Of confidence and football and they truly loved Sarah

Okay, this is somewhat of a bonus, there’s some mail coming later but there were a few snippets I thought you might like. It’s a bit shorter than usual but it’s late so …

Am headed back to Casa Doug tonight so not sure when I get to comments or whatever but have fun with this and the mail later on.

I’m tired and glad to be flying back.

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THREE POINTERS

Crisis of confidence?

It was interesting to hear Dwane elude to the team’s belief in itself, or lack thereof, when he was dissecting the result.

(It’s in this story if you haven’t seen it yet).

And that’s kind of what I’ve been seeing, especially from DeMar, in games that Andrea has missed.

It’s troubling but it’s not insurmountable and all it’s going to take is a strength of will from a kid who looks confused and tentative for the first time in his career.

Everything’s come easy, or relatively easy to him so far; he’s been the best player on probably every team he’s been on and went through his first two NBA seasons having a modicum of success, even if it was on a so-so team.

But now it’s not easy, he has to become a basketball player with great athletic skills rather than a brilliant athlete who plays basketball.

We’ve seen him do it before, I’m sure we’ll see him do it again but now it’s time to see what he’s got deep down.

Could be a fascinating study into a young athlete.

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Asked, and answered

Yes, the Raptors were only down nine points with less than seven minutes remaining when Dwane took out Jerryd and Barbosa and Kleiza and replaced them with Calderon, DeRozan and James Johnson.

Yes, he went back to Kleiza with them still down nine with 4:13 left and hen went back to Barbosa with them down eight with 3:18 left.

No, no Bayless.

“It’s the same song. I thought they were spent. They expended so much energy getting us back in, they had to come out. Bayless was bending over, grabbing his shorts. They did their job of coming in and getting us back in the game.”

Would I have gone back to Bayless for the final three minutes after a four-minute rest? Probably not in the whole regression to the mean thing; I am glad Barbosa and Kleiza got back in the game.

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A comic confrontation

Sam used to tell us the funniest thing in the world was a basketball fight because no one really wants to fight.

And I absolutely giggled when Al Harrington pushed his teammate Rudy Fernandez while allegedly trying to get at Linas Kleiza with about 10 seconds left in the game.

Seriously. It was hilarious.

And afterwards, Al was talking tough.

“I’m not happy. We had a great win, it’s the NBA. Guys think its funny because you know you can do all that, like the referees’ out there saves him, but I don’t play games like that. So it is what it is.”

Um, okay.

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And a little bit of other stuff …

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The Orlando Magic cough up a 27-point lead at home and lose to Boston on a Thursday and then go into New Orleans against a very average Hornets team and get drilled by 26 while only scoring 67 points.

Oh yeah, that’s a team in disarray and if you think it’s going to get better before they deal Dwight Howard, I think you’re mistaken.

If I’m general manager Otis Smith, I’m making a round of calls to other GMs this morning because it might be time to make a bold move.

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Here’s one for you.

The elevator stops about halfway down to the Starbucks in the lobby and this shaggy-haired ragamuffin gets in.

(The Winter X Games are in Aspen, the Snow Show is on at the Denver Convention Centre, this is snowboard/ski/what have you capital of the world; it was Shaggy-haired Ragamuffin Central around my hotel).

Anyway, kid’s got a white band across his right forearm that says, simply, Sarah.

You know I had to ask and, yes, it was a continuing tribute to Sarah Burke, the apparently well-loved Canadian skier who so tragically died of injuries suffered in a training crash.

Chatted with the young fella, he said he knew Sarah quite well and was crushed by her loss. As so many others are.

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Well done, Canadian women footballers.

Of course, it wasn’t anywhere I could see it while having one after the game but I’m told Christine Sinclair was all that she needed to be.

Two goals, big plays, dominance, and a win.

The one thing I like about Sinclair and this team, and have since I started periodically writing about this team a few years ago before Beijing, is that they really don’t give a crap. They play hard and physical and don’t worry about the repercussions.

Good on them for coming through when they had to and in grand fashion. Hope I get to see them in London.

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Oh, no.

Retina-burning warning.

We’re talking about those Memphis Grizzlies throwback jerseys and I’m told that the night we’re there in mid-March they’re going to trot them out again.

And then a week or so later it’s the debut of the Raptors camouflage things and, I tell ya, I truly long for a time when teams had two jerseys and that was it.

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Comments

[Thane]

It's a shame you missed the Canada-Mexico game, Doug. It was really a beautiful one.

[Boko]

If a team has three official colours, I can see saving the third jersey for times when the team is playing poorly, and switching to the third jersey just to say, "We've had enough, already. Let's go out and do something about it now."

[Brad]

Agree that Harrington looked goofy, he was all talk and then only started to get physical once Rudy was safely between them....who ended up taking the worst of it trying to be peacemaker. It was good to not only see Linas stand his ground but also laugh at how ridiculous the situation was.

[GM]

I've noticed Bayless is a much better shooter when he receives the ball rather than when he takes it himself. The trouble is, the more he makes off a pass, the more he gets it in his head that he's going to put on the blinders and take it himself. So even though Calderon wasn't playing well, I was relieved to see him out there at the end. Would they have fared better with Bayless? Who knows. That's the hindsight game.

Does anyone else out there like the Memphis yellow and green or am I all alone? Maybe it's the kitsch factor, I don't know.