Calderon’s play was instrumental in getting the Raptors off to a great start.The trend of blowing big leads is becoming the norm. Last night we were able to hold off Indiana by executing brilliantly down the stretch, but this cannot possibly be a sustainable method for winning games. This one was Exhibit A of how potent our offense can be even with two of our big guns misfiring. The bench, headlined by Jack and Belinelli, lead a 59-point performance which let us get away with mediocre games from Bosh and Bargnani, although both were useful down the stretch. Throw in a perfect Jose Calderon (21/3/7) performance and you saw that there’s reason to be excited about this team. Defense though, is another matter and something that remains a cause for concern.
Any time weak opposition comes to your building you have to jump on them and destroy their will to win early, we did something like that with rookie DeMar DeRozan being highly aggressive in getting six early points against the surprised Brandon Rush. A sign of a man in a zone is when he’s nailing his jumpers regardless of situation – Calderon’s play early was impeccable, he was sticking his jumper off the screen, on the break and spotting up on the wing. Indiana decided to test out their three-point efficiency early and got nothing in return, the Raps took the long rebound and ran with it as Turkoglu and Calderon got us off to a great offensive start – up 7 early. But as you know, a 7-point lead means little to us and all it took for that to evaporate was a TJ Ford And1 against Jose and a great quarterback pass from Ford to Murphy on the break for another And1 against a trailing Bargnani. The two point-guard’s were trading punches as it became a guard’s game – Bosh and Bargnani were a combined 2-9 as Indiana was paying a lot of attention to Bosh.
Triano got Rasho Nesterovic (miserable all year but 12/7 today) off the bench instead of Amir Johnson to contend with second-year man Roy Hibbert who’s looking more polished than most imagined. Rasho provided a boost and kept Hibbert in relative check by scoring 4 on him, although the Raptors draft pick showed us something we all desire in a big man – size, strength and aggression. Danny Granger and crew were misfiring on looks they consider open as Turkoglu started to take advantage of the inexperience of Brandon Rush and Dahntay Jones, both giving the Turk too much space to operate. Granger picked up two fouls early but still managed to get 8 in the first, (6 from the FT line) and kept Indiana in it. They almost erased the lead after Earl Watson came in to spark the offense (he faked Jose 2 feet in the air at the three-point line), but Turkoglu hit a step-back three and Jack came off the bench for a great drive right at the end to punctuate a 39 point quarter for the Raptors. Up 8, shooting 56% while conceding 44%.
Jose Calderon’s passing was crisp all game long, he made decisions in a fraction of a second, whether it be finding Rasho on a bounce for a lay-in or keeping the swing going after a Bosh double. If Bosh is drawing the double, Jose’s facilitating the offense like that and the Raptors are hitting their outside shots, it’s game over for the defense. Jose was aggressive against Ford who has no chance of blocking his shot and to worsen his chances, tends to concede the jumper too easily for a guy with his quickness. Even if you were a TJ backer, you saw today which PG is more suitable for us.
The second quarter made a case for the two-guard lineup of Jack and Calderon. Having two ball-handlers on the floor against a defense that doesn’t move in transition proved to be too much for the Pacers. The tempo increased as Jack and Calderon used quick initial passes to move the ball into the front-court, the Indiana bigs (Hibbert and Murhpy) had trouble coping. Amir Johnson’s agility showed against them as he wrested a couple rebounds away, fed them to Jack and Jose and off they went. Rasho Nesterovic’s jumper was on and that brought Hibbert further out, giving the Raptor guards driving space which they took. 7 points in the quarter for Jack including a three set-up beautifully by Belinelli who was focusing on being a playmaker today. Indiana dared Jack to shoot and he made ‘em pay. When Jack’s spacing the floor, it creates a lot of room for the big guys setting screens for him to slip to open areas and find their jumpers – just ask Bargnani who benefited twice today.
74-53 at the half. Good news, we scored 74. Bad news, we let Indiana score 54. The Pacers, who only shoot 30% from three, were even worse going 2-11 from downtown to help the Raptors’ cause. It was clear that they couldn’t handle the pace we were playing at, the question was whether we could maintain that pace. It’s very difficult to play up-tempo basketball for 48 minutes, at some point you’ll need to ease up and catch a breath and it’s in those times that good teams fall back on their defense. The Raptors currently need to score at a very high rate to maintain any advantage they’ve gained and the law of averages says that you will go cold, it’s inevitable. Right now if we’re not scoring we’re giving up big runs. A better situation for us would be to concede 4-6 points in a 7-possession stretch we’re struggling in, not 12. That’s half the points and the difference between a bad and an acceptable defensive team.
