After we beat Atlanta even the optimist amongst us would’ve pointed at this game as being our best shot at getting our next win, so let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Indiana is currently in the basement of the Central Division and has the 2nd worst record in the Eastern Conference. If there’s ever been a game that we “should” win, it was this one right here. We snap a five game losing streak where we lost to teams that were a level above us and we do so against a team that is a level below us. That’s not dwelling on the negative, that’s just stating how things are. Now, considering how badly we’ve been playing and what our effort level have has been over the last week or so, we should be happy that we won and even more happy that we won comfortably. The other reason to cheer is the sense of alertness and readiness amongst the players last night which resulted in better transition and perimeter defense. What a shock?
I got some late great tickets to this game (Sec. 113, somewhat behind the basket near the Raptors bench) and I got to say its much easier to analyze the game when watching it on TV or sitting above the action with an unobstructed view. But still, I’ll try.
Kapono got the start as Parker was rested due to an ankle injury, Bargnani was replaced in the starting lineup by Moon and this must be at least the 7th or 8th time that he’s been shuffled in and out of the lineup in hopes of getting the team out of a funk. Whatever works, I don’t think it makes a big difference either way, he ends up playing the same amount of minutes and his production either way is very comparable. It’s not like getting benched motivates him or having to start fires him up. Triano was asked about the Moon for Bargnani switch and he said this:
We were a little lethargic in chasing the ball against Cleveland and Jamario was one of the guys who was tracking the ball.
So Bargnani got benched for not hitting the glass. I thought it was a good move strategy-wise since we needed somebody to check Danny Granger and since Parker was out, the job would’ve fallen to Bargnani who would’ve struggled. The strategy worked, Granger was woeful in the first half and finished 9-25. Lot of his jumpers were fairly clean looks setup by TJ Ford that just didn’t go down for him, but you have to give Moon, Graham and even Kapono credit for being cognizant of the Pacers main threat and not leaving him open. Bargnani on the other hand was invisible. 0-4, 0 points, 3 turnovers and 4 rebounds. He never got in any sort of rhythm, he picked up early fouls, missed wide open three-pointers and turned the ball over, now I don’t care what he scored on the Caliper test, a start like that affects you and can throw off your evening. He hasn’t responded well to the coaching change because his role isn’t well-defined, natural thinking leads you to believe that he should be taking his game closer to the rim and contributing on the boards but his skill-set tells you otherwise. Jay Triano’s got to figure out what he wants from Bargnani and set him up to produce. This isn’t your usual #1 pick, this one you’ll have to spoon feed for a long time to come. Get used to it.
The star of the night was Jason Kapono as he repeated his performance from last year against Indiana. He was schooling Marquis Daniels then and he’s doing it now. Since Triano has taken over Kapono’s FGA’s have been 8, 10, 6 and 16 for an average of 10.0. Under Sam Mitchell he averaged 6.17. That is a significant increase leading me to believe that the order from Triano is clear: you got to shoot to score. Kapono’s now launching them when when he’s semi-covered and last night he attempted 7 three pointers, his prior season high was 4. It’s widely accepted that we’ve hired him to shoot the three and when he starts dribbling and getting all Reggie on us, it’s annoying. But when he’s got his floater going it works like a charm. It’s probably not a viable strategy against good teams because they’ll encourage those kind of shots but against Indiana where their bigs are busy dealing with Bosh and O’Neal, why not?
The TJ/Jose matchup didn’t live up to the billing, TJ didn’t try to take the game over and Jose was his usual conservative self so there wasn’t any excitement to speak of. Maybe TJ was trying to show his responsible side to the Raptor fans but a responsible TJ is a bad TJ, his game is to play at 120mph and if he’s not doing that he’s out of his element. A fish out of water if you will. I’ll easily give the win to Jose on points, he did a good job of pushing the ball and finding Kapono, Graham and Jermaine O’Neal early in the shot-clock, these scores aren’t registered as fastbreak points but they have the same impact: catch the defense unprepared and get good position to shoot or make a move. Calderon’s assist distribution looked like this:
- Kapono: 6
- Moon: 4
- Bosh: 3
- Graham: 1.
