The Morning After The (Last) Night Before

Okay, please, everybody, listen up: Do not read anything into last night’s game. Nothing. It was a going-through-the-motions affair, Bulls going nowhere, Raptors playing not to get hurt. The starters looked okay, the main backups – Bargnani, Calderon primarily – were okay although Delfino looked pretty average.

They got a run in, they worked on some things and then they watched. It was no big deal. At all.

Still, there were some moments, as usual

Three Things I Learned

Thank you NBA

Now, that’s a great schedule from a purely selfish point of view.

Two afternoon games in the first four lets us sit back and put some context to the next day stories for the newspaper and the two 7:30 p.m. starts for Games 3 and 4 ease the deadline pressure. And a game every other day for the first five? Outstanding for the rhythm of a series.

And it’ll be good for the web, too; get game stories up quickly, maybe we can do blogs the night after the afternoon games and then get to some mail in the morning. We’re still trying to cipher exactly how we’ll do it but you’ll be well served.

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Shield your eyes

You can tell it’s the 82^nd game of the regular season when you look up in the first quarter and see Jose Calderon, Jason Kapono, Kris Humphries, Andrea Bargnani and Primoz Brezec on the court.

No, you will never, ever see that group again. Ever. I hope.

That’s the kind of night it was.

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Stop the cards and letters

Please, the next time anyone out there is prepared to write and ask why they don’t play Joey any more, or whether they should re-sign The Gangster or whether The Hump’s getting a raw deal, take a DVD of that game and watch it.

And then delete the missive you were about to send.

All of those guys may be great guys and their athletic ability and basketball skill are so superior to anyone you know that it’s not even funny but if there’s ever been a reason they are the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th men on the active roster and to be used only in emergencies, last proved it.

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Here’s a quick look at what B. Schmitz wrote today.

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And one from the mailbag:

Q: I'm a basketball player and I understand the concept of playing how you practice. Recently the Raptors have been slumping (that might be an understatement) but could it be that they haven't practiced hard enough, thus they have been playing poorly? Also I have another question: When playoffs come around do teams practice more or take days off? If they do practice is it more intense than regular season practices?

Stephanie C, Toronto

A: I hope you practice a lot, enjoy the game, have fun every time you play and shoot hoops for years and years to come.

The fact of the matter is they practice as hard as they can, as often as they can but in the grind of the regular season there’s not nearly enough time to get into the gym as often as coaches would like. Back-to-backs, three games in four nights and the bumps and bruises that pop up late in the year all conspire to cut practice time down. What they do, generally, is a lot of shooting work and other drills with maybe some scrimmaging thrown in. But the last thing any coach, or player, wants is someone turning an ankle, tweaking a groin or twisting a knee in a practice scrimmage with such short time between games.

Now that the playoffs are here and the schedule is out, I know they’ll go hard and long on Friday because they’re taking Thursday off (although I’m sure a lot of players will either get in the gym or the trainer’s room for treatment) and then ease off a bit Saturday.

On the off-days between games, practices will include a lot of video work and a lot of walking through their own sets and working on defending what they saw the night before.

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You know, refereeing in the NBA is, as I’ve mentioned, the toughest officiating job in all of sports in my opinion. No home games, a judgement call on nearly every possession, and a physical grind.

Must be nice to relax when you’ve got a chance. And be a helluva dad in the process.

I’m told by Someone Who’d Know that a couple of NBA refs, in Chicago on an off-night Wednesday before a pre-playoff union meeting on Thursday, managed to find themselves at Wrigley Field.

One, well-respected ref Scott Wall, took the opportunity to do something so cool for his kids that it can’t go unmentioned.

Flat Stanley, one of the great kids ideas of our time, took in the game, too. And will no doubt provide all kinds of great stories for Scott’s two kids.

That’s a very cool dad thing to do.

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I now believe with all my heart that thunderstix are the second-worst in-game schtick ever invented. Morbidly obese men taking their shirts off and jiggling is No. 1 by far. Someone, please, ban that. My retinas hurt.

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There’s nothing like seeing an opponent up close in personal.

