The ‘that was pretty boring’ edition.
Banks – the anchor.
Bargnani – the return of the foul. He had one of those nights where you just wanted to push him to the basket more. Seems like the days of him finishing hard like he did the first few games of the season are already fading from memory. It’s fine when his outside touch is on, but he had a few opportunities down low tonight that could have converted into buckets.
Belinelli – I was surprised by how long it took him to get subbed in. Played well out of the gate, lost his touch late. A lot of his play patterns tonight (cutting through the paint and doing the up-curl) reminded me of Kapono last year, so have to wonder if those “plays” that were run for Kap are coming back for Marco this year.
Bosh – the curse of Amare remains. Sure, Bosh played off him on the switch for a portion of the game, but for the times they were matched up, Amare seemed to have no issue taking it to Bosh. On the other end, though, Chris continues to impress with his paint play. Horrible hands on a pass from Belli and a poor timing choice on that 3pt attempt, but still the focal point of this team.
Calderon – not the most impressive line, but when you consider he ended up guarding Amare, he fared well. You could tell he was up for this game from the outset and I’m sure it came from Triano being in his ear trying to guide him on what Nash was going to do. I think it is safe to say that Jose is pretty much back and all the hate can start to stop.
DeRozan – maybe he is learning that a good effort and listening to your coach tell you where you should be on the floor actually results in more playing time. We need him to start attracting attention because teams will start fading off him. Need to make them pay.
Evans - faker.
Jack – still subpar, but some good stuff happened off his drives and kicks. A common theme amongst our guards, but attack and kick or attack and go up are two things that seem to work quite a bit this season.
Johnson – I’m beginning to wonder if instead of carrying a bag with his gear in it if he doesn’t just carry a lunch pail. This man was working again tonight, even shooting a good percentage. Maybe a little Bosh inspiration has rubbed off and Amir is thinking of taking up residence in the paint on the offensive end as well as the defensive end. He is JYD without the towel waving and I like it.
Nesterovic – didn’t play since we were actually trying to win this game.
O’Bryant – anybody else think that the only reason he isn’t on the IR is because he doesn’t own a suit?
Turkoglu- maybe the “Mister 4th Quarter” moniker only applies for the first 11:50? We were finally in a situation that called for the reason we paid big bucks for him but, unfortunately, it didn’t pan out. He deserves a lot of credit for keeping us in it down the stretch and he had another game where he seemed to take a step forward. Be nice to see what he can do when he is not tired or banged up. 2012?
Weems – Only played 8min, but didn’t do badly for someone who rarely sees the floor. It’s his job to be active and try to shake free from his defender to make something happen. He did 50% of those things tonight, which is pretty good from a scrub.
Wright – didn’t play because he hates the gorilla. Reminds him of his first girlfriend.
Driving The Bus: Chris Bosh
Under The Bus: Jarrett Jack
Game Theme:
81 Raps
A tad harsh on Bargnani and way too easy on Jack. His turnovers lost the game for us, he singlehandedly presented the momentum back to Phoenix.
And Triano’s switching strategy is insane…didn’t he realize he was playing right into the Sun’s hands? Or is that Iavaroni talking…
You got that right, Arse … Jack is just not reliable as a PG, and that is very obvious now. I wonder why Banks cannot be resurrected as a PG .. I know he’s somewhat of a head case… but anything now must be better than Jack.
Exactly. I’ve never hated Jack so much so quickly. Everyone was calling for his head and deservedly so. It’s one thing to miss shots but not being able to handle the ball in those key situations is disastrous. The “jack should start over Jose” chants look elementary right now :p
Bargs played Amar’e better than Bosh.
Jack is being killed by Triano’s insistence of playing him with Calderon. It’s not working and Jack is losing more confidence in himself every time Jay does this. Jay needs to let Jack just play his 14-16 minutes per night as a back-up PG.
The switching was working. Jose played great on Amar’e. Bosh and Bargs(especially) gave Nash a headache.