They’re hardly your traditional put-it-on-a-plate type assists and that’s the weird part about them, these scores aren’t spawned of drive ‘n kicks at all, they’re coming from intelligent ball-distribution from beyond the top of the three-point line. It works great against teams that aren’t pressuring the perimeter and not offsetting screens but against a buckled down defense that’s checking tight, it’s not nearly as effective.
We won every single quarter in this game and never let Indiana gather any momentum, a lot of it has to do with our defense that did an excellent job of closing out Granger, collapsing on Daniels forcing him shoot a low percentage and collectively rebounding the ball. Throw in Jermaine O’Neal overcoming two early fouls to post a near double-double of 10-9 and 3 blocks and you got your defensive bases covered well enough for Indiana to shoot 34.7% for the game. If you can hold any team to that kind of a shooting percentage you’ll win the game. Our defense got better as the game went along, the first quarter was more Indiana missing shots than us stopping them but from that point onwards the majority of the credit has to be given to the Raptors defense, not Indiana’s failings.
We took control with an 11-0 second quarter run, rode Moon, JO and Kapono in the third for +6 and finally finished off the Pacers with a 9-0 run in the fourth. The only pure one-on-one moves today were executed by Bosh and JO in the post, other than that almost all of our offense came off of good ball movement and good recognition by Jose. The ball movement is undoubtedly better under Triano, he’s trying to get Kapono and Graham to try to slash as much as they can, if not East-West, then North-South. Slashing doesn’t always mean taking your man off the dribble and finishing with skill, if Graham can continue to fight for post-position and Calderon manages to find him early, that’s good enough. If Kapono’s man is sticking tightly to him when he doesn’t have the ball, that’s an ideal time to make a run towards the hoop and have O’Neal or Bosh find you as your defender is trailing you. It happened a couple times against Cleveland and it happened again tonight. The options that open up when you move without the ball are truly amazing.
Chris Bosh’s 21 were spread out enough to not be noticeable. He started off well but then faded into anonymity before picking it up in the fourth. 21/10 are great numbers and we needed all of it but let’s see him do it against a good team. Not playing down his game, just waiting for him to face high-caliber defenses before anointing him a MVP candidate. His defense was very suspect, he let Troy Murphy get 20/20 on him and those kind of numbers for Bosh’s man are only acceptable when they’re playing the Magic. If this game would’ve gone south in the fourth quarter all we’d talk about is Murphy’s game.
Joey Graham continued his strong play by taking it to the rim every conceivable chance he got, he took a couple step-backs late on when the game was out of reach but that’s about it. Triano has shown a lot of faith in him and Joey’s responding to the opportunity provided. He’s displaying the ability to stay composed when he’s got the ball in a post-up situation, he’s angling his body properly, avoiding the offensive foul and finishing cleverly by avoiding the blocked shot. Jamario Moon’s hit-and-miss and today he was a hit, will he do it again against the Nets? I don’t know, but let’s see him put back-to-back good games before we even dedicate a paragraph to him. Good coverage on Granger though, also made him play some D which definitely took away from his offense.
This team needs to shed a lot of bad habits that it learned under Sam Mitchell and the feel around Triano’s talk is that he understands it’s going to take some time and wants the players to buy into what he’s selling:
We’re slowly getting there…at least we had a system tonight guys got rewarded for it and hopefully it translates to them wanting to buy into it more. We’ve been taking steps in the right direction, we had good intensity throughout the whole game.
And to the silly media folk who keep asking him about being Canadian, give it a rest, will ya?
We got a revenge mission coming up against NJ in the swamp. A divisional game against a team that we should be ahead of in the standings, at least on paper. What value would the Indiana win have if we go ahead and drop a stinker in NJ?