Not only did the Raptors have advance scout Micah Nori in Atlanta on Tuesday night to scout the Orlando Magic, they also sent assistant coach Jay Triano down there to see just what the Magic are doing these days.

Triano flew down, caught the game and then headed to Chicago early Wednesday morning to get his report ready for Sam and the rest of the staff and be in his usual place for the game against the Bulls.

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Last one from the mail, the wakeup call’s coming in about two hours I gotta crash:

Q: Doug, if you were given one choice for your franchise point guard, who would it be among: Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, D. Williams, Steve Nash (Prime), or Jason Kidd (Prime)? Thanks for answering my question

Ty D, Hamilton

A: That’s blatantly unfair because I don’t think we’ve seen Chris Paul or Deron Williams at their prime and no one has any real idea how good Derrick Rose might be.

So, I’m going Nash, Kidd, Paul, Williams, Rose. That’s a bit of cop out and maybe one day Paul moves to the top of the list but not at the moment.

Comments

[GamBit]

Orlando wants to make it Hell for Toronto!! Dwight's words!!
Now i dont know about you, but there is something very creepy about the coincidences of this match up..let me elaborate!
Last season, Toronto 3rd seed, home court advantage for the first time, ampped!!,nervous and not ready for the who, New Jersey-then-41 and 41, even though they were superior, lets admit it, we were all a little nervous, right? Right?

Now this story has repeated itself, the rankings have changed but i just came from a Orlando blogs and the general theme is...wait for it...The Raptors are a scary team, we rather have Philly..ha ha ha ha ha ha...hilarious i tell ya!!

All i know is this, i dont expect them to win, home court advantage is awesome, but thats not the reason i think that will be T.Dot's demise..it is Stan, Mr.Van Gundy is helluva Coach, one of my favs, i watched him up close, and he's one dude you dont wanna mess with.
He also said, that the players he most wary of is Jose and Bargs, thats right, Bargs, he said it, he also said, if Bargs is on, or Chris, Or Jose, he Has no One, i repeat No one to gaurd them, especially Bargs, not one single player is seven footer that plays outside the 3-pont line, he's got 6-10'ers sure, but when is the last time anybody has seen Rashad or Hedo gaurd anyone????????

I predict..if Bargs plays well, we Win, if he doesn't, we loose, and we loose badly !!if he doesn't rebound either!

[yertu damkule]

hey doug...i was thinking the same thing re. JG/primoz/hump - hopefully, all 8 of their hardcore fans will stop writing in now asking why they don't get any burn. i'm going to pick on joey a bit here, since he seems to have the most tools in the shed to work with - he carries himself like a star when on the court, too cool to hustle & put in an effort. he must not have gotten the memo that he completely, utterly, stinks. if he's on the court for the raps again, it'll be in a blow-out, and even then, i'd rather they didn't bother - they can get rushed jumpers & bad D from anyone. of all the disappointments over the last year or two, he's right at the top of the list.

[Louis]

Good Morning Doug,

When do the votings and announcing of MVP and all those awards happen?

Blogger's note: They are generally handed out throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.

[Sean]

Hey Doug,

Any inside scoop on how the Raps managed to boot the Rock from the ACC next Sat.? Is it because MLSE owns the building?

Blogger's note: A clause in the contract, I'm told.

[Vince]

"One, well-respected ref Scott Wall, took the opportunity to do something so cool for his kids that it can’t go unmentioned.

Flat Stanley, one of the great kids ideas of our time, took in the game, too. And will no doubt provide all kinds of great stories for Scott’s two kids."

What the heck does this mean? Is there a link or something that's missing? What's Flat Stanley?

Blogger's note: I'm not doing all the work for, go find out.

[Robert]

Doug, a few questions:

1. Not to nitpick about the Chicago game, but why does Bargnani only get 20 minutes in that game. The guy has struggled all season and he could play an important role in the playoffs if he finds his game. Shouldn't he have played the majority of yesterday's game in an effort to find his game?

2. Who plays PG for the Raptors down the stretch in the 4th quarter of the Orlando series?

3. San-Antonio and Phoenix - Wow, what a series - Its hard to believe that one of these teams will be out after the 1st round. Who do you like in that series?

Thanks for all your work on this blog.

