With the Celtics short handed (Ray Allen sitting out the game), the Raptors were unable to ride a four game winning streak to mount any sort of attack to defend home court. The players were as much to blame as the coaching for this one: no ball movement, no penetration, no one was able to hit a jumper. Yet again, there were altercations that exposed the Raptors for a bunch of pansies (Bosh got twisted up with Posey under the basket, and Pierce shoved Delfino out of frustration), with no one coming to the aid of their team mate. We have discussed this over the last couple weeks, but the fact of the matter is that the Raptors are a group of bottoms who take whatever is dished out. And to top it off, the refs continued their streak as the worst officials in professional sports, with late call after late call after bad call.
It is getting harder and harder to write these post-game wrap-ups, as it seems that I am repeating myself, but I commit to repeating myself on different days in an effort to drive home the deficiencies this team has, in the hope that Colangelo will do something about it.
1st Quarter:
- IBM Winning Strategies: Celtics not that deep.
- Are we really still talking about this? These guys go 8-9 deep every game. That is all you need. They have their starting 5, with 3-4 bench players who know their roles, come in, and do what is required. Unlike the Raptors who are 10 deep, with a shaky starting crew, and a bunch of guys who don’t know where they stand, or what they should be doing while Forderon/Bosh run a high pick and roll.
- In a show of defeat, Bosh’s first possession is a forced jumper on the wing, he misses…
- Boston gets three easy buckets on a Garnett jumper, and two Pierce layups.
- Bosh finally decides to take it to rack after 3 bad jumpers, gets to the line.
- Finally, Chuck moves away from asking what’s in your wallet; asking what’s in Garnett’s vault - made me laugh.
- Nice steal by Calderon on Rondo that leads to a Raptor fast break, they didn’t finish…wish I had some pizza, damn hungry.
- Bosh continues to shoot from the perimeter. I wonder if he knows he is ten times the player when he drives. Maybe we can get Dick Vitale to tell him.
- Moon can’t cover Pierce straight up on defense. Took Smitch too long to get Delfino to try and give a different look.
- Chuck asks Leo if Rondo can make shots. Looks like he can. He hits his open ones, and last year, I remember he hit 2 game winners.
- Bosh stepping up, and attacking the basket, and getting to the line. He has 8 attempts in the first quarter.
- He needs to continue to take it at Garnett, make The Big Ticket work.
- Garnett converts a nice one handed alleyoop from Rondo.
- Parker came to play tonight, hitting his open jumpers from beyond the arc, hopefully that holds true for the rest of the game.
- Rasho draws a foul from Garnett, giving him 2 in the 1st quarter.
- Humphries gets the call, gets on the court and…forces two bad shots on his first two possessions…really need that pizza now.
- The Raptors have done a good job getting the Boston front court into early foul trouble. Both Garnett and Davis have 2 apiece.
2nd Quarter:
- With Garnett sitting, the Raptors needs to attack the paint.
- Chuck: “Mother nature is giving Toronto a facial.” LOL!
- Chuck: “The Raptors are the only legitimate team in the Atlantic that can unseat the Celtics.” I don’t think so, they can’t even unseat the Celtics in their own house.
- Bosh and Calderon sat for 5.5 minutes in the 2nd. Good idea, especially with Garnett sitting. Why would we want to take advantage of that???
- Celtics manage to extend the lead by 34597788 points with Garnett on the bench.
- I go on the record in saying that the Raptors players and coaches are doing everything wrong, EVERYTHING.
- Bullshit late foul call on Kapono. Didn’t even touch him. Refs suck.
- The Raptors manage to score only 6 points in the first in the first 7 and half minutes of the 2nd. Way to defend home court.
- Chuck: “Sam Mitchell knows the importance of going on the road and getting it done.” The real point to be made is whether he knows HOW to get it done.
- For the first time in 47 seasons, the Raptors execute a set play out of a timeout, with Kapono hitting a layup.
- Calderon gets mugged twice in the last 20 seconds, and only gets one call.
3rd Quarter:
- The best defense against the Celtics offense today is a leaking roof.
- Not for long, the Celtics ring off 4 quick points.
- The Raptors quickly answer, with 6 of their own.
- Pierce is awesome at drawing fouls, frustrating to watch him have his way with whoever is covering him.
- Need a timout at the 830 mark, get it at the 715 mark.
