So much for tardy

Seriously, am I good or what? Get to O'Hare, get through security, find the lounge, fire up the machine, finish the blog, make your morning better (that last bit may or may not be true, of course).

Everyone feel a wee bit better today? A nice, relatively easy 20-point will brighten a mood, won’t it? And the manner in which it was achieved was most significant, I think. A 20-4 run in the final 5 1-2 minutes? That just doesn’t happen with this team.

But it did, and how many people are looking at a four-game win streak today? Same number that were thinking 12-game losing streak Friday morning?

Anywho …

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Action: 23, 10 and no turnovers

Reaction: Welcome back

Funnily enough, I did not wake up this morning to several e-mails or comments suggesting the Raptors consider trading Jose Calderon because (a) he’s a defensive liability, or (b) he doesn’t look to score often enough or (c) he doesn’t get Andrea Bargnani involved in the offence enough or (d) Anthony Parker was doing a good job as the point guard anyway.

I defy anyone who watched that game to not admit there was a different “feel” to how they played, more steady, less panic, more in control.

And that came from the point guard.

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A question about Jose, sort of:

Q: Looks like you had a nice sleep with the Raps win, no blog and it's 8 a.m.? Joking, Doug, time to be smiling with the win. Was that foul to remove jose with seconds to go an overjoy from the coach? Should a coach be doing that on a road game or for teams with not so good winning record?

Paul M, Toronto

A: It was far more a function of a 5:45 a.m. wakeup call to get to O’Hare for an early-ish flight. But glad you were here early to read.

No, the timeout wasn’t to rub anything in or to allow Jose some applause, it was to get a guy who was just coming back from injury as much time on the bench as they could. And I’m not sure it was all Jay, I think the savvy Parker knew what needed to be done.

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Perhaps you’ve heard I have a bit of a thing for Dancing With The Stars and while I cannot trip the light fantastic myself, I will submit that Jose Calderon should never be allowed to “dance” on a basketball court again.

Not sure what that was after he made that late three-pointer but he should leave it to the privacy of his own home.

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Action: Bosh’s defence

Reaction: In defence of him.

You want to know why Bosh was such a great defender on the American Olympic team and the consensus is now that he’s not anymore? Teammates.

Having Kobe and LeBron in front and Dwight Howard as a safety net behind would make anyone an above average defender.

Last night, especially in the second half, Bosh defended as well as he has this season, both on the block and in the high screen and roll, which is why Derrick Rose didn’t scorch them.

And he did it because the weak side rotation was solid, the other bigs under the basket were doing their jobs taking up space.

Really quite simple, really quite a matter of effort and concentration, two things Bosh’s teammates had in spades in Beijing.

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What they said in Chicago, where they’ve been killing Vinny Del Negro and the Bulls all week.

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Action: Great video

Reaction: No Flo Rida (or however you spell it)

There may not be a better pre-game video than the one the Bulls show with about two minutes left on the clock. It’s a highlight montage that includes greats like Norm Van Lier and Jerry Sloan, Tom Boerwinkle and Dick Motta, Michael, Scottie and Phil as well as the requisite shot of Oak getting into a fight and Rodman diving for a loose ball.

Really cool, really a way to highlight the franchise history.

I believe they’re putting one together in Toronto. It shows

Opening video

Alvin Robertson to Carlos Rogers to Oliver Miller to John Salley to Alex Radojevic to Oliver Miller (again) to Butch Carter. It’s to Kevin O’Neill and Lenny Wilkens and Mengke Bateer, Lonny Baxter, Robert Archibald, Keon Clark, Omar Cook and Garth Joseph.

Ah, the history and the memories.

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More mail, and I’ll have a few hours later today to knock off tomorrow morning’s mailbag so submit to your little heart’s content:

Q: I see that the Raptors are wearing their all-black "alternate" jerseys again tonight. They seem to be wearing them pretty frequently, wasn't there a limit to how many times they can wear them? My question is, although the all-black are indeed the coolest of all the kits, they sure seem to lose a lot in them. What is their record when they wear each of the three jerseys?