43 Raps
good to see some off the ball movement. i hope, though am sceptical that the Raps will move so well against a tougher team that isn’t afraid to fight through screens.
congrats again coach. i see positive things beginning to emerge, as players know where they are supposed to go. don’t give up on YOUR vision of the team, and cave to other people’s demands. good pace set by Jose up the floor. and, Jose did a good job getting O’Neal the ball even though he is slow to come up the floor.
I’m really glad to see Joey Graham get so much burn without having to look over his back in fear of getting benched for a couple of mistakes. Dude has been productive and if somehow him, Moon, and Kapono can play solid even somewhat consistently, AP will be more expendable then he already is.
I’m sure it was a good post, I just didn’t want to fight the font…….
Arsenalist,
Your entry needs to be re-formatted. As is, it’s not readable.
well, it’s readable, just takes forever (read…read…read…scroll…read…read…scroll)
hmm. they needed that. you could see the weight lift somewhat off their shoulders, i actually saw some smiles, and their steps seemed lighter. better overall movement, much better defensive rotations – not so much running around & over-helping. i’m sure AP not playing was just a coincidence in that regard.
excellent efforts from mr. roboto & moon. as for moon…it’s games like this that cause the angst (ok, hatred) among the truthers, ’cause it’s entirely about EFFORT with him. tonight, for whatever reason, he decided to care & put in the effort. going to the hoop, scrapping for loose balls, active D, and i think he might have NOT bit on a pump fake at least once. it’s a little too easy to proclaim he did a great job on granger, since he (granger) missed a lot of (open) shots he’d normally knock down, but that’s ok, moon did what he was supposed to.
JK – not sure anyone should be surprised, wasn’t he due? nice to see them look for him, and nice to see him shoot. i’d like to think that this is something we’ll see more of, but…lost in the shuffle was that he played passable D, and actually looked to help on the boards. i know we want to see him jacking 3’s, but in his mind (and perhaps it’s reality), he’s more of a scorer than a shooter…or a shooter who can score in ways besides just launching from deep. at least against certain defenders. i’m pretty sure high-level defensive clubs wouldn’t have let him get so many clean looks once he put it on the floor.
Sorry guys, just fixed it…
Moon at the #2/OG spot. Graham at the #3/SF spot. Awwwhhhright!!!
Now they’re finally going somewhere productive.
It’s a good thing some on-line voices actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to NBA hoops.
Check the blog later today. There might be something worthwhile there for you to read, if you’re so inclined. If not … C’est la vie, keep on truckin’
exactly, khan, good call. can’t wait to see them again. this must be what it’s like to get actual production from the 2 & 3 spots.
Arse,
Nice analysis. Agreed…we need more from Bosh on D. Two things I found interesting, (1) I also agree that it is harder to analyze the game when you see it live at the ACC. I think it’s a matter of perspective. On TV you get an aspect ratio that captures a larger proportion of the the court, where at the game your field vision doesn’t have the ability to capture everything. Is that what you find? I also get distracted by the off court talent, if you know what I’m saying ;) Besides that, I often prefer to watch the game at home. (2) I agree…enough with praising Jay’s Canadian Heritage. The guy should get respect for the amount of time he’s lasted in the League.
B-star, I think it’s where you sit too. If you’re in the lower or upper decks at center-court, I think your field of vision is pretty nice and you’ll be able to catch things that you won’t see on TV. The real problematic areas are when you’re sitting somewhere in the corners or worse, behind the basket, that’s when you don’t get any North-South perspective at all.
I’ve never sat courtside so I don’t know what that’s like.
khandor, I got to give it to you. You’ve been a long-time proponent of the Moon at the SG and last night it paid off, still don’t think its something you can do for more than a week. He got his points doing typical “Good Moon” stuff, not exploiting his matchup against Granger.
Got to go in a loooong meeting. Back later.
Good, needed win. Great recap as usual. You are becoming the best Toronto sports read, in my opinion.
