We were in a back-to-back situation and the Mavericks were playing on three days rest, but 62.4%? That’s like…a lot! Even if you consider the team still gelling and all that chemistry stuff, that’s still a very high percentage to give up, in fact, it’s the worst given up by any team this season and everybody’s played back-to-backs. The game did follow classic Raptors back-to-back pattern, start off with the energy you finished the night before with, cool off towards the second and sh*t bricks in the third. It’s almost like after the Raptors played well early somebody reminded them, Hey, remember, you’re supposed to suck in this game because you played last night and suddenly the team drops their energy, forgets about defense, hangs their heads and loses focus. That’s what the game-deciding third quarter was about, I don’t know what Triano said at the half, but he might want to take note and trash that speech.
Josh Howard made his season debut after ankle injury and the Mavs’ first few plays were all about trying to get him in rhythm. It was clear strategy on their part as he hoisted 7 shots for 7 points in the first. This meant that DeRozan had to do some defending which he did well enough but still managed to get replaced at 5:20 of the first. I don’t get it, I just don’t. While the red carpet was being laid out for Howard, Bosh went back to work in the manner we’ve become used to this season – determined attack against the slow-footed Dampier who couldn’t cope. The result was 10 points and 7 rebounds in the frame, he was hitting the offensive glass like Realizar hits the bottle – aggressively and with passion. Dirk was relatively quiet getting a couple hoops here and there and Bargnani, after missing two jumpers early, nailed two deep bombs right in his face.
Dirk looked pretty suspect on defense in their last game against New Orleans and actually fouled out against West and Okafor. I would’ve liked to have seen Bargnani test his lateral movement and nail him to the bench with a couple quick fouls, instead he opted for the jumpers which are great if they go in, but a guy like Dirk will always concede that in favor of actually playing some defense. When DeRozan was benched for Wright, Jack was brought in to face Jason Terry midway through the first. My thought at the time was to let DeRozan stay in the game and have Wright come in to guard Terry (taller and all), Jack’s not shown the ability to defend scoring SGs so far this season and he didn’t again tonight. In fact, he got lit up. More on that later, but for now let’s say he turned the ball over twice throwing lazy cross-court passes which even a TV viewer eating Cheetos and sipping on JD could foreshadow. This led to points and started to give Dallas momentum. It was 26-25 at the end of the first.
Terry, Barea, Howard and Kidd pushing the ball in transition against a back-tracking and late-reacting defense was the theme of the second and third quarters. The second was all about Dallas high screens and our defense leaving Nowitzki open in the 16-20 foot range (8 in the 2nd). With Jason Terry spreading the defense and Barea’s quickness against Jack proving to be too much, it resulted in the Raptors helping/collapsing on dribble penetration in the 7-12 foot area. Now, whereas another team might panic and turn the ball over when surrounded by defenders, Dallas is a club that thrives when “forced” to swing the ball to find the open shooter and are always looking to get easy baskets by dumping it inside to their bigs like Singleton and Dampier when the defense is too busy paying attention to the wing shooters.
The Raptors offense in the second quarter went cold. Hedo Turkoglu was being defended very well by Shawn Marion, he was up in his face, forcing him to drive into the paint which he shied away from doing. I thought the opportunity to be assertive was there (as Hedo had showed early in the first) but for whatever reason he didn’t feel motivated to do it. The Mavs were showing doubles against Bosh and Bargnani already which meant Hedo was seeing single coverage all night long. He was 1-5 midway through the third when this was still a game and finished 3-8, Marion got the better of him with 18/8/6, all high percentage shots in transition or deep post-ups, check out his short chart. It wasn’t pretty, Hedo looked old and slow and couldn’t deliver in that third quarter when we really needed our offense to match theirs.
The second unit had failed to deliver the spark they did against New Orleans and Detroit and it was 55-48 at the half. The warning signs for that third quarter were already here, Bosh cooling off, Hedo struggling, Bargnani only 3-8 and Calderon was the only one who seemed could get by his man (how’s that for a change?). There were also problems on the offensive end, the Raptors were swinging the ball around well and were getting clean perimeter looks, but the shots that went down in New Orleans, weren’t going down tonight (38% for the Raps, 52% for the Mavs in the half). That’s how jump-shooting works. You could also make out that Dallas had no issue conceding the jumper to Wright who went 1-9; I like his defense but if he’s shooting 9 shots in 18 minutes this team isn’t going anywhere.