Great players come up big. As the third quarter started, so did DeRozan’s punishment. Danny Granger administered 11 points on the rookie who gave him way too much room despite being warned by the coach. After the 11th point was scored, the bench came calling and in came Wright. It was too late because Indiana had already sliced a 22 point lead in half by the 6:41 mark. The Raptors didn’t have the energy to play like they did in the first half and Indiana was starting to settle in and have success on the offensive glass, Jeff Foster giving them three extra possessions in the quarter. This was going to be a close game and the Raptors needed to dig in to pull it out.
Indiana scored 39 points in the third as the Raptors offense went cold. We went down to Bosh who was defended well by Murphy, Jim O’Brien sent additional help making the outlet passes difficult leading to turnovers. They gave Bosh space to shoot and he wasn’t making them which gave them a lift. It became so bad that we even saw Wright going 1on1 which obviously went nowhere. After Tyler Hansbrough had hit two hooks over Bargnani in the first half, he came back to crash the offensive glass and run the break to bring Indiana within 7. Earl Watson played well in his second stint, the calm collected PG set-up Brandon Rush for open looks and ran the Indiana offense much smoother than TJ Ford, even though the latter had shown great ability to penetrate early in the third. Jack’s And1 against Jeff Foster pushed the Raptors lead from 7 to 10 at the end of the third and gave the Raptors a huge psychological boost. Another boost was provided by Bosh’s defense as he blocked two close-range efforts by Granger and Solomon Jones that would’ve, he finished with 4 blocks and 12 rebounds and had an overall solid defensive game. I don’t know if this is bad defense or good offense but it’s one of my favorite plays this year. Triano spoke of the attention Indiana was giving to Bosh:
They were leaning on Chris a lot, giving him jump shots. They watched the Orlando game and he wasn’t making them. We told the guys if we move the ball side to side and set screens for each other, we’ll get any look we want and in the first half we had a lot of guys that contributed and scored.
The Raptors’ two main defensive problems are providing unnecessary help and helping from the wrong places. Three of Indiana’s threes in the third quarter resulted from a weak-side defender helping on a PG drive while leaving a legit three-point threat open. Help-defense is part of the game and Triano hasn’t able to implement a strategy that is cohesive enough that it comes natural to the players. I see too many players scrambling to get where they have zero chance of getting. Bargnani flailing at Granger, Belinelli 10 feet away from Rush, Jose on the wrong side of the court as Watson etc. The good news is that they’re at least scrambling, but sooner rather than later Triano will have to figure out why we’re the league’s worst defensive team and do something to stop it. Or maybe he believes that more games and more familiarity will pull us through, I think the issue is more technical than that.
Granger set-up Rush for three after we over-helped and soon after T.J Ford drive and kicked for a Granger three. Luckily for us those two plays were sandwiched around two Bargnani jumpers. He had been awfully quiet till now going 2-5 and was outplayed by Hansbrough and Foster on the glass and in the block. He made a conscious decision to be more aggressive in the fourth quarter and found his niche in the mid-range game. Jack found him on the slip for a jumper and then he passed up an out-of-rhythm three to step-in and nail a baseline jumper. He went 4-5 in the fourth quarter including six straight point early, consider the amends made. Murphy was left open on the perimeter as Bosh and Bargnani got confused as to who was guarding them and he touched us for a three cutting the Raptors lead to 7 with 8:08 left. The Big Turk responded with a trifecta of his own on the next possession as the Indiana defense appeared gassed. It appeared to be a dagger.
Give Indiana credit, after Bosh missed a couple chances to put the game away, Murphy was left open by a lazy Raptors defense and he hit another deep bomb, the lead was 7 again with 5:37 left. It was either time to step-up or crack and the Raptors relied on their ball-movement to get Jarrett Jack a clean look for three. Answer supplied. The Pacer’s were tired on offense and were simply passing it around the perimeter and firing, Granger hit another three (nobody’s fault really) to put the pressure back on the Raptors before Bosh and Bargnani answered with scores to ice it. Bosh’s post-move was pure determination, he fought through non-calls and a loose whistle all night and got bumped twice on this play but managed to finish with a hook. With 2:57 and a 12 point lead, the game was over.