Suns scored 10 points less than their average. The Raps defense was outstanding.
I actually though both played Amare well, but Bargnani allowed him too many offensive rebounds. That was really the only difference bwteen the two. There was one play in the fourth when Bargnani failed to box Amare out and the only reason Amare didn’t score was because he fumbled it out of bounds. Still, I thought Bargnani did a solid job defensively.
Agreed, the Calderon/Jack combo is the problem. Does not work. I don’t think it really has anything to do with confidence though, probably more of a size issue.
Too bad Wright wasn’t playing. I like his decision making and you can count on him for D.
Bargs defense on Frye was terrible. Three 3pointers in the first half but three 3pointers in the third Q alone(wtf?). Sam would have benched Bargs once two went in from Frye. We really needed Wright for the Suns game. Close game though, it is showing that these guys are getting over the hump as regards to defense without Bargs buying in as usual.
I don’t know who is better, Frye or AB !!! They basically seem to be doing the same thing but Frye doing it more efficient. Also, what is up with tose off balance, leaning forward after pump fake shots by AB !!! You know they are no good when you see him leaping forward and taking them.
Also, Did you see how many time Calderon got cut in the switch down low in the post against Amare !!! Our coaching staff really blow that one :)
Very disapointing play at the end by Raptors and the coachs, they should have drive in. Triano needs to do much better job !!
Calderon vs Nash ;) I guess it is easy to see the difference between a top PG in this league and a guy who just brings the ball up the floor and pulls back , low Assist/TO :) Awsome :)
Thw switching on the screen and rolls were a great strategy. It worked for good portions of the game. We always brought a second defender on Amare to get the ball out of his hands and recovered great. If we didn’t Amare and Nash would have carved us out a new one with alley oop dunks. Overall I can’t be disappointed in how we played. If Hedo made that shot you wouldn’t be complaining.
The last play was the right call. Hedo single handedly tied the game for us then gave us the lead on one-one plays, he deserved the last shot, and got a good look too. I’m sure Bosh wasn’t complaining after carrying the pressure of taking the last shot every season until now.
“Very disapointing play at the end by Raptors and the coachs, they should have drive in. Triano needs to do much better job !!” Hedo deserved the last shot!? Deserved? WTF?
Did you see how many time Calderon was switched on purpose on to Amar’e. Amar’e turned the ball over 4 times. Calderon was better guarding Amar’e than Bosh.
I hope u r kidding, how about those Dunks by Amare on Jose :) The guy dunkned atleast 5 times on Jose with ease !!!
Thar switch was exact thing that Sun wanted whole game.
You make me sad.
What the Suns want is to run the pick and roll. Which they never got to, pretty much all game, because of those switches.
I think it was a genius move by Triano.
No, I think it was the right play call. Taking a gamble on a foul call is iffy. He had a great look, and it just rimmed out. The important thing to take from this is that we competed. Now…we add Wright and evans to this equation and we can think of the possibilities. Sometimes we can put Wright on Nash; and Evans on Amare. I think the raptors may be able to defend Phoenix fairly better next time. Overall, I thought this was the best game plan set up that the Raptors have had going into a game with Phoenix. Credit the coaches.
I disagree, it wasn’t a great look, he had the defense right up on him, he fumbled the ball and launched an off balance falling to the side trey that caught rim but wasn’t really that close. On the other hand you have Bosh (who made his move a little early IMO) rolling to the hoop, get it in his hands (he was onhis strong side too, goin left, using his body to put SCAT under the rim with no chance to block him. Being down one Bosh likely would have either made the basket (win!) or drawn a foul (hits both its a win) and even if they had run the play before the clock ran out a basket an and one or even one free throw would’ve kept the game going.
Forcing the action at the basket is a much better shot than a three under mad pressure. Jay gambled and lost, just wish his tell hadn’t been so obvious.
Wasn’t a three – was a midrange jumper.
