In what amounted to another middle-finger being pointed at the Raptors by our ex-franchise player, Vince Carter had the last laugh again. How ridiculously ill conceived is this plan to honour Raptors greats of the past? I mean, Oakley was cool because he is years removed from playing, and he’s interesting. But making a fuss about players like MoPete, Bonner and VC while they are still playing and trying to get wins for their teams (against the Raptors) is stupid. At least we didn’t have a “Sea of Blue” cross-promotion with the Leafs as the Magic rolled into town.
I enjoy playing in that atmosphere and I enjoy coming back here and playing, just being a part of this.” Carter said. “This is where it all started.
At the end of the day, this Magic team is on a different level than the Raptors. They were missing an injured Jameer Nelson, and Brandon Bass didn’t get off the bench, and still had more than enough to take this one to the bank.
I’m really only concerned with the 4th quarter, as the first three were evenly played. The same issues are starting to surface, and we are seeing some developments in the fourth quarter that are very,very concerning in my humble opinion.
Like the last few games, the Raptors had a stretch of 4 minutes where they didn’t score. Not only did they not score, they didn’t try to get a good shot:
- Turkoglu stumbles into the lane and misses an off-balance layup (should have went straight up)
- Bargnani clanks a three off the front of the rim from 25ft
- Jack forces a jumper and misses
- Calderon misses a three that should have fell from the foul line extended
See any trends? I’ll give you a hint: Bosh didn’t touch the ball. To be fair, he didn’t check into the game until the 8:25 mark. However, he didn’t actually take a shot until the 4:28 mark when Reddick nicked his elbow on a jump shot attempt (another bad shot). The Magic were on a 15-2 run before Bosh hit his free throws.
The last time we played them, we gave him free rein to the rim,” Howard said of Bosh. “He got a lot of easy rebounds. Tonight, we kept a body on him, forced him to stay out of the lane and not be able to get those easy rebounds.
They did a great job of keeping Bosh out of the game. He did score 22, but only had 5 rebounds on the night. He literally had two shot attempts in the 4th (one of them he drew a foul so it didn’t count). Let me repeat that: CHRIS BOSH HAD ONE SHOT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER. One…We let a big opportunity pass through our fingers considering we had Howard on the ropes early in the first quarter with two fouls.
I have to say it, but we really missed Belinelli coming off the bench today. Amir picked up some slack, and Weems chipped in some, but Belinelli has been huge for us down the stretch of games hitting some big/clutch shots.
Uhm…what else was there…yes..the pick and roll defense was terrible. Arse broke it down with some guerilla videography, I have nothing to add except +1.
Four Factors to Losing
Shooting the Ball Well
Neither team shot the ball particularly well, but the Raptors were marginally more efficient from the field.
Raptors – 48%
Magic – 46.3%
Taking Care of the Ball
Both teams did a great job of limiting turnovers.
Raptors – 9.8%
Magic – 7.6%
Offensive Rebounding
When you go 9-32 from behind the arc, there will be plenty of long-juicy rebounds to grab. Howard led the way with 5 offensive boards, that translated into 5 points scored by the Magic.
Raptors – 20%
Magic – 28.5%
Getting to the Free Throw Line
The Magic got to the line at a higher rate, and hit more from when they got there. When you are hitting from the field, this is what good teams do, pound it inside and draw fouls.
Raptors – 36.3%
Magic – 42.1%
Safe to say that the Magic won this game by solid offensive rebounding and getting to the line.
Player Impact
Bosh marginally led the way, but Johnson was HUGE. Amir had his best game as a Raptor without Belinelli dropping ridiculous passes to him.
27 Raps
This was another game where we held our opponent to a low fg% and still lost. Why you ask… those silly offensive rebounds and 2nd chance points.
