The “isn’t this booing getting old” edition.
Adams – booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. “Let’s Go Raptors! Hey Bryan…Nice Pickup!!”
Bargnani – fantastic game doing a great job of exploiting mismatches. A few hiccups on the defensive end, but they were offset by sweet looks and a great effort. Horrible brainfart on the inbounds play in the fourth, though.
Bosh – not much to say. Typical effort from Bosh. Yi and Lopez are a formidable front line to get around, but he broke them down early. May just be me, but he looked like he remembered the playoff embarrassment and wanted to get a little payback, 2 years too late. People say he shouldn’t take 20footers, but he hits them more than some of our guys hit layups.
Calderon – a double double and just a stellar shooting night. Almost perfect from the field, 3pts and the line. Crazy stuff. That said, for the love of Jessica Alba, get to work on your D. He is quickly earning the nickname of Pinwheel. Hunker down and play hard. Not everybody is better than you, but Jose is making it appear that way. Harris was ill and feeling sick the whole game and Calderon just opened up and said ahhhh…come on in.
Graham – hello? Donnie Walsh? Have I got a deal for you…… Yes, I am calling from Toronto. Hello? Hello?
Humphries – a great opportunity to take advantage of Carter HO going primadonna, but he didn’t show up. A flash here and there, but not enough to warrant extra floor time down the road. Disappointing. Running the floor in overtime was the only good thing he provided. Horrible turnovers.
Jawai – the only Raptor that has a bigger heart than Vince Carter.
Kapono – he must have been hiding under towels all night, because he barely saw the floor. Trade? Trade?? Is he gonna be traded??
Moon – nice D on that last play, Bama Pride. How far have you fallen that you are now playing a sub-10min overtime game? Scary thing is, you still don’t look like you care.
O’Neal – started nicely, very active on D, moved well with his feet. Still not hitting shots, but he had enough help tonight that it didn’t matter. Then…at 8:58 eastern time. It happened. HO became our new Vince. With a flare for the dramatic and looking like he got pinged by a sniper, he was hoping for a solid 10 from the Russian judge and only got a 9, so he left the game. HOpe he gets better soon.
Parker – CLUTCH. He got burned by Vince at the end of regulation, but kept us alive at the end of OT by hitting a shot heard round the ACC. It was so good Hassan Adams broke a sweat.
Solomon – I liked this guy a little. I like how active he is, I like how he hustles for loose balls. I also like how he might be the new Hoffa and will possibly be booed at every home game as long as he is a Raptor. Unlike Hoffa, though, Will might deserve it. How bad can Roko be that Will is still getting more time?
Ukic – boooooo. You suck man. Will Solomon owns your ass. Oh and you have the face of a horse.
Driving The Bus: Chris Bosh
Under The Bus: Kris Humphries
Game Theme: I’m scared
45 Raps
Dude, the O’Neal hate tosses your credibility in the toilet. Just know that and think before you type that sort of stuff. Are you a bitter Pacers fan, like the guy from Basketbawful? Or, are you a jilted TJ fan? Rasho maybe????
We really need a shooting guard other than anthony parker, he’s just not a starter in this league he’s way 2 inconsistent!
That was a gut punch. The Raps will never be an elite team until they figure out a way to defend dribble penetration by their opponents. Doesn’t help that Vince decided that he actually cared tonight.
Three things I liked.
- Bargnani scoring from all over and pulling down a couple tough boards.
- Calderon’s play on offence
- Bosh stepping it up in the fourth and OT
Three thins I did not like.
- Letting Harris and Carter drive a will
- The Lopez sister abusing O’neal down low
- O’neal taking 20ft jumpshots
AltRaps you are an @ss…bye bye RR.
