Were you content after the Lakers loss and thought that since we hung around the champs for four quarters, the next night in Sacramento would be rather easy? I mean, linear thinking dictates that if you almost beat a really, really good team, you should be able to pummel a really bad team, no? NO! It just doesn’t work that way and that’s why I was so upset after Tuesday’s loss – because we had blown our chance at the split. Any NBA team is lucky to split a back-to-back and the chances of that happening on the first night are much greater than the second. After a solid effort in LA, we predictably crumbled in the third quarter under the guise of fatigue. Nothing surprising whatsoever, we’ve seen this happen in Indiana and Milwaukee before and should’ve been expecting it. Part of me is still not over the Lakers loss because believe it or not, that was the winnable game on this back-to-back what with the Lakers returning home from the East, not this one.
To the Raptors credit, they came out with an energy which was entirely unexpected. Andrea Bargnani got the first three Raptor rebounds of the game, two of them offensive, Chris Bosh nailed a mid-range jumper, Jarrett Jack hit a three, DeRozan started off with his usual aggressiveness and even Hedo had a couple drives to the rim. It was as if though we were out to redeem ourselves and nothing would stop us. But oh no, I’ve watched too many Raptor games to jump to any such conclusions and reserved my judgment while calmly taking a sip from my now almost empty Crown Royal bottle.
As is the duty of any artist, I must be fair to the picture I am painting so I’ll talk about the positives of the first half before reluctantly treading into the tale of the second. Donte Greene was identified as the target of our offense and DeRozan, Turkoglu and Jack all attacked his side of the court, they back-cut on him, drove at him, forced him to make a rotation and so on. He wasn’t upto it and neither was Spencer Hawes who was at the mercy of Bargnani’s pump-fake for the first half. Bargnani did well in exploiting Brad Miller’s carcass in transition and in the half-court to the tune of 11 rather pretty points. The Kings are pretty thin in the paint and the Raptors did a very good job of going right at them early on, Hawes and Landry aren’t defensive stoppers or shot-blockers by any means and it showed. The ball-movement was steady, the cuts were hard and it was all quite refreshing. Of course, all this changed in the third.
Jack was in attack-mode as usual but unlike the Lakers game where he was getting praised for it, he will receive no such treatment today and that’s because Beno Udrih ate both him and Calderon alive. I have accepted that the $13M/yr we have invested in PGs can’t buy us defense against their quick counterparts, but when Beno Udrih goes off for 24/4/8 on 10-14FG, it feels a bit odd. Odd in the sense that you don’t expect it but here you are trying to explain why a below-average PG scored twice his season average on you. Then again we have a history of letting scrubs get off on us so even that shouldn’t be a shock. Technically speaking, all Udrih did was use a screen around the FT line area to go left or right, stop on a dime and rise for a jumper. He kept the game that simple and it got him 24 points and kept the Kings in it early. Check his shot chart.
The main problem the Kings pose is Tyreke Evans attacking you with the ball, I’m sure the Raptors expected him to get his points and didn’t look to DeRozan as a defensive stopper by any means. What they didn’t expect was Beno Udrih providing the production he did. Evans did get his triple-double of 19/10/10 and was a huge part of that crushing third quarter which we’ll get to. The Raptors needed their superstar to respond to what their star was doing and Bosh didn’t deliver. He had a very poor shooting night of 6-20 FG and there were a lot of sets tonight where we gave him the ball for jumpers as four guys watched, his reads of the double-teams was poor and he looked to get himself off before his teammates. That to me is Chris Bosh at his worst – not only is he not producing, but nobody else gets to score either.
Jose Calderon did a good job in the second quarter, he “pulled a Beno” but hitting a couple jumpers off the high-screen, didn’t concede much defensively and led the Raptors to a 20-16 win of the second quarter. Bargnani (20/6/3 on 8-12 FG) was again instrumental in the frame as he continued to terrorize Hawes. We went into halftime with a 45-40 lead which we were good for. We hadn’t gotten blown out on a back-to-back and that in itself is reason to celebrate. Not that I did, I just calmly got some ice out of the fridge, put a few pieces in a glass and then poured some more Crown on it. Then I waited for the third quarter.
