A telling performance with so much on the line

Well, that’s going to make it pretty hard to get to three wins this week, no?

(Yes, my math skills are unparalleled).

And it sure takes some of the shine off the game in Milwaukee in Saturday, no?

But soldier on we must …

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THREE POINTERS

As bad as ever

Yes, I thought Andrea Bargnani was playing scared, as I mentioned the other day, and I thought – and at some level still think – there is a roll for him.

But after the dog of a game last night, he’s got to be running out of chances with everyone concerned. And that’s teammates and coaches, some of whom are starting to cast a furtive eye in his direction.

I know Bargnani is never going to be – nor was he ever – a high-intensity guy but the loafing you saw last night is simply unprofessional and unacceptable and if he starts to lose his teammates and coaches as supporters, it’s over.

No one – yet – wants him benched but he needs to at least show more effort than he did last night. He was okay in the effort department the other night against Washington – he looked engaged and just missed good shots – but last night it looked like he was off in some other area code.

The kid is turning into his own worst enemy, those on the staff and the roster who supported him are not all that enthralled any more and if their support goes, he’s done.

He’s close but it’s now up to him to make amends.

Can he?

I’m dubious.

-

So, what now?

Regardless of what you or I think, these guys are not going to give up the ghost of a playoff race yet.

Not sure when the inevitable hits home and the race is over -- six back in 10th with just 24 to go seems an impossible task – but just listening to them in the locker room after the Cleveland game hammers home their continued confidence.

They were disappointed, frustrated and ticked off, of course, but no one was throwing in the towel; not Dwane, not the three of four players I talked to.

And you may say it’s silly to think that way but what you think, or I think, doesn’t really matter. Until it’s over, it’s not over.

So if you’re looking for 30 minutes a night for Terrence Ross or 40 minutes a night for Jonas Valanciunas or 15 minutes a night for Quincy Acy, you’re not going to get it yet.

Please don’t whine, it’s not your decision and until you get Dwane’s job, there’s nothing you can do about it.

-

Defence first

The appearances of Sebastian Telfair (average at best, no real impact) in the second quarter and Aaron Gray (rusty, questionable hands, no real impact) were driven entirely by the need for some defensive effort, intensity and stops.

Didn’t happen, really; the Cavs still rolled up too many easy baskets but it goes to the heart of Dwane’s problem: He’s got too many who you never know what you’ll get from to make it easy to figure out what to do each night.

-

More? Of course there’s more.

-

Not bad that Stephen Curry got those 54 points in New York last night considering he should have probably been suspended for escalating the scuffle the other night in Indy.

And, yes, I thought the NBA came down lightly on the participants in that skirmish but I’ve thought David Stern and his disciplinary henchmen have been soft all year.

What did the famous guy say?

Yeah, times they are a’changing.

-

Really, any night that ends with three Yeungling’s and a first-time taste of huge mushrooms filled with cream cheese, battered in a Guinness batter and deep fried can’t be considered a bad night, can it?

And you can put Flannery’s on the list of top post-game watering holes, it’s good all the requisites. It’s a five-minute walk from the arena, it’s got a great selection of taps, the kitchen’s open late, the bar staff will turn bad college basketball off for an NBA game and it’s directly on the way home.

Solid.

-

Mail? Since I’m not doing anything at the game Friday night, there’ll be plenty of time. So do your stuff folks, please. You know how.

-

You know, I’ve got a lot of friends and a couple of relatives in Ottawa and I quite like the city and would love to head back there for a week of training camp sometime.

But, really, there are some entirely wrong-thinking people up there and I’m not talking specifically about Honourable Members.

I’m talking about the people who somehow thought it would be okay to name the coming NBL Canada team up there the Tomahawks.

Really?

These people could not have been serious, could they? How could they get it so wrong?

Tomahawks?

What, was Redskins taken?

It’s idiotic, actually, and I don’t care how the owners of the team tried to spin it, it was a ridiculous decision from the get-go, they had to know in these Idle No More times in which we live that there would be some blowback on the decision. Why invite it? Why not think things through before such a gaffe?

Thankfully, it looks like they’ll fix it soon.

Hey, here’s an idea.

Why not call them the Redblacks?

-

So Gumby and I are finishing up the typing last night, he checks his e-mail and finds out the good folks at Air Canada have already cancelled his flight home today and rebooked him for Friday.

