Not much to really write about:
- Raptors are coming off an emotional double overtime win
- Pistons are coming off an embarrasing loss to the Knicks
- Pistons were ready to play, and the Raptors weren’t (tired I think they were)
Bargnani continued his uninspired play. Apparently Smitch thought it a good idea to ignore Bargnani for 3 weeks. He literally didn’t talk to Bargnani for 3 weeks. Zero communication. I assume that means he also didn’t talk to him professionally as well. Which really leads me to ask one questions: “did Smitch really think ignoring Bargnani is going to make things better?” Is it any wonder why this kid is a loner? His coach is making like it’s grade 3, and ignoring him. I have never heard that before. The next time I mentor someone, I am going to ignore them, and put the owness on the kid to work shit out on his/her own.
1st Quarter:
- Bosh posts up McDyess to start the game. Bargnani threads a great pass to him to get Bosh a short hook.
- Chuck: “let’s see what the Raptors will run here.” - Seriously, you don’t know what’s coming dude? Come on man…give us a break.
- Bargnani playing a little bit inspired, has 2 boards and 2 assists in the first 3 and a half minutes.
- Moon turns the ball over; he was trying to do too much with the ball.
- Parker blew by Hamilton on the baseline twice, both times resulting in a Raptors basket.
- Bosh draws foul on McDyess in the post. Gotta keep at it man.
- Moon turns the ball over again, Rip finishes on the break.
- Bosh misses the first of many jumpers.
- Prince fakes the shit out of Moon, dunks in the open lane.
- Parker hits a tough jumper late in the shot clock.
- Raptors really sloppy with the ball, ugly to watch - Raptors timeout.
- Raptors run an ass play out of the timeout. I’m actually upset at how bad that was…
- Bosh jacks anothe shot…misses again…
- Calderon hits a short jumper off his penetration, he should look to do that more.
- He comes back and hits another one, looking good.
- Bosh misses another jumper, Humphries grab the rebound, but travels…gonna be a long night.
2nd Quarter:
- Chauncey hits an open three to get things rolling.
- Delfino answers with his own bomb from downtown.
- Gonne be a long for Calderon covering Billups, he looks like he’s on a mission.
Darrick MartinKrispy Kreme misses a wide open layup. Wide open. I really don’t like him…at all.- With Bosh on the bench, things are starting to fall apart for the Raps.
- Bosh back in quick, now he has to drive to the basket, and forget about shooting.
- Calderon finds a curling Kapono for an open jumper.
- Delfino steals the ball, swats it down court to Calderon for the fast break - Calderon gets fouled, but hits both free throws.
- Pistons second unit pounding the Raptors.
- Delfino hits another three off of a Bosh drive.
- Bosh finishes short hook in the paint.
- Raptors defense is garbage. Pistons keep getting the shot they want on every possession.
- Raps force the Pistons into a shot clock violation.
- Delfino drops another bomb from beyond the arc…dudes on fire.
- Parker brings the Raptors to within 4 on a baseline jumper - Pistons timeout.
- Bosh feeds a curling Kapono for an open layup.
- Delfino keeping the Raptors in the game, hitting his shots, and attacking the basket.
- Is it me, or does it seem Billups hits every shot he takes against the Raptors?
- Parker pulls up for a smooth jumper off the dribble.
- Parker follows up with a sweeeeet finger roll.
- Raps run an awesome out-of-bounds play - Delfino curls off a high screen for a wide open layup - didn’t expect that.
3rd Quarter:
- Raptors come out flat…if they want any chance of winning this game, they have to make a stand right now!
- Smitch calls a quick timeout.
- Raptors turn the ball over out of the timeout, which leads to a Hamilton trey.
- Moon turns the ball over again, he’s having a pretty rough game - Hamilton hits another open shot off the turnover.
- Smitch timeout - Delfino and Kapono back in the game.
- Bosh posts up and draws a foul, converting both freethrows.
- Parker gets raped by Rip, but Billups gets a +1 on the other end…bullshit.
- Bosh picks up a +1 on a nice post up on McDyess…McDyess has his hands full tonight.
- Some sloppy ball being played all around.
- Rasheed drops a nice dime on a slashing Prince +1.
- Kapono answers with a quick jumper (he really doesn’t need any space/time to shoot that bad boy).
- Pistons have a comfortable grip on this game.
- Wallace defending the basket very well.
- Billups hits runner in traffic.
- Calderon turns the ball over, again. Swirsky has totally jinxed the poor guy.
- Joey Graham sees the light of day. Is Smitch throwing in the towel already?
- Bosh misses another jumper - leads to a Prince layup on the break.
- Hamilton is automatic on those 15 footers, dude is sick.
- Game is pretty much over, at least for my note taking…I wonder what’s happening on Idol?