The third quarter started and we immediately wet the bed.
Defensive energy? Gone. Drives to the rim? Hardly any. Jumpers? Hell yes. Effort? You must be joking. We conceded a season-high 43 points in the quarter and got outscored by a full 20 points. The quarter started with the Kings going on a 12-0 run and we never recovered. This span saw two Turkoglu misses, two Bosh bricks, a DeRozan brick and a Jack missed layup. There was no defensive energy, not even the preemptive help that’s made us dead-last in league defensive rating. Udrih and Evans each had 9 in the quarter and instead of buckling down and responding, the Raptors offense resembled anything anything but a team. Bargnani only attempted two shots and made both, I though the Hawes matchup was there to be exploited all night long and we didn’t milk it enough, certainly not to the level they milked Evans and Udrih. Blame Bargnani or his teammates or his coach, you can have your pick. The Kings shot 18-24 (75%) in the quarter equaling the number of field goals they had in the entire first half. Triano called it selfish:
We got very selfish, we had guys come down and take a shot and I guess other guys aren’t happy because they don’t touch the ball. We miss the shot and it gets rebounded and it’s fast break points, before you know it it’s a 10-0 run and we caved after that.
We lost points in the paint 62-42, lost the fastbreak 22-6, lost rebounding 52-33, lost points off turnovers 17-7, and lost steals 7-5. We lost practically every hustle stat against a team that had 11 less wins than us coming into this one and are playing out the string. The stats sure don’t bear out Triano’s belief that there was nothing wrong with our energy.
I hate to comment on Turkoglu because there’s nothing positive to say, but since he is our prime free-agent acquisition it’s only fair to give him a review. If I had to measure his performance on a spectrum of sorts, I’d have one end marked ‘shite’ and the other end marked ‘utter shite’. I’d say he was somewhere in the middle today, a whopping 6/7/3 on 2-8FG and 3 turnovers, and all this while being matched up against Donte Greene and Omri Casspi. Need I say more, need I really say more? I’ve gone off on Turkoglu enough times already this season and nothing I can say will add anything new to the story. He was crap. That is all. Let’s just hope we sneak into the playoffs and he hits game-winners left and right. If you can stomach it, here’s his post-game interview.
I could talk about Amir Johnson’s zero-filled scoresheet, Reggie Evans running around pretending he’s Dennis Rodman, Belinelli’s pointless late insertion, Antoine Wright’s 0-4 (14/56 for 25% in his last 8) and terrible defense, and other such nondescript events but it’s not worth it and more importantly, not needed for the reader to get an idea of what kind of game this was.
We were down by 15 heading into the fourth and even though that’s far from an insurmountable lead, the body language, the effort and the shot-selection in the first three minutes of the quarter told you that it’s best to turn this one off and finish off the bottle of Crown. This is the second time in less than a space of a week that we’ve been outworked and outplayed by a team that has nothing to play for whereas we’re jockeying for playoff positioning. We are now in a three-way tie for the sixth spot with Charlotte and Miami while Chicago is a game back at the ninth spot. The upcoming schedule for the teams goes like this:
Charlotte: LAC, @ORL, @IND
Miami: CHI, PHI, SAS
Chicago: @ORL @MIA @MEM
Toronto: @GSW, @POR, OKC
It’s conceivable that we’ll only need to go 1-2 in this stretch to still hang on to a playoff since Chicago has got it pretty tough. I’m not really aiming high here but at this point we should just make the playoffs and see where that takes us. How cruel the NBA is? Seems only yesterday that we were chasing the fourth spot which is now Milwaukee’s to do. They have created a 2 game gap between themselves and the 6th seed.
Final word on this game is that it wasn’t hard to predict a third quarter collapse as we’ve done it before and have only won twice on the second night of a back to back. Was it fatigue or was it just the players giving up? I don’t know but I hope it’s the former. I would hate to think that we have effort issues at this stage of the season.
Oh, by the way folks, Udrih was playing so well in the third that his coach kept him in there for the whole quarter! And you know what else? He started the fourth and lived to tell about it!
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64 Raps
‘Oh, by the way folks, Udrih was playing so well in the third that his coach kept him in there for the whole quarter! And you know what else? He started the fourth and lived to tell about it!’
yeah, but…he’ll probably be tired next game!!