The part that peeved me the most was with 2:30 left (give or take), Orlando misses the shot…. D-Howard gets an offensive board (was likely a push but I won’t get into that)… he’s fouled, misses both foul shots and Lewis sneaks in to grab the rebound… Howard gets to the line again and hits his fts.
How much is wrong with this. Raps had been on a mini-run, had to within 6 or 7, get a potential stop (make that 2) and Orlando still ends up with 2 points and gets to take 40+ secs off the clock. Grabbing those boards are so damn important especially in crunch time.
If our defense isn’t good… so be it… we all knew that was coming. But if we can limit those offensive rebounds and 2nd chance points… we can be a threat to ANY team in the league.
Note to Triano: Spend the next week of practices on boxing out.
well, we had the same message for 4 years now. Yeahhhhh that part of the game pissed me off so much. I wanted to kill someone. But anyways, we were playing horribly through out the whole game. I don’t know how that game was even close. I mean we were missing all of open looks, we were forcing shots, while orlando’s scrubs were having career games again. I mean how? we deserved to lose that game, but you know sometimes a team needs to steal a game or two. We still haven’t done that this season.
The only thing that bothers me is that we keep a team to a low percentage yet still manage to concede over 100 points per game
When we actually nail a team by 20+ points and keep it up and create a blowout, I start to think the other team gives up and we are just lucky that the shots are falling.
The momentum changed when the Raps 10 point lead so quickly evaporated due to turnovers, no stops and poor long range shooting. Looking at the stats as a whole after the game we don’t look too bad compared to the Magic but it was that terrible stretch of only 5 or six possessions that gave them the momentum and the confidence that top teams exude.
Agreed, you have to figure that a team as good as Orlando wont be down double digits for most of the game.
Orlando was able to grab offensive rebounds, and score as a result. Hard to recover from that especially when they got the charity stripe at a higher rate then the Raptors.
I know Belinelli wasn’t available for this game but, when he’s back, I think he needs to be the guy playing those late game minutes instead of Jack. He just seems more creative than Jack and is more of a threat to score when Bosh isn’t getting the ball. Even when Bosh is getting the ball, Marco has been more of a threat to do some damage than Jack (besides the Miami game). Any idea when he’s supposed to be back?
Both Wright and Belinelli hopefully are back very soon!
Having to play Jack at the 2 provides less offense than Belinelli and less defense than Wright.
this far in, isn’t there enough evidence that playing jose & jack together has been an unmitigated disaster? what plausible explanation can there be for it to continue to happen? stubbornness on a smitch-esque level? BC’s influence? i’d love to be a fly on the while during a coaches meeting as it’s being discussed…i mean, they know what’s going on, are they trying to delude themselves into thinking it has worked…or will work in the future, based on past performance?
i know this is over-used, but still:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html
game after game, we keep seeing the same thing, with the same results.
things i’d prefer see over jose/jack playing together:
- reggie evans: 3-pt ’specialist’
- white-out (jose, belli, hedo, bargs, rasho)…c’mon, like you haven’t thought about it (has it already happened?)
- marcus banks: starting PG
stubbornness on a smitch-esque level (maybe)? BC’s influence (most likely)!
+1
anyone with jose (or anyone with JJ) in the backcourt is better than this.
Fully agree that the Calderon/Jack backcourt (with Hedo) doesn’t seem to be as effective or efficient as the coaches think it is.
On offence, I don’t think Calderon or Jack are are able to effectively create their own shot or get to the foul line, which makes the offense no more effective than having Belli in their at SG; and both of them are consistnently missing open jump shots. Plus, it’s completely taking away from using Hedo as a ball-handler to run pick-n-roll with Bosh.
On defence, Calderon and Jack aren’t stopping bigger/quicker guards in crunch time.
Calderon and Jack aren’t playing very good together.
When they get put out, the opposing team’s SGs and PGs start licking their chops. They can’t stop anyone, and when they stop scoring (because neither of them is particularly consistent right now) the other team builds momentum and steam rolls us in the 4th. Is there a petition we can staple to Triano’s office door?
