Two games in and the Raptors are doing a whole lot more talking about their defence than they are about their offence.
And who would have thought that even a year ago?
But when you hold a team, even an undermanned team like the Cleveland Cavaliers were last night to just 17 points in the game-turning third quarter, you’ve more than earned the right to brag a little.
On the night the Raps held the Cavaliers to just 38% shooting while evening their record at 1-1 thanks to a
101-81 drubbing of the visiting Cavs.
Granted there was no Mo Williams or Anderson Varejao in the Cleveland lineup last night, but you don’t even have to go back more than seven months to find an example of the Raptors giving up much more to equally offensively challenged opponents.
“I think our defence overshadowed our offence,” forward Reggie Evans offered after the game. “In the past we have strictly been about offence but I think our defence was (a constant) through the whole game and it carried into the offence allowing us to get some easy buckets in transition. It was a good feeling knowing our offence really won us that game.”
And Evans wasn’t the only one who noticed it.
“I think we were contesting very well,” head coach Jay Triano said. “They hit a couple threes late in the game there, but I thought we contested real well and our aggressiveness defensively was pretty good. We didn’t make it easy for them to run their offence and that’s what we try to do and hopefully that contributes to them not shooting the ball well.”
It certainly worked on point guard Ramon Sessions, who had a dreadful shooting night hitting just 1-of-10 attempts. Even the normally accurate Anthony Parker struggled under the pressure hitting just 4-of-11 for 10 points.
Jose Calderon said it was a plan carried out to near perfection.
“We just never let them get into the game,” he said. “We pressed. We denied the ball to specific guys and really took them out of their game. I think we really made it uncomfortable for them to play.”
Point guard is becoming an early problem for the Raptors.
Jose Calderon’s shooting touch has completely abandoned him and Jarret Jack’s decision-making has taken a noticeable turn for the worse.
Jack hit only 1-of-8 shots and had five turnovers to just four assists.
Calderon’s shooting slump continues.
The career 49.5% shooter shot a dismal 0-for-5 after opening the season 2-for-8 and shooting 15-for-46 (33%) in the pre-season.
Calderon did dish out seven assists to his two turnovers.
The guard is happy his maligned defence is coming around — he helped hold Cleveland starter Sessions to 1-for-10 shooting, but wants to see improvement at the other end.
“Now I am feeling great and I can do more, but now I have to do both things, defence and offence,” Calderon said.
Chris Bosh apparently still cares what you think of him.
The Raptors former franchise player and his agent contacted the FAN 590 sports radio station late Thursday night looking to right what he believes was a mininterpretation of comments he made Tuesday in Boston.
Those comments, reported by the Toronto Sun’s Rob Longley, created further backlash for the once beloved Raptor.
Bosh says he wasn’t giving the reason he left Toronto when he made the comment, “I mean, really it’s all about being on TV at the end of the day. Seriously, a guy can average (20 points and 10 rebounds) and nobody cares. If you don’t see it, it doesn’t really happen.”
Referring to those comments, Bosh told the Fan’s Doug Farraway: “It wasn’t in the context of why I made my decision. It was (about) the perceptions of players and how more popular players are considered better players (because they’re on TV a lot). At no time did I refer to that as my quote, unquote bottom line or the reason I made the decision I made,” Bosh said.
“We’re contesting very well,” said Triano. “They hit a couple of threes late in the game there but I thought we contested real well and I thought our aggressiveness on defence was really good.
“We didn’t make it easy for them to run their offence and that’s what we want to do and hopefully that contributed to them not shooting the ball well.”
Offensively, the Raptors weren’t great but they were quite good enough as they took advantage of whatever mismatches they could.
Linas Kleiza dominated the decisive third quarter, scoring 13 of the team’s 31 points by abusing ex-Raptor Jamario Moon. The bigger, stronger Kleiza was able to operate easily in the post by backing Moon down and scoring almost at will and the new Raptor also knocked down a three-pointer when the Cavs laid off him.
“I’ve said from the beginning, he’s a guy who can play with his back to the basket and he can play facing the basket,” said Triano. “He hit a couple early and then Sonny (Weems) came in and Sonny played well and then we wanted to get Linas going again (in the third quarter) and we got him in a post-up and it seemed to work so we just kept going at it.”
Ah, Turkoglu: The high-priced free agent bust who spent one inglorious season with the Raptors. Of the many moves Colangelo has made, this is the one that you’d think he thinks would merit a do-over. Well, almost, but not quite.