Think of the “Moral Victory” in LA that should cheer up our team and fans after this one!!
That was an awesome post that summed up my disgust as well. How fragile is this team that they have done a complete 180 since the All Star break? Seriously, how has team reverted back to the 7-13 team that started the season. There at least was an excuse then, moulding 9 new players into the team with a tough schedule, but now?
Given where we are in the season and our playoff aspirations that many players and some in the media had pencilled us in for, a team meeting is absolutely necessary to figure things out. This is way worse than after the Atlanta debacle, as time is working against us now, and if we keep this up, it will be early golf season for them and Bosh will be looking at a sign and trade.
Btw, I could not bear to click on the Turkoglu post game interview, as there is nothing he can say that will give me any hope at this time. By now he should have found a way to pick up his game, and this signing on its own will tarnish BC’s rep, even with the other moves that he made that have worked out for us. The killer is 5 years, which I never understood given his age. I was O.K. for three years for the signing, as at least we can find a way to unload him for expiring cap space in the near future. Now he has got us by the “balls”, trend that one Hedo. You are going to get so villified when you get back to TO, and I am not sure at this point what he can do to get the fanbase at least neutral, never mind on his side.
The Raptors sliding after the All-Star Break…I’m having a horrible feeling of deja vu…
Team meeting incoming.
Doug Smith’s Blog: Don’t be surprised to see Derozan and Jack moved out for Jose and Antoine against the Warriors….. WTF?
He may be wrong but he does have inside knowledge about the teams working. The fact that its even being talked about makes no sense. Yes, you can give the roster a shake-up, but Jack’s basically our best player at the moment, and Antoine is playing like crap at the moment, so its pointless.
If Triano (or Colangelo) has any stones, they’d start weems over turkoglu. Who cares if Turk starts pouting and whining, its not like he can try any less, or play any worse. And he sure as hell won’t be forcing a trade, because no-one will want him.
Jack is the cancer of this team. The same as he was in Portland and Indiana. There is nothing worse in sports as in politics than a demagogue leader. He has 1 good game every other 7 games and he’s working the media to perfection. He is the main reason why we are always in a hole and why we transformed Hedo from an Orlando MVP last year to a scrub this year. Of course he’s Triano’s creation but this is a discussion for another day.
We are a hockey town. It is obvious for me that we watch and analyze b-ball as hockey. As fan I’m reading b-ball sites and I’m always shaking my head as to the clear opposition between the commentary and what’s actually happening on the court. Maybe one day we’ll all understand this game btter so we can be deserving of a good b-ball team.
For the record, I really believe that a PG rotation of Jose-Banks would produce many more wins that any other rotation involving Jack.
Source?!?
Daniel
“Cancer of the team” ?? “demagogue leader ” ??? Source Please !!!
Poiter,
Great point. I guess we are awarding Jose for his great defensive effort against Udrich and telling the rest of the guys:
” Hey, Defence is important. Look, if you play defence like Jose, you may start as well”.
Jack…….canccerous?………hmm, never really thought of it that way. Any chance some of that might spread to Hedo? Hard to imagine that effort , grit and determination is a cancer.
Maybe you just don’t know jack.
I would personally keep Jack there. I do think Wright and Weems will see more time.
DeRozan maybe but that Jack move…… I’m not so sure.
The problem Triano had last night is he decided in the 3rd to ride a dead horse (Bosh) instead of deferring to Bargnani who was the only one playing with some consistent energy last night.
He substituted Amir in for Andrea halfway through the 3rd, only to realize his grave error 2 minutes later after a few bad Bosh jumpers and lazy defensive possessions, when he substitued Andrea back into the game. Bad call coach. Bosh has been there the majority of the year playing at a high level but he clearly didn’t have it last night. Bargnani did, why not try and ride him?
If Calderon is promoted back into the starting line-up after watching his ‘defensive prowress’ again and again on display last night Triano will deserve the second guessing that will come about with that move. I’m not one to get on the coach all of the time but until I see Triano take the constapated look off his face and get serious with these guys, he and the players should all be under the same bus.
