Raptors 89, Nets 83 (Series tied 1-1)
Well, that was an absolutely atrocious basketball game for the first three quarters. A combined 63 points at half time? Phoenix scored 68 themselves in the first half last night? Ugh.
Thankfully, the Raps gutted it out, and things picked up by the fourth quarter - the Raptors offence came alive and they came away with a well-deserved win.
Other than Bostjan Nachbar, who nearly broke our backs again, I thought the Nets were awful last night. It really should have been a blowout for the Raps - if Toronto could just do something consistently on offense, this series will be over quickly. The Raps had the defense going strong all game, if they could the offense going too, look out.
Outside of sticking to Nachbar (and Kidd but I know they leave him on purpose) the Raps' really hustled on defense last night. They rotated quickly on Carter and Jefferson, and Mo Peterson (yes!) and Anthony Parker did a fantastic job of forcing them to the middle when they drove. More importantly, even though Kidd got another 11 boards, the Raptors got back in transition and kept the fast break in check, holding them to seven fast break points.
The Raps created 16 turnovers (with 9 steals!) and only turned it over 10 times themselves (Ford: 1, Calderon: 0). And Bosh's block on RJ (which led to a Parker three as RJ was still lying on his ass)... well, that was the highlight of the series so far. They still gave up a few too many offensive boards and few too many boards to Kidd, but overall a much better effort on the glass than Saturday. (Check out the block on Youtube.)
What an emotional roller coaster of a fourth quarter. Back and forth, big shot after big shot… I think everyone in the building held their breath when TJ shot that three! Whew. And I'm pretty sure my heart actually stopped when Nachbar shot his three - I'm still kind of in shock that he missed it. I still don't see why that guy's open all the time... why would you leave him, of all people, open? I mean, Vince, RJ, Kidd, all had subpar shooting nights... but this guy's light's out and he's wide open. As I said above, great defense on everyone last night… except Nachbar. Too may open looks! Sigh.
The crowd took a little longer to get going last night than it did Saturday, I guess people were still coming in from work, but I'd say it was a little louder and rowdier than Saturday - way more "VC sucks" chants (though why these chants start when we're on theline, but not when VC is on the line... sigh again).
Bosh was, as usual, our MVP last night. 25 and 13, with a bad cold even. I give him some of the blame for leaving Nachbar open a lot, but he crashed the boards and in the fourth, he was amazing on offense, getting inside, hitting it outside, and hitting his free throws.
Parker was simply unbelievable last night. He played Vince brilliantly, he scored, he had four steals, including the one that led to the three pointer at the end of the first quarter which finally got the crowd going... and he hit every shot exactly when we needed him to. It's amazing, at the start of the year, he was so inconsistent I was questioning why he was even playing, and now, I hate it when they take him out, even if it's only for two minutes! But I always say the best way to take Vince out of a game is to make him work on defense, something he hates doing. I love the way AP mixed it up last night with a variety of mid-range jumpers, drives and threes. Gotta make Vince work. And if AP keeps getting 8 boards a night... that's a huge bonus for us.
Rasho Nesterovic, meanwhile was the unsung hero - he was crashing the boards big time and keeping plays alive (four offensive boards!). Plus he knocked down a couple shots. Bargnani looked lost out there, and Humphries didn’t seem into the flow of things either.
And how 'bout MoPete. I said it, get him in there for his defense and experience, and that’s exactly what he brought! Sure, he didn't do a whole lot that shows up in the stat sheet, but he played solid defense, got some important boards, took charges, and most of all, he helped get the crowd fired up (there was a classic "MoPete" chant even!!). Joey Graham was utterly useless again, thank goodness Sam gave him the quick hook. Dixon was fine but thankfully only played 4 minutes - he just gives up too much on defense. MoPete gave us the 30 minutes we needed at the three. It was odd seeing a finishing lineup of Mo and Rasho with Ford, Bosh and Parker - it's been a long time since we've seen Mo and Rasho finish a game - but those were the guys playing the best.
I’m sure Joey will start again on Friday, but that’s OK - at least we (and he) now know that MoPete is ready to step up and play.
The Nets did some interesting things last night; perhaps they overthought themselves.
For one thing, they didn’t play nearly as much zone. And on the man-to-man coverage, they were going under screens on Ford and Calderon, letting the PGs shoot the 15-footer. Which is fine with me - I have confidence both can hit it, and that’s a good shot of the screener recognizes it, and rolls to the hoop to crash the boards.
