There's this and there's that about a really good game

Great game, no?

I know there’s nothing like a moral victory in the big leagues but that one had to feel good. What they did, they did well; they were one shot away from stealing a pretty big win.

Oh, seriously, don’t get used to this stuff getting posted so early, this time zone crap is still really messing with an old guy’s body and mind.

-

THREE THINGS I LEARNED

What else could you want?

I am certain – and it’s mainly because I’ve had an e-mail or two on it already – that there are those out there who take exception to the offence they ran in the final 38 seconds of that game.

Let me ask you this:

When Turkoglu took the three, and when he took the shot at the buzzer, did anyone think there was a better idea? The three was an open look on an obvious two-for-one situation that went about halfway down and back out. The two came off a switch, was a relatively uncontested 20-footers and when it left his hand, it looked good.

The only thing I might have done differently was run high screen and roll rather than some action on the side so there’d be a better chance at penetration and a drive-and-kick but if they end up with two good looks by Turkoglu in the last 30 seconds of one-point games the rest of the season, I’m sure they’d be quite happy with that.

-

A little teaching time

I imagine none of you see this because the lights aren’t on and the broadcast hasn’t started but about 90 minutes before each game, assistant coach Eric Hughes and DeMar DeRozan sit down for a little tutorial that I finally got around to asking about.

It’s either on the bench or in the seats but they sit there with a laptop for about 10 or 20 minutes deep in conversation.

Because I’m an astute observer of things, I figure they’re not watching GruntTV (although who could blame them if they are) and I ask Eric about it last night.

Seems what they’re watching is video of DeMar from the previous game, going over what he did right, and what he did wrong.

With some many people offering so much advice to a 20-year-old rookie, the staff figures if he gets some quiet time before a game going over what happened the last time out and what he can correct, it’s going to do more to stay fresh in his mind when that night’s action gets under way.

It’s a good teaching tool, and a smart thing to do. Make fresh in his mind the mistakes he might have made so he doesn’t repeat them.

Small thing but, perhaps, with big dividends.

-

Give the coach credit

The one thing that’s stood out over the last three games has been the willingness of Jay to make changes mid-stream and the willingness of the players to accept those alterations.

Chicago? They switched the coverage on Derrick Rose and won in the second half.

Clippers? They doubled Kaman and then didn’t and entirely befuddled Los Angeles in the second half.

Phoenix? They switch everything to stay in contact with shooters, leaving guys like Jose to guard Stoudemire on the block until help comes but the aggressive double-team works well most of the time.

What that means to me is twofold:

It shows Jay’s not adverse to changing things up depending on the strengths of the opponents.

But, perhaps more important, the fact that all of the moves worked to a large degree now means the players will feel comfortable the next time he says, ‘hey, we’re going to do this tonight.’

Having tangible evidence that changes in strategy will pay off is a huge boost for a coach in the minds of his players and buys him a lot of goodwill.

-

And in the rest of the news:

-

A guy fighting a stupid head cold wanders across the street from his luxuriously appointed hotel to find some sort of drug store or pharmacy and there’s Fry’s. Perfect.

Find the pharmacy part of the store and the Tylenol display and notice that it’s a bit odd that you’d have to take a piece of paper up to the desk to get a bottle of cold remedy but what the heck, when in Rome …

Gets weirder from there, though.

Mr. Pharmacist asks for a driver’s licence and drops off a form where you have to fill in name, address, date of birth and everything except next of kin before he’ll sell you some stinking cold medicine.

A huge pain in the derriere.

And the cold’s still there.

-

Oh yeah, I held the sunny and warm crap over you in L.A. and Phoenix so I should mention it snowed in Denver on Sunday and there’s a high of 40 F expected today.

GruntTV’s outside shots are, I believe, over.

-

My buddy Paul Coro sums up the game this way.

-

Seeing John Shumate before the game was pretty cool, he’s one of the few Day 1ers still actively involved in the game.

And it struck me that if they are into “recognizing” people from the past 15 years, why not do him when Phoenix comes to town in a couple of weeks.

After all, he was on a pretty good staff of a team that over-achieved in a 21-win expansion season.

Can we make this happen? Dredge up a Notre Dame highlight or two; maybe an assistant coaching moment? Let’s get it done.

