Quiet crowd, boring game but all kinds of fun for you here

Yeah, I know. I’m a bit later than usual, funny what can happen when you hit an alarm and roll over. Kinda like it, actually.

Anyway …

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THREE POINTERS

Pffft

That was the feeling around the arena last night, at least from this vantage point as the night fizzled right off the bat.

Oh, sure, there were some boos and the odd catcall for the one guy and lots of cheers for the other one but there really wasn’t the kind of raw emotion either way.

Guess that’s attributable to the 35-point first quarter the Suns hung on ‘em, rendering the final 36 minutes basically meaningless. Or maybe – just maybe, hopefully, please, please, please – many people are finally past the issue with the one guy? Could that be possible?

One can only hope.

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A tough night for Jose

Kind of a double-edge sword last night, as Jay explained.

Because the Suns show hard with a big on high screens, there weren’t going to be an awful lot of opportunities for him to come off and shoot but three field goal attempts is not enough.

This is a bit of a “duh!” statement but this team needs good, solid point guard play, especially scoring, if it’s going to have a chance. Everyone knows it, most of all the coach:

“He’s trying to distribute the basketball but he’s got to make shots … he’s got to shoot the ball. Even if he misses shots, by shooting it and people knowing he’s a good shooter, it’ll stretch defences for us. But right know, they’re just playing off him.”

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Keeping you up to date

Because there doesn’t seem to have been three points really worth talking about, how about a Reggie update because, well, because we haven’t had one in hours.

He’s supposed to take part in a full practice Saturday and, who knows, if he comes through it well, he could be in uniform before we head off to London on Wednesday.

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A wee bit more?

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Yes, we have winners, or at least I’m told we do, for the tickets for tomorrow. We had about 1,400 entries that came in over the course of a day or so, thanks so much for giving it a shot.

As I recall, we’ve got a couple of games left thanks to the MGD Best Seats folks, a Milwaukee one in March and – get this! – the Miami game to end the season.

See some of you – I hope – tomorrow.

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Oh, and Stevie Boy, crack photographer, was at the game Friday snapping off a few frames (or whatever phrase they use these days) and this is what he came up with.

Some good stuff here.

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Now, here’s something you don’t see every day. And something I haven’t seen since my time in Imzir in the summer.

A Muslim call to prayer in the middle of the Air Canada Centre atrium.

Yep, during a post-shootaround, pre-game walk from the press room to Starbucks, there was a group of about 20 kneeling and praying.

Nothing wrong with it; just seemed entirely out of place with a couple of dozen gawkers passersby wandering around.

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I promise I won’t make any wry statements about Andrea in any way, shape or form for a day or two because I don’t want you people yelling at each other.

Yikes, some of you were quite, um, disgruntled Friday, weren’t you?

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I have no idea what’s going on with the Pistons but what happened Friday might be the most despicable thing I’ve heard of in my 16 years covering a team in this league.

Five guys blowing off shootaround to protest the coach? That’s terrible.

I know things are bad there, every time I see the Pistons someone connected with the team tells me how much the players and coach don’t like each other and how ugly it is, but to stage a walkout on a game day is as big a slap in the face as there can be.

I wish there was a way the franchise could bench all of those guys for the rest of the year, tell them to sit there and shut up and watch. Trouble is, they’d still get paid, the other guys would suffer for getting beaten down on the floor every night and it’d only get uglier.

There’s a new owner coming in and if I was him what I would do the first day on the job is fire everyone.

Whack the GM, let the coach go, waive the players, cut the ones who have contracts and let the ones who are free agents leave right away.

It’d be costly but it might send a message to the fans that this kind of crap won’t be tolerated.

Don’t imagine it’ll happen, seems to be too bold an idea, but it’s a nice thought.

Oh, and a cautionary tale about how quickly things can change. Remember, it wasn’t four years ago that we were holding the Pistons up as one of the model franchises in the NBA. Great GM, good team of solid players, a sellout every night.

Now? Not so much.

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Mr. Coro began an 11-day marathon of a road trip with this report on last night’s event.

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Now, I don’t see many movies – no time here, usually read or nap on planes – but I’ve got The Social Network as a big fave in the Oscars tomorrow night.

Mostly because it’s the only one of them I’ve seen.

And I’m a bit ticked at the 6 p.m. start to the Mavs game because I used to get quite a kick out of talking to people and mocking various celebs on the red carpet for the way they look and act.