Blogger's note: I've got seven other series to do capsules for and a Raptor-Orlando series to figure out; I'm going to move these over to the mail bag.

[GM]

Sure, the game meant nothing, but you still play to win whenever you step on the court. In theory, anyway. Did anyone else notice Swirsky saying he was shocked and disgusted (I'm paraphrasing) at the Bull's effort. This was in the third quarter when the Raptors had a whopping 5-point lead! If the lowly Bulls weren't trying hard enough, what does that say about your own playoff-bound squad who's barely staying in front of them (and ultimately losing to them)?

Also, what's Flat Stanley? I didn't get that cool dad thing.

Blogger's note: You've got to go look up Flat Stanley.

[No Longer in the Joey Graham Fan club]

I'll admit it Doug you were right. Joey graham has a horrible iq, hes built like a bull but would rather shoot a 20 footer to than taking it to the rim, he can't even finish down low, he can't even catch passes. I'm sorry for doubting you :(

[tino]

Interesting move last night with Andrea subbing Moon at the SF.Ironic also.
Interesting:today 2 dayly newspapers have an article about JM good season and Sam pointing out his late game heroics(forgetting to mention things like maybe fouling the shooters in the last seconds in close games,or his porous perimeter defence?).
Ironic becouse like last year,when Rasho could't score in the playoffs,and Bargnani started in his place to provide offence, we again still may have the most disappointing Raptors of the year eventually start again,but this time to better defend Hedo..
So what are the odds for Andrea to start from game 3?I may be wrong,but the raps could win without JM playing a single minute,if Bargnani gets it going offensively and match Hedo production.

[Robert S]

Marty Burns of SI has Raptors in 6

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/marty_burns/04/17/east.breakdown/index.html?eref=T1

[gabriel a]

the schedule is good but the raptors ( if i remember correctly) suck in morning games....so if they lose game 1....bad bad

[Manpreet]

No way NBA referees have the toughest officiating job in sports. Hands down, its Eurpoean soccer referees who have the hardest.

[voislav]

I like the matchup with Orlando, it's going to be a fun series. I prefer that Raptors go in as underdogs, it's probably going to do more good than home court. I'll say Raptors in 6, I like how Bargnani and Nesterovic handle Howard and Hedo/Lewis can't guard Bosh

[Marc Moore]

"Torstar Corp. is cutting 160 jobs, including the entire Internet production staff, at its flagship Toronto Star daily, in a restructuring prompted by continuing weakness in the newspaper industry." http://www.marketingmag.ca/daily/20080417PM/national1.html

Does this affect your blog? Should I be going to the grocery and buying up all the bottled water and canned goods? ;)

Blogger's note: I can't imagine anything bad happening to this little part of the world.

[Richard Yun]

Flat Stanley went to Wrigley field? Wow how cool is that! Did he make the jumbotron? He would have been a huge improvement on the not so flat obese men with no shirts. Nice work Scott Wall!

[junior odeneho]

Doug even Marty Burns of Sports illustrated believe that the Raptors will beat the Magic here is the link

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/marty_burns/04/17/east.breakdown/index.html?eref=T1

[Jay D]

If I remember correctly, the raptors tend to play well on Sunday afternoon games at home. Chuck and Leo mention one reason is because the opposing team arrives on Sat., and because of toronto's great night life, the players go out and are thus tired and sluggish for the afternoon game. I do believe them, but could you confim?

But really, i ask this question referring to game 1. Do the raptors do the same thing while on the road? Going out late in big cities? Are there policies or curfews? Will this be an issue considering that game 1 will be Sunday afternoon in Orlando? Or will Sam allow no such thing? (I suspect the players know better considering the situation)

Blogger's note: I'm hardly ever hanging with players so I don't know what visiting teams do on Saturday nights; nor do I know what Raptors do on Saturday nights.
But I will assure you that each of these teams has players on it who won't be out painting the town red the night before the first playoff game.

[rob Saba]

hey Doug,
the schedule on nba.com doesn't show any canadian tv channel covering the raps in the playoffs( except TSN for the first game ) is this the final schedule or are we getting more details later?

Blogger's note: No, more details are coming.