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It’s the Lakers tonight and Jermaine O’Neal is ready to play. Is he 100%? I don’t know but if he’s not then he should sit. The last thing anybody wants is aggravating an injury and a player playing with a ready-made excuse to not play well. No offense to O’Neal or Calderon but if they’re playing with bad knees and bad hammys, respectively, we should just sit them down until they’re 100% ready. Realistically speaking it hardly matters whether he suits up because the Lakers are just too good for us to even have an outside shot at this game even if we had Nathan Jawai dressed. They’re 12.5 point favorites and when Vegas has you down, you’re almost out before the game even starts. But hey, weirder things have happened and we’ve known to beat a team that was expected to crush us in the past (San Antonio last year).
This space has been preaching team defense for a while and after the two home wins against Charlotte and Atlanta, Jermaine O’Neal’s cautiously optimistic about the improved defense:
“Really, I think guys were just getting a little embarrassed. I don’t want to be premature and say we’re over the hump, but the guys are really taking the challenge. You see guys are looking at the scouting reports a lot more before games and that’s the great character of our team. Obviously, we know we’ve been getting killed on the defensive part of the floor. Now guys are talking more about it even in general conversation among players, not necessarily only in meetings. That’s a good sign.”
Yes, I know Charlotte and Atlanta aren’t exactly great teams but measuring defensive effort and game preparation has nothing to do with who you’re playing. It’s one of those things that should be part of your routine and if we got it in there, great. The surprising part about that quote is that I get the feeling that we’re just now starting to pay real attention to the scouting reports, that’s the only way one can explain how we played Harris and Rondo. Add this to the recent revelation by Jason Kapono that there were a few sets added to the offense to get him shots and I’m starting to think Sam Mitchell might be finally earning his money. Let’s see how he handles Kobe today, I’m thinking the way to go is get the ball out of hands by doubling him and make sure your rotations are tight. The “Let Kobe get his and shutdown everyone else” doesn’t work because we’re just not good enough to shutdown more than one or two players any given night, if that. Start at the root cause and go from there.
We have to stay in this game past the first quarter. It would be depressing if we’re down 16 or 17 in the second because they got enough firepower to maintain that lead and we don’t have nearly enough to come back from a deficit like that. To ensure that we get a good start we have to come out and get to the FT line, make early shots and most importantly, slow the game down. Playing defense is a given. We can’t get into a running open-court game here, they happen be much better at that than us and our best bet is to grind it out in the half-court, pick up fouls on Bynum, slow down Kobe and hope Lamar is contained through single-coverage. If we do everything right we’ll be in this game in the fourth and that’s when you rely on Bosh to pull you through.
Bryan Colangelo says to newly hired Leaf GM, Pat Burke, that he has all the autonomy he needs to run the club. Burke phoned Colangelo before signing to make sure he has the power necessary to take the Leafs from a shit team to an even shittier team. Good luck to him. Obviously “autonomy” here doesn’t mean he’s got the right to sign whoever he wants since the luxury tax is a big impediment, to cross that he needs to get past the board and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Richard Peddie. The ESPN Mag article from yesterday hinted at Colangelo pursuing “roster upgrades” and he’s believed to like Shawn Marion and Leandro Barbosa but doesn’t have what it takes to get them here (see, he traded all those assets to get O’Neal). Instead we’re looking at second-tier help in Boris Diaw, Andres Nocioni and Gerald Wallace. Yes to Diaw, hell no to Andres and whatever to Gerald Wallace.
Dave Feschuk is doing some great investigative reporting by sneaking into players’ hotel rooms and testing whether the flush works properly. He’s talking about the luxury hotels the players get to stay in and contrasting it with the past and what happens in Europe. Roko crawled from underneath his bed and chipped in with his two cents:
“We stayed in some bad places. It just was terrible, terrible. You cannot imagine. No TV. Cockroaches. No curtains on the windows, so you wake up at 5 a.m. …”
There, there Roko. No more wll you have to suffer through that. It’s all mineral water and wine from here on out. Just learn to stick a few jumpers and you’ll be having caviar for breakfast for the rest of your life. It’s a good article if you want to feel poor. I’m looking forward to Feschuk’s next piece titled, “NBA Hos”.
Doug Smith is saying that the Raptors do as much a scouting in North American as any other team. Why do I have a hard time believing that? The last North American we picked up from the draft in the Colangelo era was P.J Tucker in 2006 and that was in the second round. The 2008 draft was considered as deep as ever and even then we managed to reach across the oceans to pick a heart patient. Sorry, we don’t pay nearly as much attention to NCAA players as we should, if we did we would’ve made use of the 17th pick in a draft everybody was looking to be a part of.
Here’s a video of Leo and Devlin on a bus in LA. Notice how Leo’s talking on the phone in the beginning of the video, the pompous prick really does sound like an ass. I didn’t watch past that. Kobe might not score 81 on us tonight but he could reach another milestone.
Optimistic prediction: W 98-94. Pessimistic prediction: L 123-85. Realistic prediction: L 113-95. Let’s go you Raps!!!
24 Raps
Does Doug Smith really read his articles before sending them to his editor? Does his editor read his articles? Seriously? For real?
In the world of pro hoops, a loss by any other name …
What I’d like to see from this 3-game road trip:
1. A developing rotation which includes consistent minutes for the Bosh + Calderon, and Parker, Humphries, Moon, Graham, Bargnani, and one of either Ukic or Solomon. If O’Neal and/or Kapono get consistent minutes, as the 9th or 10th men, that’s no problem. It’s when they get substantially more than that that this team gets into trouble at 4 of the 5 positions on the court at any given point in time.