Wilson L, Toronto

A: It does seem like they’ve worn them a zillion times, doesn’t it? And I asked the guy who actually runs the team – equipment manager, travel co-ordinator, general bon vivant K. DiPietro – and they are allowed this year to wear alternate jerseys 16 times and last night was only the 10th this season.

The record? I’m not sure and don’t have my fashion-boxscores handy.

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Action: Two sequences.

Reaction: Who are these guys?

A Bosh dunk off the Jose lob after Jose turned the corner on a high screen just before a Bargnani block of a Rose drive, a steal by Bosh that sets up a Joey break because Joey was running the floor hard.

And then, Parker misses a three but stays with the shot and gets the long rebound, passes back out to Jose who sees Bosh with his man sealed on his back in the paint and gives him the ball. Bosh sees a second defender coming, holds the ball a split second until he gets closer, dishes to an open Parker in the corner while fleeing the paint to avoid a three-second call and Parker drills an open three.

I repeat:

Who are these guys?

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This piece by Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated says Kevin O’Neill’s done in Memphis, which comes as no surprise, really, since he was the associate head coach with Iavaroni and was overlooked for an assistant from another team when Iavaroni got fired.

A thought: Beale Street won’t ever be the same

Oh, and put any notion of an O’Neill return to Toronto as an assistant out of your head. Let’s just say the relationship between he and Jay was, um, not good.

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A tad tardy today, just FYI

Late game, early flight, little sleep.

Not sure if I get the usual junk done before boarding; if not, I'll be back just after noon from the comfort of Casa Doug.

Let's just say this, though: That was an entirely different team, in almost every respect, with Jose at the helm.

The Goods On The Game, Vol. 45, running with the Bulls

Swirsk says hi.

And he misses everyone.

(Actually, he didn't, but I know he would have had I asked).

Of all-stars and ex-coaches

Quiet day around these guys yesterday, they didn’t lose.

And that means some of you had a day off, too; much less angst than normal as the day wore on, it was nice not to see dozens of “they suck” comments after I got off the flight from Detroit to Chicago.

But we must soldier on here and soldier on we do:

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So the fans screwed it up. Big whoop.

I have no problem, generally, with letting fans vote for all-star starters but if you let them vote, you have to expect a screw up.

And Allen Iverson starting for the East is a huge screw up.

Everything else is quite understandable and I don’t think you can make an argument with any of them but Iverson?

Seriously, what a waste

Nothing against him personally, I’ve been a huge fan for years, but this season? This season he’s been quite average with gusts below. Both in Denver and Detroit.

Should have been Jameer Nelson, or Devin Harris, not Iverson.

And I can only hope the coaches get it right.

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Speaking of the all-stars, here’s something you may not have known.

When coaches go to vote for the seven reserves, they really don’t have to pay any attention to specific positions. They don’t have to follow the ballot when it comes to centres, guards and forwards and that’s of particular interest in the East.

Because look at that list of other centres on the ballot -- Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace, Samuel Dalembert, Andrew Bogut, Jermaine O’Neal, Al Horford, Brendan Haywood , Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Emeka Okafor – and find me some all-star worthy. There isn’t one.

But coaches are told they don’t have to pay any attention to the ballot and should pick players who give their conference the best chance to win.

It’s still a couple of weeks before the coaches ballots have to be in and that means we’ve all got some time to think about it but, today (and this is open to revision as the next couple of weeks unfold), I’d take:

Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris, Joe Johnson, Hedo Turkoglu, Danny Granger, Paul Pierce and Chris Bosh.

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And speaking of the all-stars, we’ve got this:

Q: Given the all-star game is being held in Phoenix this year, it would seem only natural that Steve Nash be selected by opposing coaches and GMs as a reserve (if only for sentimental reasons). The problem is that I can count at least three point guards in the west (Deron Williams only not included due to injury) as way more deserving this year: Chris Paul, Tony Parker, and Chauncey Billups. Do you think coaches and GMs will give Nash a home town discount and vote him in over any of the above mentioned? Would you?

