A bit late but hopefully worth the wait

Good win, pretty good opponent, they play well at both ends. Everyone happy?

Or at least mildly pleased?

Oh yeah, sorry I'm late.

Life got in the way.

-

THREE THINGS I LEARNED

Best thing I’ve seen

Raptors get the ball with 23.8 seconds left, up 98-92, New Orleans isn’t fouling and I know what’s coming and so do you.

Of course they’re going to dribble out the clock, no one’s getting a piece of sauce-covered cardboard and I’m waiting.

There is no way in the world that the people will be upset, right?

Well, some of ‘em were and if you don’t think the players know, think again.

As Amir is dribbling out the clock in the far corner – which is entirely what he should have done – Hedo is standing across the court, waving his finger at him to say, “hey, respect the game and the Hornets, don’t you dare put up a shot.” And, to me, Turk went way, way, way up in the level of appreciation.

Of course, we’re in the locker room after and there are guys busting on Amir, telling him he’s going to get booed the next game for not shooting.

-

Their new favourite

It’s 86-81 Toronto, the Hornets are rolling a bit and Toronto calls tmeout to gather itself.

What, I wonder, will they call out of the timeout because it’s a crucial possession and they have to get a good shot. Whether they make it or not is entirely out of the coach’s hand, it’s a matter of drawing up the right play.

So they run their new favourite, the Bosh at the elbow thing. That tells me they know that’s a good one and will always get them a good look.

They got a good shot but a Turkoglu miss and, after a Hornets miss, they run the same thing.

That’s now rocketed to the top of the chart in the play-calling division.

How does Bosh like it?

“For me, posting up on the block, usually you have guys looking at you no matter what’s happening on the weak side. At the elbow, it’s a little different. You can’t really double, if they do you can see the court a little bit easier and there’s less help. If you get that weak side action, you can pick apart the defence a little bit.”

-

More Hedo, more heads-up play

Little thing, late in the first half.

Turkoglu’s got a little guy on him so he goes to the low block and I imagine eight out of 10 guys would either force the issue and get up a shot or back a guy down to kill any kind of movement on offence.

But no,

He waits and waits and waits for someone to move and finally, Bosh dives diagonally from the high side across the court.

Of course, two defenders dive with him so that pass isn’t there and what’s everyone do?

They wait another second. Turkoglu holds the ball just long enough for Amir to make a really strong and decisive move on the baseline.

Turk sees him, makes the pass, Amir finishes with a layup.

Heads up play all around.

Not particularly earth-shattering but good nonetheless.

-

And now …

-

Do you all know it’s Christmas on, like, Friday? How’d that happen?

I best be getting some shopping done, no?

What would y’all like?

-

I’d love to show you want my guy Jimmy Smith wrote in the pages of the New Orleans Times-Picayune today but something kept him from traveling.

I’m guessing it’s finances but they employed a local scribbler and here’s how he played it.

-

So we’re talking to Sonny after the game while one of us is trying to develop a story on how hard it is to stay mentally sharp through the drudgery of practice when you know it’s going to take a bolt of lightning or something for you to get any minutes.

Is it?

“It is. You never know, especially with my thing, where you’re going to get your shot but a guy like me, in transition it’s going to come.”

I will say this for Mr. Weems.

Early in the year, as I mentioned, he kind of shot it every time he touched it, which isn’t unusual for a guy in his position.

But he seems to have gone away from that and is now making the right play rather than the selfish one.

A career-best five assists Sunday is a testament to that.

-

Oh yeah.

I mentioned in the in-game blog the other night against Jersey that I wondered if Jay would even ask a veteran like Rasho to play in such a blowout.

It’s a respect thing more than anything. Why ask a veteran to go out there and eat garbage-time minutes. Maybe he’d rather get the entire day off.

Well, Jay put it this way when I asked him about it:

“If I don’t put Rasho in, then CB, Amir or Andrea has to play. I think he’d rather play the fourth quarter than have to come up here and run after. And it’s better for him, rather than lines and just trying to get the heart rate up.”

The “up here and run after” thing refers to a team policy that anyone who doesn’t play in a game has to go up to the practice gym right after and get a workout in with a member of the training staff. It’s not a penalty, it’s just making sure they get their heart rates up and some cardio work in just so they keep in some semblance of shape.

Little things I wonder if you knew.

-

Think we’re in for a long day.

For a couple of weeks now, any time we mention practice and the lack of time for a really good one, Jay’s been pointing to today.

Two days off before the next game, coming off an afternoon game so no one’s really tired and a chance to get ‘em in the gym and work on some things.