The Nets also switched up how they used Carter. On Saturday, they had him take the ball from Kidd at the top of the key and create. That didn't work, so yesterday he started on the block, posting up Parker, and Kidd dumped it down to him.
Thankfully, that didn't work either. :) But you know that, at some point, he's going to bust open for a 42/7/7 game. Hopefully the Raps can weather that storm, and hopefully, while he's doing that, he's actually preventing RJ and Nachbar from getting going. :)
Oh, and my other favourite moment of the night (other than the Bosh block/Parker three) was when I got home and saw Vince's press conference.
Reporter: Are you happy to be leaving this building?
Vince: Whatever.
That's the thing I miss LEAST about Vince Carter - the guy just has no passion whatsoever. I don't understand how you can't be excited and motivated to play in this series... but as usual, nothing seems to get the guy going. Whatever, indeed! See ya in Jersey, Vince! Hope you have a better game in front of your fans… if there are any!!
I was also just reading one of the Jersey papers and Mikki Moore was like, "we threw this one away, we had it."
Um, Mikki… when your three best players go 17-54 (32%) and only shoot 8 free throws, and our three best players shoot 22-45 (49%) and go 16-19 from the line… that’s not letting one get away. That’s you being lucky you were even in the game in the fourth quarter! If the Raps get it going on offense, you better watch out!
________________________________________
By the way, I meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t get a chance: Congrats to Sam Mitchell for the Coach of the Year award!
As I said last week, I’m not sure exactly what the criteria are for Coach of the Year; after all, I still believe it’s harder to win 60 games with a team that’s expected to win 60 than it is to win 47 with a team expected to win 35. But they traditionally give this award to a coach that’s turned his team around and exceeded expectations, and on that basis, Sam deserves it.
And more than that, he deserves a ton of credit for just sticking to his principles and not letting all the crap get to him. Everyone expected him to get fired this season. I bet he nearly did after the 2-8 start. But he stuck through it. Can you imagine coming to work every day with that kind of scrutiny? The guy is tougher than nails.
Combine that with the other well-documented challenges - coaching without a contract, nine new players, language barriers… all in all, it adds up to a job well done. Congratulations Sam!
Thankfully, the Raps gutted it out, and things picked up by the fourth quarter - the Raptors offence came alive and they came away with a well-deserved win.
Other than Bostjan Nachbar, who nearly broke our backs again, I thought the Nets were awful last night. It really should have been a blowout for the Raps - if Toronto could just do something consistently on offense, this series will be over quickly. The Raps had the defense going strong all game, if they could the offense going too, look out.
Outside of sticking to Nachbar (and Kidd but I know they leave him on purpose) the Raps' really hustled on defense last night. They rotated quickly on Carter and Jefferson, and Mo Peterson (yes!) and Anthony Parker did a fantastic job of forcing them to the middle when they drove. More importantly, even though Kidd got another 11 boards, the Raptors got back in transition and kept the fast break in check, holding them to seven fast break points.
The Raps created 16 turnovers (with 9 steals!) and only turned it over 10 times themselves (Ford: 1, Calderon: 0). And Bosh's block on RJ (which led to a Parker three as RJ was still lying on his ass)... well, that was the highlight of the series so far. They still gave up a few too many offensive boards and few too many boards to Kidd, but overall a much better effort on the glass than Saturday. (Check out the block on Youtube.)
What an emotional roller coaster of a fourth quarter. Back and forth, big shot after big shot… I think everyone in the building held their breath when TJ shot that three! Whew. And I'm pretty sure my heart actually stopped when Nachbar shot his three - I'm still kind of in shock that he missed it. I still don't see why that guy's open all the time... why would you leave him, of all people, open? I mean, Vince, RJ, Kidd, all had subpar shooting nights... but this guy's light's out and he's wide open. As I said above, great defense on everyone last night… except Nachbar. Too may open looks! Sigh.
The crowd took a little longer to get going last night than it did Saturday, I guess people were still coming in from work, but I'd say it was a little louder and rowdier than Saturday - way more "VC sucks" chants (though why these chants start when we're on theline, but not when VC is on the line... sigh again).