Blake V, Vancouver

A: As much as I love Nash, I’d be shocked if the coaches voted him to play. I bet he’d like the weekend off from playing, too. He told us last week he’ll be in Phoenix as some sort of unofficial “host” of the weekend and maybe does that punt, pass and kick thing on the Saturday night but I’m betting he’s got the Sunday night off.

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I applaud you for your restraint.

I had only a couple of e-mails overnight suggesting Marc Iavaroni’s firing in Memphis gives him the inside track on the Toronto job.

I’m pretty sure I’ll have to repeat this more than a few times but let’s get started.

Marc Iavaroni will not coach the Raptors.

Bryan Colangelo could have hired him in Phoenix and he didn’t.

Bryan Colangelo could have found a way to hire him Toronto and he didn’t.

Marc Iavaroni, while a nice enough guy and a pretty good assistant, was a washout as a head coach and the last thing this Toronto team needs next year – if, in fact, there’s an opening – a guy who failed as miserably and as quickly as Iavaroni did.

It’s not going to happen.

Please put it out of your mind.

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Check out the reports in Chicago today from the fine grunt K.C. Johnson. Seems things aren't all that sweet around these parts.

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This would have been up earlier but I was sitting at my computer for a long, long time trying to come up with my favourite memory of Alonzo Mourning as a Raptor.

Those were the glory hours, weren’t they?

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Let’s do this one now because I think Jose plays tonight and this may be old by tomorrow:

Q: Hey Doug! Will you be starting a Doug Smith Hotline to provide emotional support for the depressed Raptors fans? I think there's a few people who could use it. Moving on …

I think it's pretty obvious that the Raptors aren't going to get on any sort of roll until Jose comes back. Subbing in Anthony Parker has helped a bit, but not having a true PG at the end of games has in my opinion really hurt their half-court offense and is likely why they lost so many of those close games recently. My question is, as important as having a solid slashing/attacking 2 or 3 is, isn't having a pass-first PG (who can take over offensively when needed to) just as important? Of course my argument is irrelevant if you have LeBron or Kobe on your team. Your thoughts?

Amanda F, Barrie

A: All arguments become irrelevant when you’ve got Kobe or LeBron on your team. But I digress.

It’s not so much a pass-first PG that’s important, it’s a guy everyone’s comfortable with and Bosh hit it on the head yesterday when he said:

“We find ourselves looking at the bench a lot instead of just flowing into the game. Jose pretty much knows all the plays and he know what to run and at what times. He’s a sparkplug for us out there.”

Jose’s leadership abilities – on the court and on the bench – are sometimes forgotten and his calmness on the court at key moments is huge.

I’m not saying he’s the answer and all of sudden they win eight of 10 or something silly like that but there will be a sense of normalcy when he’s back in the lineup that’s important.

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While we’re all sitting around waiting for Pat Riley to make up his mind on the Jermaine O’Neal-Shawn Marion deal, maybe it’s time to look back on the O’Neal-Ford-Nesterovic transaction in the summer.

I know everyone’s slamming it but here’s what it was: A gamble.

And sometimes gambles don’t pay off.

One thing was for certain, the Raptors – rightly or wrongly, and rightly in my opinion – felt they had to deal T.J. Ford because he and Jose Calderon weren’t going to co-exist in the backcourt and, as T.J. himself made clear on his first visit to Toronto, it was apparent T.J. and Sam had some issues that were masked last season.

And with two burning issues – interior defence and athleticism on the wing – and taking into consideration financial flexibility in the next couple of summers, Bryan decided to take what he saw as the best offer. Which was O’Neal.

Everyone knew it was a gamble, trades always are and trades for guys who’ve been hurt are especially so.

But the GM had to do something and he rolled the dice.

Maybe it didn’t work – although there’ve been stretches this season where O’Neal hasn’t look bad at all – but it had to be done.