An already perimeter team depending on a pg who doesn’t have the skill-set to get to the rim. lol
It’s going to be a fun 20 games to take in!
what do you mean? Hasn’t the latest debates on this respectable blog shown that Amir should start over Bargnani? I thought it was decided!
Doug Smith is an idiot!
While I clearly believe that DeRozan is not yet a starter, sitting him for the ball chucking Wright is a joke. Wright is a bum who does not know his own ability / disability while DeRozan is raw talent with great energy and needs coaching and guidance and an investment of time. Jose is ok at best, and no way he should replace Jack who has clearly shown that while not a star he is way better than Jose at driving the offence, being agressive when needed, distributing the ball to more than just Bosh, and he plays some defense which is clearly more than none. What Jay should do but he will not is bench Turk in favour of Weems and Bellinelli should see way more time than wright. Also Evans needs to be limited in his minutes.
Sleepz got it right that Bargs was the only Raptor last night with energy, a hot hand and the will to win yet Triano managed his playing time the last two quarters horribly, and the team of chuckers did not go to him even though he was making his shots. The quick 10 point run to start the third by the Kings, was answered by clangers from Turk, Wright and Bosh without Andrea touching the ball for the first 5 minutes or so. Utter BS. The only one who should still get shots when they’re not going is Bosh because he’s earned it and can get hot pretty quick, and also Bargs second because he has talent and can get hot at any time and is 7 feet tall and moves like a small forward. Turk and Wright taking shots in a crucial stretch is just bad coaching.
What this team really needs more than a meeting is what most business organizations need…a reality check on self awareness. Obviously we have people who do not know what they can and cannot do which is why they play like bums.If they do not know who they are then the coach should look them in the eye and tell them and demand they play within their ability.
Bosh can pretty much do what he wants because he has the talent to do what he wants.
Bargnani should get the ball almost as many times as Bosh because he also knows what he can and cannot do and is a ctalyst and will continue to improve and a 7 footer who can do what he does is rare.
Turk should be limited..his defense is sub par and his offence sucks and most of both come because he doesnt give a shit and is a lazy ass.
Jose is a PG with a terrific shooting touch when on, and otherwise can dump the ball to Bosh or Amir but that’s it. Jose is the worst defender ever, and he does not make others better which is clearly the job of a point guard (Nash, Kidd) and any comparisons to Nash from people were completely misguided.He should come off the bench and not play down the stretch unless he’s having a career night.
Jack is strong, determined plays some defense, looks to make others better and wants to win ( the Alvin Williams of this team)and should log heavier minutes.
DD is a great rookie that needs better coaching around keeping his head up and deferrig his offense to Bosh and Bargs when they’re open, and alot of work on defense.
Weems is a talented energy type quick forward/ SG who needs development, playing time and coaching / mentoring.
Bellinelli same as Weems.
Wright is an ok defender ( not great) and a piece of shit on offence who needs to defer to anyone else unless he is wide wide open and everyone else is having an off night, and he needs to shut the f**k up because he should be the last one talking to the media. he should play defense only and when he chucks shots should immediately see pine.
Amir is a terrific developing big who most times plays within his abilities, is unselfish hard working and no way should he be giving up much playing time to Reggie.
Reggie is a dirty, energy rebounder that has no idea what to do with the ball when he rebounds it, cannot pass it out for his life and should see limited time when we need someone to ball grab Garnett or some other nasty dude.His offence is horrible but he does not know it.
Banks is a way better defender, passer and ball distributor than Jose and should see some time alhough Jose is a better scorer. Jose should play when he can score but on off nights he should make way for Banks.
Rasho should play in practice , and when one of our bigs needs help against 300 pound gorillas or when it’s appropriate…a great team member and solid contributor who knows his ability and plays within it.
I just read the Doug Smith blog, he said “there were those in the hierarchy who thought change might be coming to the starting lineup”. So I don’t think he was telling us what he thinks, he’s telling us what people from the Raptors organization think. That being said, I hope they keep Jack in the starting line-up, he just doesn’t play well coming off the bench and when they were playing well he was the one that was starting those games. Reggie should be just a situational player, like for foul trouble or in the last minute of a quarter.
