They ran into one very big, very prickly, cactus

I know, I know, back to being tardy. But doesn’t everyone sleep in on a Saturday morning?

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Action: Shaq’s still got it.

Reaction: An awful lot of it, too

You cannot imagine until you’re sitting up close just how quick and strong and powerful Shaquille O’Neal is. I know he probably got the benefit of a few calls – the way he clears out space in the paint borders on assault – but, still, he was vintage Shaq and I don’t care who the other centres were last night, they were not going to stop him.

He’s 7-1, probably closer to 375 pounds than the 325 he’s listed at, but he’s quick and when he gets that body and those elbows moving, it’s time to get the heck out of the way.

It’s pretty easy to sit at a keyboard and suggest they hit him, or move him, or stop him in any way. It’s entirely different to do it in person.

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This is one of the all-time great post-game quotes and I have to repeat it here even though it’s in the story that’s in the paper:

“I think I’m the only player who looks at each and every centre and thinks that’s barbecued chicken down there.”

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Action: Call of the game

Reaction: A hustle play

Biggest moment of last night’s game was not any of Shaq’s baskets; it was a three-point play by Louis Amundson and it was simply a good basketball play.

First Suns possession of the fourth quarter, the ball’s on the left block, Amundson dives from the right wing, take a pass, gets hit by a late-reacting Chris Bosh. It’s Bosh’s fifth foul, puts him on the bench and the play puts Phoenix up by seven.

Bosh could have perhaps reacted more quickly but it was just one of those plays that happens in the course of a game. Trouble was, it was the turning point, as it turns out.

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Okay, I’m sitting in the press room at the arena last night and we’re listening to Jalen Rose on the pre-game show before the Orlando-Detroit game.

And I swear I heard him say the Boston Celtics are now favoured to win it all because they added Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury, who are “two big time players.”

Avoided doing a spit take, somehow. Seriously, “big time players?”

Marbury’s never won a thing, he’s been a disruptive factor on every team he’s ever been on and he hasn’t played a real game in, like, almost a year. Yes, he had eight points on Friday night; yes, he will eventually do something to make people in Boston despise him.

Moore? He’ll play, justifiably, behind Garnett, Perkins, Powe, Davis, Scalabrine when he’s healthy, and will likely not have the tiniest impact on a significant playoff game.

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A question:

Q: Hey Doug - happy travels on this little road trip! I'm curious: do you tend to have more contact with the players and coaches on a 3 or 4 game road trip like this, or during a home stand? Is the routine pretty much the same (except for part of the day being eaten up by planes and buses)? Do you travel with the team or on your own?

Rob E, Scarborough

A: You do tend to get more interaction mainly because there are fewer of us following these guys on the road than there is at home. On this trip, for instance, I’m the only beat grunt travelling and it’s just been me and Jonesy and Eric Smith at the practices and shootarounds, which gives you a much greater chance to have private conversations with players.

In fact, I had a nice one-on-one chat with Chris Bosh before shootaround Friday – it’s going to make a nice, revealing story in tomorrow’s paper – that I never could have had at home, where there are always a dozen or more reporters hanging around.

And I do all my own travel.

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Speaking of access, showed up at shootaround about 15 minutes before the team on Friday and who’s sitting there by himself waiting for the bus to arrive? Shawn Marion.

He’s still got a place out here and stayed at it instead of at the team hotel because his mom and some family members were in town, too.

Gave me a chance to stand and have a chat and, I have to tell you, he’s one of the really nice guys I’ve met. Conversation ran the gamut from both our families, the weather, the league, Toronto, his place here, good places to hang out in Phoenix and just general chit-chat.

And then who comes walking up on his own but Jake Voskuhl, who also lives out here and was staying with his wife and kids. He was telling me how cool it was to see them – they’ve been back in Phoenix while he’s been in Toronto because the kids are all under about seven years old and don’t need the disruption.

He was, of course, spectacularly happy to see them and pretty disappointed it’d only be for a couple of days.

Was a nice relaxing time with a couple of guys with more on their minds than just basketball.

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Hey, don’t the Chicken but the Gorilla’s got his own dressing room with his name on the door.

Sure, the Chicken’s got a little coop in the back of the ACC but he shares it with some humans and there’s no indication that it’s his own space.

All stuffed animals are not created equal.

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Here’s the Shaq love piece from the local publication.

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Action: Foul him

Reaction: You foul him.

Got a whole whack of “why didn’t they Hack-a-Shaq” questions and here’s what the thinking is.

Not only does it make a shamockery of the game, to steal a Shaq word, it’s often a faulty tactic. It slows the game even more – and the Raptors were, and are, most efficient when the game has some flow – and Shaq’s actually making his free throws this season. And it only has ever worked if teams foul him away from the play and with a team so thin on the front line – two bigs fouled out, a third was in foul trouble all night, the fourth would have been utterly useless at the other end – having players intentionally commit fouls is folly.