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Ho hum, here we go again

Here we are again, trying to dissect another loss, make sense of what happened and it’s getting more difficult by the day, isn’t it? They play well for a few minutes, they play poorly for a lot more and in one stretch a game that could have been competitive is over.

TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Something's gotta give.

Last night it was the third quarter, as bad a defensive quarter as they’ve played in a long time, and the sense of inevitability about the result was overwhelming.

It’s not like the players quit playing or quit trying but once the Pistons got it going, the Raptors started to hang their heads, force things that weren’t there and it got away from them quickly.

Confidence is such a fleeting emotion, it can be there one minute and – poof! – it’s gone the next. I really think all these guys need is a win, any win, and things will improve exponentially. They’re not going to rattle off six or seven wins in a row, I don’t think they have the talent, consistency or mental toughness to do that, but I do think they can get on a nice little roll.

I don’t know whether it would be enough to make the rest of the season mildly interesting but at least it’d change the darkness of the mood around these parts. And I’m all for that.

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Action: Seven in row.

Reaction: Trying to ascribe blame

Here’s the interesting point to me: Everyone and anyone is to blame and there’s no clear-cut villain in this latest streak, or this whole season as a matter of fact.

No one’s doing a good enough job.

Sure, some nights some players play well and coaches do the right thing and the general manager’s roster looks like it might work.

And then they play again and they all fail.

Me? I have to put a lot of this on the general manager, who constructed the roster and made the move to whack Sam way back in the day.

I’m pretty sure that Bryan would agree with me that his performance has been subpar, either because he over-estimated the skill of the team he put together or because his gamble on the O’Neal trade really hasn’t paid off.

Being the general manager of any team in any sport is an exercise in adaptation and how he adapts to the mess the team’s in will tell us all a lot about his skills.

It’s easy to run things, or play for a team, when things are going well. It’s how people react to tough times that tells you all about them.

Having spoken to him and seen him after losses, this is alternately frustrating him and making him angry. Now he has to turn that frustration and anger into action and get this thing fixed.

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Action: A halftime stroll.

Reaction: A strange, telling sight.

Maybe this tells you everything you need to know about a guy.

Walking down a hallway by the Pistons locker room at halftime, spied Kwame Brown coming out of the press room with a full bag of popcorn.

Seems he’d ducked in to grab some food put out for the grunts and others.

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Saddest sight of the night:

Hump limping out of the locker room, a manila envelope carrying his X-rays in his hand, getting ready to get a ride back to Toronto with Messrs. Colangelo, Gherardidni and Masai.

Hump told us he’s not sure of the treatment for the broken right fibula he’s got, he’ll see the Toronto doctors today to figure it out.

But he’s many, many weeks away from being back in action.

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Look at these numbers:

Vs. Detroit: 22 minutes, 0 pts, 3 reb, 3 PF

Vs. Atlanta, 21 minutes, 4 pts, 2 reb, 4 PF

Vs. Phoenix, 38 minutes, 22 pts, 7 reb, 4 PF

Vs. Indiana, 14 minutes, 8 pts, 8 reb, 6 PF

No, I’m now not entirely sure Joey Graham can handle being a starter.

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Coolest sight of the night: Nathan Jawai in his stall in the locker room after the game, cell phone to his ear, no doubt talking to either his girlfriend or his family after he made his NBA debut.

It was 3:05 of pretty much nothing, a travel on his first touch, no rebounds, not shots but it was a debut and that’s pretty neat.

And from the department of ‘timing is everything’ there was every chance in the world that Jawai was off to Idaho today or tomorrow to join the D League’s Stampede but now, with Hump on the shelf, Nate’s got a reprieve.

And minus-20 weather in Toronto and a seat on the end of an NBA bench is exponentially better than the D League in Idaho.

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Action: Three bigs

Reaction: So-so, as always

Yes, we saw Bosh, O’Neal and Bargnani on the court for a bit last night, most notably in the second quarter when the game was still a game.