…couldn’t teach Sam Mitchell out how to coach. We couldn’t inbound the ball and then called timeout…and then we still couldn’t inbound the ball. AP misses huge FT as expected and DH scores like 30 on Calderon in 4th+OT. Only offense we have is give the ball to Bosh and get the fuck out of the way. Can’t score when it counts…then its VC sticking it to us…classic Raptors!
boo altraps… boo u have a face of a mule
The game was lost when Sam Mitchell failed to call a timeout when Humphries was trapped in the corner and coughed the ball up to Harris. OUTCOACHED. Did you hear me, OUTCOACHED. This is becoming, err, has always been a theme.
eat my balls bitches. i own toronto.
If they swapped coaches for the 4th, who wins……yeah I agree, Raps all the way.
That has to be rock bottom??
I think the fans should stop making jokes about Vince’s mom’s parking spot now. VC owns us.
Its simple. Mitchell was out-coached tonite… just like almost everynight. Its not about “making shats”, its about having a defensive gameplan when you r up 7 with 44 secs left…pure bs.
and to get back at altraps calling out ukic, its mitchell man, not solomon, taking Roko’s time .
totally agree cuzzy, smitch lost that game for us.
Under the bus: Parker for missing that FT and Mitchell for not having an inbound play.
The JO hate is so unwarranted that dsl’s statement rings true.
3-11 against a weak front court isn’t warranted?
I’d like someone from the RR crew to hit up Arsenalist on the iphone, if he was trippin about the Celtics meltodown, I’d imagine the wife is administering an adrenaline shot right now… Pulp Fiction style.
Dang, I was looking for a link for it.. but decided against it and then you posted. : ) Do we win the game if JO stays in the game?
Coaching. Period. Sam Mitchell = great assistant coach. Maybe he brings in the donuts, keeps the beat reporters laughing, has an orange juice with Bosh every morning to keep him grounded, runs them through their wind sprints… But draw up an inbounds play? Create an offence? Set up the defence for an end of game play? Call an appropriately timed timeout? Implement a perimiter defence? Make critical substitutions that exploit matchups and turn the momentum? Pull a guy who’s embarassing you even if it means taking some heat from the GM for overplaying a particular asset? How many “close” games have the Raptors lost in the past three years? How many of those games never should have been close in the first place due to a cachaphony of screwups pre-final minute of regulation? I’m so bored of watching confused Raptors get crushed by better coached opponents. If you’re a coach and you can’t coach your team to a win after they spot you a 15+ point lead halfway through the third quarter, time to find a new gig. Dude slow it down, or speed it up, or call timeout to bust up the momentum during the other team’s comeback. OR try coaching the players to play some defense or try defending an inbounds play once in a while or run an actual offense and stop relying on Chris Bosh + one lucky player a night. AP hit FIVE threes in a row to rescue that last win for you. Come on dude, set an offense and a defense. And Dell Curry for 3 was right, VC OWNS Toronto. Can’t you remember how he plays? He plays soft. DEFEND HIM.
Do not hate JO. He actually cares about playing basketball the right way.
We should not be surprised that Mitchell is outcoached every night. This is the same man who allowed Hoffa to start at Center.
Parker lost us the game by chocking on the free throws at the end of regulation. He lost us the game plain and simple.
Arse, come on. He was outplayed from his re-insertion in the game. He started well, but against what should have been one of the easier frontcourts for us to dominate (when Yi sat), he didn’t perform. Even the all-loved Jack Armstrong mentioned that Lopez was outshining him. That display of knee-clutching just hits a bit too close to home for some people. Shame. Again, like Jack said, if we had Vince right now, we would be a contendahhhh.
Not sure that any Ho-apologist (ah, a nice throwback to the Usenet days) can say this was anywhere near a solid game for him. It’s okay. It happens.
There was a stretch after JO left, that the entire team was chocking. JO had 2 jumpers miss..Jose missed. We can look for 1 individual to blame. The entire team blew a 17 point lead. Hate VC all you want, but we should hate him for giving up on CB4. CB, Jose and VC=much better team.
