Cleaning up some loose ends

Thank goodness they’re going to play a game tonight because maybe we can all put this Bosh-shot-at-the-end-of-the-game stuff to rest. Hopefully.

But first, I’ve to say one thing to the half dozen or so people who continue to assert that there “was nothing drawn up on that last play” or “there were no options.”

Here we go, for the last time and I only bring it up now because I’ve read too many comments about it to let it go unmentioned:

There was a play, it was the high screen and roll, a play they’ve run about a billion times, best one they’ve got in their playbook.

It was a play involving a point guard who had made four of his five shots in the final quarter and the team’s all-star power forward, who was shooting just under 50 per cent from the field in that game. Two best players on the court by far.

And options? You want options? There were four:

Calderon comes off the screen, beats his man and drives.
Calderon comes off the screen, everyone backs up and he shoots.

Bosh gets the ball and drives if Howard’s right up on him.
Bosh gets the ball and shoots a jumper if Howard backs up.

There.

A play call with four options.

You may not be satisfied with either the call or the option chosen but there is no one connected with team who has a problem with either the call or the decision. And no one here who does, either. If I’ve got one shot to win a game with the team that was on the floor then, I want Chris Bosh making the decision. And so would any NBA coach.

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Cleaning up some shootaround stuff, here’s some cool Stan Van Gundy, who is a not bad quote, even if it seems he begins every answer to every question with either, “no, I don’t agree” or “not exactly” or some other negative comment. Helluva quote, though.

Asked about that last shot, here’s a verbatim coach-sticking-up-for-coach quote:

"Chris Bosh had a great shot. Here’s the funny thing, I sort of laugh at the coverage – nothing personal guys but, no, I do. Here’s what coaching comes down to: When Chris Bosh raises up to shoot that shot at the end of the game and ball is in the air, stop it right there and write your stories. Write your stories right now. Did Sam do a good job or not do a good job? Write your stories right then without seeing the ball bounce out. Because if it goes in, you’re writing about their resilience, how Sam kept them in the game, he made great adjustments and the whole thing. It bounces out and all Sam’s adjustments are screwing them up, they’re confused. That’s the game and that’s coaching. The ball is in the air and you guys are going to write your stories based on whether it bounces out or it goes in. That’s the bottom line.

"There’s nobody writing what they wrote if the ball went in. Then it’s me. My team fell apart, I didn’t keep ‘em in it.”

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Bea Arthur, oops, I mean B. Arthur just made a comment here in the media room that coaches must spend a lot of time laughing. He’d just listened to the above Van Gundy quote and this one from Sam on the reappearance of Jason Kapono:

"I just laugh all the time, people say Jason couldn’t get his shots but Anthony Parker got shots every night. Anthony Parker’s in the top five or six in three-point shooting; Carlos, when he comes in the game, he gets shots. We’re finding him (Kapono), he’s shooting the ball well and I think he’s looking for his shot because he knows he’s shooting it well.”

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Oh yeah, wear red tonight if you want to be with the ‘in’ crowd. (That’s done to help out the good people around the Raptors)

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Okay, off for a wee break before, you know, work starts.

Comments

[tino]

It would be ironic to have the Raps start TJ,AP,JK,AB and Bosh: it's the same line-up that the started the year and was changed rigth after the 5th game of the season,vs Orlando (we lost that one..).
If that line-up wasn't good then, 80 odds game later it may a bit too much of a gamble, unless Jose' will take over early in the quarter.

[Tommy P]

i couldn't agree more with your assessment of the last play doug. Bosh can and has been hitting that shot all year. the only thing i would have liked to see was kapono on the right side because jose came off the screen to the right and if kapono's man dropped in to help he would have had kapono as an option open on the wing as well as bosh. but then again, what do i know, i've never played or coached a minute in the nba.

[Jim K]

Fantastic Van Gundy quote. Great visual in the mind's eye too thinking about the play frozen with the ball in the air, and having to write the post game story right then.

[DougG]

Gundy's remark is a straw man. People are not upset with the coach over one play. They are upset about the dismal last half of the season and being down 2 games in the playoffs. They are upset about the fact that the team makes the same mistakes over and over. Toronto fans are just sick of losing, period. Other than that we support the team all the way, as the attendance demonstrates, even if they are going backwards, rather than forwards, in their development.

[WOODSIDE]

Series over? Clearly BUNK! The boys from Disneyland had, absolutely had to win those first two games at home or it would have been a monumental failure. Now it's our turn to hold court tonight. GO RAPS GO!