- Moon bails out bad defense by Calderon on the perimeter with a block.
- Calderon returns the favour with a sweet alleyoop.
- Boston, continuing their sodomy, penetrating deep for easy scores.
- With all this going on, I can truly say I was most dissapointed when
Darrick MartinKrispy Kreme checked in. - Pierce shoves Delfino, gets called for a technical, but no-one comes to Delfinos defense. I nominate Super Fan as our enforcer, he must have a sword under his suit somewhere - slice bitches up.
4th Quarter:
- Raptors come out blazing, cutting the lead to 10 (
Joey GrahamGolden Oats hits a layup off a Rondo missed shot). - Doc quickly calls a timeout.
- Calderon is still drinking gatorade on the bench, while Martin and Graham play during crunch time, WTF??
- I give up…my pizza is far more interesting.
All the things these guys do that makes them a good team, seem to go out the window when they play a better team who executes. Don’t fool yourselves, the Dallas and Houston weren’t won by the Raptors, the Mavs and Rockets lost them. Big difference. The lone bright spots today was the play of Humphries, and the ok games by Bosh and Moon. I will live with Humphries taking a few bad shots, if he continues to hustle like that.
Bargnani looks like a deer in the headlights. Gheradini/Colangelo need to do something ASAP. Bring in someone who knows what to do with the kid, who has an inkling of mentoring a talented kid.
While were at it, bring in Artest too.
Technorati Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Boston Celtics, Bryan Colangelo, Carlos Delfino, Chris Bosh, Chuck Swirsky, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Jose Calderon, Kris Humphries, Maurizio Gheradini, Rasho Nesterovic, Sam Mitchell, TJ Ford
Popularity: 38% [?]
December 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I want to throw up. I draggeed my ass in the morning in this shit we call weather to the ACC and saw a team get outlcassed, outcoached and outhustled. It was beautifull to watch the Celtics execute their offense; motion, great post position, and superior skill sums it up.
I was in the nosebleeds but this is what I obsereved; please tell me if I saw things correctly from way up there:
1) Jose wasn’t Jose. He was awful.
2) Delfino jacked way too many shots and played horrible defense on Paul Pierce; Ditto Jamario Moon, Kapono, or anybody that covered Pierce
3) We ran around like Hyennas chasing their perimiter players all night
4) We looked disinterested and disoriented on defense, and our man to man defense was horrible.
5) Why did Bargnani start the 4th instead of Humphries, who seemed to be one of two bright spots for the Raps, the other being the okay play of Bosh.
The Celtics had us figured out completely. They must have read the scouting report because they threw two defenders out on our pick and rolls and played us for the jumper all night; and we surrendered and refused to pound the paint or drive in to the hoop. WE GOT OUTCOACHED completely.
Chuck Swirsky should never be allowed to talk… “ever!” about the Celtics. They are a force, not only in the east, but they will compete hard for the championship this year.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Bad send off to the west coast. Bargnani has gone to sleep and hopefully some event will snap him out of it. But I’m not holding my breath. Maybe a change of scenery like the D-League would help ?
I guess the only way to look at is they are doing much better then Miami.
With the injuries and all the changes it’s hard to blame the coaching staff.
Happy Holidays !!!
December 16th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I was at the game today. The C’s are playing at a different level of energy and intensity right now than anybody else in the East. We’ll see how this works out during the season and the play-offs. The only example I know from recent memory is the MJ’s Bulls in ‘96.
As for us we tried to compete: I wouldn’t say we were outcoached or outhustled. They took away from us ALL our offensive options in the same time, which is a very rare thing to see in the NBA. We had only 14 pts in the paint today which shows the status of our low-post game. Some of our bigs are in a little bit of funk: Rasho, Andrea. The only ones playing well are CB4 and Hump. Bottom line is nobody played to their strengths tonight and it has to be attributed to Celts defense.
I do believe though that we need this kind of games to make us better. I look at last year play-off experience and I think that a relatively easy schedule in terms of injuries for other teams schewed our performance in the regular season. This year I’d like to see tougher games, even less victories but a better team in the play-offs.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
i agree daniel, tougher games in the regular season makes you a stronger team. i think the out coaching comes exactly where you said: the celtics took away our offensive options. it is no secret the raptors a one trick horse: high pick and roll. when you stop that, the raptors have no where to go. we don’t have a low post threat, bosh is a 15ft player (jumper or drive, not much in terms of back to the basket).
when your bread and butter isn’t working, then you wont have the option to swing the ball for open looks, and there is where coaching comes in. how many plays do you see the raptors run on a night in/night out basis? 2 maybe?
anyways, of the next 7 games, 4 of them are winnable, they better step up. surprisingly, the raptors are tied for 4th in the east, how sad is that?