Santimo well said and thanks for the correction on Doug Smith…maybe he’s not an idiot but rather a keener.
That was a great read.
Nice post…well said. 3 things:
1. Between last night’s game and LA’s, Turk’s just got me shaking my head all the time. He was not even looking for his own shot last night.
2. Why the hell was Bargnani, the only guy being productive offensively not being fed the freaking ball?
3. Bye-bye Bosh.
I have been saying this for a long time…The teammates ignore Bargnani when he gets hot. Im not sure what the team dynamic is, but Triano has to make the PG’s to forget their own stats and feed the big guy(s). Steve Nash highlights films must be required viewing.
I agree 100%! Bargnani would have multiple 30 point games if he wasn’t getting ignored. Last night he was the only Raptor who came to play and only took 12 shots. Ridiculous……………
Bargs never really gets the ball enough when he should. The point guards should create open shots for him and Turk and Wright should rarely ever shoot the ball. The start of the third was a complete joke and Triano let it all happen and get out of control before he called a time out. Only guy I excuse for shooting in the third was Bosh becuase he’s Bosh, but clearly bargs was hot and cared and the team ignored him as usual. hate to think how many 30+ point nights Bargs would have if he got the ball when hot.
Turk shouldn’t be looking for his own shot. I was shocked to see him get up more shots than Barg’s at the start of that 3rd quarter. He’s launching shots he hasn’t earned.
His free pass was used up months ago and that ‘rep’ that came with him is nothing more than fable and folk lore.
Stop calling a dude clutch until he shows it. Right now he’s creaky and lazy.
And yet, if you’ve read this blog the last 2 weeks, all you heard was that everything is Bargnani’s fault.
So which is it?
Which is it for who? I look and respond according to the games played. 2 weeks ago the criticism for Bargs was to be expected in my books. My issue has been about effort for him or any other player on this team.
I had absolutely no issue with his effort the last two nights as he was running the floor like a gazelle and trying to get on the baords. For me, he determines which it is.
For Turk’s I don’t see effort…… only head shaking, turnovers, bad shots, no hustle, 2 quick fouls in the first quarter, screaming like a banshee at every half assed attempt to go to the rim, and not willing to sacrifice his body. There is no comparison between these two players in my book as I know one is getting better and will continue to do so and the other is regressing and will also continue to do so. I’m not concerned with what everyone else blogs or thinks but I do enjoy reading it.
Nice post Arse. Nice zinger at the end:
“Oh, by the way folks, Udrih was playing so well in the third that his coach kept him in there for the whole quarter! And you know what else? He started the fourth and lived to tell about it! ”
Golden State is the only winnable game on this trip..if we beat them and then beat OKC at home we should be happy..that should still keep us in top 8.
The Warriors are a young, athletic, fast-breaking team….exactly the type of team that gives the Raptors fits.
Sacramento FG attempts at Rim: 34 (shooting 62%) Toronto: 20
Oh defence, where art thou?
Instead we launch 29 shots from 16-23 feet – the absolutely worst spot you can shoot the ball. Shot 34.5% there.
’nuff said.
It was a tale of tow teams. The first was seen in the first half playing with the same intensity and smarts as the night before. The second came in the second half and should’ve been called the Barneys, s soft was their defence and an ugly offensive effort to boot. Ugh
Teams are usually a reflection of their coach, and we all know Jay’s taken his share of beatings playing for the National Team in his days. Other than the high pick & roll , it doesnt seem like we’re running any plays out there, I see Demar get the ball right beside Turk, take 2 dribbles going nowhere, then passes to Turk. There is no flow to the offense and imo its because Turk wants the ball early, leaving the PG to wonder what to do and the other players just watching and waiting, we need a little movement in the offense.
Agreed, the offence seems stagnant much more than not. For an “Xs & Os” coach, Triano’s offence seems as predictable as Mitchell’s. I mean, post-up ISO’s for REGGIE EVANS???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Are we THAT robotic with our offensive execution that we run the same play whether it’s Bosh at the 4, or Evans???
The BEST thing that can happen is that we sign and trade Bosh next year, and deviously incorporate Turk’s crap contract in the deal.