Bosh was, as usual, our MVP last night. 25 and 13, with a bad cold even. I give him some of the blame for leaving Nachbar open a lot, but he crashed the boards and in the fourth, he was amazing on offense, getting inside, hitting it outside, and hitting his free throws.
Parker was simply unbelievable last night. He played Vince brilliantly, he scored, he had four steals, including the one that led to the three pointer at the end of the first quarter which finally got the crowd going... and he hit every shot exactly when we needed him to. It's amazing, at the start of the year, he was so inconsistent I was questioning why he was even playing, and now, I hate it when they take him out, even if it's only for two minutes! But I always say the best way to take Vince out of a game is to make him work on defense, something he hates doing. I love the way AP mixed it up last night with a variety of mid-range jumpers, drives and threes. Gotta make Vince work. And if AP keeps getting 8 boards a night... that's a huge bonus for us.
Rasho Nesterovic, meanwhile was the unsung hero - he was crashing the boards big time and keeping plays alive (four offensive boards!). Plus he knocked down a couple shots. Bargnani looked lost out there, and Humphries didn’t seem into the flow of things either.
And how 'bout MoPete. I said it, get him in there for his defense and experience, and that’s exactly what he brought! Sure, he didn't do a whole lot that shows up in the stat sheet, but he played solid defense, got some important boards, took charges, and most of all, he helped get the crowd fired up (there was a classic "MoPete" chant even!!). Joey Graham was utterly useless again, thank goodness Sam gave him the quick hook. Dixon was fine but thankfully only played 4 minutes - he just gives up too much on defense. MoPete gave us the 30 minutes we needed at the three. It was odd seeing a finishing lineup of Mo and Rasho with Ford, Bosh and Parker - it's been a long time since we've seen Mo and Rasho finish a game - but those were the guys playing the best.
I’m sure Joey will start again on Friday, but that’s OK - at least we (and he) now know that MoPete is ready to step up and play.
The Nets did some interesting things last night; perhaps they overthought themselves.
For one thing, they didn’t play nearly as much zone. And on the man-to-man coverage, they were going under screens on Ford and Calderon, letting the PGs shoot the 15-footer. Which is fine with me - I have confidence both can hit it, and that’s a good shot of the screener recognizes it, and rolls to the hoop to crash the boards.
The Nets also switched up how they used Carter. On Saturday, they had him take the ball from Kidd at the top of the key and create. That didn't work, so yesterday he started on the block, posting up Parker, and Kidd dumped it down to him.
Thankfully, that didn't work either. :) But you know that, at some point, he's going to bust open for a 42/7/7 game. Hopefully the Raps can weather that storm, and hopefully, while he's doing that, he's actually preventing RJ and Nachbar from getting going. :)
Oh, and my other favourite moment of the night (other than the Bosh block/Parker three) was when I got home and saw Vince's press conference.
Reporter: Are you happy to be leaving this building?
Vince: Whatever.
That's the thing I miss LEAST about Vince Carter - the guy just has no passion whatsoever. I don't understand how you can't be excited and motivated to play in this series... but as usual, nothing seems to get the guy going. Whatever, indeed! See ya in Jersey, Vince! Hope you have a better game in front of your fans… if there are any!!
I was also just reading one of the Jersey papers and Mikki Moore was like, "we threw this one away, we had it."
Um, Mikki… when your three best players go 17-54 (32%) and only shoot 8 free throws, and our three best players shoot 22-45 (49%) and go 16-19 from the line… that’s not letting one get away. That’s you being lucky you were even in the game in the fourth quarter! If the Raps get it going on offense, you better watch out!
________________________________________
By the way, I meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t get a chance: Congrats to Sam Mitchell for the Coach of the Year award!
As I said last week, I’m not sure exactly what the criteria are for Coach of the Year; after all, I still believe it’s harder to win 60 games with a team that’s expected to win 60 than it is to win 47 with a team expected to win 35. But they traditionally give this award to a coach that’s turned his team around and exceeded expectations, and on that basis, Sam deserves it.
And more than that, he deserves a ton of credit for just sticking to his principles and not letting all the crap get to him. Everyone expected him to get fired this season. I bet he nearly did after the 2-8 start. But he stuck through it. Can you imagine coming to work every day with that kind of scrutiny? The guy is tougher than nails.
Combine that with the other well-documented challenges - coaching without a contract, nine new players, language barriers… all in all, it adds up to a job well done. Congratulations Sam!