December 16th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Raps Fan, as much as I’d like to agree with you, I believe you give coaches too much credit: all teams have scouting reports on us and in general the coaching staff knows how to prepare the game-plan against us. It just comes down to execution and the C’s have the personnel to execute the defensive plan. There are very few teams in NBA who can completely stop us.
I am not a big fan of Mitchell myself for different reasons. However I’m sure Raptors playbook is much bigger than only 1 or 2 plays. I’ve seen different plays tried at different times during the season both offensively and deffensively. Today our off-ball movement was poor and I really don’t know if it’s coach’s fault or player’s fault. Some of our players though don’t look right and maybe the reason why we are not moving a lot has to do something with injuries. After all BC said in a recent interview that he had a medical report in which 8 of our players had minor or major injuries.
As a last point, our point of atack in our offense is almost always the PG. When we combine this with the fact that our team is a jump-shooting team (in other words the PG has to make sure he creates individual rythms during the flow of the game) the strain on PG position is huge. This point came home today when I saw Jose’s struggles, one of the best PG’s in NBA to create rythm during the game. I watched him during the half-time break delay sitting on the bench and stretching his legs while all his colleagues were on the floor warming up and shooting. Jose today was very flat in energy level which is extremely unusual for him. That’s the reason Rondo was able to blow-by him with ease and why I believe in general Jose as a starter makes a conscious decision to conserve his energy deffensively and play mostly help defense. IMO we need TJ as a back-up to maintain the energy level and deffensive stance at all times.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
i don’t know man, i think coaches are just a big a piece than the players, maybe not bigger, but equal. why else would you pay phil jackson 24 mill over two years?
if you could enlighten me, let me now what the raptors run other than the high pick and roll, and more recently, run the wings off a couple screens on the low blocks. i havent seen anything else.
i agree that players have to execute, and that can really throw any plan off. the raptors played awfully today, it was gross to watch. as for scouting, i also agree, but where coaching comes in is where the opposite team makes an adjustment to your style, and you are able to come up with something else to counter their adjustments. we saw that last year in the mavs/warriors first round matchup. nelson made adjustments, and avery couldn’t do anything to stop it. based on nelsons adjustments, nowitzki wasn’t able to get off like he normally does.
as for the injury report, i didn’t hear about that, but i believe you. my only retort is that if there are 8 players on this team with varying injuries, could it not be said that there are 8 players on every other team in the league who also may suffer some degree of injury? i think it could be, which means that you have to play through.
if you are injured, get out of the game, and let someone else take your place. if the raptors are really as deep as everyone claims, then that shouldn’t be too big a stretch.
you make good points tho, the players came out flat, and move without the ball. boston does a good job of defending the high screen, and clogging the lane. running some motion, and penetrating can open up for open jumpers, but what do i know.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Nice look for the blog. Much better.
Our offense runs into trouble when two things happen:
1) The defense is switching 1-4 thus making the pick ‘n roll worthless, same if they fight through the screen.
2) Bosh starts taking springers resulting in us not getting any ball movement triggered by an inside-out pass.
As for the defense, if we allow PG penetration we are fucked because our rotation defense is terrible. Another example of horrible rotational defense today was when KG found Rondo about 5 times for an open jumper on the weak-side baseline after Calderon doubled. Disgusting.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
thanks man.
i agree, if the pick n roll is defended properly, we are screwed. bosh makes me mad. not many forwards/centers in the league can run with the guy, but he insists on jacking shots. we know he can shoot pretty decently, but when he takes it to the rack, he opens up things for the rest of the guys.
if bosh really wants to be a franchise player, he has to start making his teammates better, and he wont do that by settling for jumpers.
if chuck/leo say rondo’s jumper is suspect one more time, i am going to hunt them down. that guy has punished us the last 3 games.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I know eh, Chuck and his hating on opposing players is sometimes too much. I’ll admit it man, the Celtics supporting cast has been very impressive, they aren’t a 3-man team at all, they’re actually a very well-defined team where everyone seems to know their role.