-

By every quantifiable or anecdotal measure, there is no way in the world Channing Frye equals Shaquille O’Neal, right?

Then why is he such a good fit in Phoenix when the sure-fire Hall of Famer wasn’t?

Horses for courses, is how you explain it.

Frye’s a big who can shoot – not quite as good consistently as the 6-for-8 night he had from beyond the arc on Sunday – and on any team with Steve Nash orchestrating things, bigs who can shoot are a must.

Frye’s not necessarily a good inside presence (watching him stumble and bumble his way out of double-teams proved that) but he’s going to make the Suns far more dangerous on offence this year than Shaq did a year ago.

-

Remember how, on opening night, we gave props to Marcus Banks for a 26-second stint in which he played good defence, worked hard and did what he was asked to in an instance when a lot of players would have coasted through the one possession they were going to play that night?

Well, Sonny Weems did that for 8:26 against the Suns.

And he deserves some credit.

He didn’t mess up defensively, made the only two shots he took and, just what you want from a guy who knows he’s going to be buried on the bench for almost every game, he was ready when he was called on.

That’s impressive because a lot of guys would have tried to do too much or made some kind of impression in another way. All Sonny did was his job. Sounds like an easy task, right? Well, lots of guys don’t.

-

The schedule for today? Glad you asked.

After a night in Phoenix (and I can highly, highly recommend the Half Moon sports bar out by Camelback), it’s practice this morning here, a late-day flight to Denver and, hopefully, a nice quiet night of dinner and, perchance, a cocktail.

But there’s no indication of when, or if, there’ll be wireless access before so if the posting of comments is tardy, there’s not much I can do.

See ya from the Mile High City.

Comments

[GM]

The only problem I had with the last two shots by Turkoglu was that no one else touched the ball. I'm all for him taking the last shot. When he hit his last three, it was perfectly set up. Bosh drew some defenders, then got it right back to Turk for the trey. Nice. But to give the ball to one player and have him hold onto the ball before firing up a shot hardly ever works. The team is full of players who can hit an open shot. There are options. And why the need for a triple? It was a one-point game? Hell, a foul shot would have tied it up, why not drive? So many ways to go about it. I don't like it when they give the ball to Bosh and watch him try to win, and I wouldn't like it if they did it with Bargnani or Calderon or anyone else.

But I don't want to harp on the negative. It was a most entertaining game. If they play with that intensity and concentration all the time, they'll have a great season and turn some heads.

[Ted S.]

"What else could you want?".......well, a couple of Turk makes in the last minute would've been nice.

Solid team performance. Kudos to Jay for having us exactly where we wanted to be as time ran out.

[Andrew]

Doug,

I had the same experience buying cold medicine in Boston a couple of years ago. It's because the pseudoephedrine can be extracted to go into making crystal meth, and hence the American authorities want to track purchases.

[Andre]

Hey Doug,

I didnt get to watch the game, but my friend told me Jack is really struggling. Why is that? Is his observation wrong, or is it just trying to settle in with the new offence?

Blogger's note: He's not playing particularly well, no. But they think he'll work his way out of it, as many struggling players do

[adam]

I was thrilled to see Triano abandon the Jack + Calderon experiment, seeing as Jack is having a tough time adjusting to the two guard spot while being a secondary ball handler. This, of course, up until the final quarter when he went with that odd lineup once again. So my question(s) are/is this. I agree that Triano did some nice stuff this game, in terms of coaching, but why did he go to that lineup when the entire game he was using different lineups that were effective for us? Was it to satisfy Jack's need to play or does Triano believe it can work? Also what has Jack been saying about the funk he's in this season, and who is it up to, to get him out of this funk? Does Jack just have to play through it, or does Triano need to put him in a position to be effective, or a little bit of both? Anyways Doug, I look forward to your reply and have a great day.

Blogger's note: The coach never does anything if he doesn't think it'll work, no coach does. And Jarrett's in a slump, just like Jose was at the start of the season, they think he'll get out of it

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Morning Doug,
What a great game! And well-placed kudos for Sonny Weems. I think the same can be said for Amir. He stayed within his role and was huge on the boards. This team seems to be well ahead of schedule in the gelling department — if they can string together some consistent performances like last night's, there should be plenty of W's on the horizon. Take care of that cold, Mr. Road Grunt. And go Raps!