Now Bargs, rough game. but you know what’s great about it, he got back in. Under Sam, his night would have been over much earlier. whihc is what I feel led to the confidence issues in his shot. As has been stated many time by kapono and graham, two others who struggled with Sam’s short leash, the constant looking over the shoulder after a miss fearing the bench, hurt their games. Jay may have moved Bargs to the bench, but he was playing better as a big anyway and he let him play on after struggling. While Andrea didn’t have a great game, he made a ply with and offensive board and an assist to JK for a 3 that put the game on ice. I thkn while we seen the bad shooting night, I think the day so f the wietghts on the confidence is over. And the good think is at least when Bargs goes scoreless, he doesn’t take many shots. He still probably had less misses than many other players, but he was just never able to get off in the flow of the game. some of that started form a couple turnovers off some iffy passes from JK and Jose. I say no more tinkering with him. At least 3rd big is a decent plan for him, I could care less if he starts or not. Now the challenge will be to take advantage of hump, too, when he’s healthy.
Is it possible that Triano has more faith in Joey because he’s the one who’s been helping Joey in practice for the last couple years?
eastcoast – didn’t have a ‘great’ game? geez. it was probably his worst game of the year, especially considering the circumstances.
he made, from what i could tell, ONE good play…the one you mention above. can we put that into perspective. ONE GOOD PLAY…and it wasn’t anything special, he got a fucking rebound and passed to an open shooter. holy crap.
i guess it’s asking too much for him to contribute much. oh, wait a minute, no it’s not. he should have his ass planted firmly to the pine until/unless he shows he’s going to come into each & every game with the desire to compete. he’s back to his ways from last year, over the last week or so; if he’s not scoring, he’s not doing anyything else of value. i can’t think of another guy who plays as much, yet who brings so little to the table. as with moon, it’s doubly frustrating because we’ve seen what he’s capable of.
I was also at the game. Sat in the corner right next to the tunnel. Its a terrible perspective. Would much rather be higher up and closer to the centre. It’s tough to get a feel for the game at that angle.
Very little mention of Ford’s miserable play. Especially after all the hype of his return. 4 points and 4 assists in 27 minutes. the guy is losing minutes to Jack and is basically back in a time share like he was here. Can you imagine the vitriol that would be laid against Jose right now if TJ out played him?
Funny observation. At the beginning of the game Matt Devlin was on the big screen and welcomed back Rasho and TJ and introduced Stephen as Joey’s brother. Maceo was standing there looking really awkward. He was like – wtf?
Watching Stephen and Joey on the court at the same time was hilarious. Everyone in my section including myself was disappointed they weren’t covering each other.
I agree with the posters who are reluctant to start planning the parade. It was a decent night, and they won one that they should have.
I still think that the defence at times was very porous with too many uncontested points in the paint. On some plays the Raps seem to fall asleep and forget to hustle back to play D. In addition, there was a series, I think the beginning of the second half, where we came down and worked the ball for good scores and then they pushed the ball and hit uncontested threes. IMO, a commitment to D is going to take time to instill and we are a long ways away.
Also worried by the fact that we had an 11 point lead that was quickly cut to four. We seem unable to strangle teams when we have a foot on their throats.
The ACC was somewhat lifeless as well last night. There were lots of empty seats, and the crowd wasn’t very intense. I missed the intro and the tip off, but I am glad I didnt hear any negativity directed at TJ.
Looked like a bit of a fluky night to me. as Jamario Moon suddenly played half decent and he got lucky and actualy hit that terrible 3 point shot of his.
Maybe he’s starting to realise it’s a contract season for him…
i’ll take it, the bleeding has stopped, and it is possible to go into the western swing winning 3 of 4. i’m not sold on jersey as of yet…
that being said, a few things that concerned me last night:
- the pacers had 14 more offensive possessions on great rebounding; rebounding is still a big issue with this team
- seemed like indiana missed shots as apposed to the raptors playing great defense. thank g*d for granger, he didn’t see a shot all night he didn’t like (and missed all of them)
other then that, i like how jose handled tj, he lost him a couple times, and tj was pumped for his return, but jc did well, to his credit.
thankfully bosh came back out of his dark place, hopefully it sticks…
yertu – it was his worst game of the season. My point was being able to get back into the game will eventually relieve mental pressures that affect whether it’s one bad game or two months worth. IMO, despite caliper test, it’s not fear of missing, it’s fear of bench from missing that tends to totally affect his game. It’s just my opinion from what I’ve observed. While he may not have ‘deserved’ his minutes tonight, it was clear that he was taken out when he should have been, but he had the opportunity to come back to try and at least make something happen. And Andrea chasing offensive rebounds is an improvement. I think Jay’s approach to minutes will be better for the team overall, going forward. Especially players like JK, Joey and Andrea.