Did it work? Barely. But it was a pretty good move by Jay for this reason: The Pistons were playing small and instead of adapting to what they were doing, the Raptors tried to make them adapt to what Toronto was doing.

It worked in one regard: The Pistons had to go back to Rasheed Wallace and he immediately picked up a third foul and while it ended up having no real bearing on the outcome, it was an action, rather than a reaction.

And when someone asked Bosh about it, and having to adapt to playing with a group he was unfamiliar with, this is what he had to say:

“I think we’re familiar with each other -- this is how many games? I’m losing count now -- but we should know the system by now. No matter who’s on the floor, we should know our spots, know the offence, and we should know just to move without the ball. I don’t think you have to be too familiar with your teammates, you have to be familiar with the system and we’ve been playing with it for weeks now, we should be used to it.”

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Oh yeah, in Detroit, this is what they’re reading.

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Speaking of Jawai, got this independent scouting report from Darrell Walker, who had worked him out for Detroit before the draft:

Really good hands, good footwork around the basket. Big, strong, tough kid. May be limited by lack of jumping explosiveness but he’ll get into people and box them out.

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A question of money, like I know anything:

Q: Hey Doug: Got more of a question from the business side of the Raptors. With the team basically taking the same route as the economy, how worried is the braintrust at MLSE about future bball revenues? I'm assuming they've got some plan in place in case there is no playoff money coming in, but has anybody there made any forecasts about what the season ticket renewal rate might be next year, especially with an even weaker economy? Would they expect to see fewer individuals renew, or fewer suite renewals from a percentage standpoint?

Roger B, Toronto

A: I think the combination of the economy and the team’s record is certainly going to hit them in the summer, perhaps very hard.

Here’s what I would do: I’d find some way to not only hold the line on ticket prices but reduce some season-ticket costs for seats not only in the upper bowl but down below, too.

I presume some bean counter with more brains than I have tried to guess how bad things are going to be this summer but no one knows for certain where the economy is going, I don’t think.

And given how the team’s performed this year, the toughest job in the building may indeed be season ticket seller.

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The Goods On The Game, Vol. 44, A Night At The Palace

Back again everyone?

Catching up from shootaround and some TV news

Yeah, I’m a wee bit tardy, sorry about that. Work and transcribing tape and stuff got in the way.

News is so-so out of shootaround.

Jermaine O’Neal assured everyone he’s going to play and there’s really no reason to think he wouldn’t, but Jose Calderon remains a no-go and Kris Humphries also gets the night off because his shin’s still bothering him.

Hump’s off to see a doctor today or tomorrow to find out exactly what’s wrong and how long he might be out. That’ll mean Nate Jawai gets to dress again but it’ll take a blowout for him to get on the court, I think.

Oh, and the real big news? Sunday’s game against Sacramento has been moved from TSN2 to TSN so Rogers subscribers will get to see it. No one’s said exactly why at the moment, we’re trying to find out for sure but at least it’s one more game the majority of viewers in the team’s home market can see.

As for the lineup, Anthony Parker remains as the starting point guard in Calderon’s absence and Joey Graham stays as the starting shooting guard, according to coach Jay Triano:

“I thought about just matchup-wise doing something different but we’re going to stick with the lineup that we have. I liked the way we’ve started games.”

O’Neal? No idea how much he’ll be able to contribute coming off the bench having missed 11 of the team’s last 12 games. But he’ll be watched closely, Triano said:

“I’m not going to go in with a specific number of minutes but we’ll have to watch him closely and monitor it. I think conditioning is going to be a bigger issue that his knee and that’s what will restrict h is minutes. If he’s got the green light … it’ll just be based on his conditioning and how much he can do at an effective level.”

Of Bosh and obscure Raptors and a change in Detroit

Hello from beautiful Troy, Mich. (and I use ‘beautiful’ in the loosest possible term) where it’s like 14 F, grim and ugly. But other than that, it’s great to be alive.

Big day in this country yesterday, as you might have heard, and it really was fascinating to watch the people.

