“ I have a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell!â€
The immortal words of Christopher Walken in his classic Saturday Night Live skit.
It was Saturday Night Live in the Bay Area last night and not even Dr. Julius Erving (or Dr. Julius Hibbert for that matter) could have prescribed a cure for what ailed the Raptors on this evening as the Warriors ran the Raps out of the building.
This is more than a 24-hour flu. The Raptors seemingly have a more terminal illness on the offensive end. The only prescription is more Bosh.
Columns have been written about it. Chuck and Jack discuss it at length.
The need to get the ball inside to Chris Bosh.
Bosh is (or should be) the focal point of Toronto’s offense. A casual glance at any Raptors game underlies that fact. The offense is much more fluid when the sets run through Bosh.
Raptorshq.com decided to run a study during last night’s game. We charted every possession when Bosh was in the game. Of the 59 possessions, Bosh touched the ball on 29 occasions. The Raptors scored 32 points on these possessions. On the other 30 possessions, the Raptors scored 18 points.
Notice a trend?
Take the first quarter, where Bosh singlehandedly kept the Raps in the game, scoring 15 points. On the team’s first ten possessions, they fed Bosh on five occasions, scoring every time, putting up 11 points. On the other five possessions, they failed to score.
Sure, you can’t feed the ball to Bosh EVERY time you have the ball. You do have to give him the ball more often. The offense clicks when this happens.
Maybe if that had been done a few more times in the fourth quarter of the Phoenix, Clippers or Sacramento games, we might be looking at a 3-1 road trip, not 0-4.
Chapman’s Random Thoughts
- One day, Baron Davis and Jason Richardson are going to combine for the greatest alley-oop dunk in NBA history.
- This was a game that CV Smooth clearly wants to forget. 1-10 from the floor.
- Matt Bonner impressed with 11 points and 7 rebounds.
- Sure, it was garbage time, but Ike Diogu flashed the type of skills that had me running around Tempe, AZ a few years back trying to find him.
- Good to see Chris Taft got rid of that awful haircut.
- Apologies to former Red Wings coach Dave Lewis. Sorry about having the Phoenix/Vancouver game switched to the Raptors game. Connections, Dave. Connections.
- Shout out to Marek Malik for the greatest shootout goal in NHL history.
- In recent memory, has there been a better slate of early season NCAA games? First, it was Gonzaga-Michigan State. Last night, it was Marquette-South Carolina. Awesome. Can’t wait until March.