Thank God for those 22 Seattle turnovers. After the first half it looked liked the Raptors were going to embark on their upcoming 5-game Western nightmare coming off another no-defense lazy loss, but whatever was said at halftime (pretty obvious stuff) sparked the Raps. They finally got around to playing a lick of defense and turned their jog back to the defense end to what somebody might call a sprint. Add in a commendable rebounding effort and that’s all you need to do to beat Seattle. Of the 8 quarters we’ve played against the Sonics, they’ve won 6.
The transition defense (or lack of) played in the first half was reminiscent of the first Seattle game where we got deservedly blown out. Although we labored offensively in the second quarter, you knew that if we played any sort of transition defense, we’d be right in this game. Earl Watson was driving by Jose Calderon so fast you could hear the Doppler effect, to Sam’s credit he put in TJ Ford to slow the speedy Watson but with little effect. When playing one-on-one, most players can score on most other players. The Raptors were getting caught in matchups where a one-one-one move was enough to break us down because the help defense hadn’t even crossed the half-court line yet. When a perimeter oriented team is missing it’s jump shots, the rebounds are usually long ones and Seattle was grabbing them and running to a tune of 15-0 on fast-break points.
The third quarter saw the tide turn and Bargnani finally hit a few shots, Parker continued his brilliance and Moon stepped up on the defensive end. The fast-break points had disappeared and Seattle was forced to score in the half-court which is always a little more cumbersome. The defense on Watson, Green and Durant was tightened just enough for the Raptors to pull away. But make no mistake, this game was more lost by Seattle than won by Toronto. Seattle’s 22 turnovers (many unforced) lead to 30 Toronto points and you’ll never win a game on the road doing that. We start the West coast swing on a bit of a high because we’re coming off a win, but the defensive weaknesses and the offensive inconsistency of this team was in full display this afternoon. Allowing Seattle to shoot 54% does not bode well for the road and the sporadic and lackadaisical defensive efforts should be of great concern. But such is life with the core of this team, Chris Bosh.
Rasho led us with 6 assists, they weren’t Arvydas Sabonis type assists but he made the right pass when pressured and his teammates happened to stick the shot. More important than his passing was his sweet 17 point effort against the physical Wilcox and Petro. Good game for Rasho. In the post-game quotes, Jose Calderon mentioned what going needed to be done in the second half:
“We knew the mistakes we had in the first half so we just came out and tried to run a little more, be a little more aggressive on the defence and on the offence”
My problem is that this is Game 62 and we have a lot to play for and yet we have trouble sustaining a consistent effort. This is very disconcerting to me, we should’ve come out in the first half with a sense of urgency and revenge on our minds instead we let Seattle dictate things and control this game for far too long.
This was a game we had to have and let’s just be thankful we didn’t screw it up.
Liners:
- Jason Kapono stuck two threes. Yes, this warrants its own bullet point.
- Chris Wilcox: 28pts, 10 rebs, 10-17FG, 8-9 FT. Imagine if we had a guy like this in the front court. Half our problems would go away. We’re desperately lacking a inside scorer and a player like Wilcox fits the bill.
- It’s becoming more and more apparent that Primoz Brezec is not long for this team. His finishing reminds me off JYD. If we want to be taken seriously, we’ll need to stop giving PT to lanky awkward fringe NBA players. I’m so looking forward to the off-season and seeing just what we will do to toughen up underneath.
- Bargnani: horrible first half, decent second half. He needs to be absolutely huge on this trip, if not on defense than on offense. If we have a first half like we did today on the roadtrip, there’s no point even playing the second because we’ll be down so big that wouldn’t matter.
- It is entirely conceivable that once we come back to Toronto, we’ll be tied for Washington for the 6th spot. Currently we hold a 4 1/2 game lead over them and their next 4 are at home. Hearing Bryan Colangelo talk to Elliot Freedman, it sure sounds like Bosh will be eased back in very slowly which likely means he’ll miss the entire five games.
- In his halftime interview, TJ Ford said one of the players he looks up to is Stephon Marbury. The others were Isiah Thomas and Jason Kidd.
- Raptors use balanced attack to snap out of funk
- Last but not least, if we play like this in any of our West coast games, we’ll get blown out every time.
I am fully aware that this is a weak post, no need to remind me of it.