The Morning After The Night Before, VII

Interesting game, no?

Jose finishes a nearly flawless night with the big three, Garbo does what I expected him to do, which was comport himself like a pro and play when both Bargnani and Humphries were awful and, to all the e-mailers yesterday who thought otherwise, starting Maceo Baston didn’t bring about the downfall of civilization.

Anyway …

Three Things I Learned

Patched in

Not sure if they caught this on TV, but did you see the little quarter-sized patches a couple of Pacers – Jermaine O’Neal and Jeff Foster among them – were wearing on the side of their lower leg?

According to Indiana officials, there were energy-providing, muscle-relaxing patches.

As a guy who wears a patch every now and then – those transatlantic flights are murder on the nicotine withdrawl – I can understand the theory behind them.

But watching O’Neal have more turnovers (7) than rebounds (6) makes me wonder about the energy they actually provided.

Considering the Pacers are slow and more unathletic than any team I’ve seen this year, or much of last, they need all the energy, from whatever source, they can get.

Upon further review

I know Andrea Bargnani was invisible offensively – his one shot was rather soundly rejected (a BA in the boxscore, I’m told) – but I imagine when they looked closely at the tape, it’ll be his defensive indifference that was the reason he never got back on the court after his horrid 4 1-2 minute stretch.

His first touch ended rather badly, what with an offensive foul and all, but a time or two back down the court right after that, he took his sweet time getting back and absolutely lost Troy Murphy in transition. A quick bucket made it all the more apparent that, for some reason, Bargnani’s head didn’t seem in the game.

It was a bad night all around. He’s got to be better.

Hold off on the Hall of Fame votes

For Jamario Moon, that is.

Not sure if you noticed, but from the courtside perch I had last night, Moon incurred the wrath of Sam Mitchell on more than one occasion.

The interesting thing: Sam was hollering at him for busting offensive sets, not getting beaten on defence. It’s usually the other way around with rookies.

It seemed Moon was watching, rather than participating, in the offence, which takes away what he does best.

In one instance, when he stood in the corner, keeping the area too crowded for Chris Bosh to operate, Sam’s only command was “Moon! Move!”

The rook’s game was slightly off last night, which we may see more often as he tries to fit in seamlessly as a first-year player.

Three Things You Wondered

Q: "It was really important, just to show people he's still Jorge Garbajosa," said Chris Bosh. Doug you wrote the quote in your article but do you really believe it?

Marc Cummings, Mississauga

A: I believe Chris Bosh believes everything he tells us.

My seat is better, I’m sure, although a night on a couch isn’t a bad thing at all, and what I saw was him start a bit slowly and tentatively but get better as his minutes wore on.

It should come as no surprise that it took him a couple of minutes to get used to the speed of the game; by the fourth quarter he was the same old Jorge. After all, he was never blessed with blazing speed.

Q: What the heck is happening with the boxscores this year?

I've been scouring NBA boxscores since 1979 and it's always been the two starting forwards followed by the starting centre followed by the two starting guards.

Now all of a sudden, most of the boxscores list it guards, forwards, centre. It throws me right off, for some inexplicable reason.

In 12 games played (Friday), 10 listed them this new way. Only the Minnesota game and the Sacramento game had it the traditional way.

Have you heard if there's been a league directive to change, and if so why?

Guy MacPherson, Vancouver

A: A fantasy league player, by chance? I’m not sure what publication or website you’re reading, my man, because in my edition of our paper, and in the Globe and the Sun, it’s forwards, centre, guards.

And since I’m also looking right now at the boxscore that comes right off the league’s computer system and it’s the same way – the old, right way – I’d take it up with the publisher of whatever thing you’re reading.

Q: I absolutely HATE it when they play music during Raptor offensive sets at the ACC.

Maybe it's all in my mind, but it seems like there is a causal relationship between playing music and Raptor bricks. I can't imagine that having some terrible Lil' Jon thumping in the background helps with the execution of an offensive play in any way.

Does blaring music not drive the players crazy? Why on earth does the ACC, and indeed every arena, actively make it more difficult for the audience to concentrate on the basketball game that they paid to see?

No easy answer on this one. Playing music during five offensive sets a game is unlikely to raise (or lower) the bottom line by any significant measure.

What's the REAL reason?