Even worse, if you’re gonna take a 21 foot 2 pt J, may as well take a step back and make it a 3.
Actually, it would have been better if the ball was to Bosh in the post(just like the Minnesota buzzer beater over the Nets). A shot in the post is an high percentage shot than a mid-range one. A blown call by the coaches imo.
Do you mean a two time league mvp !!!!
They should have never faded from the Bosh and Nash match-up, if they stuck with it for 48 minutes we would have won…still good game.
Anyone want to trade our 2 POS PGs for a bag of manure?!?!?!
Thanks a lot ‘Cluless Colangelo’ for drafting us a SG who cant shoot while 2 idiots continue to run our point
P.S. do you think BC caught Jennings dropping 55 5 and 5 last night!?
On the floor in the final minutes:
Jose.. Bargs.. Belinelli.. Hedo.. AND … big bad muthah Bosh …LOL
When Hedo scored his last 3 pointer, the Rap’s bench jumped up and cheered … all except for Jack, who sat there looking dejected and demoralized … which tells ya a lot …..
i noticed that as well! he might be another TJ! i really hope not
Jack doesn’t seem to fit in with the Raptors … and neither did he with the Pacers …!!!!
Why because he is off to a slow start…another ridiculous comment from FAQ with absolutely no merit…so obvious.
bargnani did a weirdly decent job guarding nash one on one….is it just me or does bargnani get looked off like all the time when he rolls to the basket on the pick and roll?
good game.
It is not you. We have a PG who is scared to make a risky pass that might bring his Assist/TO ratio down.
If you’re going to try to rip on Jose, then at least give him the credit he deserves. He threw a nice alley-oop to Bosh. Your implication that Jose is worried about his A/TO ratio is ludicrous. Jose is NOT a guy that worries about his overall stats. He’s not playing for a contract. He plays for his team to win. That’s it. He plays with passion. When he hesitates to make a risky pass, it’s because he has his head in the game and wants to maximize the possession. Is he a bit too safe? Maybe, but don’t imply that he only cares about his stats or his assist ratio because that’s just not true.
I’m with you on that. He does seem to get looked off a lot. He needs to be more involved in the offense. I thought Turk should have passed to him on the last play. Also, I know Bosh is playing well, and putting up great numbers, but I just don’t feel it when he has the ball in his hands. Too many questionable shots and slows down the offense. Plus, Amare pretty much had his way, although I know that wasn’t all on Bosh.
And I’ll finally admit it, when I thought about Nash playing for Toronto I always thought “but we have Calderon and he’s almost as good …” Was I off. Like when I thought Loverboy was going to be the next Led Zeppelin off.
Can’t complain with a one point loss in Phoenix I guess.
Jack’s minutes at 2-guard killed the ball team in this game. Triano should limit him to a few minutes at the point and play Belly or DDR, or Weems, or…anybody else on the team at the 2.
Worst 2 minutes of the game. 7-2 Suns. Those 5 points cost the Raps the game!
JT a little slow in calling that time out as well !!
Would have liked to see Bosh get a touch late with Hedo hurting but the refs were brutal and the bad calls at the end of the 2nd kept the suns in the game. We should have had a bigger lead.
Jack at the 2 needs to end. He is barely earning minutes at the PG. He can thanks Banks for that.
Gawd, that’s why we have Sonny Weems, he’s big and quick enough to guard 2-guards.
We hung in there with a team tied for the best record in the West. We almost won, and except for some especially boneheaded plays by ahem, our 2-guard, and some horrible shooting by Bargnani who should have pounded Frye on the inside, we could have pulled this one out.
It is disappointing because we clearly COULD have won this game but didn’t. But, it is also a positive sign that we really COULD have won this game against a very good opponent.
Our defence was not atrocious, and we kept their wings from getting into the game by some nice chases off the three-point line. Anyone who would prefer Frye to Bargnani simply needs to read Triano’s quote about how much better people shoot when Nash is on the floor. You think Frye is that good when Dragic is playing?
