The bench got some big time run in meaningless game #82 but couldn’t pull it out in Chicago as the Bulls ended their miserable season amid speculation of a coaching change along with some very awkward contract talks coming up with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon. The Raptors end their season at a not-so-hot 41-41, well below pre-season expectations but as we now have figured out, a reasonable record given the talent on this team.
With nothing to play for Sam Mitchell chose to empty the bench rather than tune the starters so it was the likes of Primoz Brezec, Joey Graham and Kris Humphries that got to play significant minutes. The bench did not look good and the only reason it’s not a great cause for concern going into the Magic series is that their second unit isn’t exactly stacked either. God must hate Joey Graham, the guy’s been coming to the gym an hour and a half early for the past three months and when he finally gets some playing time he goes 0-7 with 3 turnovers.
We did win the only meaningful quarter 33-27 but the bench did leave a sour taste, consider some stats: Points in the paint 50-32, rebounds 49-37, second chance points 16-10, 43% overall shooting despite our starters hot first quarter and finally the bench committed 20 fouls as opposed to Chicago’s 5. They’re about as disintegrated a second unit as there is in the NBA. Speaking of units, our top two 5-man units are the exact same with TJ and Jose switched around. Guess which one takes #1.
Kris Humphries was in MJ mode for the time he was on the floor and managed to net 14 before he fouled out disgracefully. Gangsta Brezec played with all the emotion of a NBA Finals Game 7 but it only translated to 3-9 for 7 points. This guy should be getting more rebounds while he’s in the game, he’s a career 4.1 RPG man which is disappointing given his frame and the passion he plays with. He tends to get caught in the worst positions when it comes to the defensive boards and is quite easily pinned down for a guy his size. Jumping isn’t his forte either because if it weren’t for his 7-foot body, he probably couldn’t touch the rim. His only contribution in the Orlando series will be his 6 fouls against Howard.
TJ Ford had to know that he was only going to play one quarter because he made it a point to get his and ended up with 18 points in 18 minutes on 7-9 shooting. He had Kirk Hinrich on a string in the first quarter, I wanted to see him continue to play until he went cold. Sam Mitchell erring on the side of caution and giving Bosh, Ford, Nesterovic and Parker minimal minutes. Unfortunately, Jose Calderon didn’t get to rest and ended up playing a selfless 30 minutes – thats what happens when you don’t have a third guy who can handle the ball.
The Magic also rested their starters which gave Dwight Howard some time to think about his legacy. How old is this guy again? 22? There’s an article in the Orlando Sentinel that talks about how similar these two teams are in their style of play, i.e. big man surrounded by shooters. Its going to come down to which team can get some stops and contain the perimeter shooters and thats going to come down to how disciplined we are on defense and what our defensive plan is against the multi-threat Magic.
Analyzing individual matchups and assigning W/Ls to them isn’t going to yield the series winner, that will have to come from which team is going to rotate out to the shooters while making life difficult for the start power forward. Sam Mitchell and his men have lots of work to do in the next 3 days.
I am pumped.