Anyway, I figure I’ll live vicariously through the IGBT, right folks?

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Mail’s really light – you people don’t seem quite a conversational as you have been – so, please, click here if you feel the urge and send something in.

A word of warning, however.

There is a Mighty Yankees Coaches and Dads Fellowship Hour scheduled for tonight so if I’m a wee bit late with the mail tomorrow morning, there’s a legitimate reason.

Well, not sure about legitimate, but there’s a reason.

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Who else took some kind of perverse delight in the Cavs beating the Knicks on Friday?

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It was cleaning day at the Air Canada Centre on Friday, at least on the walls of the media room.

There are about a dozen gigantic pictures of various Leaves and Raptors in action and now there’s a big chunk of blank wall.

A couple of Kaberles, a Beauchemin and a Jarrett Jack wall hanging all bit the dust.

Can’t wait to see how they come up with next.

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Comments

[Blake Kennedy]

The way Detroit has gone the past couple of years ought to become an object lesson in "what happens when you play the wrong way". When they were a team that took its strength from the defensive end, they played hard and a great deal of mental toughness and unselfishness; when they decided to move away from that and sign a bunch of all-offense/no-offense dudes (Villanueva, Gordon) they've become a soft, selfish, mentally weak team.

Sound familiar?

Blogger's note: That's the most ridiculous stretch of self-serving logic I have ever heard.

[jc]

not quite sure why there's any connection to Toronto but as I was leaving the game last night, I saw the Cavs were beating the Knicks by three towards the end of their game and i thought, hey, there might be a silver lining to the night. As for why I enjoyed Bosh's 1-18 / "best dramatic actor in a flop" evening against the Bulls...that's a bit easier to understand

[Rob.V]

Nothing wrong with it; just seemed entirely out of place with a couple of dozen gawkers passersby wandering around.
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Disagree. I'll preface this by saying, whatever your faith is (out there in the land of the blog), good for you, I wish you a long and peaceful life (or after life) however public displays as such at a sporting event are no different to me than the streaker at a sporting event looking for attention.
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I''ve often joked about the ACC being MY "temple" (especially on the early Sunday games) however unless we are all praying in unison for HWSNBN to break an ankle... please check your faith at the door!!. No one cares, and I dont think your God gives out extra brownie points for the public display anyway. I know this because I've asked God personally about this... and she's told me so!!.
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Listen, I don't walk into your home, help my self to all of your cold beverages in the icebox, put my feet up on your end table, and light a joint as I please, so don't do it in my house either!... and we'll be just fine.
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Now, on to what really matters:
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Yup, Dumars is a "genious" alright! Wow, sure seems as though that Piston organization has gone from sugar to shit overnight, no?
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Another black eye for the league, and I bet David Stern (owners and GM's) this morning around the league are thinking that they are going to have to do something to take their league back this summer via the new CBA. Probably not a great move by the players who are suppose to be "pretending" they are partners, in an effort to retain 57% of the BRI in about 120 days from now.
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The Piston players could have just as easily walked into Dumars' office together and said listen, get this guy out of here Joe (privately)... and if that didn't work...well...
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... I suppose they could have simply gathered all 15 (post shoot around) at centre court...kneeled... and prayed!!!.

[Kent]

Just want to give an example of how the NBA works sometimes. I watched the Washington-Miami game last night and Nick Young, there he was, dropping 38 on the Heat. This was a sandwich game for the Heat; they played Chicago on thursday and will face the new-look Knicks on Sunday. So this was literally a glorified pick-up game for them and of course they gave up 113 to the Wiz. So for people who say that there is no such thing as guys putting up fake numbers on bad teams, all you had to do was watch this game. I mean, god bless Nick Young, some crazy GM will look at his numbers and pay him. But despite his ability to score in meaningless games, he is not somebody you want on your team because he can't guard (did I mention Wade dropped 41 back on him?) and has very low basketball IQ. In short, all I am saying is that whenever anybody on really bad teams do anything notable, you have to take it with a enormous grain of salt. But who knows, maybe somebody will find a way to explain to me that Nick Young is an amzaing player and that the Wizards have a lot of positives to look forward to.

[O.J.]