2. A consistent increase in the number of set plays which the Raptors use to generate an uncontested shot on an increasing number of their half-court possessions per game.
3. A consistent increase in the number of uncontested shot attempts the Raptors generate within their transition offense.
4. A consistent decrease in the number of uncontested shot attempts the Raptors allow their opponents [both, in half-court and transition situations].
5. Continued improvement in the Raptors’ Rebounding Differential numbers.
Show evidence of these 5 things and it becomes a productive and successful excursion for this team, from my perspective.
I think we have a tiny, tiny chance of winning this one. LA’s strong-side trap is tailor-made to be picked apart by two elements of our offense: Calderon driving into the teeth and seeing cross-court passes for open 3’s on the weak side, and Bosh throwing those solid skip passes he does so well. However, it’s also the ideal defense to make virtually everyone else on the roster have a really, really, really rough night unless they’re standing on the weak side waiting for threes (cutting to the hoop would probably be too much to ask). I fully expect to be cringing every time anyone but Bosh or Calderon dribbles or drives. I expect 2-9 with 4 TOs and 4 fouls in 18 minutes from Bargnani, and if O’Neal plays he’ll get even less than usual done on offense.
^^^^^ Amen, bro. Where you been to this point?
“Calderon driving into the teeth and seeking cross-court passes”
I agree but idealistic thinking. Look for the continuation of the high pnr followed by a pass back to Bosh which has no net effect and then look for Bosh to create for there on out.
“..unless they’re standing on the weak side waiting for threes (cutting to the hoop would probably be too much to ask)”
Again, the off-the-ball movement has been lacking and the best we can hope is that the Atlanta game served as a revival for it. As for LA’s strong-side trap, I saw a chunk of the Mavs/Lakers game and they hardly used it there. Maybe its because they were dealing with Kidd and know he could beat it, I don’t know. There’s always a small chance we win this game, we need to be almost flawless on both ends.
I actually agree with sitting both JO and Jose if not healthy. Is that not throwing in the towel? Might be our best move for any success on this tough stretch.
Late start tonite, might get to watch the first half.
congrats on the big win today arse.
Can someone send me the background image in the opening tip?
Pat Burke?
Fuck yeah Andiamo!!
Flux, I’ll try to get that for you.
Tinman, how is sitting injured players throwing the towel in?
Do you know why Smitch won’t be able to run popavich’s motion offense? Robert Horry said today, “It’s not an easy system to learn. I think they have about 300 plays.”
300 plays! Thats about 299 more than the raptors run currently
Raptors have about as much hope of winning this game as you winning Super7(21 Million to 1 odds) or 649 lottery(14 Million to 1 odds).
But somebody has got to win … eh ???!!!!
What a shock it must have been for Colangelo having to listen to the Burke press conference. Burke wants a tough as nails team that is good at a lot of things and just just one thing. This means taking penalties, playing aggressive, playing defense and will impose there will on there adversary on any given night against any team.
Colangelo: No defense or rebounding, European players were it’s in there DNA not to be “bad”. Primarly jump shooters who get rattles easily against superior NBA teams.
B.C better be careful. The Leafs can overtake the Raptors with the younger demographic and Burke can put out an exciting product on the ice. Who wouldn’t cheer for Canadian born players?
OK Flux, here it is.
High res version: http://raptorsrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/kobe.jpg
The Raptors never did have there own ” Tie Domi”
These are the players that win championships.
We have Roko Ukic fellas. Opponents must shit there pants when they know Roko is coming into there building.
Brian Burke= Boston Celtics
Colangelo= Siberia national team. 3 point terrors
Tie Domi = Oak
Yeah your right. Recently though nadda.
No wonder Boston and Cleveland/Detroit are so good. They are complete players who do more then 1 thing which is what Burke addressed. When you assemble players who are good at only one dimension of the game and lack skill in other areas your not winning fuck all.
Phoenix Suns circa 2004-07
Lakers 2008
Detroit 2007
They failed because they didn’t have the mental toughness and although had the talent, they didn’t strike in anyone. They all ran into a Tim Duncan, Lebron James, and Paul Pierce respectively.
I noticed Brian wants to hire Dave Nonis as his assistant gm. Brilliant. Get someone with NHL experience and can evaluate talent. Not like the other guy who brings in some Italian dude from Europe who has 0 NBA experience.
Already Burke is making the right choices 1 day on the Job
Thanks, Arse! You da man!
Last time we beat LA/DNV/UTH on the road 2001/2003/2004. Hmmmm…
How many times do the deluded have to watch Bosh choke and disappear against the elite teams before you get it through your thick heads that he is a Robin, not a Batman????
Oh, come on. He didn’t “choke and disappear,” he came up against the best or second-best interior defense in the league and got shut down. The lakers have stopped every single one of the elite big men they have faced (Yao, Stoudemire, Nowitzki), because they focus on taking away the other team’s primary threat. We came up against the best team in the league tonight, possibly the best team since Jordan’s Bulls, without our starting center, and we got our asses kicked. That wasn’t exactly unexpected. I prefer to look at the positives: Kapono’s continued renaissance, Bargnani’s continued solid play (despite a poor shooting night, he filled up both the stat sheet and the paint), and some flashes of something that might someday turn into a passable backup point guard from Roko Ukic.