The Morning Before The Afternoon To Come, I

Well, I presume the number of hits here today might dwindle since everyone has to start car-pooling or walking or riding their bikes to the game right about now thanks to the TTC.

A few quick hits, some mail and then off to Erindale Lions Little League evaluation day to see what kind of gems Coaches Steve and Paul and I can come with for this summer’s version of the ’27 Yankees re-visited.

Here’s something to watch for in between screaming yourself hoarse at the game or ordering another cocktail in whatever sports bar you’re in:

A three-man weave.

We saw it a few times on Thursday night, one of the few new tweaks to the Raptor offence is a three-man weave with the ball around the perimeter. Think of it as something akin to signature play of the Wizards.
The intent is to get the defence moving and scrambling and the ball going side-to-side.

It’s not a totally revamped offence but it is something different they might use three or four times.

Just something to watch for.

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You know, a guy might gloat about the Suns being down 3-0 and this whole Shaq thing not quite working out. But that wouldn’t be nice and, besides, they’ll got him for $20 million next year. What could be wrong with that?

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Here’s an intriguing mail question:

Q: Sorry, while everyone thinks playoff, I have an unusual question. Any chance for a female coach in the NBA in the coming years. That'd great!

Patricia M, Toronto

A: Why be sorry? I’d like to think so, but probably not. And it would be great.

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Hey, you guys and gals did all right.

She Who Knows Everything about the Raptors foundation reports they raised $550 yesterday on that ticket auction. That’s pretty good for a one-day thing and shows you folks don’t mind helping out a very worthy cause.

And Jawad? Donating those seats was a big-time move, congrats.

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Here’s how Brian and the fellas from Orlando spent yesterday.

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Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s a matter of timing but had a bunch of people send along the replies they got yesterday about Jack’s future as a TV analyst.

You know how I feel about it – he has to be back because he’s good – and apparently MLSE folks now know because a bunch of you sent notes.

Here’s the reply:

We appreciate your concern over Jack Armstrong's future on Raptors broadcasts. We know that Jack is a big contributor to your enjoyment of Raptors Basketball and understand how important his personality, passion and basketball knowledge is to our loyal viewers and fans.
Ensuring Jack is a part of Raptors Basketball and our broadcasts in the future is important to us and we are hopeful that there will be a continued relationship with Jack and the Toronto Raptors through our broadcast partners for many years to come.
Thanks for being a fan.

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We’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here (actually, we’re getting waaaaaaay ahead of ourselves here) but here’s a question more than a few are asking:

Q: Is there reseeding in the playoffs or is there a bracket? For instance, if Philly beats Detroit and Toronto beats Orlando, do we play Philly or winner of Wash-Clev?

Evan G, Thornhill

A: No, the NBA doesn’t re-seed between playoff rounds so the Orlando-Toronto winner faces the Detroit-Philly winner regardless. They don’t re-seed for a couple of reasons: They want to be able to move up the start of second- and third-rounds for TV purposes and to make sure teams don’t have days and days off between series.

Oh, and if you’re a seventh-seed and knock off a second, it’s cool that you get to play the third seed in the next round instead of the first as some kind of reward.

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Remember when these were going to be the greatest playoffs in the history of NBA playoffs? Well, we better hope things pick up in the second week ‘cause right now, they’re not exactly setting the world on fire.

Sure, there’ve been a couple of good games (the first Spurs-Suns was a classic for all time) but isn’t the over-riding sense right now that things have fizzled rather been on fire?

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Be back later, enjoy the game.

Comments

[Derex]

MOre of a question than a comment....where do the MAgic and other teams practice while enjoying their stay in TO?

Blogger's note: As a general rule, visiting teams use the practice facility in the arena.

[Stephen]

The best part about possibly facing the Sixers in the 2nd round is the fact that we would have home court advantage. That is a mouth watering prospect.

[Andy C]

so if both the raps and sixers advance to the second round that means the raps would have home court right? i dont think there is any player or player personal in common with the last time these two teams met in the second round.

Blogger's note: We remain a bit ahead of ourselves but if the Sixers and Raptors meet in the next round, Toronto will have homecourt advantage

[Charlie]

I'm sorry, did I read that correctly? Are you gloating about the Suns difficulty in the first round against the Spurs?

Of course! I missed the memo, Toronto fans should love the cheap shot artists: Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry. We also absolutely hate that Steve Nash guy.

Did someone "mess with" your cornflakes this morning? Couldn't find any new reasons to rant about how TJ should be traded out of town?

Blogger's note: Yeah, you did read it incorrrectly. It has nothing to do with Spurs and nothing to do with Nash. It has to do with the fact I mentioned, much to the chagrin of a lot of people, that I thought the acquistion of Shaq wouldn't put the Suns over the top and was, in fact, a bad move.

