Another day, another Raptors loss, another game that was just begging to be won through the first three quarters. But when you let a team hang around for that long, they’re bound to come back and bite you in the ass and bite they did. Chris Bosh’s monster 41 points look really good in the box-score and he did have a great scoring game but when the Cavs were making their run midway through the fourth, CB4 took a series of five questionable shots that help balloon the deficit to 7. From then on, the Raptors kept clawing at the lead but Cleveland did enough (with of course some help from Mitchell) to make sure this thing doesn’t get past regulation. I know it sounds like I’m being really harsh on Bosh but that really is what happened.
Brushing aside for a moment the individual performances of Damon Jones and Daniel Gibson who were left wide open all game long by the Raptors perimeter staff (who played like they hadn’t read the scouting report), let’s get to the key plays of the game. Down 1 with under a minute left, the Raptors choose not to double team Lebron James who drives in for an uncontested layup. OK, I thought, they learned their lesson, next time Smitch will double James. After Kapono cleverly got the two points back on a driving layup (no way that was drawn up), we’re back where we started with us being down a point and James with the ball and Delfino guarding him. What does Sam do? Single coverage again. Yes, single f***ing coverage. Lebron drills an unblockable fade to ice the game. On the ensuing Raptors possession, the best Smitch and the Raptors can come up with is an Anthony Parker fadeway three over two people, no shit it missed. No offensive creativity on the part of the Raptors – couldn’t get a good shot at the basket when we needed it the most.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas was killing us in the post and considering how he’s the most foul-happy player in the league, it would’ve been a wise idea to get him out of the game much earlier than late in the fourth. 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Lithuanian giant hurt us more than anything. One can’t expect Bargnani to guard him down there and the Raptors didn’t do enough to force Big Z to use his feet and in the process pick up quick early fouls. But his contribution would’ve been tolerable hadn’t it been for Jones and Gibson keeping the Cavs in this game in the first half and eventually icing it in the fourth. The blame here has to go as much to the players as to the coaching staff, it’s the players’ job to play defense and even if they were unfamiliar with the scouting reports, Jones and Gibsons’ first half performance should’ve sufficed as fair warning of their abilities. Bad, bad perimeter defense by Calderon, Parker and company allowed the open looks but the fault isn’t all theirs. Defensively, we couldn’t control the paint which often prompted weak double teams that didn’t do anything for us because 1) they weren’t strong enough to pressure ball-handler and 2) they weren’t weak enough to still challenge the shot.
Calderon had a very good game with 13 assists, 7 points and 0 turnovers but the Raptors missed TJ Ford’s scoring punch, the quicker Ford would’ve undoubtedly had much more success guarding the fleet-footed Gibson and Jones than Calderon who played quarterback without ever trying to assert himself offensively. No complaints towards Caldy however, he ran the team well and always made good decisions on our the good ‘ol pick ‘n roll. Lebron James was having success against every defender yet we never actually forced him to give up the ball. At best we used soft double teams from the weak-side which actually allowed him to pick out the shooters. The only aggressive defense we played was with less than two minutes left when a trap forced the Cav into a bad shot, aside from that Lebron had all the time in the world to do what he wanted. For a player that’s completely in the zone, we did nothing to take him out of it and it’s shocking to see Sam Mitchell not even consider double teaming Lebron and forcing somebody else to create the shots.
The Cavs must be given credit, they hit their perimeter shots and their big men dominated the glass and gave them a chance to win, which they took. Thanks for reading, the Bulls tomorrow at the ACC. Get the feed.
