the game, but the post-game wrap up tells me that it was much like any other random regular season game. I think that says it all, really - just more of the same from the Raps. There are major flaws and maybe things will change, but maybe they won't. Just like the regular season. Unbelievably inconsistent.

Re: Philly beating Detroit. I think the Pistons tried to coast to the win. In my opinion, Mo Cheeks' only contribution was showing up for the game. If this were the NFL, then Philly could have shocked the world and Mo could have been a hero. However, this is the NBA and it's a best of seven series, so now it's Mo Cheeks' turn to prove his worth and get his team at least two more wins in this series (I'm not saying they have to win the series, just that they have to win a couple more games in order for this to be labelled as a coaching success for Cheeks).

Re: dsl

Please refer to the last half of the season for Philly, in which they played as well as any other team in the league with sparse talent and minimal expectation of success. Once you have reviewed this, I think you may have a slightly different perspective. Near the end of the season, there were multiple reports of teams all over the league, even in the West, complimenting how well Philly was playing. To achieve that level of recognition with basically Igudala, Dalembert and Miller as the only marquee players is somewhat amazing. I think most people would argue that TO has more raw talent on their team, and that it could be better utilized. Hence, a guy like Cheeks, who has clearly maximized his existing talent pool, might fit this bill. I hope this clears things up for you.

Branden,

Not trying to argue with you here (I'm not an NBA GM and am, therefore, unable to extend a contract offer to prospective coaches) but I would also point out that the exact same things were being said about last year's Coach of the Year...

Sorry, I could be in over my head here. I don't watch anyone in the NBA other than the Raps, so I really have no idea about Mo Cheeks as a coach. Frankly, I don't really care either. He's obviously capable of coaching on some level or he wouldn't have a job. Good for him. Back to the Raps...