Back to Sam Mitchell… He got lucky with the Parker 3 from the corner…but for crying out loud, why in the world was Jason Kapono the inbounds guy? How the hell are you supposed to stretch the defense when your best 3 point shooter is your passer?
…and parker kept us in the game.
AP taketh and AP giveth.
Now, had HO hit 2 of the 8 FG attempts he missed… :)
I think the weaknesses of this team, from floor to bench to coaches chair are evident and little pieces contributed to this loss. Now, how many contributed to that early lead? We were hitting our shots and getting to the line. That was the difference in the game early. Both teams were shooting identical percentages and exactly the same from the floor at the end of the 1st and we were up 11. We sustained it for a bit and then the proverbial wheels came off.
Blame blame everywhere.
dell, some say the man you worry about on the inbounds play is the inbounder. Actually, most say it. Sam probably played to that belief wanting to open one side of the floor, assuming the Nets would trail Kap to the corner.
AltRaps:
So are you saying that Sam used Kapono as a decoy? Otherwise, what is the use of having him on the floor? Perhaps he didn’t want another 5 second violation since we know that Kapono always plays like he’s rushing things.
Oh, and that attempted lob to Jamario.. Horrible execution. I’m glad Lawrence Frank did the same thing with VC and showed Mitchell how to draw up a play.
not cool to hate on JO. That was a flagrant foul and he fell awkwardly on his already injured knee. What the hell did you expect to happen?
I agree with the dude above. You lost credibility with that call.
In a game of many errors….the biggest faux pas was Parkers missed free throw near the end of regulation…..inexcusable!
Stacks:
Which dude above?
THAT was no flagrant! Not by a mile. Dude put all his weight on the leg, supported it with his toes, not his foot and his knee gave out.
Funny how the last edition of Roll Call was the “at least no one got injured edition”
Sweetjimmy:
Missing shats is part of the game. Not understanding how to coach is inexcusable.
And AltRaps doesn’t lose any credibility. JO played the way he did prior to going down, and that leaves him open to criticism. The fact Alt may not be shedding a tear over the injury is another story.
Simple fact…JO is on the floor and the defence cannot afford to double CB. Also, New Jersay’s perimeter defence is less effective as they are pinching in under the rim and helping on JO.
On offence, VC cannot penetrate the way he wants, his shots are changed and our perimeter defence is a step quicker to the ball on the swing, and less worried about getting beat.
I see it every minute that he is on the floor. As soon as he left, the tempo changed and VC went on a tear, b/c of the reasons above.
There are things going on that are not showing up on the stat sheet…
For the reasons above, JO is probably more of an impact player than Jose or CB at this point in the development of the team…
If JO is out for awhile, you will see a marked difference in ball movement and penetration.
This was a disaster. You cannot call AP clutch after he missed that vital FT. The “CLANGGGGG” you heard was the sound of the raptors losing the game. We were also playing like shit in the last 5 minutes of the 4th, but that sealed the deal. Not to mention another night of AP getting blown by, missing shats is just… rgrhgr so inconsistent.
I am sorry that Bargs’ giant night was spoiled because he was seriously playing out there. As I’ve said before, his lack of boards wasn’t because of a lack of effort and he filled JOs place tonight so there’s a bit of support for my theory.
“O’Neal – started nicely, very active on D, moved well with his feet. Still not hitting shots, but he had enough help tonight that it didn’t matter. Then…at 8:58 eastern time. It happened. HO became our new Vince. With a flare for the dramatic and looking like he got pinged by a sniper, he was hoping for a solid 10 from the Russian judge and only got a 9, so he left the game. HOpe he gets better soon.”
wow
that’s the last I’ll read from you
This game changed as soon as JO went down. Get well soon JO. Otherwise the Raps are the same weak ass team they were last year except without Rasho and Delfino. Scary shit.
Got alot to say but can’t get over your hate for JO. Was on his way to another DD. Was there last night and the crowd was all class. Comparing him to Vince? The man plays tough and seeing the replay, came down mighty awkwardly. Lets fucken hope he’s allite.