So I’m thinking two, two and a half hours, right? Which means maybe an hour of standing around the concourse waiting for them to get finished.

Luckily, there’s a skatearound for the pucks so there will be some people hanging around.

-

Comments

[Ryan W. (Ottawa)]

Doug,

I hope that you and your Super Family have a wonderful Christmas, and a Happy New Year. All the best, and thanks for another superb year of access.

Congrats on the 10M hits and every other accomplishment. You have earned that, and much more.

Can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

[GP]

Doug,

Do other teams in the league have similar promotions for scoring 100 points? If so, has it become as silly as the one in Toronto with fans booing?

Thanks.

Blogger's note: Some do but I can't speak to level of silliness

[Matt M]

The depth of this team is really starting to show through. Weems is thriving as the first swingman off the bench and Johnson seems to be growing with the more minutes he gets. I'm also impressed with Banks and it will be hard for Triano to sit him back down when Calderon comes back.

[Sean]

Doug,
I enjoyed your comment on Hedo and the raptors holding the ball at the end of the game.
I sent a comment into you a couple of weeks ago when Hedo launched that 3 at the buzzer to make the score 101 yet the raptors still lost to washington. That must of made Hedo want to vomit, I am not surprised he has changed his end of the game behaviour.

[LeeZ]

What do we want for Christmas? Gee Doug, I thought you'd never ask! Here's my list:

1) Autographed copy of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue".
1a) Set of darts for use on item 1).
2) Peace on earth and goodwill to...nah, screw that. I want a GPS chip you can implant in someone's brain. And then, in the spirit of re-gifting, I'll turn around and give it to Andrea so he won't appear so darn forlornly lost on the defensive end when he's trying to locate, far less put a body on his man.
3) And last but not least, a five-game winning streak. Doug, if you could get on that right away, I'd be much obliged.

[dribbles]

Good win. Nice to see Andrea pick it up defensively while he continues to struggle a bit with his jumper. Those 2 blocks in the 4th Q were huge, and he was able to gather the ball both times after the blocks.

Props to Jay for not forcing playing time for Marco. His earlier quote where he somewhat took the blame for Marco's inconsistent play (and promised to get him in the game earlier) had me worried. I thought Jay had a bit of a brain fart though where they inbounded the ball to Sonny with about 40 seconds left in the game after he had just missed 2 in a row. They didn't even try getting it to Jack or Turk. At least he hit 1 of 2 but I don't think Jay was thinking that situation through.

[Mike kovacs]

Yesterday was a perfect example of why there are 15 players on a roster. If we didn't have Banks playing so well ( and if we still had Quincey Doubey playing instead ) the Raps would have lost yesterday. Kudos to Banks for staying ready and playing to his strengths.

[brothersteve]

I'm really liking the Raps new back-up SG, Sonny Weems! He had great chemistry with DeRozan in preseason and that's coming through again now that he's getting minutes.

Finally we're getting some excitement out of the Raptors Wings!

[Steph R]

Doug, with the defensive effort being put in by Banks do you see him taking any minutes away from Calderon when he get's back?

Blogger's note: No

[Daniel]

That pizza promotion is counter-productive when it encourages fans to boo the team and/or specific player for not hitting some arbitrary scoring milestone. Get rid of it.

[chris]

Doug -- the new bosh play at the elbow...isn't it something Sam used to run all the time? It seems more revisited than *new* to me.

Also, Bargs had a pretty good game doing what he does, but does it frustrate you at all that he doesn't bury his butt in the post more? He seems really talented down there, and seemingly almost always gets results when he gets the ball there. Yet he floats on the perimeter for the majority of his time.

Why not set the tone with play inside (and some easy buckets), get a center guarding him, and then go outside? Its win-win

[Steve]

I was so happy the crowd didn't make too much of a fuss about getting to 100, the guys played well and deserved the cheers instead of pizza chants. If Turk keeps piling up the assists and we get some more great transition looks from Weems and DeRozan being on the court together I think some of the pressure will continue to come off of Chris' shoulders and we will be just fine.

[Andre]

Doug,

Whats going on with Wright?

Blogger's note: Nothing, out of the rotation

[Tiger]

Rather humorous that the morning after an entertaining game the Seeker of Clouds in Silver Linings (i.e. Feschuk) called his congregation of gloomy gusses to prayer. What a dark little corner, over there. LOL!
Two clichés come to mind for the Raps: "They are what they are" and "Que sera, sera".
(Note to Favorite Grunt: please don't let Coach Jack sing that 2nd one! PLEASE!!!)
Good to see guys step up, namely Weems and Banks, but also Bargnani. (Yes, he of the much scorned single rebound.)
A saner schedule gives hope for a healthier roster and more consistent play from more practice time.
And when was the last time you saw 2 Raps who could airmail dunks on the same fast break? Watching DD and Sonny feed each other the last 2 games was an unexpected treat!
No victory parade planning here, but no sulking in a storm cellar either, just finding entertainment in what gets dished out.