[Matt M]

Nice to see the Raps claw their way back to have the final possession with the game on the line. This game could have easily gone either way. Myself, I figured they had lost the game in the beginning of the fourth when the had three or four bad possessions in a row that were brought back for layups (two by Richardson). Very quickly an advantage turned into being down and having to fight their way back. This version of the Raptors are showing a lot of guts when down, but I'm thinking they need to show a bit more of a killer instinct (cliche I know) when up. Hopefully they will build on this game in Denver.

[anthony.mackay]

Doug,
Great game and its a loss I don't feel too bad about, we keep the SUNS to 101 points and had a great chance to win it at the buzzer! Give Turk that same shot 10 more times and I bet he makes 7-8 of them.

However I am a little surprised they didn't get it down to Bosh for that last shot, I know Turk was brought in for those types of shots at the end of games but Bosh was having a very nice game and PHX never really proved they could stop him, even if they doubled him then Turk might have had that same shot but without a defender running at him...

Anyway if there is such a thing as a feel good loss I think that was it... team is playing much better D and 101 to the Suns is great, I bet most readers wouldn't have been surprised to see the Suns win 125-124.

[Darko]

Nothing wrong with our shot selection in the last 39 sec's.
Did we all not cry last few years how all we need is a wing
player who can create his own shot in the crunch time?
Seems to me, as is the custom with Raps fans, that only
criteria if shot is good or bad is if it goes in???
It was frustrating to watch refs all night, nothing big but bunch of
small calls not letting Raps pull away.
What's your take on the refs last night.

Blogger's note: I didn't think they were bad at all

[Wilber]

Doug, I suspect the restrictions on your cold meds were because they thought you were going to make crystal meth in your hotel room.
http://www.justice.gov/methawareness/#made

Tough loss, but a good look at the basket and that's why Turk is here - to take those shots. Have fun in the mile-high city.

Blogger's note: Hmm. GruntTV or make crystal meth? I think I'll do the TV thing in the room

[Kelsie]

Hey Doug.

Good game last night and it was a solid effort on both ends of the floor.

We've seen the switching since the Chicago game and I don't think it's going to change as it seems to be a system that the players understand right now especially with the double team coming quickly when the opposing teams tries to go to the Calderon mismatch.

My question is what is the next 'wrinkle' defensively from a stratgey stand point. Phoenix decicded to pass the ball back up to the guard and re-set where Nash can either try and break down the big or pass it back into Stoudemire which had mixed results as our bigs did a good job of not letting Nash torch them in the second half (Stoudemire had many great looks however).

How do we counter this or do you think we are going to continue play it out with the bigs guarding the smalls and Calderon down low on a big man and double team if they try to exploit that?

When Mitchell was employing the same defensive scheme was he sending the double team right away or was he letting the guard try and defend the mismatch? I can't remember as it seems so long ago.

Blogger's note: I don't remember all that clearly either, to tell you the truth; next thing may be to double -- if they do -- with a guard or a wing, rather than with a big along the baseline

[joe]

Doug,

Thanks for the excellent analysis of the game. It was very entertaining and although the Raps didn't win, they did quite well. This might just be one of those games that marks a turning point for them. Their attention to detail, Jay's willingness to adjust in the game, and the steady progress of the defence bodes well. With a bit better play and luck in the games against San Antonio, Memphis and last night, they could be 8-2. They just need to build on what they're doing and I think they just might take off in December.

Few questions: Was Wright hurt last night? He did not play?
Why aren't more plays run for DeRozan? The kid needs to be involved in the offence a bit more plus you can give teams a different look rather than relying on the outside shooting of Turk, Bargs, and Calderon and the inside prescence of Bosh.

[Jack]

It's a good thing the coaches are trying to help the rookie learn from his mistakes. This can surely help his development. But he should be given more time to play with the second team because it will give him more touches. And the second team seems to run more, pass more and rotates the ball more than the first team. With the second team, the play is 'look for the open man' while the first team's play is 'where's Bosh?'.

[Andrew Sheppard]

Was a great game! Would have liked to see Bosh back in a little earlier in the 4th, seemed like he came in a bit cold, and didn't get the ball much.
Jack looked alot like Ford did when he had to sit on the bench at the end of the game. Think some problems are brewing?