At the time the president took his oath, I was on a concourse at the Atlanta airport and the entire area went dead silent from the time the first showed Obama on the television screen until he was sworn in.

No chatter, not idle conversation, just 100 or so people (and that was in about a 50-metre long stretch of waiting room) pretty much awe-struck watching television.

It was pretty cool, as a matter of fact. As the last two days were in many regards. Martin Luther King Day in Atlanta and then the inauguration. Sometimes this job doesn’t suck.

Jermaine O’Neal sort of summed up the mood – and seeing a couple of million people well behaved on the mall in Washington, D.C. the mood was pretty joyous, when he said this to us the other day:

“It’s a real live, party atmosphere, a family atmosphere in Washington. When was the last time you’ve seen that?”

Now, let’s back to our regularly-scheduled drivel about this basketball team:

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One of the more interesting aspects of the last few weeks is the anger and disappointment being aimed at Chris Bosh.

It’s misguided, in my opinion, (23 and 10 a night, team’s best player, bonafide NBA all-star, 24 years old still to hit his prime) but it’s out there and that’s all cool.

The one thing that really gets me is the number of e-mails and comments that have come flooding in mocking Bosh for his early-season comment that he’d like to be the MVP of the league, to be among the true, true greats.

And people are upset about this? Honestly, they are. And there were a couple more yesterday.

Which makes me wonder, what would you have him say:

“I’d really like to be average. Maybe I can just be a guy. My goals are to be okay.”

What’s wrong with setting the bar high, especially when he was averaging about 27 and 12 at the time? Is it wrong to have great expectations?

Now, no, he’s not lived up to that level of play in the last couple of months. But to suggest it was wrong for him to make that statement in answer to a question? That’s just weird.

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Pretty big news here in Detroit as the one and only Chris McCosky reports today.

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They’re making a big to-do down here about Barack Obama being No. 44, running lists of great Nos. 44 in sports, lists that always start with Hank Aaron and always include Jerry West.

How about this list?

Martin Lewis, Hubert Davis, John Wallace, Derrick Dial, Greg Foster and Corie Blount.

No, I don’t imagine the Raptors getting all wistful about their No. 44 history.

I can’t figure out who’s the most obscure on that list? I guess it’d be Blount but Foster and Dial would be close.

One thing in Dial’s favour: He made a big shot to win a game in Chicago one night, allowing one of us to write: “The Raptors are glad they used Dial” which is a line a very, very, very small percentage of readers got.

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I mentioned this in response to a couple of comments yesterday but I assume not everyone reads all of them (and, trust me, that’s a wise, wise, wise stand to take) so …

Q: You mentioned that you wonder when it will be Bargnani's turn to take the big shot, and either you're forgetting, or I'm missing something. Didn't he hit the game-tying three against the Celts (I believe) last week? They ended up losing, but it was still one of those 'moments'. Was it a broken play?

Errol T, Toronto

A: Yes, it was.

If you recall, Bosh got an offensive rebound of a missed shot, kicked the ball back out and it was Kapono, if memory serves, who passed it to Bargnani.

At no time was Bargnani a top option on that play so, in my mind, that doesn’t count.

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Looking ahead in the schedule, trying to plan my days, couldn’t help but notice the odd 6 p.m. start time for Sunday’s home game.

Then it hit me: Here we go again.

The Sunday tips are all over the map from now until the end of the season – some 6 p.m., some noon, some 3:30 p.m. – thanks to our good friends at TV and ticket holders can just adapt.

With ABC doing Sunday games from now to the end of the year, they have an exclusive TV window on each day; if a team wants to play on Sunday at home and put that game on TV, they can’t play in the 2 1-2 hour-per-game window that exists for ABC.

So teams like the Raptors jerk around the times for three months or so.

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Seems Shawn Marion’s not all that thrilled about trade talk that centres around him.