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Oh yeah, remember Nellie and the “I’m going to give the kids a nice long look and if I have to throw away this game against a team playing for something, well, screw the other teams in that race” story from yesterday? I notice that every team in the chase of the final playoff spot in the East lost last night except – yep – Charlotte.

And according to my friend Janny, the Nellie idea was bogus. It was pretty much the same old, same old for the Warriors except one of their most prolific scorers didn’t play.

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Action: Jake’s quick night.

Reaction: A record setter

I know I put this is the in-game blog last night but I’m not sure everyone here reads there so this requires repeating.

When Jake Voskuhl fouled out in 7:30 it was the fastest disqualification in Raptor history. The previous was nine minutes, but Roger Mason Jr. in an April, 2004 game against Chicago.

And Voskuhl almost fouled for the cycle. Not only did he get the six personals, he also picked up a technical. If he’d got a technical after his sixth personal, it would have been a perfect night.

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Oh, in Dallas, this is what they had to say about last night’s Mavs game.

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Last mail thing, and we’ll be back with a big ol’ mailbag in the morning, it’ll give me something to do while sitting around the lobby in Dallas tonight.

Q: Are players contractually obliged to play a max of 82 regular season games per year? I am asking if a player is traded and with his former team, he played more games than average. And then he gets traded to another team that has a lot more games left on the schedule such that he would end up playing, say, 85 games. What happens then? He sits out a few?

Ken L, Hong Kong

A: The guy plays 85 games with no increase in pay or anything like that; in fact, it’s part of the reason the NBA schedule is set at so many days as well as so many games.

Jalen Rose, for instance, played 53 games with Indiana in 2001-02 and 30 with Chicago after a trade that season. That made it an 83-game season for Rose.

Comments

[Will C]

Hey, I'm not sure if you said this or not. Why don't they just hack-a-shaq? It would help the raptors sooooooo much!!!!1@!!!

[Niru]

Doug,
I disagree about Moore...he can guard power forwards pretty good. Can we recall him putting Bosh in his place during that playoff series two years a go?

As for Marbuary, the jury is still out, if he comes to play, he can dominate 2nd line units. However, thats a big IF.

[Matt]

Shaq would have had 45 last night if he was playing against Duncan and Garnett (if they somehow if they somehow managed to play on the same team). When he is on he is unstoppable. The problem with the game was that dribble penetration continues to be a problem and, as a result, the Raps were unable to limit everyone else and thus render Shaq's 45 meaningless (much like they did to a Howard 39 earlier this season).

[Matt]

Little bit of sour grapes Bosh methinks. He might have a point...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AhUqjlZ2OBq41TG56V3lE8k5nYcB?slug=ap-raptors-suns-rdp&prov=ap&type=lgns

[David]

Doug,

Do you know what the nba record is for paints in the paint? And the franchise record for points allowed in the paint before last nights game? 90 something points in the paint is absurd.

Blogger's note: I don't know but I imagine 90 would be pretty close; although I imagine Wilt would have had about 90 of his own the night he got 100

[Carl J]

So he played like vintage Shaq last night, or did he? If he scored 45 and the Suns scored a total of say 60 in the paint last night, I would have to agree. However, the Suns scored 90 in the paint.

If I counted correctly, they missed 17 shots in the key, which would mean that they took about 62 shots in the paint and made 72% of them. That also means that 62% of their total shots (98) were in the key, and that the rest of the Suns hit 25 for 37 (68%).

Yes Shaq is a 7-1, 350lb+ freak of nature who looks at his opponents as BBQd chicken, but last night everyone seemed to be able to score in the pain at will. I think that the "vintage" Shaq of last night is more of a product of the Rap's defense, than him all of a sudden being rejuvenated.

[Eric]

I thought shamockery was ben wallace's word not shaqs....

[Pete]

Doug,

How are the celtics able to have 3 all stars on their team and still have money left to add pieces like Moore, Marbury, House etc? How loaded are they in terms of talent AND money??? I just don't get it. Danny Ainge can't be that much of a better GM than BC, but the ownership in bean town sure kicks MLSE's butt.

Blogger's note: By using veteran minimums and part of the mid-level exception they saved.

[Phil A]

Of course Shaq would get his highest point total in 6 years against the Raptors.

[GM]

Didn't the Raptors opt not to double (or triple) Shaquille? Forget about hack-a-Shaq, doubling as soon as he got the ball might have been wise. Maybe not at first, but certainly after he starts heating up.

And while I'm no fan of the Celtics, and no fan of Marbury, I think Mikki Moore is pretty good. He'd be ahead of some of those stiffs you mentioned. Why do you think he's not all that? Regardless, I hope Marbury is bad enough to hurt the team for everyone.