Blogger's note: No

[marc in panama]

Hola Doug,

I believe the whole ID rigamarole you went through is a program that has been put in place to make it harder for the criminal element to procure the ingredients to make meta amphetamines. Those ingredients are found in most OTC cold supplements, and in and of themselves are not illegal, so if one person went to the trouble of buying several packages of cold medication from say 100 different pharmacies they would have procured through legal, and as no prescription is necessary, untraceable means the materials needed to make a despicable substance that is destroying lives everywhere.

[Gman]

Hey Doug, been reading the blog since you started and like all of us, really appreciate your forthright approach and humor.

Just wondering how long do you think it will take before they ease off of Jack at the two and maybe disperse those minutes between Belli, Derozan and Wright. I know we're only ten or so games in but it's really tough to watch a SG who can't really shoot.

[rob]

Hi, Doug thank you for your analysis on a great game.... nothing to complain about (except the loss of course) ,, and if we had to lose I d rather it 'd be against my fav. player in the nba (capt. canada ) ..
I m not sure if you had time to process this yet , but what do you think of the Jackson to Chalotte trade . it seems that they got the offensive power they needed ... and we know they were already great defensively, my thought is beware of thie bobcats.. Larry brown is great at handling odd personalities like Jax. the east is getting a lot better ...

Blogger's note: Still processing getting started out here; initial reaction is that it's a big -- necessary -- gamble in Charlotte.

[graham]

agree with most comments: Turk was brought in for exactly those plays, they got them, just didn't get the Steve Nash roll and drop into the bucket. If all games were like that the NBA would be sold out. The Raps lost but they did more than hold their own with the best team in the league this year -- here's hoping they pull one out in Denver! Bellinelli had his second strong game in a row and everyone is grasping their roles within the team. Denver and Utah back to back followed by Miami wil be very revealing.

[Dave in BG]

Coutesy of Paul Harvey:

Then, when I returned to the hotel with my "cold medicine" a young entreprenuer in the lobby comes up to me and offers me $20 for the cold medicine. I thought that was odd, since he did not sound stuffy or congested....and now you know the REST of the story.....

[SkyJ]

First Jose struggles coming out of the gate and everyone's ready to throw him under the bus. Now Jack's in a funk, and everyone's looking for the next bus to come along. I think we need to show a little patience. Constant questioning and knee-jerk reactions aren't going to help the guy get on track, and will likely prolong it. See Bargnani, year 2-plus.

[Juan de la Cruz]

I will not blame Hedo on the loss. Here are 2 things I believe are Basketbal IQ--I'm sure every coach had taught but executing it is up to the player:
- Nash should have not been fouled in his last drive to the basket. I can accept the reason of intensity as an excuse.
- why was Nash alone in the rebound? Wasn't it a game-deciding play? So at least 4 (Hedo protects the fast-break play) should have crowded the basket for a follow-up on a miss.

Well, second-guessing is always fun and easy :)
-

[jimt]

Wow great game except for the stinger of losing by 1 measly free throw, that the refs jipped Bosh on again.At least the ratio was better than the 13+ fiasco we got screwed on the other night.Against phoenix it was 20-16, if Bosh could have gotten even 1 call THATS the difference.( hope I dont get fined for bashing the refs by Stern,lol).P.S get well soon, im sure u picked something up while trapped inside modern days time machine.Also for the previous comments,according to the +/- stats the jose/jack combo is the 7th most effective lineup filling up with bosh,johnson and wright.

[Sean]

Hey Doug, why was Rasho largely absent last night, match-up or injury?

Blogger's note: Matchup, and Amir's play

[Woody]

Good day Doug, try the Buckley's, a sure fire cold cure. Watched first anfd third last night and was very impressed on both ends of the court. The revised D is less complicated for the players to play and allows the team to always be near shooters. Its more of a shooting league right now. Should they not have gone for the Bosh 10-12 foot baseline fadeaway shot at the end, the guy is near impossible to stop there?

Cheers enjoy the mile high life, some very good micro brews in the area from what i understand.

[Jeff]

It's refreshing to finally see some young Raptors bench players doing what their supposed to do on the court (see Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems) instead of the opposite from the last few seasons (see Jamario Moon and Kris Humphries)