Morning after the night before, III

Better, but really, still not good enough.

Slow start, bad finish with some good in the middle? That's the sign of a .500 team, not a 50-win squad.

Anyway, there are still 77 to go so there's plenty of time. The season remains young. Very young.

And off last night we have:

FRANK GUNN/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stop standing around and get all over that ball!

Three Things We Learned

It's little things like hustle

Want to know what drives coaches, and fans, bonkers? Down six in the third, Raptors are making a wee run. Andrea Bargnani ties up Dwight Howard driving the middle, ball comes loose and bounces away and everyone's thinking fast-break opportunity. Um nope.

Five guys in white stand around, watching the ball bounce, Jameer Nelson, I think, picks it up, two passes later Hedo Turkoglu hits (another) uncontested three.

Time out Toronto and I swear there was steam coming out of Sam's ears.

It's little things like time remaining

End of third, down four, they get the ball with 40.2 seconds left after a Carlos Arroyo basket. Perfect time to go two-for-one, right? Get up a shot in eight, 10 seconds and be guaranteed another possession with enough time to do something, right?

You'd think so.

Except, with Sam screaming to go, go, go, Jose Calderon dawdles, dawdles, dawdles, they don't get a field goal attempt until there's 28.9 left and a good two-for-one chance is blown.

Conflicted fans?

We all know you fans are an odd lot; some angst-ridden, sky-is-falling, everything-is-great-until-they-lose folk among the group. And it carries over to games, too.

Three minutes in last night, it's 9-2, Toronto hasn't made a field goal and won't for about five minutes and the boos start. Oh, and so does the "Let's go, Raptors" cheer.

Odd. Entertaining. Typical.

Three Things You Wondered

Q: When will the Raps realize the mistake they made, and put Garbo back in the starting lineup?

Garbo was a starter for the Atlantic champs last year, and at 2-3 currently without him, I think it's actually quite obvious what needs to be done. Let Kapono be the Kyle Korver of the Raptors, offence off the bench.

Rob Freeman, Toronto

A: I'm not sure it's that obvious about Kapono, or Garbo for that matter but I imagine some kind of change will be contemplated if the losses continue to mount and the starts continue to be slow.

The thing with Garbo is some nights he looks okay (he was effective in a short stint against Boston, so-so against Orlando) and consistency is what they need more than anything.

I do think there's a larger role for him, though.

Q: First off I have to add first hand support to your statement that (Tuesday's) game was far from the worst ever (I was at the game you mentioned in 95 against the Magic that featured a lineup of Dwayne Whitfield at C and Martin Lewis at PF).

I know it's early in the season and that our guys are just trying to find a groove but without more consistent penetration I don't think we will be getting the open looks we want. I'm a huge fan of Parker (loved him at Bradley) but if he isn't going to take it to the bucket then what is our solution? Is it the offensive philosophy? Or should BC try and find us a slashing wing?

Parker Findlay, Kitchener, Ont.

A: There aren't a whole lot of slashing wings out there, my man; Colangelo isn't just going to be able to pluck one off somebody's roster.

They do need to get the basket more _ watching Juan Dixon drive on Dwight Howard and Adonal Foyle and whoever else was in the paint was great to see Wednesday night _ but they don't really have guys who do that.

They are a jump shooting team; some games (Philly, New Jersey) they'll make shots; some games (Boston, Orlando), they won't.

It's a simplification but it's a fact, they just have to shoot better.

Q: The Raps need to take a page out of Kobe's book!

Did you notice how few fouls the Raps draw when in position to shoot the three.

When defenders come charging at you too recklessly - the Magic last night - jump/lean into the defender AND DRAW THE FOUL even if it means a wild three-point attempt.

Doug, I need your two cents. Is it that obvious or is Kobe just that good at initiating contact?

John Jakelic, Toronto

A: Kobe's better at it than most, yes.

And they, well, Bargnani, has had two four-point play possibilities this year already, which isn't bad since Toronto's only completed 15 in its 13-year history.

They could draw more fouls by driving the ball, I think that's what has to happen more than pump-faking a guy outside the three-point line.

Comments

[Doug]

Conflicted fans in Toronto are probably a result of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I'm old enough to remember the last time the Leafs won the cup, 40 years ago. Most people don't even have that memory to fall back on.
The Raptors gave us some hope last year that the long nightmare of Toronto sports might have a ray of light.
So far there is reason to believe that light is fading. This looks like a one dimensional team that doesn't have 2 or 3 super stars to rely on, on a nightly basis. If their shots are falling they have a chance to score more than the other team, who is going to score a lot of points too.
I guess we will just have to hope they figure out how to shoot the ball again and more importantly, do so on a consistent basis.

[Dave Fritz]

Doug, you're absolutely right about better shooting.
In their 3 losses they are a combined 99 for 256 (39%) and 24 for 62 (39%) on 3s. In their 2 wins, they are 80 for 160 (50%) and 22 for 38 (58%).
While they are unlikely to be up to 50%, 39% is not going to win too many games.

