What gives this team the right to take possessions off? What makes us think that we can flip switches whenever we want and come out on top? Confidence is a great thing to have but the Raptors team as a whole might be a little full of themselves and might be overvaluing just how good they are and where they stand talent-wise. A loss like this should sound alarm bells, we were flat-out lazy in the third quarter, didn’t bother to adjust to the Clippers and took the first shot that was presented to us simply because it was the easiest thing to do. We thought we had won this game at halftime and expected the Clippers to fold and look ahead to Philly, but Corey Maggette and Al Thornton had other plans, they shoved the ball right down our throats and all we could do was watch as the Clippers ended the game by dominating us for a quarter and a half.
For once, I completely agree with Sam’s post-game quote:
“They deserved to win and we didn’t deserve to win. We’re not good enough to just look at a team’s record and show up and play.”
Let’s give the Clippers credit, Mike Dunleavy made some great adjustments: he recognized that we don’t have anybody to guard Maggette and gave him free reigns, then he made a conscientious effort to allow Cuttino Mobley to create off the bounce against Parker, if that wasn’t enough he then posted up our PGs which created opportunities. Bosh was neutralized for the better part of the game by just allowing him space to shoot and showing a soft double team, it’s that easy to contain our best player in some stretches. Yes, he had 29/13 but they don’t carry the weight you might think they do. With Bosh ineffective in the crucial stretch because of the Clippers switching on our only play and a rusty TJ Ford inexplicably manning the point for a large part of that ridiculous 18-0 Clipper run, our offense was shot. All we could muster was contested jumpers on the perimeter and when you’re taking them late in the clock, the percentages will go down.
I wasn’t satisfied with our first half performance because our defense was bad, we weren’t adjusting to Maggette, were careless with the ball and our sets were too stagnant. We let them get too many clean outside looks and didn’t close-out, but somehow lady luck gave us an 8 point lead which was enough for our media to proclaim how great the Raptors were playing and select tick marks across all the keys to the game. ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING INSANE? Could you not tell that the Clippers were right where they wanted to be, in a game like this the goal is to just keep it close at halftime, sustain the third quarter and give yourself a chance in the fourth. The Clippers did all that and came out on top. Kudos to LA.
If you thought Jamario Moon taking more shots (13) than Calderon, Parker and Kapono is a warning sign, how about Corey Maggette dropping 35 on our defensive stopper who’s trying to make the spectacular play every time instead of playing sound defense. Again, it’s the Dunk Contest going to his head, Moon needs to come back to earth and realize what got him the starting job. Fuck making videos and having nickname contests, we need to get back to playing some basketball and become a good solid team before we can jump into the sea of self-promotion. For starters, if you’re open on the perimeter, realize that the other team is doing that on purpose and not because you eluded them – pretty please, pass the fucking ball.
How about Al Thornton taking it to Bosh deep in the fourth quarter? Thornton showed some ONIONS by going straight at our franchise player and not messing around with the jumper or any of that nonsense. Bosh was giving him way too much space and was probably better off just conceding the 18 footer. On the other end, CB4 was relying on the referee more than his ability. His 3-pt play which gave us some hope didn’t make up for three bad jumpers and a traveling call in the fourth quarter. Bosh’s thoughts on Thornton:
“I wish I could play it over again. I would have done a few things a little bit better, but I have to give him credit. He’s quick, he’s fast and he made plays.”
But these are little plays here and there that we’re talking about, the chief reason we lost was because the Clippers wanted it more, I can’t emphasize this point enough. Thornton took Maggette’s example and rallied behind him and met with success by doing what his teammate was doing – being aggressive. I would think Joey Graham at least deserved a shot at slowing down Maggette, I mean he’s good for something, right? Huh? Sam?
In contrast, the Raptors took jumpshot after jumpshot after jumpshot in the fourth quarter until Bargnani finally made one – that’s not a plan, it’s freestyling basketball. The Clippers were loving that because we weren’t moving the ball at all and all they had to do was play good man-defense on the perimeter to shut us down. Uncharacteristic turnovers on the part of Calderon also hurt us but pointing him out as a culprit would be severely wrong. What’s a post-game recap without touching on rebounding? 45-33 is favor of the Clippers, the Raptors managed to grab four offensive rebounds but I swear I don’t remember any of them. Bargnani managed to grab 6 which is a lot for him. I’m not complaining too much about him despite his below-average game, he’s still come a long way from two weeks ago when the Raptors were risking embarrassment every time he was on the floor. Jamario Moon got 3 boards which is just sad because two of them he took away from his own teammates. Kris Humphries had 0 because he played 0 minutes – anybody thought we could’ve used his hustle and energy out there tonight? Sam didn’t.
The Clippers had more than half their starting lineup out and even then we couldn’t defend them. All Sam had to do was draw up something which would slow down Maggette, after all, Bosh can handle Kaman which meant that the only coaching needed to be done today was to figure out a way to slow down Maggette, maybe a double here, a trap there, something other than straight-up man-defense. Maggette was licking his chops every time down the floor because he couldn’t believe how easy the Raptors were making it for him, he just did what a good NBA player does, he took advantage.
So much for the easy month of February. I have a headache.
Liners:
* A part of me died today.
* This loss is similar to the Philly and Washington ones where we were in cruise-control for unknown reasons for the first three quarters before going into panic-mode in the fourth. We are just not mature enough and experienced enough to take these gimme games seriously.
* When Chris Kaman picked up his 5th foul with 5:11 left in the 4th quarter and we only attacked him once after that! That’s it, and that too on a lateral Bargnani drive which was easy to defend.
* How many threes does Maggette have to hit before we close him down on the perimeter? In fairness, even if we did play him for his jumper, he’d easily drive by any of our 3’s. We have nobody who can guard him, Moon/Delfino are too small and Bosh/Humphries are too slow, maybe Graham but he was glued to the bench.
* Did anybody catch Chuck get the trivia question wrong? The question was who the all-time leader in games played was and he said, “We’ll see him in February” referring to Vince Carter. The answer: Morris Peterson.
* Chuck calling this game in favor of the Raptors pre-game on RaptorsTV because of Brand, Cassell and Livingston being deserves a kick in the nuts.
* Joey Graham and Kris Humphries should’ve at least got some run tonight, the former because of his potential defense on Maggette and the latter because of his hustle and energy which we were severely lacking.
* I really don’t like how the media is pumping the Raps up, we have big defensive issues that need to be addressed and nobody talks about them.
* I would’ve bet my house on Calderon making that jumper coming off the screen with 17 seconds left. I thought it was a decent enough move by Calderon, probably should’ve passed it off to to Bosh who was rolling but I can live with him taking that jumper.
* Nobody criticize TJ. He played well, he just shouldn’t have been there in the third/fourth quarter for so long. Not his fault.
Later.