There was no semblance of a post-presence for the Raptors and Bosh’s assault on the offensive glass was about as close to the rim as we got. Bargnani did demand the ball but the entry passes were poor, leading to turnovers; even the point-to-wing pass guards make to find a better post angle were being deflected. It was almost as if we wanted to post Bargnani up against Dirk but encountered some difficulty and were too lazy to try again. We’re pretty thin on options in the post and I would really like to see us give the ball to DeRozan a couple possessions a game in the block and see what he can do with it. He doesn’t have to back his man down, let him get an iso on the elbow and figure out where to go from there, it’ll go a long ways in helping him figure things out and we might even get a pleasant surprise.
It was a 25-12 run in the third that did the Raptors in, what I remember the most is Bosh guarding Nowitzki and giving him way too much space to shoot. Dirk was getting open by doing nothing, they weren’t even setting screens for him and he was finding space. In hindsight, Bargnani’s first half defense on Dirk was something we should’ve stuck with. No idea why the switch happened. He had 14 points in the quarter which the Mavs started on a 15-4 run to take an 18 point lead. The Raptors looked lethargic and had mentally conceded the game. Bosh looked exhausted and unwilling to step up to the challenge, he was hardly alone.
Jarrett Jack’s defense was god awful in the third and the combo with Jose failed again due to defensive reasons. He blew his assignment on Terry with a big fat F. Forget about shutting him down, how about staying within 8 feet of him. He was losing him in transition, leaving him open in the corner in the half-court, and not putting any pressure whatsoever on him on the live dribble. I was screaming to whoever would listen that Jack was costing us the game., Sometimes you need someone to lift the team spirit when its in doldrums and as one of the most vocal Raptors who’s supposed to be a good defender, I was expecting him to do just that. Not only was his defense terrible, he couldn’t get anything going on offense – 3 turnovers and 0 assists, a terrible PG game against a very average defense. Didn’t see any fire from him tonight. It’s in this area that I feel we miss Reggie Evans, I think a guy like him could’ve made a difference, at least would’ve given us a lift and maybe inspired some emotion and effort. He was the only one standing on the bench when things went from bad to worse.
The whole team’s energy was awful in the second half and it reflected in Dallas’ PINP and fast-break point advantage, 56-36 and 24-12, respectively. Singleton and Humphries went 8-10 for them which should not happen under Bosh, Bargnani and Johnson’s watch, you have to take some personal pride and stop scrubs from scoring against you, that too on layups and dunks. Of course it’s part dribble penetration, part strategy, part back-to-back but it’s also definitely part laziness.
“It was our first back-to-back, and they got off to a track meet,” Bosh said. “We kind of played into their game. We settled for too many jump shots. They got long rebounds and were off to the races.”
“They went past us, and they shot over us,” Toronto coach Jay Triano said. “They had more movement and energy and had confidence in their shooting. Our energy level was low.”
It’s a disappointing loss even though Dallas is a good team. You get the feeling that after a good enough first half, if we had only kept up our pace and intensity through the third, we would’ve been in the game in the fourth which is all you can ask. We were 2-8 from threes in the first half which cost us, they were all clean looks which could’ve given us a big boost going into the half, instead we went in feeling a bit sorry for ourselves and expecting a meltdown. I don’t know how much is chemistry, a new system, laziness or fatigue, but that defense we saw in the third was despicable. There was a genuine lack of effort which should be unacceptable. Our starters got a good rest in the fourth against New Orleans so you can’t blame it on fatigue, back-to-backs are a part of NBA life and they’re usually more competitive than this. Triano made no excuses later:
“We have 19 of them,” he said of back-to-backs. “What are we going to do? Just mail it in 19 times when we have a back-to-back? That can’t happen. We have to find a way to fight through it with mental toughness.”
The fourth quarter was a mere formality and to tell you how meaningless it was, let me just say that Patrick O’Bryant and Marcus Banks saw the floor.
Liners:
- Our bench got outscored 58-30. Terry had 19 and Singleton had a hustling 10. We need more offense from Belinelli and Johnson.
- I expect players like Marco Belinelli and Amir Johnson to thrive in this open court style of ball but they’re both struggling with their offensive games, going a combined 2-7 for 8 points. Johnson’s effort has been better of late but you get the feeling he’s just not going to be able to provide much offense off the bench in a garbage-man capacity. His finishing is too weak and his footwork is terrible, his six rebounds were nice but we have Reggie who can do that job better.
- Bargnani: 22/5/4, Bosh 26/12/6. Good numbers but a great example of how the box score doesn’t tell the whole story, especially in the case of Bosh once you consider his third quarter. There was an offensive rebound Bargnani got in the second quarter for a put-back that made you wonder why he can’t do that more often. No complaints tonight though, rebounding isn’t the reason we lost.
