What can you do to stop a team from outscoring you by 18 points in a quarter and a half? The Raptors have lost another game in which they had an 18 point lead late in the 3rd quarter. The Nets started to jump passing lanes, grab offensive boards and Devin Harris came back as Jermaine O’Neal was getting tossed to the floor and had to leave the game with a strained knee. Let’s hope it isn’t a serious injury, but it was our fear from the beginning of the O’Neal experiment.
Chris Bosh played his heart out scoring 42 points, collecting 9 rebounds and handing out 4 assists. Andrea Bargnani had a career night hitting 5 bombs scoring 29 with 10 rebounds while Jose Calderon had 26 points and 14 assists. Jose had a rough night with 5 turnovers all in the second half as the Nets forced him to pass too early in the offense or pass off balance and over the head and into the bleachers. You have to give the Nets credit as the zone they ran had the Raptors bewildered and with no clue what to do on offense to counter it. Vince Carter had a great game scoring 39 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, including the 3 to tie it with 0.5 on the clock and the winning dunk in overtime. This is a game where no one was able to stop him as they spent the second half running around on the defensive end trying to find him allowing Brook Lopez to look like a 10 year vet scoring 14 points but grabbing some huge rebounds down the stretch as our defense could not get set to rotate properly and rebound effectively. Devin Harris added 30 and Jarvis Hayes added 14. Anthony Parker had 8 while trying to follow VC around all night.
Over all, this game was another example of how NOT to play with a huge lead. The 
Raptors became very complacent in the third and seem to lose interest in the game while the second unit was allowed to give back most of the 18 point lead they had built up. Jamario Moon and Will Solomon offered nothing to this game. Only 6 seconds into the 3rd quarter, Solomon fouls Vince Carter as he crosses mid-court off the inbounds. Then later he gives the ball away fouls again. Jamario had a little more success but after he hit his second shot early in the quarter, he faded away and was lost on defense letting Carter get open on the final play of overtime. Lawrence Franks deserves full marks for his ability to keep his team in the game and focused on the task at hand. His adjustments on defense put the more dominant front line of the Raptors on the run as they put huge amounts of pressure on our PG and weak over all back court. They were able to exploit the weak play of Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono and Will Solomon all night and fought back and earned a tough road win. Sam Mitchell seems unable or unwilling to adjust his team offensively or defensively as teams seem not too concerned about falling behind this team. That should worry a coach that his team keeps giving up huge leads and he should be able to make the necessary changes in personnel to hold on to a lead of any size. With .25 seconds left, the Raptors were up 7 points and they found a way to let the Nets have a chance to win.
With the Celtics coming to town on Sunday, this will be a tough loss to shake off as the Nets were short-handed tonight and were in a position to control the game from the beginning and couldn’t. In the next week we have the Hawks, the Bobcats, and the Lakers on the agenda and we need a much better game to compete against the 2 top teams in the league.
Technorati Tags: Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Brook Lopez, Chris Bosh, Devin Harris, Jamario Moon, Jarvis Hayes, Jason Kapono, Jermaine O’Neal, Jose Calderon, Lawrence Franks, Sam Mitchell, Vince Carter, Will Solomon
