The Afternoon After The Night Before, LVX

Okay, so we’re sitting is this great work room at the Kings practice facility, HD TV showing North Carolina-Virginia Tech, it’s about 15 C outside, sun’s blazing and, you know, it’s not so horrible.

The 4:30 a.m. wakeup call in Denver wasn’t the greatest, nor was the packed flight with two, um, substantial people sitting next to me but it is, as they say, what it is.

So here we go

Three Things I Learned

Not really much to say

They sucked, they know they sucked, they’ll likely suck again but probably not as bad. They went over the tape, saw their horrible defensive effort and they know where they went wrong. Friday night, it was execution rather that coaching. Talked to a bunch of players quickly after the game and they all talked about knowing what they were supposed to do but, inexplicably, not doing it.

It was a brain cramp, a collective brain cramp. One of many, too many, actually, but they do have 18 games left to get this thing turned around.

-

Bad omen

In the first half, as the game’s over, it was interesting to see Sam call on Maceo instead of Primoz in that second quarter. I’m hoping the dude who has the Resign Primoz web site didn’t pay a lot for the name.

-

How’s this for a stat

Since Feb. 1, Jason Kapono, the world’s greatest three-point shooter, has made three three-pointers. Since Feb. 1, 6-11 centre Marcus Camby of the Denver Nuggets has made four three-pointers.

-

Here’s a quick one from the mailbag

Q: Watching the Denver game and hearing about people talk about the air in the arena being thin making it hard for players to catch their breath got me thinking. Does AI or Melo have trouble when on the road because they're not used to the air? If it doesn't matter then doesn't that give Denver an unfair advantage over the competition?

Ron Y, Markham

A: Interesting point. I do note that the Nuggets are 24-7 at home and 12-19 on the road. Maybe you’re on to something. Or maybe life on the road’s just too much damn fun.

-

As we were thumbing through the record book as the first half unfolded, we harkened back to March 13, 1998, the infamous 152-point Clipper beating at the old urine-smelling L.A. Sports Arena.

And there were three of us, probably more, who witnessed both drubbings.

I was there, it was a Friday night, game started at 10:30 and I’m not sure with deadlines that anyone got to read about it; Marcus Camby was there, and so, too, was Clipper legend Darrick Martin.

-

There’s really nothing going on in the local Sacramento paper setting tonight’s game (they’re all over the Kings-Suns in Phoenix tonight) but here’s how Denver played the Friday night atrocity.

-

One more stat, sort of telling

In Toronto’s last nine games, teams have shot 50 per cent or better from the field in six games and in a seventh, they shot 49 per cent.

Oh, and on Feb. 29, the Raptors were 11^th in opposition field goal percentage; today, they are 20^th. That’s quite an alarming drop in a very short period of time.

Comments

[Jim Rootham]

On the coming down from the mountains problem in this context it ought to favour the Nuggets as well. Runners use altitude training to improve stamina.

To counter that a friend of mine described a situation between Quito and Guayaquil home and home soccer games were the home team always wins. Quito is 9,000 feet (maybe twice Denver) and Guayaquil is sea level, however, they are both just about on the equator so Guayaquil is hot and humid.

The climate control inside NBA arenas ought to remove that variable.

With respect to the game, the refs seem to have taken the night off as well. AP was shooting a 3 and got hit on the hand hard enough to hurt it. When was the last time an NBA ref missed that foul?

Also 15 foul shots from 25 fouls as opposed to 38 from 23?

Toronto is a jump shooting team but that is ridiculous.

[oliveira]

not going to comment on the game since it was awful. I just don't understand how the players didn't try to play D. So what does Sam or even BC do as an organization to punish them for not showing up? In hockey they make them work hard at practice. So what would they do in raptorland/basketball? Or are the players just tuning Sam out?

[sean]

Doug, whether you are conflict averse or just very subtle, you have to acknowledge that sam is not rallying his players, not using the ones he has effectively, not making the group better than individuals...in other words he's useless...he should get fired now...so that the new coach can help with the moves this summer

[Susi]

I'm glad BC didn't make any moves at the deadline, other than the Serbian gangster, because then we might think there was a team in Toronto willing to do anything to win. Instead we are stuck once again with mediocrity, which is surely what Toronto fans want since we keep paying for this crap. After last night I'm not sure if we are even mediocre. Why he wants to spend his money to resign these guys is beyond me? They are either stupid or they no longer listen to their coach. Either way there are serious problems. This team is moving backwards rather than getting better. I'd be happy to get back to simply treading water in anticipation of coming close to winning the bronze medal.

[Sidney Crownhead]

I know things look a little bleak at the moment but I think we will be much better once we have a stating small forward, a starting center, a starting shooting guard and a starting point guard.