- We lost because we let our defensive guard down, nay, our defensive guard was shattered in the third and you have to give credit to the Mavs for making us pay. Their ball-movement was brilliant, their guard play was impressive and Dirk got his points without having to work too hard for them – too many weapons.
- I cannot explain what DeRozan did to get benched early. He was doing an okay job on Howard who was forced into contested shots. I would’ve even liked to have seen DeRozan on Terry and see if he could bother the sharp-shooter with his size because Terry was simply shooting over Jack all night long.
- Did you know the NBA changed rim manufacturers this year? Could that have something to do with the increased scoring?
- 3-3 after 6. I think most us had them going 2-4 in this stretch so it’s not all terrible. Let’s give this team a little more time before we burn Triano at the stake for his team producing the defensive effort they did tonight.
I got me a new Twitter account for all things Raptors.
81 Raps
A humiliating loss that I turned off 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter. Very passive game by the Raps.
It was quite frightening to see how inept our bench was tonight. Hope that doesn’t happen too often this year…
Yikes.
DeRozan on Terry would would have been interesting and a reasonable idea considering the defense we weren’t seeing.
I agree about Jack not being able to guard scoring SG. I know he’s being paid big money but that isn’t going to make him 2″ taller.
I do understand why they were fatigued. Just traveling by plane twice in two days is stressful and takes something out of you. Playing a physical sport in between isn’t required to make one tired.
Sorry, but what is being shorter by 2″ have to do with keeping close or challenging the shot of your man. Most of the team must have been partying the previous night I think (Bosh’s town).
TRIANO SUCKS AND HIS ROTATION !!!
SAT DOWN BOSH WHILE HE WAS HOT on THE FIRST QUARTER ! ! ! !
TRIANO SUCKS ! ! !
No man, the players doesn’t had the mojo on tonight’s game. They were tired from last night’s assault vs Hornets. We’re still a mediocre team, give it few more games and if there’s still doing the same thing, maybe you should give that to Triano.
I’ll second that.
His rotations seem to have nothing to do with the game.
Yea, I didn’t understand that either. He brought him 5 min left on the first quarter, he was just destroying them… Then he is the same in the 3rd… I never got that.
“it’s the worst given up by any team this season and everybody’s played back-to-backs”
TRUTH.com!
as much as i understand toronto was playing its first back to back on a west coast road trip against a tough/well-rested opponent, this is the NBA and all teams go through this kind of schedule… excuses dont get you playoff seedings and triano seems to be the master of excuses.
I ddont know if read the quote abstract_a but triano was not making excuses….he was simply stating that he was disgusted by this effort and that they need to become better
i dont know where u got the idea of him making excuses
Tonight’s game was really horrible. Man, it made me agonize sitting in my room and throwing my cereals when Terry had that mojo going. But hey, Terry is the reigning 6th Man of the Year, I expected something deadly from him.
Despite we gave the Mavs a lot of points, Bosh played exceptionally well. Bargnani, Calderon, and Turkoglu played hard tonight but the mojo just wasn’t there. They did a really good job there.
They will be playing against the Spurs on Monday without the presence of Tony Parker. This will be an interesting game. For me, I think most of the Spurs players are aging and already passed their prime. I hope Raptors will take this game and rape them as much as possible as a revenge from tonight’s game.
i place the blame on derozan. if he would’ve scored 25 like he was supposed to, we would’ve had this one no problem.
I almost forgot where this came from. ;p
That’s right, rc (retarded chump).
“I hope the Raptors … rape them as much as possible …”. Really, dude? You do remember this is basketball, right? Just checking.
25 points? Whoever expected that?
And besides, his minutes..
RC is teasing LilRomeo for previously saying DeRozan should have gotten 25 pts against the Hornets :-p
1 highlight stood out for me at least. That Bosh and1 where he went THROUGH two mavs (Dampier and Dirk) on the block for the nasty slam!
Bosh has done that in 2 games. Remember the Julian Wright in-your-face Jam on Friday. The guy is playing with passion but the defense still needs some work. Bosh, how about learning from “The Dream” Hakeem Olajuwon how to defend or better still, Bryan employ Hakeem as a big man coach for our bigs. I am sure the benefits would be seen quickly in Bargs being a real center in the NBA(with at least 7 rebounds), Amir finally living up to his potential and Bosh playing some inspired defense. What’s more, Hakeem actually played for the Raptors and I don’t think he will reject an offer to contribute to this team. Bryan if you come by this site, have a look at this suggestion – employ Hakeem.
You don’t need to be 7′ tall to learn how to play defense in the post!! A 6′ tall guy can teach it just as effectively. Deny the ball, help when necessary and move your feet. Defense is passion, intensity, and timing.