[GM]

You forgot one other option: Bosh passes to an open shooter and goes for the board. Or Bosh drives and dishes to an even more open shooter and goes for the board.

I think it was definitely a designed play. Just a flawed one and poorly executed one.

[stacks]

Doug,

Although I agree with you that the last play was decent given the situation, I think with about 9.5 seconds left, the raps could have run something with a bit more options. Maybe even the same play but with Jose passing off to the wing, Bosh flashing down and the wing passing to Bosh for lay-up.

That screen and roll is effective but, they could've gotten the same shot by inbounding to Bosh at the beginning. That's my issue with it.

[SuperDave]

Okay, so who is Bea Arthur? I know M. Grange (tm). The Toronto Sun guy is Steve Simmons and the National Pest is Eric Koreen ... where does Bea Arthur come from?

Blogger's note: Bea Arthur is B. Arthur. That's all I'm giving you.

[VoiceOfReason]

I'm so glad you brought up the Moon/Howard angle. I was watching the game and seeing Lewis on Bosh and thinking "who is Howard guarding, and why isn't he getting the ball to drive or shoot". I didn't realize it was Moon... If that guy gets his shot and dribble improved over the summer, it would totally change the look of the Raptors.

[Stephen]

Great Gundy quote. DougG, it's not a strawman argument -- people ARE upset with Sam over that one play, and they wouldn't have been if it worked. Gundy never said anything about big-picture criticism being invalid, he's talking about how results out of the coach's control reflect our interpretation of whether the coach made a smart choice in a given situation. Smith's analysis was spot-on.

[MK]

Mad respect to SVG for sticking up for Smitch and coaches everywhere. He's dead on too. At the end of the day, the result is what we remember. But the game within the game matters too.

[Soul]

Bosh was gassed and I knew before the shot was taken that it wasn't going in. We had so many fresh shooters like Kapono shooting over 50%, yet the franchise player has a god-given right to the last shot. I'll never understand it. It's like overusing your Queen in chess when you have a perfectly good rook that could do some damage.

[Dave]

B Arthur is Bruce Arthur from national post

[Uncle Zeke]

Wow Doug how can you possibly give Mitchell credit for starting Jamario Moon?? Uh, don't know if you realize but he's been starting all year at SF. It was Mitchell's complete joke of a decision to bench him the 1st 2 games, now he's some sort of genius for going back to him after his Bargnani experiment was a complete disaster? If Moon had played in the 1st two games we could be looking at a 2-1 Raps advantage right now. Your absolute lack of unbiased journalism is a complete crock.

Please explain to your audience how benching Moon to start an untested lineup with Bargnani at SF (for not one but two games!) does not demonstrate a lack of preparation and coaching acumen. On the counterpoint please explain how going back to the lineup that he never should have altered- clearly a massive screwup- somehow can be seen as a great move by Mitchell?

Very confusing, please explain...

Blogger's note: Dude, if Chris Bosh had hit that shot, you'd be looking at 2-1, too.
Game 1? It was a gamble. It failed. Sometimes they do, sometimes they work. In Game 2, when Moon also didn't start, if you recall, the Raptors had a chance to win at the buzzer.
I've said often over the last five days that they out-smarted themselves at the start of the series but if it had worked, you'd all be singing a different tune.
As I said, you gamble and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
I'm certain that's not going to placate you but it's the way it is.

[Aldwin Chan]

Doug you know the Raptors much better then I do but how can you say Sam earned his stripes this season? and even more so during this playoff run? 1) our defence was horrific too often this season and quite evident this playoffs with Howard looking like the best player in the league posting 20/20 at will 2) he looked scared to use our main strength all season - our depth - in the playoffs?! Bosh is our franchise but he's human...he needs to rest !! Questionable offensive sequences and lack of substitutions in this series bring me to question Sam's abilities as a top tier coach in this league. You say we got beat by the better team. 1 to 5 Yes, 1 to 12 no way! we are deeper and should have used that this series, instead, we're talking about what went wrong instead of how to beat Det "sigh"

Blogger's note: You are suggesting that Joey Graham, Primoz Brezec, Maceo Baston or Kris Humprhies should have taken minutes away from Ford, Calderon, Parker, Moon, Delfino, Kapono, Bosh, Bargnani and Nesterovic in the playoffs? Okay. You are entitled to your opinion.