December 16th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
i actually didn’t think the celtics would be this deep, i’ll be honest, but i knew they were better than what people were saying.
i really don’t think the raptors can knock them off, contrary to what chuck said today, idiot.
we should get back on that podcast man…i’ll give you a shout this week!
December 16th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Daniel Says:
“As for us we tried to compete: I wouldn’t say we were outcoached or outhustled. They took away from us ALL our offensive options in the same time, which is a very rare thing to see in the NBA”
“They took away from us ALL our offensive options” - Are you giving “all” the credit to the Celtics players? Does the coaching staff not have something to do with taking away our offensive options?
“Raps Fan, as much as I’d like to agree with you, I believe you give coaches too much credit: all teams have scouting reports on us and in general the coaching staff knows how to prepare the game-plan against us. It just comes down to execution and the C’s have the personnel to execute the defensive plan”
Do you think it is easy for coaches to prepare for games? You seem to be contradicting yourself. In one breath, you say that Raps Fan overestimates the value of coaching, and then in another vein you seem to be crediting the C’s execution on their personnel (who do yo mean by personnel?) Who is executing the defensive plan? are the players making adjustments on the spot? is Doc Rivers a deaf dumb mute? Your response is extremely confusing to me.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
the nets must be regretting they let go of house. eddie house has found a home in boston no doubt. all the c’s important additions to surround the big 3 are working out - possey , house , big daddy. b.c. must retool the team with the celtics in mind if he hopes to improve last year’s achievements.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
colangelo needs to do something asap. its been 25 games, and this team doesn’t have a real identity yet.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I think there is a some overreacting going on after this loss. The Celtics are the new elite team in the East along with Detroit. Toronto is in the same league as Cleveland, Washington, Orlando and Indiana. they played like crap, but it is their first loss in 5 games and they lost to a team that has only lost twice all season.
just remember 2 years ago when the Raptors were one of the worst teams in the nba. now we’re defending Atlantic Division Champs and pretty much a shoe in for the playoffs. if someone would have told me that 2 years ago i would have laughed at them. You cant use this game as a measuring stick, but that doesnt mean you cant be a critic, just take it easy on our team.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Mitchell did keep Dixon in too long when all he was doing was dribbling and jacking up shots; El Mago has no confidence maybe Sam should put him in the starting 5 just to see if he shows some signs of life.
We talk about how deep the TO bench is, but i sat there watching some players play like shit, but there wasnt any time outs or changes. Put in a guy like Graham who’s athletic and may provide a spark or even a Maceo Baston who’s a big guy that can finish around the basket. I’m not saying these guys are the answer, but they are professionals and have skills why not give them a couple more minutes? just a thought.
Oh ya, if Kapono would have knocked down that 3 and brought the Raps witin 7 the ACC would errupted.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:22 am
the tone of the reaction is because the raptors didn’t play well. i wasn’t expecting a win, but at least execute your strategy. they weren’t ever really in the game. if kapono hit that three, it could have been a different game. on the same token, if the raptors made the right adjustments, and attacked the basket, they might not have had to rely on that shot.
the raptors are not in orlandos league man. orlando, boston and detroit are the cream of the east. the raptors are 4th or 5th at best, which isn’t bad (same as last year).
the way things are panning out, it seems like last year all over: start slow, pick up steam, get thumped in the first round. that isn’t progress to me.
i agree with giving bargnani more minutes. he needs someone to work with him exclusively to get him back on track. the rotation isn’t helping him any though.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I think the Raps should hire Tony Kukoc to be El Mago’s big brother. He knows what its like to be a European playing in the nba and the guy had a successful career. Bargs is still so young but this is the time when he needs the most help so he doesnt become a Nikoli Tskitishvili (spell?? who cares?).