If we are going with Bargs as a focal player on the team and starting lineup, as seems the case, I don't think that Jose can be in the starting lineup as well. I've been saying for years that both in the starting lineup is too much of a defensive liability. I've always thought that Jose is a back-up pg. His clutch factor in the fourth quarter is low. A decision has to be made on who you move forward with as back-up. Bayless has showed little since his hot start here and his temperament for the PG position is horrible, but he's young and shows flashes. Either way, I agree with you Doug and think PG is a position they have to address, and production wise I think it's the position they have to address the most and use these last 20 something games to see if Johnson shows improvement and is the real deal. Who do you think they should go with point guard wise?

[Blake Kennedy]

"Ridiculous self-serving logic"? How do I serve myself logically by insisting teams get built with defense?

This is introductory stuff in the game, Doug. I think they even break this out in NCCP level 2 courses. If you read any of the philosophers who have shaped the game - your John Woodens, Dean Smiths, Larry Browns, Bobby Knights - they all agree that the defense is where you hang your hat. Larry Brown is firmly convinced that defensive focus translates directly into general unselfishness and has written and spoken about that dozens of times.

So it's not an idiomatic idea I just came up with: I'm not that smart, but I'm smart enough to learn from those who are. Those who choose not to? They can't be helped.

[Kent]

one more thing: The Social Network is actually a big underdog to the King's Speech for best picutre. But I will be cheering for The Social Network too as I think I have a drunk bet on the Social Network to win at 4 to 1.

[Lorie]

Hiya Doug!
An idea for MLSE and those blank walls...how about artwork from local students of all ages and artistic abilities depicting their favourite Leaves and Raptors players in action? Would be supporting the arts, encouraging education and might be downright beautiful to look at! Or barring that, and as those empty spaces are in the Media Room, pictures of members of the long-serving, long-suffering media types who've had to cover these guys? Ready for your close-up???

[doug]

hey Doug it's your blog and you can do with it what you want to...(reminds me of a old song,It's my party....) but i don't think mentioning anything religious is a good idea, to volatile a subject, to me it crosses a line..i never,ever debate or talk about religion or abortion..there no-go's for me...I am b-balled out....but the Academies I can mention...you have to see the Fighter, Kings Speech and Winters Bone all excellent flicks....the girl in True Grit did a kick-ass acting job..and Portman in Back Swan deserves whatever she wins...all the 10 movies nominated i saw and there isn't a bad one in the lot...

[m]

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Listen, I don't walk into your home, help my self to all of your cold beverages in the icebox, put my feet up on your end table, and light a joint as I please, so don't do it in my house either!... and we'll be just fine.
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Posted by: Rob.V | February 26, 2011 at 10:47 AM
Small world you live in. What a bigoted, rascist attitude!

[Eddy]

The people of Toronto are losing interest in basketball so fast they can't even get excited enough to boo Carter any longer. It is no wonder MLSE has decided to lower the price of tickets next year, to bring them a little closer to the shoddy product they keep serving Toronto.

[Robert Bertuzzi]

I am not suggesting in the least that the Pistons are a model franchise at the moment, or that there is anything to emulate, but they do have five more wins than the Raptors at present.

If only we could evaluate the sad state of this franchise as 'objectively' as that of the Pistons then we might at least be able to engage in an honest dialogue about the GM's 'plan' as espoused in his own words on the radio earlier this week.

The dealings around the league this week confirm the need for (super)star players, to which I would include Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace, and maybe even Kendrick Perkins, and we are playing around with Ajinca, J Johnson, Bayless--none of whom can play on a serious basis on a good or really good team.

Now you can rightly argue that the Nets and Knicks have been as bad as the Raptors over the last decade and that there is no guarantee that their plans will work out but as a fan I would be much more heartened by the attempts to land a Deron Williams and a Carmelo Anthony--as flawed as a player as he is--than Raptor management's new narrative about developing this young nucleus.

Again, if the goal is actually winning and not continually selling hope in an effort to retain fan interest and the recognition exists that star players are necessary then the Raps have nothing but complimentary players, which is not to say that Amir Johnson, DeRozan and Ed Davis can't be solid starters or valuable bench players.

But when Steve Nash has nearly twice as many rebounds as 'our' starting centre then it is only a matter of time before the articles Bargnani unfulfilled promise begin to appear about a talented and highly skilled 7-footer who scored a bunch of empty and meaningless points on bad teams without making anyone around him better.

[Peter]

I think the mail is light because there's just nothing left to ask. We know this team isn't going to get better, we know that there aren't any trades or roster moves of significance coming, so we're all just glazing over and watching the games go by until the off the court action gets a little more interesting.

[Larry]

You can't whack Joe Dumars. The guy is a pistons legend.