Raps fan, I have to agree with your point that the difference in this game was that Indiana missed a ton of “open looks”.
The stats from last night’s game were all even, except for FG%, which was the difference.
Also, it was nice to see Jose outplay TJ!!! :D :D O’Brian (the stone statue) made the adjustment to play Jack against Jose, and chose to play TJ against… Roko.
Fact is, even if Ford starts, he’s a back-up!
Bargnani really bulked up over the summer. There was some early improvement there. i wonder if he did any plyometrics on his legs to help him jump? I don’t think so.
If he continues sniffing around for boards on offense, and he can jump, then I think there is something there.
Maybe I am asking for too much…
James, it was good to see Jose outplay TJ. And he did, not two ways about it. Let’s see what happens when we go to Indiana – TJ may have been timid, playing in TO.
My hope — for TJ’s sake — is that he’s learned to deal. These kinds of “statement” situations are exactly what got him where he is today. Everyone one of us thought he would “go off” on us last night. But my thinking is having that chip on your shoulder isn’t exactly conducive to his physical.. umm.. condition.
I’m not saying he no longer plays hard, but intensity coming from wanting to win versus wanting to show up an opponent is far more positive, and likely safer for him in the longrun.
Bargnani will figure his out his spot in Triano’s system soon, no problem. Especially since Triano’s trying to get the team to run, and Bargs is too good of a shooter not to fit in somehow. It would be awesome if somehow we faced the Pacers in the playoffs but it won’t happen because that means at least one of us would have to be in the upper seedings and let’s face it that’s not gonna happen.
ebrian: if indiana made any of those missed open shots, tj’s line would have looked a lot different. you are right tho, he did have a bad game. however, he has looked very good for indiana so far this season, don’t be surprised to see him at the all-star game (granger may not get in because he’s a 2/3, the east is full of those this year).
Great win for the guys last night. But, it was pretty much a must-win, given our current slide, and that is a sad statement. However, this was the first signs of energy the raps have shown in a number of games.
As for who should start at the 2/3, I’m not sure it makes a huge difference. We definitely aren’t going to get consistent production from Parker, Moon, or Graham. Triano MIGHT be able to coax Kapono into being a consistent scorer, but he might be better off the bench with the green light. Given Moon’s energy last night and his play last year, he certainly seems more comfortable in the starting lineup than off the bench, so I say roll with it! At least until his jumper starts hitting the side of the glass more often than not…
The thing is, we don’t need a ton of production from those positions to be successful (or at least more successful than we’ve been). What we do need, though, is a ton of production from Calderon and Bosh/JO/Bargs. Last night, Jose played pretty well, but the other 3 weren’t very good. Bosh had his moments, but overall looked pretty flat. Fortunately, Indy’s front line stinks, so the damage was limited to Murph’s huge rebounding numbers. Against better teams, this will be a big problem.
Nevertheless, a win is a win, and at least we know our squad has a pulse.
In my mind, this was a huge win for Raps. Triano gets his first win as interim head coach this season and the struggling players such as Moon and Kapono actually stepped up. A lot of ppl are saying, yeah they’re supposed to win this, so this game doesn’t mean anything. I guarantee you that had we lose this game, it would’ve totally crippled the morale of this team. There were many games this season that were supposedly games the Rap’s were ’supposed to win’ but they were able to lose them somehow. Let’s not even label games as ’supposed to win’. To me, this team needs to play every team and every game like it’s a ‘must win’.