[Uncle Zeke]

Isn't a team's performance with their star player out the greatest indication of how good a coach is- or in this case how bad? How many more losses before the first negative Sam Mitchell article comes out? Hypothetically speaking, if Raptors drop to the 7th seed and lose convincingly in the 1st round in 4 or 5 games is Mitchell's job on the line? If not what do you think it would take for that to happen?

Blogger's note: Let's not play hypothetical becuase I don't know how Bryan Colangelo would react to those situations. Would I fire the coach if they dropped to seventh and went out in the first round? No, I wouldn't.
But if that happens, we'll see what happens. Although I can't imagine them falling to seventh.

[John Dinner]

Altitude is a definite advantage for lung capacity.
Refering to Quito, which is where I happen to live, other South American countries want to have a ceiling on altitude when qualifying for the World Cup as Ecuador has used that advantage to earn two straight berths...they do not play any of their games in the larger (lower) Guayaquil.
And as an aside, I cannot wait to get back to Toronto to run circles around my buddies!

[Honey]

What's with all the doomsday comments, people? Yes, they played a horrific game last night and got blown out, and yes they aren't playing well right now, but things will right themselves as they always do. I'm sure the next time they beat a team by 30 points, the doomsday people become the "we're going to win the championship this year" people. Its a long season with a lot of games -- I don't think we have to blow up the whole team just yet.

Blogger's note: Amen!

[bballer]

there are only 5 bad coaches in the nba and mitchell is not one of them. the 4 are isiah, vincent in charlotte, woodson in atl, larry k in milwaukee and that coach out in minny. pat riley, one of the best coaches in the nba has the worst record in the league right now. is that coaching, no its talent. since he is the gm, then it is he to blame for the team. aside from bosh, calederon and tj, name one raptor player that could start on another team. finding gems or bringing in retreads does not make a championship team. in a guard oriented league having backups as wing men will not win many games.

sam mitchell has got them more wins than this team deserves. look at the talent of other teams in the east and aside from miami and probably new york, which teams does the raps have better individual talent than? don't be fooled and don't get it twisted. despite what everyone says, teams with talent, not good character teams wins championships.

[bballer]

ps. when colangelo had a chance to draft a wing man, what did he do, draft a soft pf/c in bargnani. roy is an allstar, bargnani is a backup. when everyone said we need a rebounding centre who can bang, play defense and rebound, colangelo drafts a soft centre/pf.

colangelo should pick up harrington from gsw for the ending contract of nesterovic. draft an athletic wing this year. pick up dasagna diop and stop this euro raptor experiment. just find the best bball players you can find from south america, europe and the good ole us of a! childress or even williams from the atl is available.

lets get athletic and bring in real men for smitch to coach. he must be livid with all these soft guys he has to play.

[Mike S]

Easter in the third week of March?

March Madness starting March 20th? What's going on? Not very much march in this year's tourney.

[robin]

If BC and Sam are really on the same page , Colangelo should trade AB and Kapono at the end of this season because the whole use of both players has been irrational and awful to watch . Sam doesn't like them or simply is unable to use them properly , and if he's going to be our coach for the next 3 years , our roster needs major changements . AB and Kapono should be an interesting package for a decent trade . In any case they have no impact on our team : Sam proved that Brezec , Hump , Baston , Joey can easily substitute them . We wont' see the difference.

[yertu damkule]

bballer - i agree w/ post 1. post 2...not so much. not that it's inacurate, i just don't play the revisionist history game. unless you're talking about the 'joey graham instead of danny granger' pick. i shudder when i watch indy highlights, thinking about granger in red/white/black starting at the 3. sigh.

honey - honey of a post, and something i've been trying to get across for months. if no one expected much (if any) success on this trip, then how can we be so shocked & angered by their perfomance so far? they've lost to superior teams, on the road, w/ short rest, without their only bona fide star & go-to offensive player. WOW!

[bballer]

coming out of uni, joey was expected to be a physical player. all of a sudden he plays as softly as the rest of the raps. with granger, he had knee problems. people felt the same with roy.

i just find it weird when gm's and everyone else knows what the team needs to move forward and the gm's do something different. since the arujao pick, to needed a physical centre that can rebound and play d. nesterovic was a good pickup. we just needed a younger version of him in the draft. what happens? we pick up bargnani that doesn't fit that mould and i doubt he ever will. since the raps are in the east, the only big bargnani has to battle for the next while is d howard. the west, they have good bigs, talented wings and great point guards. teams in the west exposes the lack of talent eastern conference teams possess.

with bosh, toronto wins 2 games, without him we are what we thought would happen. tj did not lose the games, our overall talent did.

[Dan]

"Best of Times/ Worst of Times" is from Dickens' Tale of Two Citites, not Shakespeare.