[Rob.V]

m

In case you're new to these parts, we do snark...thats kind of what we do here... don't take things too seriously.
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Make an arguement if you like...however don't pretend to know who I am as a person (to fill some stereotypical fantasy of yours).
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Oh, and I live in the "real" world... you're welcome to join us anytime you like.
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Appreciate the venom though... God bless!!

[Juan]

Doug
From your blog yesterday: "I cannot wait for this to happen tonight.
Steve Nash is leading the break and the fans are waiting for something magical to happen. He lofts a brilliant pass just over the out-stretched hand of a Raptor defender and the joint goes crazy with cheers.Vince catches it, dunks and the fans stop mid-cheer to boo."

Did you spend some pre-game time with Nash and Carter drawing up the opening play??

An otherwise dull game yes, but I was sitting courtside in the corner where Phoenix was shooting during the first half and Carter was setting up on the right side most of the half about 3 feet in front of me. The fans were on him from the start and he was actually giving back as good as he was getting. There was some pretty comical banter going on and It actually made me respect him a bit more than I had. At one point a guy shouted "Carter you play like a girl" and he came back with "I'm so d&#n goodlookin".

Grant Hill was getting and giving some back as well. I can't think of a game I've been to where the players engage/respond as much as these guys did last night.

[J]

"The dealings around the league this week confirm the need for (super)star players, to which I would include Jeff Green, Gerald Wallace, and maybe even Kendrick Perkins, and we are playing around with Ajinca, J Johnson, Bayless--none of whom can play on a serious basis on a good or really good team."

You're right; none of those players are all that promising right now, but how many times have Raptors fans clamored for a player like Chauncey Billups or Gerald Wallace? Billups, if you remember, even played for Toronto during his rookie season. And Wallace? Had we traded a late first round pick for him before the Bobcats acquired him in the expansion draft, what would the fanbase reaction have been? What a waste of a late first round pick for someone who was a late first round pick and has barely played? Just look at the numbers he posted with the Kings -- I can't imagine any objective person saying they would have treated Wallace any differently.

And therein lies the rub. Real superstars -- guys like LBJ, Wade, Howard, etc. who are superstars from the beginning -- are rarely traded. Barring what's happened recently, their teams would be foolish to move them. So either you draft them yourself -- and let's not give certain teams too much credit for picking the consensus #1 pick -- or you take a chance on someone who hasn't lived up to expectations. It's a loser's game to wait for a player to develop before you try to acquire them, since you have to give up value to get value. Johnson and Bayless might never be NBA starters, but it's not like we mortgaged our future to try them out.

And as nice as it would have been to acquire either Anthony or Williams, it's kind of moot, no? Let's say we could have matched the Knicks' offer; would we really be happier as fans to give up so much just to rent Anthony? And how about Williams? Devin Harris, last year's #3, this year's top 6 pick, and yet another likely lottery pick next year? That's a pretty high price to pay for someone who hasn't expressed the willingness to sign an extension, and one we couldn't match ('lest we forget, only last year, the consensus here was that Devin Harris was an elite PG and far better than Calderon). It's exciting for Nets' fans, no doubt, but the last off-season was supposed to be "the one" for them and how well did that work out? Then they were predicted to still have a much better season than the Raptors due to the Morrow and Outlaw signings and where are they, 1.5 games ahead of our miserable record? If they don't lock Williams up for good, they very possibly just set themselves three years back, and that's what would have happened had we thrown in everything and the kitchen sink to acquire him.

[Ian Murray]

Just went to your blog a few minutes ago and found out about the Pistons problem. Wow. I've never heard about that in any sport. No matter how much you might dislike your coach you owe it to the fans to put your best product out and do everything you can to make sure it happens. After he gets fired what do think about Kuester's chance of finding another head coaching job? Weather it's his fault or not it can't look good for him.

[John]

There are more Muslims in the world than there are people who speak English. They like to pray. They have their social values. Good for them. I am happy for them. It doesn't affect anyones life, so who why is it something worth noting? Muslims prayed... big yaawn. Who was the Born Again Christain that held prayer meetings before games that played for the Raps? Was that of any interest to anyone?

[Johnn19]

As for the basketball fans in TO losing interest in the NBA the attendance for the last few games is as follows.
19004 to see Phoenix
18105 to see Chicago
20156 to see Miami
19800 to see LA Clips

There is still interest to see some NBA teams/stars even in a poor Raptors record due to starting over with new young players sans Bosh.