Guess who appreciates the Smelly Ford Taurus now?

-

Speaking of the drive, we’re trying to be on the road by 8 a.m., should get us across the border in plenty of time to settle somewhere by noon to answer questions for an hour or so.

Join in the fun, I presume Andrea’s name will come up.

-

Crime of the century?

Not quite but I’m glad they found the sausage costume in Milwaukee and whoever would be so low as to steal a Chicken-like suit should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Now, if people were to steal a couple of NBA outfits, I’d be quite fine with it.

They could get the sickly Coyote in San Antonio and the world wouldn’t be worse off, I’m not sure the Hawk down in Atlanta would be missed and whatever that goofy thing is in Brooklyn can disappear any time.

-

 

 

Comments

[charles n.]

HOTH = Hero of the Highway, Doug Smith. Have a smooth ride home, Doug. Sometimes it appears as if the other HOTH would benefit from reading your columns , night in and night out, for inspiration on how to perform professionally through a long season.

[Matt G]

As a resident of Ottawa and a member/citizen of a First Nation about an hour away from here, I agree with you that the TomaHawks name was a dumb idea. In the past I've taken advantage of various social media outlets to scream about the racism implicit in the Washington Redskins and our own local version the Nepean Redskins. All that being said, I thought the brouhaha over the TomaHawks name was ridiculous. It certainly reached a level of hysteria rather quickly here. I guess my point is that the decision, yes, was undoubtedly dumb. And it's easy to conjure a dozen ways the name could be used in offensive ways, e.g. logos, chants, etc. But the name itself is not racist in the way the Redskins is or Chief Wahoo is. Moreover, of all the things that offend me or concern me about the state of First Nations in Canada, this would have to be one of the lowest radioactive things imaginable. If only people in Ottawa expended this much energy on the number of communities without drinking water, or severely underfunded First Nation schools which extend the level of poverty another generation or two, or the almost 30,000 First Nation children in institutional care, then I think we'd maybe accomplish something positive for once. Anyways, rant over.

[sportschic]

I hope your travels home are smooth, Doug. If I'm around for the fun and frolics in the chat at noon, it means my own travel plans have gone awry. :(

As for the Tomahawks name, the timing of the announcement is somewhat ironic, given that there was just a much talked about symposium on sport names and stereotypes at the National Museum of the American Indian. http://nmai.si.edu/connect/seminars-and-symposia/archive/ I guess they didn't attend.

[LeeZ]

@Matt G: Amen.

[Allan]

Redblacks? If I was a Rugby or football fan I would be perfectly outraged if they used that name, although I wouldn't know why. I suppose the name, like most of language, including the original sound we grunted to name objects, is a metaphor. As a metaphor I guess I am expected to look beyond the name to the similarities it is intended to conjure. Tomahawk, for example, was probably selected to say we are going to war with you during the game but when it is over we will turn it over and smoke the peace pipe. I wonder if they were going to use an image of a TomaHawk with a stone head or the iron one they got from the British, the one they both used to scare the crap out of the Americans.

[john]

Doug, what is it you find so offensive about the word Tomahawk? Its an American Indian name for a hand axe. If they called them the Hatchets would it then offend all of the Quebec?
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How about they call the team the Loons! Its the provincial bird and everyone likes the Pelicans idea so much its a can't miss!!! I mean what name strikes fear in the hearts of your competitors like a regional bird...

[Matt M]

The best thing about Bargnani being bench would be an end to the constant analysis of his play among commenters, some members of the Toronto media, and myself. The worst thing would be that the Raptors need another long range scorer to open things for Rudy Gay, but then since the role is open and Bargnani has the skill set and is not filling it then there is no loss there. Maybe some time as the fifth big would help. If he ends up on the bench then I think there is an amnesty in his future. I can't see him being tradeable for anybody who could help the Raptors until the end of that contract. So disappointing because I thought for sure he would eventually put it together.

[Geoff]

Well stated Matt G
Doug, I have a question re Andrea. If, and more probably when, the Raps brass has had enough, is it possible to send him to the D league and bring up somebody from there? I have defended his "upside" to my friends for years, but his presence on the floor is killing us. The ONE skill that he always had was his ability to shoot, and even that appears to be gone.

[Sharkey]

Am I the only one who thinks they should just call that basketball team the Rough Riders?

[Peter]

What's more impressive to you? 54 points by Steph Curry, or the 28 rebounds by Chandler in the same game?