Bosh’s ball sticking, jump shooting, paper thin defense exhibited in the 4th qtr vs LA, and all night last night is evidence enough. This guys is not a TEAM player, he plays for himself and that is it.
He wasn’t good in either of the last two games but prior to his injury your argument doesn’t fly.
2 games ‘evidence’ doesn’t override the 40 previous games.
My argument is based on his entire tenure with the Raptors. Once the ball sticks in his hands, game over. Screws up everyone on the team. Plus, i’ve seen him get punked by every average pf and c in the league.
Really? His entire tenure. SCrews up all the rest of the ballers on this team does it?
Punked by every average pf and c? I love the smell of nonsense in the afternoon.
Really, from Joakim Noah, up to KG, to Bynum, to Sefalosha, to David Lee, to Boozer, to Kirilenko, they all have no problem dusting Bosh when he is “defending” them. I am shocked that Bargs, while historically an offensive weapon, has become the teams best low post defender considering the amount of blocking potential Bosh showed as a rookie.
to do so we should get like the entire sacramento roster and probably also the hot dog guys. I totally agree with the purpouse, but I am afraid it’s unfeasible. Only chance we had to pull a megatrade like that was to take Mcgrady’s contract and go for the lottery this year.
Trade or not Bosh is a great player and the Raptors would have been in the basement this year without him.
The most painful thing, but right action to do this offseason in 2010 is to establish our “star” player to be the SG or SF (not including Turkoglu), only if we don’t make the playoffs and retain the 2010 lottery pick. It just looks like now that we never even should of spent any money on Turk at all and the only thing we got out of that trade was Jarret Jack and Antoine Wright.
“The BEST thing that can happen is that we sign and trade Bosh next year”:
With what team and what players ??
“deviously incorporate Turk’s crap contract in the deal.”
We can all dream about that day but deep down we all know, we are stuck with Donnar men for next 4 years. Baklava for everybody ….
F**K Turk … Nuff said
If I had a dollar for everytime I said that this season I’d be able to buy out his contract and get rid of him.
As for Bosh, when he puts his mind to it he’s a beast, but when he doesnt, he can’t coast and still be a factor…this is what separates him from the All Stars in this league, they dont have to have their A game everynight to make a difference..Bosh does…Bynum owned him in the paint the other night.
‘If I had a dollar for everytime I said that this season I’d be able to buy out his contract and get rid of him.’
just to put that in perspective, you’d have to say that ~800,000 times a day (assuming you were to only say it on game-days).
..or around 12,698 times per game so far…..hmmmmmm….along with the post game chat with the work buddies, friends , family, various forums??? …i’d say thats about right..lol
that is funny, funny shit…..gotta love gallows humour
Jack is playing solid but he is not as good at sticking the distance jumper or getting his teammates as involved as Jose Caleron (there is no d in calderon).
Disagree..Jose rarely gets his teamates involved unless your name is Bosh or maybe Amir. Jose looks off Bargs and has for years I think beacuse he always thought of himself as the franchise’s second best player and does not want to concede to Bargs.
agreed Pizzaman…….Andrea is the second best player on the Raptors and hopefully Jose will realize that when you get Andrea involved, good things happen
Thanks Don but Jose has not and will not realize it on his own…Triano needs to grow some balls and show the team the pecking order for touches and shots and tell Jose how to play.
Jose should ride the pine for a while. Maybe than he will realize.
Same for Wright.
We should know this by now…hot hands never touch the ball in Toronto. Jarrett Jack the previous night, Bargnani the next. I’m sick of people looking off Bargnani, and fed Bosh, who took his sweet time (10+ seconds??) to land a brick. People blame Bargnani for not leading when Bosh is out, how can he? He did not get enough touches to get used to the leader position.
Some people in this forum said Raptors Fans, Arse, et al. are too negative? Why be positive when you see good efforts against good teams, but then they got blown out by mediocre teams? I would put everybody under the bus….effort is the reason I watch the game.
As much as Bosh likes T.O., if I were him and see us barely be able to squeeze into the playoff (or miss it!), I am FORCED to leave the team. We’ll see….