The teaching part would be necessary for the team aspect of the game, which anyone can be involved in.
is there a bigger chucker on this team then antoine wright? famine arse?….oh wait, you noobs are too busy bitching about bellinelli.
i hear ya dude! wright’s a chucker. i feel this jamario cringe come over me when i see him open on the 3pt line. please antoine, one more pass. please!
Missed the game, sounds like it’s probably better that I did. Great post, you noob.
noob? Or is it still noobs when its only one person?
I have to say that the “Jose Calderon,I have some shit to prove tonight” hung onto the ball way too long,and took too many shots,while Bargs,Bosh and Turk were wide open getting looked off.YA WIDE OPEN.
I cant believe I’m going to say this but I agree with Leo…Bargs was hot give him the fuckin ball ,instead of dribbling around like tj and taking a forced shot.
AW…Hey I get the fact ,that you were in Dallas,but since when did you become”the chucker”
Bosh showing some balls,and another monster game.
Bargs,starting to become automatic 20 pt games,still has to work on rebounding,but you can at least now see the effort is starting .
Turk was owned last night….without the bench providing some zipp,and Turk doing shit,its impossible to beat a team like Dallas
Whatever Dallas shot, it went in. What the hell are you supposed to do. Anyway, we shouldn’t feel too sorry for ourselves. Utah lost to Sacramento on their home court. Ouch!
i agree. dallas just seemed to stroke it all night. fg% not entirely raptor d’s fault, but they got very lost on multiple rotations that lead to open shots…as always.
Bang on post!!
Bosh was terrific on offence and even looked to pass, but left Dirk way too much space when he defended him..overall though Bosh was great
Bargnani started slow, played sound defense, got really hot and was looked off way too much by our shoot first guards and wings
Turk tried to get something going but his offence was missing and he was too slow for Marion
DeRozan played as expected…need to get him a little more involved on offence
Calderon had something to prove which he did by taking the brunt of the loss on his shoulders..he took too many early shots, looked off hot shooters ( Bargs), and made some piss poor passes, and couldn’t lob a pass in for his life
Jack was awful..did nothing on defense and needs to stop shooting so much as he’s a horrible shooter.
Wright needs to play defense and forget about jacking up everything he sees…he was awful
Triano needs to get people to play to their strengths or sit them down and try others.
Bosh, Bargs should be the primary scorers with Hedo next then Jose then DeRozan. Wright and Jack should pass and play defense.
Triano..Tell the guards to “pass the f%%####in ball. Barganani started tom get hot in the second quarter and was ignored…Give the ball to the big three, and play defense…
Amen!
How many people would rather see DeRozan try to look for his on offense? How many people would rather see Wright look for his offense LESS?
The reason DeRozan can’t look for his offense is because he’s the 5th option in the starting lineup. The reason Wright is looking for his offense is because Jack is having trouble hitting the backside of a barn right now.
Put Wright in the starting lineup and his role will be 0% offense 100% defense. Put DeRozan in the bench and we’ll at least get to develop his offensive and defensive game at the same rate! As of right now we’re seeing very little of what DeRozan is capable of. Bringing him along at snails place is not the right way of doing things. Please for the love of god let him come off the bench.
DeRozan’s cuts/slashes to the basket are sorely needed in the second unit. In the first unit Jose/Hedo are too busy looking for Bargs/Bosh.
+1
Well last night Wright going 1-9 was a momentum killer!
I agree. Wright seems to be getting carried away with the idea of being a shooter. I wish he’d stop that.
The shooting guard position, right now is a “black hole” that needs to be fixed if Rap’s are going to win tough games.
I feel Belinelli isn’t getting enough burn for us to see what he’s capable of. So far this season he isn’t exactly “looking for his” and hasn’t been very selfish. I’d like to see him become a more integral part of our second unit. He’s a better shooter than Jack, Wright, and DeRozan so I don’t see the problem with him chucking instead of them.
He’s the only player on the second unit that has any potential of becoming a consistent scoring threat.
You’re wrong. The momentum killer was in the 2nd quarter.
Score is 37-39. Toronto down by 2. What does Triano do.
Pair Caldron and Jack together. End of half down by 7.
Stupid rotations is what’s killing this team.
Even when Wright shoots terrible he was a positive affect.
Toronto is down by 13 in the 3rd quarter when Wright comes in.
He plays roughly 7.5 minutes ends the 3rd quarter.
Toronto is down by 15. So he shoots terrible and yet Dallas can’t
take advantage. That means he’s really having a huge impact on
the defensive end. Look at the times Dallas widens the lead.
It’s at the times Caldron and Jack play together.
This combination doesn’t work. Triano is losing these games.