Kapono only seems to go off against certain teams (ie. Indiana, Orlando) This game was simply one on those times. He should though get the green light to shoot when he plays against the second unit of other teams. If you think AP gets destroyed by other 2’s then with JK out there it is gonna be ugly.
Arsenalist,
Keep it up with the Calderon assist distribution. I’m not sure where you find that info (or if you just track it), but it’s really valuable in analyzing Calderon’s play.
Nice job looking at things from a different angle – that’s why people will continue to read all your synopsis’ – can’t find that stuff from the mainsteam media.
Also, thanks for your balanced analysis of Bosh. Sometimes I think I’m the only one who acknowleges his flaws…
Cheers,
Spudz
http://www.altraps.com
Vote YI! lol I would love for the guy to get in over Garnett, even at the expense of Bosh
Really, really glad to see people are not re warming up the Contender talk, like Raps Fan always says, need to take this one with a truck load of salt, as Indiana *cough Granger cough* clearly played a sub par game.
I wouldn’t say the bleeding has stopped, more like we found a dirty shirt and are applying pressure while driving to the hospital.
And it looks like we may get into an accident on the way over there:
NJ, HORN, NJ…
Jose has his hands full next 3 games. Let’s see how all this talk about All Star measures up.
If we can be beat New Jersey twice and just lose to the Hornets, I think it’d be pretty good realistically. Plus it’d help if Chris Paul starts fighting coach Byron Scott cuz apparently they’re not on the same page. But wow, Calderon trying to guard Paul is going to be scary. We should put Will the Thrill Solomon on him for some lock down defense (I’m joking). Didn’t Colangelo say part of the reason for getting Solomon was for his defense? Well it certainly wasn’t his offense that’s for sure.
What rumoured trades are on the block regarding the Raptors for the 15th?
I nominate raptorsrepublic as well as raptorshq to be part of the Score initiative to include blogs. Raptorblog, although very interesting in it’s analysis, too seldomly posts (I think Scott Carefort has a child so I can understand) but better younger posters reap the Score “monetary rewards”.
Here here,
If you are in the 905 or the 416 and you feel me
Hit up the Score to change some views.
Bosh with his usual 20 and 10 game against a bad NBA team. Who would have thought. This win doesn’t excuse him after being a non factor during our west coast swing. He should have easily got 40 last night.
I was just watching TJ’s pregame interview. And he makes reference to people not taking ownership of the lack of success last year. Immediately after he claims he was being diplomatic because the NBA recycles immediately reference how Sam may be his coach in the future.
My translation: Sam just sayin they didn’t make shats, rubbed players the wrong way. Players realized he was getting outcoached sometimes.
Joey,
If Bosh is looking “lethargic”, I hope Triano can help the guys like Joey G., Kapono, Ukic, and Bargnani step up a lot to show and inspire Bosh that there is some type of help he actually has, especially for the next Western Conference swing in late-December. I purposely left out Adams and Soloman because they absolutely suck and if Bryan Colangelo will make a move on December 15th, he should just waive them and get some 10-day contract people instead LOL.
tonious35,
Bosh should realize that he is the franchise player and the captain of the ship. When he faces an elite team he runs for cover, that has been a common theme since Vince Carter left. If he is putting in a half ass effort on offense by shooting jumpers and playing zero defense, not blocking any shots, and showing no desire to actually win the game, by default his teammates will follow suit. This is the reason Kapono, Moon, Bargnani are underachieving. Because they have no one to slap some sense into them when there playing poorly and they just go along with the current.
It’s amazing just how incorrect some/most-? Raptors fans can be about the status of their favourite team.
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In contrast to what most here might think … surprise, surprise, surprise … IMO, last night’s game actually marked definite improvement for this year’s team … some of it on purpose and some of it by accident.
If the Raptors stick with the de facto rotation which they used last night …
1/Calderon
2/Kapono [or Moon, my preference]
3/Moon [or Graham, my preference]
4/Bargnani (who replaced JO at the 65 sec mark of the 1st Q) [or Humphries, my preference]
5/Bosh (who played Center when JO was removed at the 65 sec mark of the 1st Q)
or, a variation thereof, there’s a decent chance for them to salvage this season.