Blogger's note: They doubled, tripled, came on the catch, on the dribble, from the baseline and the wing. They fronted, three-quartered and played him straight up.

[Darko]

Doug, you said yes on Nash into HOF. I hope you ment Canadian HOF, since only way he gets into The HOF is like you and me, buying ticket.

[dc]

two comments:
1)I have to agree with Jalen Rose. the returning champions, three bonified all-stars (4 if u count rondo and in my opinion he's getting there), everyone should be healthy for the playoffs, and now they have shored up the bench with a legitimate shooting, slashing, scoring and passing backup pg/sg, with size who is capable of defending (granted we haven't seen much in the past- look for Thibedeau and Co. to do their best to change that).
but look at the competition. Look at Cleavlands bench, look at LA's bench. would you rather have sasha vujacic, jordan farmar, daniel gibson, eric snow maybe? Marbury reestablishes the defending champs as favourites to repeat (even if the majority would still foolishly favour the lakers now without bynum)- and were it legal, i'd be willing to put significant money on it.

2) Did the warriors phone it in last night against the bobcats with marcus williams on the bench? they lost by three points after a typically frenetic paced game that was light on defense and heavy and bizzare lineups. oh, and they played stephen jackson, andris bendris, kelenna azubike, corey magette for substantial minutes. is nelly still crazy? yes, but not in a disrespectful way. just curious, what's your reaction?

Blogger's note: Sitting one of your most prolific scorers for no other reason than to give kids a look in a game three-quarters of the way through the season against a team playing for something, when that player is not hurt and has had a 50-point game against the same opponent this season, is wrong.
And you point out, Nellie played his regular guys minus one so his statement that he was sitting Crwaford to take a look at kids is at best disingenuous and at worst an outright lie.

[GM]

"They doubled, tripled, came on the catch, on the dribble, from the baseline and the wing. They fronted, three-quartered and played him straight up."

Fair enough. I was going by the AP story which said, "Toronto decided against double-teaming Shaq most of the night, and the results were disastrous for the Raptors in their 10th straight loss to Phoenix— whether the defender was Bargnani, Bosh, or Jake Voskuhl, who fouled out in eight minutes."

So did they get it wrong?

And Darko, why would you think Nash wouldn't make it into the Hall of Fame? I think just getting the MVP two consecutive years would be enough to include him.

Blogger's note: I suppose they've seen more aggressive doubles on O'Neal in Phoenix but the Raptors did try to mix up coverages. To no avail

[Dan W]

I thought the first three quarters were entertaining. I was hoping Bosh would drive a bit more when Shaq was covering him. His shot was good last night but he could have drawn a few fouls.
Jose is a very good passer, but not when it comes to the ally oop.
Jason Kapano had a good game, but i think he trys his little one handed floater too much. He should just pull up for a quick jump shot in the lane.

[pete]

Hey Doug, what do you think Bosh will be working on during the off season. Improving his post defense or developing a better low post game?

Blogger's note: For most of the off-season he'll be resting and doing nothing, I presume.

[al]

did you get to go to bosh's house for dinner?

Blogger's note: Um, unless Bosh's family lives in a lobby bar, no.

[aditya]

ultimate question doug, who would you rather have today - redick or kapano.....

Blogger's note: Ultimate? Not so much. Kapono.

[Jack]

Nice to see Moon playing well in Miami. He is a main contributor to the recent success of the Heat. 17 points 11 rebounds against the Knicks. Nice going, Jamario. Now you're going to the playoffs.

Blogger's note: As I've said, I hope Jamario makes millions of dollars and gets long-term deals but, in four games he's played in Miami, he's had 0, 12, 7, 12 points (7.7 per game) and 1, 2, 4, 6 (3.1 per game) rebounds and 5, 24, 26, 31 minutes (22 per game). They team is 2-2 in those games.
But yes, they should make the playoffs

[Tim W.]

I'm just wondering if any of the people complaining about the Raptors lack of interior defense were some of those who demanded Jermaine O'Neal be traded away. Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. This is one of the reasons I've said why the Raptors will always have trouble with a front line of Bosh and Bargnani. Complimentary players need to actually, you know, compliment their star players. I've never felt Bargnani actually does that. Even worse, he highlights Bosh's weaknesses.

Hey, team's with big, tough, aggressive centers will always kill the Raptors. Get used to it and pray they don't have to face one when they make the playoffs.

[Jason]

Darko:
What a load of crap. The minute Nash got the second MVP, his ticket was punched. Throw in the J. Walter Kennedy Award which proves voters in the US think very, very highly of Mr. Nash. Almost forgot, the Basket HOF is the only one who recognizes international achievement as well so throw down one further checkmark for Nash.
It kills me how people make statements without facts.