He allows poor matchups. And Wright who is your best defender
should be starting and getting 25 to 30 minutes a game.
Just watched a replay of the game. Didn’t know the result so I was pretty excited, especially after the great 1st quarter they played. After that it was just dissapoinment. Thought of Colangelo’s decision to sell Marion and buy the Turk. If we kept him we could play better D. Marion was awsome last night.
And ur damn right about DeRozan, he should get a bigger role in the offence. Isn’t that a part of learning the game?
Bosh spent so much energy on offence in the first half, he is probably tired in the second half. Yes, I get it, it’s your contract year, and you want your offensive stats to look good. But if you don’t play D, especially on someone like Dirk, then you are just screwing the team.
You looked great last night, I agree. But you couldn’t defend your own frigging shadow.
Bosh and Bargnani both covered Dirk last night…and when he’s on fire, like he was last night, he’s virtually unstoppable…to bad you’re too dense to realize that.
Johnson’s Offense
1. I agree that his footwork is let us say non-existent. This is the fault of the Pistons but the Raptors are stuck for now with paying $3.5 million a year to a guy who came out of high school to the NBA and was never coached in developing good footwork. When Bynum first came to the Lakers he didn’t have any footwork either on offense but Kareem worked with him and now Bynum probably has more moves underneath of any big man in the NBA except for maybe Kaaman.
2. Johnson has trouble finishing when challenged because he has no footwork and I believe he also has small hands. The only time you ever see him dunk with one hand is on a break away.
3. When Johnson was with the Pistons they actually were running a couple of plays for him on offense. One was a back to basket hook shot which he is fairly proficient at and the other was the pick and roll which he actually ran pretty well. However other than that he has absolutely no low post game. No turn around jump shot etc. He claims that for whatever reason he is focusing more on his defense at this point in his career along with his shooting.
4. He also has no abiltiy to create because his footwork is not there in addition to not having very good handles, however
5. He showed last year that he can shoot from 15 – 20 feet with good success when he is open. This year he is I believe 9-10 on free throws so I have no doubt that if the Raptors ran plays for him coming off a pick, like a pick and pop that the Pistons ran for McDyess, or the pick and roll that Johnson could effectively put up 8 – 10 points in 20 minutes.
Most likely that will not happen and he will go to the end of the bench once Evans returns.
Johnson is only here for one year so we’re not really ’stuck’ with his contract.
that post is spot on! my worst fears about wright have become completely true. ever since he shot his first three(even hough it went in gm 1) i knew he was going to be a problem. he seems to be one of those players that is using hard defense to get minutes to play offense.to prove something. which doesnt sound so bad except for the fact hes not a good offensive player and hes the guy that the opposing team wants to leave open. hes kind of like moon except hes a better defender. there was one sequence in the third when we started to rally that proves my point. he drove missed the contested layup ,got the rebound, went up again got blocked but kept the ball dribbled down the baseline with three guys wide open including bargs and put up a brick!! he didnt even look!! how many times has the ball stopped at him during a swing around the perimiter!? hes the king at looking off open shooters, so he can look for his own.
hes definetly using his opportunity with us selfishly, theres been small signs every game, last night he put up a billboard.
sometimes when a guy like this hits some shots it ends up hurting more then helping because it gives false sense of confidence. this guy should not be taking so many minutes from demar or marco. demar was playing solid against howard in the first. he got robbed on a charge call and then got benched JT needs to reckognize this soon. also i agree that bargs should have stayed on dirk bosh cant and couldnt guard him last night… wow that feels better i feel lighter.
Why don’t you look at the play by play.
Wright came in the 3rd Toronto was down by 13.
Played 7.5 minutes Toronto was down by 15.
Wright shot terrible yet Dallas couldn’t really
widen the margin. That’s how strong his defense is.
In three phases Dallas widen the score margin on
Toronto. Two of those phases Caldron and Jack
were paired together.
It’s rotations that’s killing this team.
Wright should start and play 25 to 30 minutes.
its not they couldnt widen the margin its that we couldnt put a dent in the margin after 13. it was our turn to have a run. i dont dont need to look at a play by play to know when somebody is hurting the offensive rhythem and being selfish. its not just about the 3rd quarter for me there has been signs of this in alot of the games, its just last nights 1 for 9 was so awful it couldnt go without a mention.
if his D was so good then why did terry and howard abuse us like that.
we’re over rating him because hes a our defensive luke skywalker ie our only hope. we just really want him to be that good.
As far as the game goes like I posted last night the Raptors were not contesting shots and were not keeping the Mavs shooters off of their sweet spots.
Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon all played a soft game on defense. Only 2 fouls called on them in a road game!!! Are you kidding me? The only way that you only have 2 fouls called on your 3 or your top 4 offensive guys in a road game is when they are not within 3 feet of the guy who they are supposed to be defending.
The soft tone of the game was set early and the Raptors just could not match the shooting ducks in the pond with the Mavs.
So according to Triano, Jose take it personally when thing are written about him:
Jose…please stop looking off of our big 3 just so that you can get yours and still create the illusion of relevance.
What I don’t understand is how it took the writers to light a fire under your ass? You couldn’t watch 1 quarter of film from last season to see that you’re slow and lack any initiative on either end of the floor?
I prefer you as a full time pig farmer.
Let me guess, you were a Ford truther
No guy…I was Jose all the way.
Guess my “highly skilled basketball acumen” allows me to admit I was wrong.
Dang, it always impresses me how clearly you see the game and then put it all to paper, Arsenalist. Which is exactly why I check in on this site.
For what it’s worth, I thought Bargnani going through that funk-ish ‘not sure what to do with the ball – ok, I’ll shoot but I don’t think it’s going in’ thing that we see from him every now and again, might’ve been the difference in how this game ended up going. Bosh was bringing it. Energy all around was good early on, but they were almost playing around Bargs (it looked to me) and he wasn’t helping himself a whole lot … but then again, Nowitski did have a lot of his attention. I just thought that whatever Bargnani did – and by the tallies, I guess he did something – he did it while almost half-asleep. I was wishing someone would call his mama a bad name or do something else that would get him steamed and nasty ‘cause he looked a bit too passive (or maybe intimidated just that bit – by Nowitski?) for my liking. Then by the second half, when he was ready to shoot some, the rest of the team wasn’t quite synced up for it. I’ll have to watch some of that again, to see if it looks the same to me, the second time. But it’s sort of how I saw it.
Arsenalist: your substance is good – but your writing needs a lot of work. If you’re really serious about this blog, see a writing coach. You have way too many run-on sentences, which makes your posts very difficult to read (i.e. “Even if you consider the team still gelling and all that chemistry stuff, that’s still a very high percentage to give up, in fact, it’s the worst given up by any team this season and everybody’s played back-to-backs.” – That can’t be all be in one sentence!).
I love what you guys do at Raptors Republic. Judging by the amount of traffic you guys get, I’m not the only one. If you were to improve on this, the quality of your posts (and the R.R. product as a whole) would be significantly better.
IS IT JUST ME, OR DID U GUYS GET PISSED WHEN HEDO WAS SMILING AFTER WE GOT BLOWN OUT AT THE END OF THE GAME?
I wasn’t pissed however was surprised to see that he and Dirk embraced like too old high school friends – they were never team mates.
Dirk and the Turk have a long history of competing for their country in international tournements.
The whole NBA is like that…and pretty rediculous too I think. Everyone is always shaking hands like they havent seen each other in years and are close friends…
What’s the big deal…it’s good sportmanship. It’s not like they play less hard because they know the other guy(s).
It might look a bit off-putting to some of us to see easy smiles and friendly greetings to the opponents that just handed out a beating … but the way I see it, when you’re cashing cheques every two weeks for anywhere from sixty thousand to half a million – and that’s if they have a pay-schedule that spreads it out over the whole calendar year … life is good.
wsg … tribal honking fans are filled with hatred for the other team players and require “wins” to make their pathetic lives bearable … because most likely they are non-athletic crud .. who fill out their #4 jerseys with their bellies and not their chests.. and you can see them in the stands … munching and honking … like dorks … so obvious.
I dunno about that. Bill Russell was fond of saying that in any sport, even high jumping in high school, he knew he could beat a man if he could get to talk to him before the event. He often had Wilt over for dinner and treated him as a friend, but the day he announced his retirement, he also criticized Wilt for his lack of heart (in game 7 of the finals when Wilt asked to be taken out with a minor injury.) To Russell, it was all about the W. No friends for him once the ball went up.
Then there’s the case of VC versus MJ, especially the time he asked on the court could he get MJ’s phone number. MJ felt that day that he owned Vince.
Not all players can get rid of the stars in their eyes.
I was pissed, especially after the game he had.
No reason to be pissed imo. The season’s 82 games long and if it’s a question of toughness, Hedo’s the only “tough guy” we got in the starting lineup. Seriously. He pushes people to the floor every chance he gets, a la KG. Just watch him off the ball on defense.
/* STEALS STAT */
[# steals Raptors]-[# steals other team] [W/L]
vs Cleveland: 4-4 (W)
@ Memphis: 7-11 (L)
vs Orlando: 2-11 (L)
vs Detroit: 7-3 (W)
@ New Orleans: 6-6 (W)
@ Dallas: 5-11 (L)
TEAM STAT
1. Lakers 11.00 steals/game
[...]