It’s painful to watch Jack and Calderon on the floor together.
Does ANYONE think that Caldejack is a good idea? Anyone?
Yeah, thought so. Triano get your head out your ass!
This 15 year tribute thing has got to be the most ill-conceived, contrived promotion ever put on by MLSE, and yes, I am including the tribute to Tie Domi for hitting 1,000 games played in the NHL if my memory serves me correctly.
Seriously, what were they thinking. Jack Armstrong said it best yesterday that at 25 years, 50 years, and 75 years you can take a look at doing it but 15 years? What possible significance is a number like that? Besides having our ex-players, some whom are vilified here, show us up at the same time.
It has turned into an absolute embarassment for all concerned plus it will take away from doing a proper 25th Anniversary, which had it been done on its own, would have had enough seperation that a lot of Ex-Raptors would be playing golf and not showing us up on the court. Plus to do a 25th will likely not bring out a number of players that were recognized at the 15th which has been a colossal waste of everyone’s time.
The idea is fine BUT why couldn’t they stick with tributes to guys who are not playing in the league currently.
You don’t honor your opponents before a game!
ROTD!!
It would be interesting to see which one of the starters has to improve the most to be at least in the middle of the pack among their peers in term of defensive rebounding.
According to NBA.com , for those players with enough rebounds to qualify :
Guards : Jose # 63 , DD # 56 out of 97 guards.
Forwards : Bosh # 5 , Hedo # 34 out of 91 forwards
Centers : Andrea # 13 out of 35 centers.
So it would seem that the guards have the most to improve to be at least in the middle of the pack among their peers.
interesting #’s. a little weird, since bosh is the top rebounding PF in the league this year, and #2 overall. are you maybe looking at last year’s #’s?
bargs, btw, is currently 20th among centres…pulling down 54% as many as the top-rebounding 5 in the L (noah).
turk is 18th among SF (42% as many as the top-rebounding 3; though that’s wallace in CHA having an insance rebounding year (11.4); hedo’s at 56% of the 2nd best rebounding SF (deng)).
but your general points are correct – they do need the guards to become more active on the glass.
Yertu ,
First thing is that if DD was in those stats it could not have been last year stats.
Second thing is that I was talking about DEFENSIVE rebounds for those that qualifies according to NBA.com .
The point this stat is highlighting is that the more defensive rebounds a team is making , the fewer offensive rebounds the other team make . So it would help , as you pointed out , that the guards do their share of defensive rebounding.
Orlando might be the top team in the NBA at the moment – they are extremely deep, the players they have compliment Howard very well – it seems like everyone on their roster can score.
If VC can play at a high level at play-off time they are a threat to win it all – whether he can do it, when the intesity level increases and you have to be tough remains to be seen.
After head-butting Vince in 2004, I think Ron Jeremy Van Gundy is Charles Oakley in disguise, he must be the best coach that Vince Carter has ever had in his career. I still think booing Vince is funny, but I’m really sick of our team not backing up our boos with bad coaching and no consistent effort on both ends.
Nice observation! :)
Van Gundy head-butted Vince?
i once read years ago when VC was traded to the Nets that the Grizzlies would still be in Vancouver if VC was in that team. you canadians should be grateful to VC. all you are now are just sourgraping.
how many times have you won against VC’s team so far? 1… boo hoo… losers!
can we do a poll on jose +banks for monte and filler
For jays system to work we need a fast point guard who can fight thru the picks . . . They completely exploit our wings and pgs. . . And another thing, i really don’t like the concept of two pgs on at the same time. . . we’re not the suns and jose ain’t no nash . . . If it does come down to trading bosh which i think it might. . . We could send bosh to the knicks or NJ hoping those teams plan on signing another free agent big name . . .But for a draft pick will suffice and i mean like number 1 or 2 . . . Im already banking on the next franchise player john wall lol . . .