I put the Raps in the same league as Orlando because before this year the Magic were crap. They only have 3 more wins then the Raps and there was a post earlier about how the raps could be 4 more games over .500 if they would have executed. I just havent bought into the Magic yet they are a good team but i question their ability down the stretch and their bench. you can implement the “hack n shaq” on DHow, which takes away from some big points. You look at other PF on strong teams and they’re great FT shooters. Dirk, Marion, Boozer, Sheed, and even Bosh. Orlando will be an elite team after this season…the reason is obvious why Boston makes the list as an elite team…PP, KG, and RayRay
December 17th, 2007 at 11:02 am
great idea diggin up kukoc. he would be a perfect coach for bargnani.
i agree on orlando now, good points. i suspect my rhetoric about the raptors would be different if they did win those 4/5 games earlier this season.
the key is coming out of december with a winning record for me. if the raptors can do that, january and february have a lot of home games ripe for the picking.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I’d like to offer the following to the game. Everybody has a bad game, and the Raps aren’t good enough to have a bad game and win against one of the elite team in the NBA. All these messages say the same thing, they sucked today, but watching every Raptors game taught me, if they suck today, there is a good chance they may play better tomorrow. The point of concern for me is persistant issues I see.
1) Jamario Moon is not taking it to the basket when he should be. he is athletic, and when he does take it to the hole he usually does something incredible…. Why is he is so scared, I don’t have an answer cause I’m not in his shoes or his head….
2) Andrea Barganani - Can’t hit a shot, scared to hold the ball, that’s a major problem. In my opinion he should be the second best player on this team. He has the talent for it…. that’s a coaching issue… Whatever he’s got to do, he’s got to help Andrea get his confidence back. This team needs him to play like he is capable.
The rest of the C’s game was dog, we did nothing right, and it has in my opinion, some of it had to do with Boston, alot had to do with the fact that they played like ‘dog ass’ which made Boston look that much better….
That’s all I have to say about that!!!!
December 17th, 2007 at 11:52 am
A lot of the crap play yesterday can be contributed to the Celtics D, but the Raps werent making the wide open shots like the ususally do. Bosh was great when he took the ball to the rack, which is something he should look to do 90% of the time. You’re right Ron Moon should take the ball to the hoop as well. the guy has ups, a wing span and quickness at the very least he gets fouled. Calderon didnt look like himself, but Rondo played him hard. Bargs needs a wake up call plain and simple.
The Raps will learn from this and hopefully take it to Clippers, Blazers and Sonics.
December 17th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I posted from this comment on RaptorsHQ.com so apologies if you’ve read it there, but I think it applies to Daniel, Raps Fans and rmissaghi’s debate on coaching:
Until this year, Doc Rivers got the same criticisms as Smitch, that of being a “players coach” who is clueless about X’s-and-O’s, i.e. plays out of time-outs. And now he’s suddenly a coaching genius?
Let’s face it, put veteran, playoff-battle-tested, motivated-on-D players on the floor, and the entire equation changes. What people sometimes forget about the Celts is that they are a veteran and playoff savvy team. So the Big 3 haven’t made the finals, they’ve all had long runs — and Posey won with Miami, Pollard made the finals with Cleveland and went far with the Kings, House went far with Phoenix and even Scalabrine went to the Finals with NJ.
The Raps are simply, not in their league; Rasho, Kapono and Delfino were all benchwarmers on their respective teams’ prior playoff success. All in due time, guys, all in due time….
December 17th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
i somewhat agree with you jj. but up until this season, doc didn’t have a good team. he had a franchise/perennial all-star in pierce, but very little in terms of support. the raptors apparently have a deep team, but are only 3 games over .500. what is the disconnect? we saw what mitchell did in his first two seasons with the raptors…not pretty. last year he got an upgrade in talent, and the organization won 47 games. the way things are going, we will be lucky to win 44. if you remember, we won 4 of 5 from boston last season.
as far as veteran/playoff tested players, we don’t have many. but what we do have is 3 olympians (and jorge, but he is injured), two of whom won world championships (jose and carlos), parker (euro league mvp), and a bunch of other guys who apparently constitute one of the deepest benches (if not the deepest) bench in the league.
we have a 3 time all-star, and two of the best point guards in the business.
what does sam mitchell need to run a play? what else does he need to win important games, and make things difficult for the creme de la creme? what kind of players do we need to consistently come out and compete. i wasn’t expecting a win last night, but at least try. give them something to think about, make boston react to what we are doing. we didn’t do any of that. not just the boston game, but all season.
the way things are going, they will make the playoffs, but lose in the first round because they haven’t shown that they can adapt to an adjustment from the apposing team.
for playoff success, there will need to be good habits and plays and effort, and i just don’t see it with this bunch.
December 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
C don’t win 1/2 their games w/out ref interference.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Nice, but I think it is sometimes not enough to get it complete.