30. Raptors 5.16 steals/game
why are we so bad? team defense? unathletic or low IQ players?
Triano wants to run BUT it seems that we are not good in stealing/rebounding…not a good sign…
Actually we are rebounding. The rebounding this year has been fairly decent. We are not getting steals because no one on the team is an over agressive defender. Once Demar gets use to the speed (give the kid 20 games), he should be a much better Defender.
I like the point you make about the steals. Forcing turnovers IS EXACTLY what the raps need to do if they wanna be phoenix north.
I agree with Truth. Rebounding has greatly improved. They’re not getting smoked on the glass like last year.
Yes, Bill NoFace, the Raptors are currently dead last in the number of home steals per game (http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_team_statistics/sortable2.html?cnf=1&prd=1#top), and one of the bottom feeders in steals-differential (New Jersey = currently worst steals differential). But the stat for home steals per game doesn’t tell the entire story on defense.
3rd on the same list in home steals per game is Minnesota (currently 1-5) and 28th is Orlando (currently 5-1).
As for rebounds, the leading team for rebounds-differential is Memphis, whose team record is 1-6. Boston is 27th in rebounds per game at 39.25, but they are sitting at 7-1.
Raptors are currently at .500, which is better record than a number of people predicted we’d be at this point.
That’s why you shouldn’t rely exclusively on stats from two weeks into the season.
Some people need to chill out and stop hitting the panic button. It’s a long season and we have a new team. We must keep improving on rebounding and overall defense, and it’s clear that we are doing just that. Patience.
Steals is amongst the most unreliable of defensive statistics.
Many players boost their steals totals (like Iverson) by gambling, leaving their man to go through passing lanes. If it works – great, if you miss (or the pass was a bluff) your team is playing 4 on 5 and your man is unguarded!
It doesn’t usually take teams long to figure out who taking chances and work that to their advantage.
If the steals are due to your own team’s bad play – then you are in trouble.
If Hedo doesn’t show up, they will not win any. They won the one they needed on Friday. 3-3. Some babble was about conditioning in the preseason, 2-6? I prefer 3-3. Yay.
Here’s what the numbers say about the Raptors strengths and weaknesses. According to Hollinger’s PER stat, the best of the regulars are Bosh, Bargnani, and Turkoglu. Not surprisingly, Bosh and Bargnani are noticeably above their career average PER. Bosh’s current PER — 33.1 — is higher than any player has ever achieved in one season. The highest I know of is Lebron & Jordan at 31.7. He is unlikely to finish with the highest PER of all time, but it illustrates the kind of season he is having (something I was trying to do in another thread and got savaged for it). Bargnani’s PER last year was only 14.6 because of his slow start under Mitchell.
If you take the “Defensive Rating” and subtract it from the “Offensive Rating”, you get a pretty good +/- that tells you what’s happening when these guys are in the ball game. By that stat, Bosh is +17, Il Mago is +5, Turkoglu is +2. No other regular is above zero. Calderon is -10, Wright is -15, DeRozan is -3, and Jack is [gulp] -28. Of the guys that haven’t played 100 minutes yet, Belinelli is -13, Amir Johnson is +29, Rasho is +18. That means all of the frontcourt players except Wright are above zero.
Then there’s 82games.com’s Roland Rating. It suggests Belinelli is contributing more than the +/- stat — also Belinelli’s PER is the best among the Raptors guards at the moment, and well above his career average. It’s also a bit easier on Calderon, but it also suggests the worst of the regulars are Jack and Wright.
I’d also like to insert these comments. Bosh and Bargnani are shooting the ball extremely well. Bosh’s True Shooting percentage is.632, and his Effective Field Goal percentage is .552. Bargnani’s TS is .662, and his EFG is .619. Turkoglu’s numbers are above .500 on both counts.
I’m prepared to draw the following conclusions from this data.
1. Bosh and Bargnani should be shooting and playing more.
2. The fact that all front court players are having a fast start, or a career year so far can’t be a coincidence. The guards are mostly doing the opposite. Jarrett Jack and Calderon are playing far worse than they ever have. I think this speaks to how the team was prepared in the offseason/preseason.
3. Antoine Wright should be playing and shooting less. Wright’s numbers are well below-average for his entire career, and he is a .293 shooter from the arc.
4. This is how I would coach Jack to get his game to improve. “You see that guy out there with the #4 on his jersey? Give him the ball. If that doesn’t work, give it to the guy with the #7 on his jersey.”