——————————————-
When the Raptors started this season 3-0, it was a serious error in judgment to become giddy, prematurely … just as it is today, for those who fail to recognize the corner that may have been tuned last night.
—————-
Enjoy!
Joey, I’m with ya.
The “best” part is (and I think it’s part of the problem) Bosh and Jose demand effort on d from their team mates, don’t actually do it themselves, and then ask them to take a seat on offense while they are collecting the glory of MVP and All Star talk. Now, throw in losses into the mix and you have a bunch of dude telling each other to go f themselves. Toxic chemistry – your Toronto Timberclips.
Khandor, the corner that was turned last night had to do with facing a shit team lol. They always are on the right track when facing Miami and Charlotte and Indiana, wouldn’t you agree?
Joey,
When they face those lesser lights and win, or play well, with a rotation like this:
STARTERS: 1/Calderon, 2/Parker, 3/Bargnani [5], 4/Bosh, 5/O’Neal
KEY SUBS: 1/Ukic or Solomon, 2/Kapono, 3/Moon or Graham, 4/Hump or Graham
then, no, I don’t believe the Raptors have turned a corner.
However, when they decide to close the game with a 5-Man Unit that looks like this:
CLOSERS: 1/Calderon, 2/Moon, 3/Graham, 4/Bosh, 5/O’Neal
after opening it with a configuration that looks like this:
STARTERS: 1/Calderon, 2/Kapono, 3/Moon, 4/Bosh, 5/O’Neal
then, the possiblity exists that a corner of sorts may have been turned in this game which, if maintained, can succeed against a High End Team, down-the-road, as well.
As I said on my blog today, they’re cerrtainly not there yet … but, now, with these sets of 5-Man Groups in the books, they’re at least inching forward.
That was more of a team matchup though. Indiana is missing Dunleavy and Bosh was able to play Center because Nesterovich or Foster isn’t good enough to contain him. Granger had a lousy game at SF as well. We won because we were supposed to win
Finally other plays are implemented other than the over used screne and roll.
Joey,
Without a doubt, the items you’ve mentioned were aspects of their W vs Indiana.
That said … so, too, were the different line-ups which were used by the Raptors for the first time, ever.
Will they stick with it? Only time can tell.
Will they give increased minutes to that “Closing Group-of-5″, that I identified for them so long ago?
Do they even know yet what they’ve got there, in that 5-Man Unit?
Do they have the insight it takes to look past Jason Kapono’s scoring vs Indiana, to envision:
* Using Parker [OG] at that spot, instead; then,
* Using Kapono off the bench at the OG position; then,
* Sliding AP to the back-up PG role, behind Calderon; then,
* Coming back with Moon at the #3/SF spot, for Graham; and, finally,
* Re-inserting both Calderon [for Parker/PG], and Graham [for Kapono/OG];
while also inserting Kris Humphries [PF] into their starting line-up [for Jermaine O'Neal] and allowing Chris Bosh [C] to focus his efforts on the other areas of the game … not scoring, because he IS NOT a primetime scorer/offensive player [as you've correctly identified!!!] … in which he NEEDS to excel for this team to compete favourably with the Big Boyz in the NBA?
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As I said months ago … it’s going to be a most interesting season in Raptorville. : )
re: Raptors on the look for help
Jermareo Davidson would be a solid add, at this point … as long as they stick with the rotations I’ve suggested. : )
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The pieces are there for them to be a solid team this season … not championship material, mind you, just solid.
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Unfortunately, they have missed the boat, on the championship floatila which sailed on by with Rudy Gay and/or Brandon Roy on-board … and will need to re-group, going forward from here.
PS. It simply cannot be emphasized enough … just how important it is for Chris Bosh to be used as THE Center for this team, as opposed to any other position.
When CB4 plays this position, HIS team is capable of competing with the very best outfits in the NBA.