[Ellie]

Last night's Suns-Spurs game was sad. I hope the Suns put their nose to the grindstone and pull something out of the fire, but being down 3-0 does not bode well.

"shows you folks don’t mind helping out a very worthy cause"

-->Or that $25 for a shot at a pair of tickets to today's game plus a tax receipt was too good a deal to pass up. :)

Blogger's note: Yeah, there was that, too. But I like to think people were helping a worthy cause.

[GM]

There's no transit to the couch in front of my TV, so I can write.

The problem with the Suns trade was that it was reactive (kinda like when Sam reacts with his lineups instead of being proactive). They wanted a big body to bang with the big boys in the West. But Shaq is not the Shaq of old, so in effect they just become a weaker version of what they're trying to copy, instead of the being best version of what they were. It's sad that Nash and D'Antoni won't move on to the next round (barring a miracle), but I'm glad Shaq's ego won't get stroked.

[Kevin]

Doug,

I couldn't agree more about the playoffs fizzling....at least out West. I mean, two of the series are moderately interesting, LA/Denver is going to go 4 or 5 so no excitement there and if anybody saw that Spur/Suns game last night I think we can all agree that it peaked in the 20T of game one.

Of course, that won't stop national sports publications from ignoring the East entirely.

[jk]

Chris Bosh is too weak and a BIG GAME choker....just once I'd like to see him do something ALL STAR worthy in this series....two years in a row and he has not shown he is capable of leading a team to anything more than the top of the weakest division in the league.
Great players play BIG in the playoffs....

Blogger's note: Yeah, 39 and 15 sucks, doesn't it?

[Dan]

So far your seeing why Moon is better of the bench. You have andrea moon and parker who cannot shoot very well lately. Somone tell Parker not all shots have to be turnaround fadeaways. Also Bosh cannot guard howard. Andrea did a better job.

[mark]

OMG!
what a killer! to lose that game.
i can't for the life of me figure out while mitchell is playing delfino so much the past two games. he can't dribble and he has no court sense... at least, not in the playoffs.
kapono is the go-to guy... delfino should've been burried. same goes for bargnani getting so much time when moon was playing so well.
what was mitchell thinking?
doug- would you say that these were tactical errors?

Blogger's note: I'd say Delfino played a lot late in the game because Moon was hurting.

[bballer]

the problem with the suns wasn't shaq. he pretty much shut down duncan after game 1. the problem is similar to the problem the raps face which is a lack of perimeter defense. the main person who covered parker was marion. so instead of putting someone who has speed on parker, d'umbtoni put the crippling hill on him. he should have switched b/w barbosa and bell covering parker. you start with bell and when ginoboli is on the court you switch to barbosa and then throw in dj strawberry. the other problem is that nash is such a huge defensive liability that you would have to always protect him by covering bowen which is ok. but bowen shut down nash the night b4. us revisionists who disagreed with nash winning the mvp always thought it is weird to name someone that title when they can't play any d whatsoever. but it is what it is.

hopefully d'umbtoni will get fired and kerr can hire someone who understands that defense wins championships. plus, b4 shaq came, skinner played well. down the stretch, no skinner and no strawberry your 2 best defenders on the team. i hope colangelo learns from what is going on in phx and try to bring in a big who can defend and draft a 2 way swingman.

ps. good game by bosh and ford. after moon went down, i wish that garbo was active and could play.

doug, do we still get rid of ford and hope that calderon plays well when it counts? kind of disappeared didn't he?

Blogger's note: Kinda disappeared yesterday, sure; kinda dominated with 18 and 13 on Thursday.

[Adam Glatt]

The Utah/Hornets games have been great.

[Abzal]

TJ/Calderon, Bergnani and Bosh trio isn't working. Bosh cannot dominate the game on a consistent basis. PG combination while very potent on offence can be blown up off the dribble on the defensive end. Finally, Bargs is a very streaky dude, all shooters are.

Do you think GM should reconsider our core after this season?

[Robert]

Doug, in your playoff preview didn't you pick the Suns in 6 games over the Spurs?

[Tyler]

Peter Vescey's shtick gets old, fast. The only reason he's at all relevant is because he's on NBA TV and gets pigeonholed as that guy who does nothing but reminesce. He's stuck in the past and anytime the guy makes the effort to be at all relevant he outs himself as a total amateur. Fabricating quotes is low, though, and effort should be made on everyone's part to get this moron out of 'the game'.

As insufferable as his 'analysis' is on GameNight (have never read his haphazardly thrown together articles), fabricating quotes is unethical and shouldn't be tolerated.

It's one thing when the guy spends 80% of his time on the air feeding Gail Goodrich's ego, but making up quotes is crossing the line.