Meanwhile, have to reinstall NBA Live 2010 after the game…to vent…
Calling Sacramento a mediocre team is pretty generous – but they still whooped our asses so whats that say about us…
Bosh looks crestfallen .. either as a hangover from his injury and illness or from the realization that this edition of the Raptors is deteriorating as other teams are jelling in the playoff run. There is something bothering Bosh because his demeanour has changed noticeably.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Raps got squeezed out the playoff because this disparate group of players are not a team, only individual performers.
The Raptors are not a consistent team, and their development reveals that problem. Nevertheless, they did their professional best, and if they do end of in the playoffs, that will be a huge accomplishment given that they started the season with only 3 truly veteran players … Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon.
Rather than being unreasonably critical of this ‘team’, we should all be thankful that they were able to accomplish what they did … make a playoff run.
“only 3 truly veteran players … Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon”
What does “true Veteran Player mean “even mean?? If you are referring to a veteran player, then Hedo, Nesterovich, Evans and even Wright can be all considered a veteran.
If you are referring to 3 players remaining from last year to prove your earlier points about not gelling and … then again Mr. 3-30, you have spoken from your other end.
The problem with this team is not gelling or the new players as you are desperately trying to make it. If that was the problem, then we would not see brilliant games from these guys in many oceans.
They had enough time to GEL and … The problem is not with the talent. The problem is with the culture of the team and lack of heart.
I hate to say it, but I fully expected this team to begin to tank after the all-star break, regardless of injuries. We had a soft schedule pre-break, and we took advantage of it.
I wouldn’t be shocked if we slid right out of the playoff race, but I expect us to hang in for the a 7th-8th seed, and probably get swept in the 1st round of the playoffs.
That`s the part I don`t get. WTF is everyone flipping it out now? Is it not common knowledge that after ASG production drops off and players on teams that have no ring hopes go into freestyle mode to showcase for other teams and make sure that they get their stats?
The time to be up in arms was at the start of the season when everyone else was screaming: No reason to panic; you f wait until they gel, man! You f wait 30 games and you are gonna eat your words, hater!
Give it another 10 games, everyone will calm down, hold hands and go back to their usual “hey we always have next year, we are young and developing” BS. This will be following by a “busy summer” by BC and the clowns will be out again in August talking about playoffs and no.1 in the East. Or how everyone else in the East is garbage.
FLUX you sort of make a good point, they haven’t played well at all since the ASG. Right before that though they were among the hottest teams in the league. They started off horrible with I think it was a 7-13 record but after that they went on a run and were 22-10. But like you, I don’t get why they’ve played so poorly after the ASG.
Yeah, I’m just saying it happens to every team, to a certain degree. I’ve seen it year after year. What people call the rookie wall happens to all players, just a tiny bit, after ASG.
Guys just don’t have the energy anymore, especially when they know there is no hope or that they will get bounced in the 1st round. Not only that, but in that kind of scenario, players realize there are only 20 games left and it’s time to impress other teams and fill up the stat sheet. So of course you will also see scrubs “stepping up” – that Toronto fans will then want to sign for 3 years at 50M, because he has “potential”
What bothers me is that people are flipping out now, when it way too late. The time to be enraged was at the start when people were preaching patience… well, how do you like your gelling and patience, now? Oh I know… don’t tell me.. there is always next year and all we need is a training camp.(I don’t mean you santimo)
Ain’t nobody ssaying the obvious???
More cowbell!!!
Anyone know if the Bosh vs Sactown fan smack talk occurance coincided with the Kings turning it on? Anyone else thinking along the lines that their coach used that to motivate them for the upset?!? It the game seemed to have turned a 180 after that moment….
The “Hell no!” cut happened in the 1st quarter….the comeback was in full flight in the 3rd….we had some good moments (relative to the Kings crap) in the second quarter. The problem wasn’t the Kings’ movitation, it was the Raptors lack of heart.
Ball.
Cmon Son.
Ed Lover would have a field day with the Raps.
This simple yet all encompassing statement echoes my overall sentiment for this team.
http://www.cmonsononline.com
yeah, I still dont mind admittnig that Im a hardcore fan, but I really wanted to stop watching, but sometimes I like to watch the garbage minutes, just to see the line changes. I really feel they should have left the starting line on till then end to taste the sweet taste of loss