[Bay Street Lawyer]

Am I missing something here?
We went 2-8 to start last year. We had Fred Jones playing signifcant minutes. We had Bargnani nailed to the bench. Parker was laying enough bricks to build a house on Parkerville Court.We were chasing a 100-shot game. And despite all that, we still finished with 47 wins and an Atlantic Division crown.
It's five games in, people. Why does everybody think we should be so far ahead of where we were last year?
Anybody remember how Phoenix started off last year? Not so hot. Most blamed it on fatigue from the overseas trip. What about Dallas? Started off just as cold. Both of those teams had few changes in the off-season, but didn't gel right out of the gate, so it's not like what we are going through is unprecendented for good teams.
This year? So far we have the same record as the Cavs (the defending Eastern Champs). Does anyone really believe that Chicago is that bad? Or that the Clippers are that good?
Seriously, stop with the panic.

[M-Bav]

I agree with the Bay Street Lawyer - to a degree. We need to put it perspective.
Three losses in a row. Not a reason to throw in the towel, but it's not the fact that we've lost three in a row, it's the fact that we've lost them playing poorly. You can somehow accept losing to a better team when you're playing well but you can't handle losing when the effort isn't there.
Lack of intensity on defence and lack of sharing the ball on offense has really highlighted how we are NOT as good as perhaps one might consider division champs to be. We need to get back to hard work and effective passing in the offensive end in order to get back to the Raptors of last year.
Panic? No.
Worry? Maybe.
Are we resting on our laurels? I hope not but these past three games may have been evidence of it.

[Emil Thas]

I don’t think we can compare last year’s start with the current one.
Last year, we had so many new faces and it took some time to gel for everyone.
This current team has won 47 games last year. So they should have been ready to go from the get go. I know it is early in the season.
But losing to Orlando at home is troubling! And we can’t really compare Suns or Mavs from last year, because our teams are different.

[papa]

Bay Street Lawyer, the difference is those teams you speak of had been deep into the playoffs in the very recent past. Everybody knew what they were capable of. they had more than a few all-stars playing for them.

The Raptors have potential. they had it last year, they have it this year. Nothing more. They have only one all-star at the moment, possibly more to come.

My point is they need to prove themselves before anybody can brush off their slow starts and not worry about them becoming just another good, but not great, team.

[John Park]

I think that in the middle of three losses, there was Dixon.
Sam put him on the court when it was very critical. He put some points, but I think Raptors had difficulty in defence. And his kind of semi-selfish play looks like aggressiveness, but I'd say he is exactly Mike James a couple years ago if he didn't pass the ball to Kris for a dunk on Tuesday. I still think BC should have waived him instead of Luke.

I am not sure if you watched the Raptors TV, but they say Dixon on the fire, and Garbo on the ice. You said Garbo must show consistency, but inconsistent minutes on the court cannot make any consistency, I think.
Garbo is able to defend and make some critical shots, as we saw last season. Sam should increase his playing time.

I think the most important thing is defence, not offence. I would suggest the starting lineup as follows for the defence;

[Wallace]

Not sure why everyone is so shocked. This team is built to spread the floor and shoot jump shots. Unfortunately, those shots are not going to go down every night. And if they don't, this Raptor team has no other way of winning.
They get outrebounded every night, they can't defend against anyone, and they don't consistently go to the basket and draw fouls.

[Mark D]

Rasho, Garbo, Humphries, Dixon.
Everybody is missing the point.
The Raps have serious problems right now, which they had in both the Philly and New Jersey games that they won easy.
1)the Raps got Kapono and put Bargnani in the starting lineup so that teams couldn't double and triple team Bosh so much but still Bosh doesnt see the double team coming and can't pass fast enough to make them pay. Bosh has been in the league 4+ years now and hes still lost out there.

2)The Raps will never win consistently with T.J Ford as the starter. Everyone complained about Mike James heaving up threes, but at least hes a proven shooter. starting five has Bargnani, Parker and Kapono, as T.J is coming down at the start of every game, wasting time with his stupid dribbling going nowhere and then just heaving up 3's so "he can become an all-star".
3) Bargnani is not a centre and never will be. You can't expect him to bang against a big game after game and then have the legs to shoot deep 3's night after night. It just won't work. Everyone compares him to Nowitzki, last time I checked the Mavs always have a big other than Nowitzki (Dampier, Diop, etc) do the banging inside.
How about this starting five:
Calderon,Delfino or Kapono, Parker, Bosh, Bargnani. Size, defense, shooters and a point guard who will pass the ball.

[Hoss]

There is a lot of talk about Good Joey – Bad Joey. Nobody talks about Good TJ – Bad TJ.

TJ was good in New Jersey. He started well against Boston and his scoring was needed for a period of time. However, at a certain point, he should have involved the other 4 players on the floor.

He was terrible in Milwaukee and at home against Orlando. When he starts the game by shooting every time down the floor, the whole team stops working, moving and passing. He was the reason for the slow start in both games.

I am not sure why Sam doesn’t put Jose in earlier when TJ does that. By starting Jose earlier, the Raptors may have won the game last night. If he had left Jose in to finish the game, they may have won also. When Sam put TJ back in the game, I knew it was over for the Raptors.