A quick word on Belinelli, really liked his aggressiveness in going to the rim. He didn’t just step-back and launch the long jumper today and probably felt he could take Jones and Rush off the dribble and did. He got to the line 10 times and displayed a slashing ability in the half-court set, something we haven’t seen much of. DeRozan should take a page from his book and add that to his game. Triano alluded to the gelling of Belinelli, Jack and Calderon:
Everybody’s starting to get to know everybody a little bit, at one point they’re probably thinking they’re competing for a postion. Now they’re realizing that they can play together on the floor as well as give each other relief.
It’s good to see the Raptors win with Bosh going 5-19, but that’s not saying we can with with Bosh going 5-19 again. Getting 59 points off the bench while they shoot 65% is much more of an anomaly than Bosh’s poor shooting night. A loss can sometimes disguise the bad things that happened in this game and some of the clean looks we gave up in the third quarter should alone warrant hours of video analysis and practice. This team will go nowhere if our defense doesn’t improve, on the bright side we’ve played the second hardest schedule in the league and have come out of alive. Things can only get better, right?
Check the live blog for the game as it happened and the Roll Call for individual ratings. At some point on Wednesday we’ll post another session of Breaking it Down where we’ll look at some defensive breakdowns.
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46 Raps
The game didn’t feel like a blow-out because it felt like the Pacers didn’t care what happened!
At half the game was over.
yeah I found that weird… it its like they didn’t even want to try at teh end of the game. I understand the game was likely out of hand… but they didn’t even try to fake an effort. No rushing for a quick score, no press to create a turnover, not fouls to stop the clock.
It felt like the end of a quarter not the game.
I guess we should boo them since we boo carter cuz of the lack of effort.
winner
I thought we had the hardest schedule. Anyways, reasonable game, good win, bad defence. You are right, it can’t go on for longer, people will find a way to deal with our offence, so we have to back on our defence. And that is a scary thought.
Ok for now lets enjoy the unstoppable offence (until they face the boston shitlist) and lets not even think about their defence cuz im sure they’re not thinking about it either.
One thing that I noticed about Triano is that he is very slow on calling time out. For example, we are up by 15 and the other team goes on a run, he waits until either the whole lead is gone or we are up only by 2 !!! I know Phil Jackson is sometimes like this but then he has Kobe on the floor which is coach by himself. Opposite is Van Gundy, when his team has a lead and for some reason the other teams goes ona run, he quickly calls a time out and re focuses his team.
I think this can be one of the reason that Raptors are blowing out these huge leads.
this is something I can’t agree more with. STOP THE RUN. Use those timeouts. If the Raps give up six in a row… its time to end the momentum, not just be happy to sit on a fleeting lead.
Phil Jackson is slow to call timeouts.
I think he knows a thing or two about coaching.
Yes, But we are not lakers !!!! With lakers, you got Kobe in there who will get the job done. With Bulls, you had Micheal there. Our Raptors is bunch of guys who lose their focus fast. you have to have control on them and keep them in line.
Frig!! Why he hell does he never call the time out??? Call it after 3 pathetically easy made bucket you gave up, at least that’s what any college coach would do.
You only not call a time out is you have Kobe on the floor for your team.
I’m not going to apologize for the Raptors defence. Bottom line is that it needs to improve. BUT, people need to stop looking at opponents PPG as a measure of the Raptors defensive efficiency. If we score 74 points in the 1st half…or if any team scores 74 points in 1 half…that means that the pace of play is fairly quick. A quick pace of play means more possessions for BOTH teams and more chances to score for BOTH teams. I believe Indiana was shooting ~42% at half-time which I’d say is not too shabby. It’d be unreasonable to think that a good defensive effort in that half should result in a 74-38 score (for example) because of simply how quickly and easily the Raps were scoring the ball.
If the Raptors control the pace of play, they’re going to win games by scoring around 105PPG. It’s unreasonable to think that we’re going to start winning games 105-85 every night if we start to play better defence. I’d suggest that we focus more on opponents FG%, 3PTFG% and Defensive Rebounds when we discuss the Raptors defence.
Sorry for the rant…
they’re also ranked worst in points allowed per possesion:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats?&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fteamstats
They are really that bad on D
I’m not saying that their defence isn’t poor. There are stretches where the defence is okay but more stretches where its abysmal. I completely agree with Arsenalist that one major problem is overhelping. I find Jose is the most guilty of that. But even with this team playing strong defence, this won’t be a team that holds opponents to 88PPG continuously.
