I’m sitting here wanting to talk about tonight’s game against he Bucks, but all I can think about is how Parker/Bosh/Calderon each played over 40 minutes, in back-to-back nights. In a game where the bench should have got some burn, they didn’t…and why you ask? Cause the bench isn’t very good.Conundrum isn’t…isn’t this team suppose to go the second round? At this point of the season, it isn’t that Mitchell has lost trust in the bench, it’s that he didn’t have any to begin with. How else can you explain the lack of burn these guys have been getting? It’s not like they are a secret atomic weapon waiting to be unleashed at the right time. It’s Solomon, Adams, Graham and Humphries. They do a damn good job of keeping the bench warm, the towels dry and the gatorade cool for the starters, but ballers they aren’t. Humphries isn’t bad. He should have seen more then 4 minutes, he can rebound and bang in the paint. You need that in a tight game like this.
It’s all slowly coming together. All the time the non-starters got during the pre-season was Mitchell hoping they give him something he can use. Solomon had that one good game, but very little afterwards…that’s about it. Jawai has done nothing since his arrival but import a container of vegemite. Adams quite literally hasn’t even broken a sweat.
Another slow start to the game for the Raptors. Bosh didn’t even touch the ball after the tip until the 840 mark, then didn’t attempt his first shot until the 520 mark. During the 6.5 minutes, Moon, the offensive juggernaut that he is, attempted 4 shots, forcing 2 rather badly, and hitting the other two. Needless to say I lost my voice. I don’t understand why a guy who shoots 38% from beyond the arc attempts more three pointers then Kapono and Parker combined (he did hit 3 of them, but it’s not his shot, he wont shoot 50% from beyond the arc again).
On top of that, he only grabbed 2 rebounds. So in three games, he has 3 rebounds. Just the kind of numbers you want to see out of your starting small forward. He grabbed 6 a game last season. This is a contract year. What the hell is he doing? Does he realize that this is probably going to be his last contract in the league? It wont even be a very long one, maybe 4 years if he’s lucky, and that is pushing it. I wouldn’t give him more then 3 (32 year old small forwards start to lose a step. fortunately for him, he’s not the kamikaze type).
O’Neal had another…bad meh game. No, it was bad. In 28 minutes, he managed 11pts, 8rebs, 4 to, a block and yea…he fouled out. It’s not like he was playing a Shaq, Howard, Yao…he had Bogut (who has the tendency to be invisible for stretches). For some reason, Mitchell decided to play Moon at 4 when O’Neal fouled out, which led to Bosh being abused in the post by Bogut and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, for like 4 possessions. Finally, he brings in Bargnani, but that didn’t change the tide of the game, it was just too late, and Milwaukee doesn’t have the coaching or players to come back from being down.
Bosh was a stud again. 20pts, 10reb, 6ast in 41.5 minutes. Primo. The only knock on him was how he got abused late in the 4th by Bogut and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. But after over 120 minutes in 3 days of carrying this team on his back, he gets a pass.
So yea, the Bucks game. All I really have to say is that the Raptors are a better team, and had no business losing this one. Had this not been the second night of a back-to-back, it wouldn’t have been so close. By the way, I am 3-0 in predictions so far this season. I even called the spread, 4 (although I predicted a 97-93 score).