[Peter]

Wouldn't it be fun if we referred to all rebounding stats as "Bargnani's"?

The formula would be to take Andrea's current Rpg stat, and calculate how many times that number would fit into the other person's rebounds.

So, for example, Tysons Chandler had 7.5 Bargnani's last night. :)

I'm done now. Promise.

[Ewandro]

Great rant Matt G, great!!!

Good day for all

[Boko]

NOT just to be a contrarian, there was a small part of the game when I honestly thought that Andrea looked better, playing with Amir, Rudy, DeMar & Kyle. He still needs to personally get it into gear, cause coasting to any extent is really noticeable when you're on an Indy track. That sun-unit in the first half should be ashamed of itself, each and every one of them. Before these last two games, I thought that the best we could finish this season was 6th. Now, not so much.

[Andrew Gregg]

Hi Doug:

Andrea Bargnani is really good at running the weave at the top of the key.

I agree with Matt G that the Tomahawk brouhaha is a bit over the top in itself, but I also think it's important to remember the intransigence of places like Cleveland, Washington and Atlanta where offensive native nicknames and imagery are allowed to be celebrated. The Redskins is an astoundingly awful team name. No other cultural group would ever be allowed to be treated that way, but for some reason it okay to parade cartoons of native people around.

Chief Wahoo? Seriously? Can you imagine someone running around a baseball park with a giant Buckwheat head? If that idea is offensive, then imagine how Wahoo makes a young native person feel.

So against that backdrop I'm not surprised that the Tomahawks name decision is being pilloried. And anyway, what were they thinking in that room? Why did it not occur to anybody that this was a bad idea? And why did the NBL give the ok to the name? Especially in a country as multi-ethnic as ours is, ESPECIALLY, Doug, as you have already pointed out, with Idle No More still simmering.

Unfortunately for a league that is worthwhile and in fact necessary for the growth of basketball in Canada, this is the most national--and probably international--press they've ever had.

AG, Toronto

[SAS]

Dwane Casey, Dwane Casey!! I can't for the life of me understand what is goin on in his head or who has a gun to his head telling him that it was wise to leave Bargnani out there as the only big! Raps were out scored by 16 with him as the only big. JV has earned his minutes please let him play. We didn't need another scorer out there (last I knew a scorer scores, 0 points) When will the media point blank call Casey out on why he won't play JV in the 4th. I could understand not playing Ross at key points but not playing him at all?? Anderson is clearly Casey's buddy and Casey may end up being shown the door along with Anderson (he's not in the long term plans) if he doesn't get his rotations together. This is becoming very frustrating!

[Geoff Read]

It's official I think. With that loss last night the already faint playoff hopes are dead. Partly because even in the rosiest scenario the math just doesn't add up, but more so because this was a must-win game and we got a glimpse of how this team performs when the pressure's on, and apparently, when the going gets tough, the 2012-3 Raptors get going... early, for the exit. The honourable exception was DeRozan who had a hell of a game, and, to a lesser degree, Gay, who played well generally with the proviso that he made a few bad decisions. That seems to be the pattern with him - "he's good, but...."

So many frustrating angles to last night's game. Bargnani was one of them (although he did make that nice block towards the end of the game - admittedly, too little too late). Kyle Lowry continues to show me he's never going to be the starter on a good team by making horrific decisions at key moments. His impulse to try to do things himself seems to come out most frequently at crucial times in the game leading him, most often, to do the opposite of what he should as the team's floor general. Last night, when the game was still within reach, he effectively blew it by, on two consecutive possessions, first, returning to his hero ball routine and trying to drive through an entirely hopeless wall of bigs, and second, hoisting a futile three when he'd been missing those all night long. And Aaron Gray looked like... well, Aaron Gray. OK that's a bit unfair. But he looked like he didn't even belong in the NBA last night. Hands of stone. Terrible defensively. Completely useless. He had an off night.

In short, it was very frustrating watching that game. It didn't help that I was trying to take apart an ancient futon couch that we're finally replacing, on which all the screws had been stripped turning what should've been a relatively easy job into an absolute nightmare.

Tomahawks: I agree it's incredibly stupid politically and was bound to cause all sorts of negative publicity. That said, the tomahawk is a weapon, not a culture or ethnic group. If the team was the Ottawa Scimitars would we say it was insensitive to Arabs and Turks? Or... I don't know, would the Ottawa Broadswords be insulting to Europeans' heritage? But yes, given the current climate, it was bound to get lumped in there with the more genuinely offensive names like "Redskins", Chief Wahoo (that has to be one of the most offensive logos on the face of the earth), and the Atlanta Braves.