Tough loss, but a good one.
Oh, ya, and when will Triano get Jack off of that 2-spot? There is plenty of minutes for both of them at the PG.
You are correct about AB being able to pound Frye inside but the problem is that he never does !!! He never takes advangate of his size, his speed under the post. As an example in the last 2 games, he showed he is able to fly by Kaman or Amare , but how many times did he do that in the game !!!! Today against Frye, he could have back him down on the post and just dominate him but he never did that.
Looking at Bosh these days, he seems like a guy who is going to battle. He is fighting with all he got and I just do not see that from AB.
Jack will be fine. He is proven player but not being used right ( 2 guard) as a Raptor.
The 2 guard play is killing Jack’s confidence.
Jack has low PG bball IQ … and depresses the team at PG … he just doesn’t seem to inspire any drive in the team from the PG position … so obvious. How much longer will JT wait to get results from this veteran guard player, and did the Pacers also see the deficiencies in this guy?!
I don’t think BC will want to trade Jack soon since he was Bosh’s college buddy … but what can you do with the guy ..?!
I feel more confident with Jack at point than Roko, which is nothing much (comparing vomit to oatmeal). Triano should get it in his head that the two point guard thing is just stupid, the shooters will shoot over them because they are under 6′ 3″ and can’t jump that high. Just like TJ Ford and Calderon on the floor together, f#$^’n useless.
I also think Triano should realize that Sonny Weems can play a solid 10-15 minutes ON THE ROAD.
It’s a shame Hedo didn’t hit the game winner, but we’re paying him to take that shot. And we wouldn’t have even had a chance to win without him.
To me, this comment sums up the game.
Hedo made up for all those open looks he missed with those big ballz shots. I’m peeved that the refs and our defense let us down on that Nash And1.
I don’t think anybody would have thought the Raptors would be playing at the level they are on this road trip. Let’s not forget: THIS IS THE HARDEST PART OF THE SCHEDULE!!
So to all the hardcore Raptors fans out there, you have a lot to be proud of this year. We have a team that can compete night in and night out with the top brass of the NBA.
Anybody remember how this game would have turned out last year? We should be grateful that BC found all of the hidden gems (Johnson, Belinelli, Weems, Wright – wish he played today) for an affordable price.
I hope Bosh see’s the light at the end of the tunnel come 2010 Free Agency.
Maybe I’m just really optimistic, but now that I’ve seen how the Raptors match up against some of the better teams in the league, it’s kind of hard to be a hater.
+1
I am appreciative of this season a lot, despite some hair-pulling moments (all of our players will do that, as long as they don’t complain about starting minutes during interviews). A lot of useful, talented young guns on our bench and BCo did what I requested from him, find the bench gems, get rid of Kapono for a bunch of testicles.
It seems Bargs has these games where he gets run of the 3 and always takes off balance pull ups.
He certainly needs to hone his stop after he dribbles past the run-out. If he could elevate straight up on those (and he has done so in the past) consistently, he would hit them all the time.
Those leaners make me very very angry last night, those shots could of been traded for better ones.
Anybody think if we had Wright we would’ve won this? Or even Evans? This loss hurts like hell, but you can definitely take a lot of good from it.
I think having Wright covering Nash or doubling in the post would have definitely made a difference.
Maybe, maybe not. Seeing Weems take his minutes last night was a joy to watch and he helped build that 10 point lead we had.
IS anyone else GETTING sick and tired of barney picking up like 3 boards while averaging 35+ minutes nightly!!!!! FFS
I gotta give Triano credit for his defensive strategy against Phoenix’s pick-and-roll. It takes a lot of balls (and faith in your players) to commit so heavily to the switch. And it really did work. I mean there were other things that Nash did to counter it (man is he crafty), but I’m betting the amount of assists he had to Amare were well below average. For the most part we dictated the tempo against a team that is one of the best at dictating tempo. If our offense doesn’t become stagnant for the first half of the 4th, I think we had this.