Technorati Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Detroit Pistons, Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors, Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, Antonio McDyess, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Jose Calderon, Kris Humphries, Chauncey Billups, Carlos Delfino, Darrick Martin, Jason Kapono, Rasheed Wallace, Joey Graham
January 15th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
That story about them not talking for three weeks really hit me. That’s a sign of bad, bad coaching on Smitch’s part. He needs to communicate, not alienate.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:20 am
Three things I liked about this game
1) The set play for Kapono where he curled off a screen for an open J
2) The inbounds play called by Sam Mitchell to end the half.
3) The killer stare-down Sam sent to the officials
Besides that, although any loss hurts this one wasn’t surprising against a very good Detroit team. Hopefully we can bounce back for tomorrow.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Arsenalist > I missed that story (Smitch ignoring Bargs), where did you see that? I agree that that is a poor move/strategy, but it is not the 1st time we have seen Smitch use poor management/personnel skills (VC, Skip). I don’t think the “tough love” act works on him, as he seems to be tuned out. I don’t think he is that kind of player.
Any1 catch the Garbo interview? I was hoping they could ask if he would have changed the decision to play this summer knowing what the knows now.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:34 am
First off I would like to say I know very little about basketball but would like the Raps to be successful.
I think a young Raptor needs to go to the D League. Bargani has shut it down and thinks he is better then the rest of the team. I guess that is typical of a 22 yr old millionaire. We all make mistakes and BC has several options.
Leave the no 1 pick on the end of the bench and hope he snaps out of it. Outings like last night will not help. Got to score points to stay in the NBA.
Send him somewhere to play. Personally think the egos are to big for that to happen. And of course they would lose control of the #1 draft pick. Worse case he would come around and the coach would have to admit tough love did not work.
Package him with 2/3 other players and hope to get something for him. Again you risk the chance he will turn it around and be productive for some other team. Then the GM would have to admit the #1 pick was wasted.
Let Bargani/Advisors win and force the coach to lighten up. Just like the Bulls you would have the inmates running the place. Down side would be the eventual change of coaches. Can not fire the Coach of the year but wait a year and then do it.
The current power play or whatever it is will not have a happy ending. Of course all parties but the fans are very rich people. So at the end of the day they can take down their tent and go home.
It’s just frustrating watching Bosh try so hard and not have the pieces in place to help him. He will eventually tire of carrying the team and move on.
The only upside is we are not as bad as Miami :-)))
January 16th, 2008 at 8:44 am
arsenalist: i was shocked too. i actually thought it was a joke, smitch is really dropping the ball if this is what is going on behind the scenes.
SiC: here is a link to an article that talks about it.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Basketball/NBA/Toronto/2008/01/15/4773826-sun.html
Eddy: those were the three highlights of the game, i missed the smitch stare down, but caught it on the highlights. makes sense when you think about how he has been ignoring bargnani.
ketepec: lucky that bc is bringing a d-league team to toronto. however, bargnani wont be sent there. that would be equivalant to bc admiting he made the wrong choice. only people who go to d-league are cats taken late in the first round, or 2nd rounders. not # 1 overal picks.
as far as what to do, i have no idea. i think its a decision that bargnani needs to make, and act on. nothing anyone can do really.
giving up in the 3rd was way too early. the second unit did a pretty decent job of clawing back, cutting the lead, but smitch only put bosh in. i thought that was stupid. either concede and rest the starters, all of them, or put them all back in when the game wasn’t totally out of hand, and the raptors actually had a bit of momentum. smitch’s coaching totally regressed this game, save the two out of bounds plays he diagramed, which i can only assume alex or jay thought up.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Raps Fan > Thanks for the link! Wow. *scratches head* I don’t know if Bargs is a “tough love” kind of player. There are guys who will thrive on being challenged (Bosh is like that, Bynum and Moon comes to mind this year, and Calderon is another that seems either unaffected or relishes being put to task).
Andrea, I believe, is really not that kind of player. I don’t think Andrea is soft or weak willed (his play may look soft or weak, but that is a different matter). Andrea looks more like a coax and reward type of guy (VC comes to mind).
Now as a lot of us have come to realize, and what was also touched upon in that article, is that Bargs was NOT a center to begin with. And I think it was Raps Fan or Arsenalist (or some1 else?) mentioned before, is that some positions require a certain innate quality.
Right now, the only thing I can think of, is to stick him onto the “injured reserve list”, have people speculate/believe that it is a “foot” or “hamstring problem”, that is causing his rapid decline, to at least salvage some of his value/self esteem.
Send Andrea back to Italy to “talk to a specialist”, while he rests and recuperates, and tries to mentality get that focus back in a friendly environment.
Let someone else grab minutes VS match-ups, which in turn could also open up more minutes to showcase players the team is looking to shop.