I was wondering if rap fans boo TJ during the intro? if yes, wow… all because he wants to be a starter (shows passion to the game) and one of the players that won us the division title >_<
be attached to the team, not to the players…
players come and go.
it’s good to boo before the game.
after the win , you can greet him :)
Why the hell are ppl even booing TJ? Well, he did say something retarded during the CBC interview that he should of made the effort to correct to the fans, and didn’t, but c’mon he was a key player that guided our team to a playoff success.
no one really boos tj at the games. there’s some clapping, but it’s probably mostly indifference. most people appreciate that he was a good contributor here.
Just a minor point of contention: 6 points in seven possessions isn’t just “acceptable” defense. A defense that gave up an average of 6 points every 7 possessions over the course of a season would be the best in league history.
That is .86 points per possession, which is good but is not as good as you are making it seem.
Once we learn how to close out games we can talk about play-offs!
The commitment to D isn’t really there from the coach down. If D were THE priority, the starters wouldn’t all be mostly-O players (AB, CB, HT, DD, JC). Thus the subs are mostly-D players (AJ, RN, AW, JJ, and eventually RE). If we really want a consistent effort throughout the game, we need to mix the two up at both levels. The roller-coaster ride is great for the fans, but only a balanced lineup will give us the steady D a playoff team relies on.
I’ll take the ‘W’. The game went just as someone here predicted yesterday, with the Raps rolling up the score only to see the Pacers make a game of it. But it never really felt like it was in any doubt at all. Considering that the Pacers beat the Celtics a couple of weeks ago (didn’t they do that once last year, as well?), they obviously have – especially in Granger – some offensive firepower, but once the Raptors let them get that out of their system – and yes, it will be nice once they figure out how to slow up those 3rd quarter come-backs a bit better (and I like to think they will) – we’ll see some of these ‘blowout’ games end with the score better reflecting what actually took place.
Belinelli is getting more fun to watch, every game. He’s clever with the ball in ways that I didn’t expect to see. And I’m really liking what Amir Johnson is bringing to the team. Hard to believe he’s only 22 yrs old. Looks like a keeper to me. Bosh didn’t have the monster game that some of us thought he’d come out with, so … maybe we’ll see it tonight. Be nice to take the second of a back-to-back. Go Raps!
Okay this whole “giving up the lead is a common theme” thing has got to stop because, guess what? It’s a common theme ACROSS THE LEAGUE.
Basketball is a game of runs – there’s a reason this is said. And thus far this season, no team has shown themselves as so truly elite that they are able to shut down and blow out other teams on a consistent basis (you’ll recall a few seasons ago Phoenix was able to do this). Teams blow leads all the time, it’s not just the Raptors. You people need to take this win as it is: a win. Not a “blowout that didn’t feel reassuring”.
It’s as if Raptors fans will never be satisfied.
I think that the way the coaches teach defense is very frustrating . I still do not understand how come the opposition best player can score at will if he is a good 3 points shooter. Sacrificing one winger to exclusively guard that player may be the way to go. That seems so obvious to me but I never played the game so what do I know.
Oh Danny Granger. You should have been ours. Instead, one pick earlier, we got one half of the Graham twins and a lot of burly jumpshots. And everytime he plays the Raptors he seems to revel in reminding fans that. He looked great tonight.
But so did Jose. Maybe someone can hypnotize him to think he’s playing T.J. Ford every game. Seemed to have a little “something to prove” swagger to him.
Now I know why Leprachaun O’Brien is not letting TJ play that much as usual, TJ Ford is really getting screened out on defense, and Bargnani and Rasho feel like there is leaf hitting their hip when they screen out Ford. Even Jose can bump him away!
DeRozan cant shoot and cant defend, his only attribute I see is he has hops. The starting experiment should be ended.
Anyone notice that Jack is far better at including Bargs. in the game and he scores far better when Jack is running the offence. Calderon’s job is to include Bargs and Turk. in the offence early to get them involved rather then looking at Bosh 100% of the time, since both Bargs and Turk can go to sleep if they are not involved, not a great attribute but reality nevertheless
Jack is a smart guy. maybe he thinks that sooner Bosh will be gone, and so it’s better to be friend of the big white guys…
just kidding…or not?