Matt G: loved your rant, BTW.

[lee in ittawa]

Andrea got to go......to the end of the bench

[AT]

In all seriousness what the heck is going on with Andrea?
Playing scared is one thing but he looks completely and utterly lost? How can you go from being able to put a 20+ a night to not having a clue? I was a big supporter of Andrea and thought he did not deserve the bashing he got but he is proving all the haters right. ..... and the worst part is that he is not showing ANY signs of improvement and is just regressing...

[Will]

Read in today's paper here in Ottawa that both Mayor Watson and the NBL urged ownership not to call the team TomaHawks. There is some speculation around town that the name was chosen on purpose, to generate buzz, and that ownership knew the name would be dropped almost immediately. While it may be unfair to judge the owner on this I did hear the fellow on the radio yesterday am when he announced the team name would change. While it's the right thing to do, he seemed entirely comfortable patting himself on the back several times for making the change after the outcry.

[Lawrence]

Regarding Andrea. One play stood out to me in last nights game which sort of tells the confidence the team has in Andrea. I believe in the third quarter, Rudy Gay had the ball at the top and tried to drive in but was met with 2 defenders. He noticed Andrea right behind him was completely wide open for a 3 but Rudy looked so hesitant to pass to him. After thinking about it for a second or two Rudy settled to pass to Andrea who ends up missing the 3 pointer. I was expecting a lot more from Andrea in an away game where no one is booing him and he can play without the pressure from the fans. Surprised Casey stuck with him and not Jonas at the end of the game when it was clear nothing was going for him.

[DaveB]

In last night's IGBT Lorie asked what the tall building was in Cleveland. I didn't see the game but I was wondering if she was referring to the Tower City Center mall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_City_Center

I am not surprised by the current play by the Raptors. I think they were playing over their heads and had some lucky bounces in the win streak. If the season started today I think they would still struggle to make the playoffs. There has to be some upgrades this summer to make the playoffs next year. The biggest need is a Point guard and depending on how Jonas develops, they may need another good big. DeMar is developing nicely and Rudy is OK but he wastes a lot of shots. They need to put heaters in the ball so the players can't hold it so long (hot potato).

Safe drive my friend.

[Johnn19]

Even with the non contribution from the bench the Raptors were at 90-93 with 1:55 to play and the starters/closers in the game.

The game was there to WIN and the result was a 10-2 run by the Cav's as the Rap's closers went 1/5 & 1 turnover, to seal the WIN for Cleveland.

[Avinash]

Furtive - a most excellent word of the day Doug!

[ronmor]

Doug,

I concur with your words on AB except one thought-he most certainly deserves to be benched. Not only is he betraying The Raptors organization ($10 million per annum), BC, coaches and teammates and fans but also himself. He must be daff if he thinks (does he?)that any other NBA team would pay him even the minimum league salary based on his current play. Has the man no pride or as I am beginning to expect he simply does not care anymore since he has resigned himself to no longer fitting in to the Raptors' future plans.

I see his play as pure tanking. How can he look JV,AJ,DD and KL in the eye since these four players play with such a high level of energy and grit whenever they are on the floor.

AB is no longer an enigma, he is spolt and selfish similar to a little kid who can't have his own way. He should be benched for the duration of the season and then dealt to any team who might be foolish enough to gamble on him. Any arguments?

ronmor

[Marcus]

The way Andrea played last night not only is a problem for himself but also for the team as they go forward in terms of trade value in the off season. Some one will give this guy an opportunity and perhaps he may turn out to be the player that everyone thought he could be. It will take the right coach and the right players around him in order for that to happen. He is finished with this team.

Are the Raps really any better since the Rudy Gay trade or did the good teams play down to their level. Last night even the Suns beat the Spurs in San Antonio so this happens when the better teams take a night off. They obviously are better off at the 3 spot but weaker up front and far weaker at the point. Interesting stat..the Raps. are 7-7 when Lowry does not play and 12 games under when he does play. A trend ...who knows but it is hard to win with 3 back-up point guards. The quality of the opposition does not make this stat. less meaningful as we just saw them lose to Washington and Cleveland.