A couple of post-practice comments from Tuesday, thanks to my man Ira at the Sun-Sentinel:

“I'm actually tired of it. I'm really tired of it. It's very distracting. I'm trying to focus on what I'm trying to do here and I keep getting bombarded with all this other stuff."

And there’s this, too:

“Of course it's going to have an affect on anybody because ya'll keep bringing it up and asking. If nobody brings it up and nobody talks about it, it's not going to be an issue. Think about it.”

Compare and contrast that to Jermaine O’Neal, who’s been openly talking since last Thursday about the possibility of a move and what it means and how it’s all part of the business.

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Last one from the mail for now:

Q: As I was procrastinating rather than studying for exams, I saw a video on YouTube and I believe it was from 1984 with high quality retired basketball players playing a game (maybe at all-star weekend). Some of the guys still had game (Pistol Pete and George Gervin). Anyways, I was wondering, why can't the NBA have another one of these games this year or in the future? I think as you say, it would be a "hoot". I'm not sure how they would regulate who can play and who can not, but I think the game would be very interesting. Also I'm sure the NBA doesn't want to be held responsible for injuries and such. Your thoughts?

Eric M, Toronto

A: It was indeed all-star weekend and they used to have “Legends Games” or something like that. Stopped them for a couple of reasons, actually.

One, there were always pulled muscles and busted joints and injuries that the seniors really didn’t want to deal with.

Two, the old guys are not exactly the target audience of all-star weekend. Having first-hand experience of how little some young ‘uns know about the past, it’s a surefire reason for kiddies to click off the TV on Saturday night of all-star weekend and that’s a bad thing.

But, having sat through nights watching such “great” events as Chris Andersen and Nate Robinson having a contest to see who could miss more dunks than the other guy, bringing back the Hall of Famers sounds like a great idea to me.

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That was some kind of end-game clinic, wasn't it?

Well, well, well.

Wasn’t that something.

I think maybe Springfield should call for the tape of those final 90 seconds for part of the Hall of Fame’s “How Not To Finish A Game” display.

Was quite something, wasn’t it? Not sure I can remember a confluence of events that went so wrong at exactly the worst possible moment.

Unreal.

Anyway, there are still 39 to go, wonder what kind of zaniness we’re still to see?

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RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR

Plenty of good points from Parker lately.

Action: Bosh’s outburst

Reaction: Good for him.

You saw on TV Bosh rip Moon after the Johnson drive, I saw him yell at Roko on one earlier possession for not swinging the ball and a few of us listened him seethe in the locker room after the game.

And I’m all for it.

No, Bosh is not perfect, not even close, and he had a huge turnover – driving the ball, mind you and that’s got to ease the pain a wee bit from the people who’ve been murdering him for weeks – late in the game. But players need to hold each other accountable and he seems to be the only guy on this team willing to do that publicly.

And his coach is okay with it, too. So is his general manager.

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Oh, I’m giving Jamario a pass today.

What’s the sense in piling on.

Yes, he should have forced Johnson left on that drive. Yes, he should have stayed on the floor on the Bibby pump fake. Yes, he should have passed the ball instead of taking that three.

I know it, you know it, his teammates know it, his coaches know it, his general manager knows it and, in his heart of hearts, he knows it.

He made three big gaffes at precisely the wrong time. He is what he is, a guy who probably wouldn’t be on the floor in that situation on a better team but on this team he plays. And he’s going to make mistakes.

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Speaking of stand-up guys, this AP quote got lost amid all the post-game antics. It’s pretty good, and pretty telling:

“We just didn’t play smart. I think that has been the case for a while. I think if I had to do that all over again on that last possessions, maybe I would have pulled it out and run a play. We had numbers and we were pushing it and those had been the best opportunities we had all night. It was also a two-for-one situation where we would get the ball back, but I’m new at this point guard thing and it’s a learning thing.”

The Parker-as-point-guard experiment has worked pretty well the last two games and the final quarter of the Indy loss and now I expect it to be the same in Detroit tomorrow because I can’t imagine Jose playing.