I’ve definitely noticed that Jack seems to have some chemistry with Bargs that Jose has just never had. Definitely, for sure.
Good observation on Jack and Bargnani but their chemistry could simply be a result of Bargs playing a lot with the second unit without Bosh and Turk. At that point, he becomes the focus of the offense and Jack’s primary outlet.
Not one rave towards the current Most Improved Player? Jarrett Jack, who three games ago wasn’t safe to walk home after a game just in case he encountered any of us, is tearing it up.
Look, I know we can all be a bunch of old church women sometimes, bitching about who’s wearing what, and did you hear what she did with him…but good god people give the guy his due. It’s time to be Raptors fans…love the game, love the team. Not stupidly. Not naively. But love them.
I get a sense sometimes that the neurosis that seems to be so idiosyncratically of the Raptors fan, is just Leafs fan hangover. And if it isn’t, are we really all this damaged?
as I didn’t grow up in Toronto, I was more of an ‘anti-Leaf’ fan … so it’s funny (to me) to read the question, “are we really all this damaged?” I’d say yes.
Belinelli is just great…I really love his game and think he is the type of player that can be a 6th man of the year at some point… his game is very similar to ginobili, perhaps we can try mold him into ginobili number 2…meaning bench player, but plays a ton… even the way he shoots is similar…the way he splits the defense when sliding thru the lane..etc…very very similar…I think it is a case of if given the opportunity he could be as good as ginobilli….ultimatley the NBA is like that tho…there are a lot of NBA players that dont play that are just as good as a well known player in the league but were just not in the right place and right opportunity.
Lets ensure we give belinelli the right opportunity to truly shine as one of our best.
“The Raptors’ two main defensive problems are providing unnecessary help and helping from the wrong places”…
I’ve felt this to be the case all year…the problem is not the system and its not their athletic ability either.
Some games I swear you’d see defenses adjusting faster and making better help decisions at the local YMCA.
Check back at 11:30 am today for video evidence.
I’ve always agreed with starting DeRozan and getting him his limited minutes at the start of both halves. But after last night’s game I think the coaching staff should reconsider that. Especially after watching the kid struggle against Granger.
Now that I understand Triano’s rotation, DeRozan probably would be better served backing up Hedo with Wright starting at the 2 for his defence. I know that Triano stated at the beginning of the year that he wanted two of our ‘big four’ (Bargs, Bosh, Calderon, or Turk) on the floor at the same time, but that hasn’t work out. There is consistent minutes for a second wing player off the bench after Belinelli (if Wright starts). On merit, those minutes should probably go to Weems, but if you do that, how do you develop DeRozan?
There has to be some plays and something to force Demar to cut to the basket more to keep him moving. If Demar moves slowly during his offensive play and never touches the ball, for a young guy, it will for sure make him lose some attention and interest on defense.
I am not sold on Wright as a starter or big minute player – he may be a solid defender however his aggressiveness often leads to him commiting a lot of fouls that leads to early bonus (easy points) …… and on offense he tries to force to many plays at the expense of our main scorers … he reminds me of Delfino when he was here
Delfino actually looked better when he was forcing something, Wright just looks atrocious! He should just do the Bruce Bowen thing: defend whomever, pass the ball, set his feet at the 3pt line for a shot, and open layups.
I agree with you in a way. Although I want Wright to start, I also don’t think they should give him heavy minutes. Let him guard the opposing starting 2 best he can while he’s in there but give Belinelli the majority of the minutes after that.
That Roy Hibbert trade kinda hurts now. I kinda see the pattern about the 3rd quarter at home the past 2 games…besides our team sucking on D, I think we get so damn lazy on offense that it really affects our defense. Such as a span of bad shots, lack of free throws, and retarded turnovers. We need to keep our leads at halftime under 15 next time??
because roy hibbert’s team had such a good defensive game yesterday??
BC wouldn’t have drafted him even if we did have the pick btw..we picked him because that’s who indy wanted.
I’ve heard this but haven’t been able to confirm it. Do you remember where you read that?
It was reported on draft night.
Did I miss something with Rasho? He hasn’t been fantastic. He also hasn’t been given any sort of minutes to establish a flow. I still think he can eat up some 2/3 quarter minutes and put some 5 point 5 rebound or 10 point 7 rebound games this year. Whats the worst that will happen- he’ll stink on defence? Hahaha!