I thought Bargnani got at least 2 crappy fouls called on him. I agree that he should be more assertive offensively (some of those moves he made today made you wonder why he wasn’t doing it more often), but I liked his play. He played surprisingly well when switched on Nash and he made timely buckets.
We lived and died with Hedo in the 4th. Don’t have a problem with that, even though I desperately wanted to win today.
Maybe a little Bosh inspiration has rubbed off and Amir is thinking of taking up residence in the paint on the offensive end as well as the defensive end.>>
=============
Based upon what I have seen of his game over the last 4 years his play has picked up because Triano has shown confidence in him and trusted him.
When Johnson starts scoring 15 + a game, I won’t hold my breadth on that one, then maybe we can say that Bosh’s influence is affecting Johnson’s game.
Even though I have posted it before you guys have no idea how Curry messed with Johnson’s head last year. It was a total psych out job by an absolutely terrible coach.
It got so bad with Johnson that around the all star game I emailed a basketball friend of mine and said “Johnson is dead, this is the not the real Amir Johnson ”
By that time Curry had so messed with the kid’s head that Johnson’s self confidence was totally shot and you could see that all he wanted was for the year to end. It was really sad to see.
He played fair in the LVSL, which he volunteered for and then the Bucks dumped him in a trade.
So add this to Curry’s psycho job on him and it didn’t surprise me the way he started with the Raptors.
What we are seeing now is getting closer to the real Amir Johnson but stil has a long way to go. Unfortunately I fear he will lose a lot of minutes once Evans is ready to play, which won’t do much for his self confidence or game.
We shall see
Is he still unemployed like Sam ? . Andrea was sure happy to see Sam go. Made a big difference in his game when JT took over.
After losing vs Suns tonight, I can tell with confidence that the Raptors this year is better than the last year. Yeah, the Suns are 8-2 and one of the best teams in the NBA, but I didn’t expect that tonight’s game will take me jumping in my couch.
However, a heart-breaking loss as Turkoglu missed the game-winning shot.
I guess that if Bosh is leaving Toronto in 2010, so does Jarrett Jack. Lots of turnovers and makes me go nuts.
I want to leave a comment again about DeRozan. He made a post on his Tweeter page last night that says that he believes that Brandon Jennings is better than him that he even predicted way back on his middle school that Jennings is going to be an amazing baller someday. I think he’s beginning to feel guilty of being drafted before Jennings. I mean, a rookie scoring 55 points? Are you kidding me? How about you DeRozan? I’m confident to say that DeRozan can’t score more than 55 points in his entire career. I will commit a 40 hr. volunteer service in a nursing home if this “future” Air Canada can score more or at least 50 points in his career.
OK, if Triano is not running plays for DeRozan, I think that proves everything that they’re not confident on DeRozan making shots. I’m sure they are starting to feel a “buyer’s remorse” on DeRozan. He didn’t even did any great things in USC aside from being a disputed MVP. Honestly, there’s a lot of former NBA playes — who were not in the NBA anymore obviously because they can’t compete in the NBA — who did great in NCAA but struggled in the NBA.
Anyways, good game tonight. Let’s Go Raptors!
just do the service b/c it’s a good thing to do.
“I will commit a 40 hr. volunteer service in a nursing home if this “future” Air Canada can score more or at least 50 points in his career.” LilRomeo
Expecting to see a copy of your volunteer hours posted here next week.
DeRozan has 44 points so far this season. He’ll pass 50 on Tuesday.
No, I meant scoring at least 50 points in a single game.
Oh, haha. You have got to let this go man. You are upset yes, but cut the kid some slack.
I have to ask, but do you believe BJ would score that many points if he played here? Whose shots would he take it from? Bosh? Bargs? Hedo? Calderon?
How many shots do you believe he would be allowed to take here?
Try to relax and enjoy the game as we are not doing to terrible this year.