But Friday, if Calderon’s back he should start and the question becomes: Can your starting two guard be your backup point guard, too?

I wonder. Not sure how Jay can work a rotation – and I presume Calderon won’t be in shape enough to handle his usual 38 or 39 minutes – that keeps Parker in his usual 2-guard job while letting him slide over to be the backup point.

But the coach should try because the team runs well when Parker’s at the helm.

That’s not to say no Roko at all; he should have a limited role, like eight or 10 minutes.

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Here’s a question I have: When is it going to be Andrea’s turn? Down the stretch that is. To take the game-tying shot, or the big shot, or the most important shot of the game.

One of the things that’s been most impressive in his emergence has been his determination, at both ends of the floor.

I wonder how he’d handle that last-shot responsibility.

I guess the one worry is that he’s still not entirely adept at coming off screens and getting off a quick shot and I’m pretty sure his ball-handling skills need improvement to get him by defenders with ease.

But the next time they’re in one of those situations, I think they should run Bargnani off a couple of screens or put him in an isolation situation and see what happens. It’s not like they’ve got anything else that’s working perfectly.

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An oft-asked question.

Q: Seriously Doug, when I watch this team this year, I simply cannot see anyone that I would feel comfortable to get "that one basket" in the crunch time. (Especially those game-tying or winning basket in dying seconds - may I say Chris Bosh). This raises the question whether Chris Bosh is a go-to-guy as opposed to a 23ppg player.

Yama F, Mississauga

A: My opinion’s well known but it's worth repeating.

Chris Bosh is an all-star, a very, very good player who can average more than 20 points and 10 rebounds a game and there are scant few who can do that in the NBA. He should be lauded for his skills and I don’t think it matters whether you call him a “superstar” or an “all-star” or a “franchise player.” Those are just words that mean nothing and if you want to argue about them, go ahead.

But to ask him to break his man down, create a shot and a game-winning basket is too much. It’s not his skill.

He gets the job because of failings on the roster, that’s the only reason. A quick, determined, good-shooting, hard-driving wing man does that, not a 6-11 power forward.

Bosh gets killed far too often for being given a job he’s not best suited for, a job he only gets because there’s no one else on the roster that can do it.

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Action: Marion’s role

Reaction: A rental.

Now, I don’t know for sure whether Shawn Marion will ever be a Raptor, I’d say there’s a chance and since I don’t know how Pat Riley thinks I can’t even put a percentage on it, but I do know this: All the e-mailers who think he’s a bad fit because he’s not a “slasher” shouldn’t get too worked up.

What he will be more likely than not, if he gets here, is a short-term rental and not a long-term solution.

He’ll be looking for some kind of raise off his $17 million salary when he’s a free agent this summer and I cannot imagine the Raptors giving it to him. So if the O’Neal deal does go down, don’t worry about next year because I can’t see Marion being here then.

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In Atlanta, once newspaper readers got past the blanket coverage of the inauguration, here’s what they found in the sports section this morning.

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A question about brains:

Q: So I asked this before along with two uninformed questions, so this time I will ask it alone. PGA golfers who choke in the 3rd and 4th rounds of tournaments will often hire sports psychologists to help them overcome whatever ails them when it comes to pressure situations. Athletes in other sports do the same. Do NBA teams ever go through these types of sessions? It seems like the Raptors are prime candidates to go through some sessions with someone that can help get them overcome the challenges they face in the last 5 mins of games. Thoughts?

Greg S, Toronto

A: Yes, golfers use brain coaches. I presume tennis players do, too. And Olympic athletes do.

This will get me grief from psychologists all over, I presume, but I don’t think they work for players on team sports because so much is dependent on what other players do.

A sports psychologist is not going to convince Jamario Moon to pass the ball or not fall for shot fakes. A sports psychologist is not going to make Joey Graham concentrate more on defence when the game’s going a mile-a-minute.

And, no, I don’t know of any team that uses one on a regular basis.

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The Goods On The Game, Vol. 43, the MLK Day matinee

And away we go.