You are a moron.
Best part of this site is the comment section.
FACT: The Raptors went into this game with a 6-5 record. 6-5 is firmly in the neighbourhood of a .500 mark. Nothing more; Nothing less.
FACT: Jermaine O’Neal has played in each of this team’s first 11 games.
FACT: Jermaine O’Neal sustained an injury to his left knee during last night’s game, Game 12 in the 2008-2009 regular season schedule.
FACT: Jermaine O’Neal has sustained various injuries [knee/leg-?] in three of the last four seasons necessitating that he miss major chunks of the regular season schedule in each of those three years.
FACT: After returning from his most recent injury last season, Jermaine O’Neal spent this past summer under-going an extensive rehab program … but did not endure another round of surgery.
FACT: Jermaine O’Neal was acquired by the Raptors in a trade with the Pacers around the 2008 NBA Draft, in exchange for TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, Maceo Baston and a flip-flop of the No. 17 & No. 41 [overall] selections, with the full knowledge of his recent history of leg injuries.
———
One does not have to be considered a ‘Raptor hater’ to acknowledge these simple facts, and the legit possibility [probability-?] that Jermaine O’Neal would indeed sustain some sort of leg injury during the 2008-2009 season that would result in him having to miss a number of games.
———
“You live, you learn. We’d be crazy not to learn from this situation.” – Chris Bosh [post-game interview, Nov 21, 2008 following the Raptors' loss, at home, to the New Jersey Nets, 127-129, in OT]
all we can hope is the silver lining of JO going down is that Bargs establishes himself as a legitimate #2 guy…
Honestly I was impressed by some of the Net’s young talent primarily Brook Lopez. Also I have, for the first time, truely considered that Mitchell might need to go but only for a legitimate head coach like Flip, so it might still be worth it to wait for the right one to come along. It comes down to what Bosh wants as its his team and we need to keep him happy as 2010 is approaching…
Khandor.
I fail to see the point of your blog.
All of them were topics discussed prior to season starting. All common knowledge.
Do I sense some gloating that O’Neal got hurt.
Actually, and I only watched the game once, so maybe Khandor or Arse (if you watched it again) can confirm…I thought HO was pulled down via his jersey on that play. Ref was right there in the replay, so if he say the tug and how HO stumbled, he may have thought the yank was harder than it was. If so, I can see the flagrant call. If I’m wrong and there was no grab at all…then it was no flagrant.
By the way, why no “VC sucks” chants in overtime?
Oh and Dell: perhaps a decoy, yes. If not a decoy, maybe he was hoping Kapono would break free and be open after the inbound. Also, the coach draws up the play, he doesn’t execute. The play was run properly but it wasn’t executed. That responsibility falls on the players. Moon was basically wide open, the ball just wasn’t delivered well. Just like in football, if you run a good route that was called by the coach and you are wide open, but the ball is thrown short….who is at fault?
The lob play to Moon was actually executed properly by the Raptors.
What happened to prevent the play from succeeding was the specific Defense the Nets used, in response, and the way in which they executed that defense properly, reacting to the Raptors’ fakes and mis-directs, staying ‘home’ positionaly, within their Zone Defense, defending their designated areas of the court, out of what looked like a Man-2-Man but was actually a Zone, with Wince Carter designated as the the Goaltender, whose job it was to protect the hoop at all costs, given the time and score situation.
Toronto ran a standard ‘Back-screen for the PG, Zipper Action, re-Back-screen for the original Back-screener’.
The Nets had 5 veteran players on the court, each of whom did their individual jobs properly.
Tinman,
1. Which specific ‘topics’ are you speaking about?
2. I don’t gloat. Gloating is for kids … and, I am not a kid.
If I recall correctly, though, the ball didn’t make it to where it should have. Moon couldn’t even hang on to it.