What the fu.. is your problem with DD,do you want him taking 30 shots a game….hindsight is a wondeful gift…who do we draft next year oh great one !!!
John Wall :), and Bosh has never had a 5 point game, so I guess he’s pretty crap as well
Arent our picks going to Miami…
Perhaps the last possession was a broken play … because the logical play was to get the ball to Bosh to shoot for the win or get fouled and go for a win or tie at worse. The last play just didn’t look right even without a fumble … ya think ..???
The game will be replayed on RaptorTV starting at midnight and going to 2 AM … but I’m not going to stay up to see the last play again.
No, it was the right play. I think relying on a foul call in the NBA in the final seconds is risky. The refs like to let the players decide the outcome of close games. Wide open shot for Turk after a switch to get a mismatch is a good option. it worked out well – it just didnt go down.
I think if he hadn’t fumbled the pass, he would have had a much cleaner shot. Oh, well, better luck next time.
I suspect Hedo took his shot in desperation after fumbling it and thinking that time was running down with no time to pass it into Bosh … oh well … we can forgive Hedo … but I can’t forgive Jack for his poor and inconsistent play.
I don’t know why Triano didn’t put Weems or DeRozan in run a back screen along the baseline for an alley-oop.
It would hve caught everyone flat footed and I think would have had a high chance of succeeding.
Just thinking out of the box.
Hang this loss around Jay Triano’s neck and call him stubborn! (Next time call him stupid!)
This game was lost in the 2:16 of the 4th quarter when Jack & Jose were played together again and the game went from 84-84 to 91-86 Suns. Jack bricks a 3 then turns the ball over for a fastbreak.
Triano is killing Jack’s confidence. Jack knows this loss is hanging on him – but it’s not Jack’s fault.
Jack’s been a good PG in the NBA and going back to college. But for some stupid reason (Jack is 6′ 3.5″) every coach tries to play him as a 2 guard. He’s BAD at it! He can’t defend 2s, he doesn’t shoot well enough to offset his inability to defend.
Jack & Jose together give the Raps their worst defensive line-up 136.8 points per 100 possessions!! TrueHoop article.
Will someone give Triano a wack upside of his head and wake him up before the Raps lose another one this way and our Good Back-up PG becomes useless to us.
Totally agree. Never was a fan of Jack at the two let alone both him jose on the floor at the same time.
Its Not Jacks fault. Jack said it himself in one of those cut scene Interviews they have during a game last week or so that he “doesnt really no his role yet”
Hedo even echoed those remarks around the same time saying that it “takes getting used to play with 2 pgs”
What gives, who is who? They dont even know when they are on the floor together.
Even Beli would give them a ball handler if that is what JT wants. Very smitchy in his stubbornness to still play a line that does not work.
Beli got 28 minutes , Jack 18 so JT is beginning to cut down on Jack time at the 2 spot . Beli may also get some of Jack time at the 1 spot. The good thing is that everyone on the second unit will have to earn their minutes, there will not be give-me as in golf.
Well this was probably one of those loses that you can’t complain that much about. Hedo was playing with one hip and he kept us in the game down the stretch, plus the last second shot was forced due to a fumble he made.
Raps fans should look at the upside of this game that we CAN compete at a higher level with good teams like this. Remember last year, we would have been blown out badly by scoring like 127 pts.
We should be thankful that we have a player who can atleast keep us in games when needed the most. i’m looking forward to the next phx game! Ihope they can carry the positives with them into denver!
Really don’t get the love of putting Jack at the 2 spot, it’s not working
Triano must recognize that the Jackeron is not working. I mean, Jack had already 2 To in first half in 2 minutes. He is not at his best. Keep him on the bench and play point forward Turk or Beli in the 2nd half.Tske the W,everyone is happy, then next day have a talk face to face and build from there.Triano must stop the Jackeron
I don’t think anyone can figure it out.
Any Raptor scribes talk about it yet?
2012 in the Turk comment?……….. Please explain