[Bill W]

What is the normal time when a team starts to foul at the end of a game? Yesterday I think the Hornets started to foul with about 40 seconds left and they were down 4 or 5. Should the "normal" strategy in that situation be get a stop and try to score asap thereafter?

Plus why would they stop fouling at 23.8 seconds being down 6? Shouldn't they as least foul to see if the Raptors would miss and if the Raptors do miss both and they come back down and drain a three, it would be a one possession game. It's worth a try. Most importantly, there is practically no downside to fouling at that point.

Your thoughts?

[Terence]

Hey Doug - the 'running after the game' exercise you mentioned - how does that work when they're on the road when you figure in traveling considerations and back-to-back games? I imagine it's not always practical to implement after every game.

[greg]

ive been impressed by Marcus' play. For a guy who never looked likehe would get any minutes, its commendable how ready he was to play when Jose was out. His defence is also pretty good compared to most of our guards. Id say top 3 of the 7 guard/wings we have. I don't hear anyone complaining about his $4 million salary.

Marco's slump is starting to bother me though, even in a game like that against Jersey he couldnt sink his shots. Its probably explaining why he did not get that much play with the Warriors. He needs to pick himself up from this definately, find his confidence, maybe make some aggressive drives to the rim and try getting to the line.

[fritz]

Hi Doug,
Really good blog today. I particularly liked the Turk/ Amir story and the Rasho comment.
Have you seen the tattoo that Bosh got and if so any comments? It's amazing to me a player can do a DVD and all the resulting promotion on a tattoo in the NBA. Kinda like ice in the arctic.

[Peter]

Hey Doug,

Only got to the mailbag today, but I was excited to see you mention Don DeLillo in your answer to the question about books you've enjoyed. I wrote my MA thesis on DeLillo, and Underworld is kind of his opus. The first part you mentioned is available as a separate novella called Pafko at the Wall, if anyone is interested, but doesn't want to try and tackle the 800+ pages of Underworld!

Love the blog Doug, and I hope you and your family have a great holiday season!

Peter

[esajr]

defensively banks is much better than jc. if jc was playing last night's game i doubt that he could have stopped cp and the end result is "L" of the game. i cannot understand how people criticize andrea's defense where in fact anybody he is guarding cannot score a lot. whereas bosh assignments always score in abundance. how many points did west had , 21. yes bosh scores a lot but the person he is guarding also scores a lot and rebounds a lot too. case in point jamison of washington, smith and horton of atlanta, etc. etc.

[Steve]

almost forgot .. I loved the tribute to Mo Pete at the timeout, brought back some great memories. I thought it was incredibly well done considering they could have easily botched it. The standing ovation was great and it was nice to see respect given where it's due. The fact that the rest of his team broke from their timeout huddle to join in the applause was an equally great show of respect.

[GM]

Ah, ye olde pizza debate... It never gets old. I didn't even hear it on TV. But still, I'll make my point as long as you keep making yours. Toronto ain't the only place they have this silly promotion. The players know about it. It has nothing to do with respecting the game or disrespecting the opponents. If Toronto had scored there at the end to run up the score a whopping 2 more points, the Hornets would have known it was to give the fans (i.e. the people who pay the big bucks to give the players the outrageous salaries they get) a little treat. Also, the fans don't really care. It's fun to cheer a free slice of pizza and fun to boo if you don't get one, but my sense is that it's all done a bit ironically. There's no way anyone would seriously hold a grudge on Amir for holding onto the ball. One day you should ask some players about the whole promotion and what they think of it.

I, too, have noticed Weems not shooting every time he touches the ball now. Consistent playing time will do that. When players don't have to look over their shoulders after every miscue, they play so much better. In other words, it's way harder to play well in five minutes than it is to play well in twenty-five.

[LeeZ]

In response to an earlier post, I too would be shocked to see Banks eat at all into José's minutes. However, I do think that now that Jay has a bit of confidence in Banks, he might play José and Jack together more when he wants to go small, safe in the knowledge that he has Banks to sub for one of them when they get tired.

[anthony.mackay]

OK, So maybe its the day of the week that determines if this team is a for real or not... Lets Go Sundays!

[Michel G]

I wish people would stop talking about the pizza thing, who cares.