References:
Raps advanced stats so far
82games.com’s Raps stats
Bosh is the #1 recipient of Calderon passes so to balance out things , Jack should look to pass to Andrea more when he is moving toward the basket or when he is hot from the perimeter.
It would be appropriate for the Raps to get both guys more shots.
Bosh will usually get his – the team’s offense has always revolved around CB4.
But Calderon, Bosh, and Jack need to be more aware of Bargs. To often he’s left deep in the post with the defender on his back and never sees the ball. Or the pick and roll is met with a double team leaving Bargs on the 3-point line by himself, unfortunately the Raps don’t see him either.
Looking at some numbers, I think I can safely say that Calderon’s problem is rust. Compared to the career norm, Calderon’s assist percentage is down over 10%, his shooting percentages are down 100 points or more, and most tellingly, his free throw percentage is 200 points off his career norm. It’s well known that he took the summer off, and I think his slow start is merely lack of sharpness that comes with lots of playing time. That will change, if he stays healthy.
Jack’s problem, according to numbers available on 82games.com, is very simple: When he’s asked to play shooting guard, he’s lost in space. Look for yourself. His PER when he’s playing point guard is 11.2, very close to his career average (13.2). When playing shooting guard his PER is a horrible 3.3, while his opponent is producing to the tune of 24.9. In other words, with Jack at the 2, the opponent shooting guard suddenly becomes as productive as Kobe Bryant. But, to return to the minutes Jack is playing at point guard, the counterpart’s PER is only 12.6.
Now, it’s well known that Triano has been playing Jack, Calderon, and Turkoglu simultaneously at the end of close games, and otherwise been playing Jack and Calderon together a lot. Clearly Jack is struggling mightily in this situation. And it’s so unnecessary, because the Raps already have DeRozan and Belinelli playing well at the 2. They don’t actually need to force Jack out of position.
Random point…
I can’t stand chris bosh’s public persona…and I really despised his play and attitude last year.
But this year…wow. Can we please give the guy some major credit? He looks almost perfect. He gets fouled every time he touches the ball because he take it to the whole every time. And glad it’s not resulting in hard fouls. It’s like they foul him before he even goes up. Which should do well for his wear and tear.
I know we are only 6 games into the season. But if he keeps even 85% of this up…he is a legit max player. And I would be more than happy to keep him here because he has become such a pleasure to watch.
But what happens after he gets the max.?
I have a problem with players behaving/playing above their heads in their contract year. Never saw this with Wade or Kobe or Lebron or Howard or Nash or Jordan when it wasnt their contract year or had not-so-seriously-good teams. Yes, Bosh is playing really well right now…but why wasnt the bulk-up or game intensity not as much in the previous couple of years for example?
Because the team was nowhere near worth it.
Hmmm…did Wade tank it the past couple of years because the Heat were “nowhere worth it”?
Do you tank it at work because part of the crew are lacking? Is that a good m.o. to have? Seems like a deficient character trait to me.
Wade was “injured” for much of it.
When we say Max for Bosh, remember that means a $27,000,000 salary in the final season of that deal. It’s a huge decision for Colangelo and MLSE.
Not really, salary cap’s about to shrink next year and I think a max salary is something like 30% of that so it’s not going to be that high (correct me if I’m wrong).
Max money players will want to play for big market teams in the US … and they will get big endorsement contracts from Nike, Adidas, GM, Ford, WalMart to supplement their base max money contracts … looking to double their annual income.
LeBron, Wade, Kobe, even Bosh can really boost their incomes from sources other than bball … and that will be the attraction for these all-stars .. and Bosh is now performing at an all-star level with his new game … believe it.
I wonder if Cuban would ever trade Dirk for Dallas hometown boy Bosh … hmmmmm
Interesting question, ‘cause I don’t know who’d be more likely … or less likely to pull the trigger on that one. Cuban or Colangelo? Interesting question.
I don’t think BC would go after Dirk because his style of play is too similar to AB. If we lost Bosh due to FA, we would want to replce him with a defensive-minded, high rebounding C/PF. Although Bosh would mesh well with Dallas. Kidd, a pass first PG who rebounds well and is a good 3 point shooter, a nice slasher in Howard, defense and rebounding in Marion and probably a new C,then Bosh doing his thing and the Jet coming off the bench. Dallas would still be a strong team to be reckoned with.
Hey, here’s something really interesting that I’ve noticed about Andrea.
You’ll notice that when he has his eyes on the basket, he always (85%) scores. When he looks up at the last second, he tries to correct the shot with his follow-through. He needs to relax when he shoots, and you’ll notice that when he has time, he will.
We need him to be at least 50% of Dirk. No, I’m not making that remark because they’re both foreign… lol