David Benner, Toronto

A: You hate it? How do you think we feel, subjected to the sensory overload noise 75 nights a season? Like we want to scream? Yeah, that’d be about right.

Anyway, the real reason is that someone in the NBA’s marketing department, or game operations department, believes fans have the attention span of carp and need noise almost all the time to be entertained. As opposed to asking them to sit and watch some of the world’s greatest athletes play a game of fluidity and motion.

The players? I think they are oblivious to it, because they’ve seen it and heard it all their professional lives.

I’m all for the Chicken and the Dance Pak during timeouts, I think it’s painful to hear music during the game. And I have no earthly idea who Lil’ Jon is, but if that’s the noise they play during games, I’m down on him, too.

Comments

[chi of steel]

I for one am glad that Sam has been making his decisions based on game performance rather than what his players' roles are "supposed to be".
How refreshing was it to have Josefinish the quarter, or to have Andrea sit because he had been stinking up the joint?
I mean, we could've had a repeat of Utah's game, so what's to fuss about?

[Abbas]

I agree that music can be rather annoying at times.
Anyways, coincidentally there was a discussion about this on the radio.
CBC did a good peice on music and sports, in case anyone's interested: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200711/20071113.html

[DougG]

We have seen Bargnani play brilliantly in the past. Assuming that was not a fluke, he will do so again at some point in the future.
I don't know enough about basketball to understand slumps but is there no way of knowing what is causing his lack of brilliance at the moment? How can they solve that problem as quick as possible?
Great team effort last night, including coaching. Really enjoyed seeing Garbajosa out there earning minutes. Baston filled in well, the guards played great, Moon made some nice defensive plays, and I thought Kapono stepped up and played his best game.
Delfino and Parker also had great nights. Let's hope they can keep it going steady.

[AlexT]

I personally can't stand the raptor "live experience" the music is awful, distorted and too loud. I think it even disrupts the audience cheering, because they're always begging you to cheer, and it's like no, I'll cheer when I feel like it. I agree it affects the players, it has to.

The worst though was the Boston game, we're down three with the ball. This is the moment I paid $100 for and the announcer comes on and says "okay fans, we need your help". How pathetic is that?
We're supposed to be there, having faith, believing in the team, cheering them on, not "making them win".
People were too tense to cheer at that moment, it was a playoff atmosphere. And we had something to cheer about a few seconds later when TJ hit a huge three.

Blogger's note: I recall that moment clearly, couldn't have put it better myself.

[MarkStanf]

I agree 100% with you and your questioner. The "dum-DUM" beat (for dee-FENCE) is fine. But ... whyyyyy must they play actual MUSIC during game-play? It's appalling.
Do whatever you want, however obnoxious, during timeouts. At halftime. Whatever. But the game should be sacred - at very least the last five minutes of the fourth quarter.
In fact, especially at this time of the game, I think it actually detracts from fan-cheering - we want to fill the silence void with our own energy, but the MLSE goofs insist on filling it for us with the aforementioned Lil Jon.

[Matthew Carter]

Just a note on the boxscores...NBA.com has arranged them in this new fashion that Guy mentioned (G, G, F, F, C) . I have to say that at first it threw me off as well, but I'm quickly getting used to it; for some reason it feels a little more organized...

[jeeves]

you guys need to get out to a Toronto FC soccer game next year at BMO Field.
They don't play any music during the game and the announcer disappears for most of the time. Not an "Everybody clap your hands!" to be heard. This was an intentional decision to let the game speak for itself. It's wonderful!

[Zack]

Too bad Toronto FC games end too many times a season with a score of 0-0.
No amount of love from the crowd could make soccer any less boring.

Blogger's note: okay, we'll publish this one so there's one pro-soccer and one anti-soccer thing out there and then that's it, okay?

[Brian Neumann]

Too bad about the Spanish seeming dis-connection. I fully appreciate what Jorge and Jose have brought to the team. I hope something is done soon to heal the fissures(Jorge's & the team's(?)).
With regards to the Moonman, why not just call him by the name his mother gave him- Jam-aerial? "He is up, up and.. away up there! Another block by 'Jam-aerial' Moon. A dunk could be a "Moon-Jam" - either half-moon or full-moon. Pass this on to Chuck.