“If I was given all the same circumstances, and again no foresight as to what the outcome was, I still think I’d make the same deal. So am I sorry or do I regret doing it after the fact? Yeah. But you can never operate with that foresight, you can prepare and you have as much information and you put that information into the equation and you try to decide what that outcome might be but that outcome has to play itself out. And in this business, there are so many variables that are a factor.”
As for Chris Bosh, this year’s other big departure, it remains to be seen just how crippling a long-term blow it will be for the Raptors and Colangelo. The story won’t go away this season, impacting the present and worrying fans about the future.
“Last year, there was a pretty strong notion that we should either trade Chris Bosh and get something for him while we could or do something to try to keep him.
“Well, we went out and arguably made a pretty big splash.There was a lot of discussion about it, mostly positive, that came about when we went and got the Turkoglu transaction completed. Again, it was an attempt to try to make the most of the situation that we had under present circumstances and as recently as Feb. 15, when we went to Dallas for the All-Star Game, we were sitting on a franchise record-tying 29 wins and everything seemed kind of on-track.
“A lot changed from that point forward, some of it explainable, some of it not explainable. I don’t want to rehash the past and the reasons and what might have been but it fell at that point.
“Even the notion that we didn’t get anything for the departure of Chris Bosh is a little bit of a misconception in that we still have what’s known as the trade exception as a possible means of getting better or acquisition of assets, players or assets; and we have our pick back, which was given up previously, and another pick that could potentially be packaged or utilized in some other way.
Although there were plenty of empty seats at the Air Canada Centre, the crowd of 15,700 went crazy in the dying minutes of the game, in part because everyone got a free slice of pizza when the Raptors cracked 100.
Raptor forward-centre Reggie Evans (14 rebounds), said his team wasn’t trying to rub it in when players attempted an ally-oop shortly before the buzzer.
“It was all just for the love of the game. Fans go home with free food. They deserve it. Today’s Friday. Kids go home, eat some pizza, they don’t have to go to school in the morning. Get up and watch cartoons.”
“It’s better to do something like that for the fans than do all kinds of dance moves you just learned from Ciara or Destiny’s Child. You know, uh, B2K…Justin Bieber, all these dances you can do.”
Triano added of Cleveland’s tendency to perform elaborate pre-game rituals during the LeBron James era: “How many years did we watch them dance down there?…I’d rather take care of our fans first.”
However, if the Raptors are going to defy expectations this year, it is not the offence that should be the most pleasing sign. New York and Cleveland are hardly expected to be league powers but the Raptors have been outperforming their wretched defensive selves from a year ago.
(Being intimately acquainted with several of the Cavaliers who are former teammates, the Raptors knew it was a good idea, for example, to allow Moon to take a three-pointer.)
The Cavaliers looked very much like a team in need of an offensive focal point, shooting only 38% for the game. It allowed the Raptors to take an eight-point lead to the break. The Raptors held New York to just 43% shooting on opening night, despite the loss.
“It was crazy, because I think our defence overshot our offence,” forward Reggie Evans, who grabbed 14 more rebounds, said. “In the past it’s strictly been a lot of offence. I think our defence kind of sustained us throughout the whole game. It really showed, and it carried on to the offence for easy transition buckets. It was a good feeling to know our defence really won the game for us.”
Toronto, which lost its home opener Wednesday, clearly was interested in making a better impression, and the Raptors did so. Andrea Bargnani, who always gives the Cavs trouble, finished with 20 points, while the always-tough Reggie Evans added 14 boards.
The fact the Cavs put up little resistance made it that much easier.
"I thought they outplayed us," Scott said. "I thought they played harder than we did. I thought they wanted it a whole lot more than we did.
"I was hoping that because we have such a young team we would take it to the next level after a good win Wednesday night. But we went backward. We seemed like the fat cats and they seemed like a team out there really trying to get a win. It looked like we won the other day and they lost. You could tell the team that really wanted to win tonight — and that was them."
I’ll be brief tonight, because that was awful and terrifying. The Cavs’ offense was horrible. Beyond horrible. I mean, this was the Raptors the Cavs were playing. Ramon Sessions drove recklessly into the lane without any real plan approximately 200 times, and it didn’t really work out for him. Sometimes the Cavs would rotate the ball around the perimeter, almost get an open three, realize nobody really wanted to take it, and give it back to Ramon Sessions for a reckless drive at the hoop. I think the best set of the night was one that got Ryan Hollins a post-up opportunity. Anthony Parker ran the point for extended periods of times, and that was probably a good decision. Dear lord.
Beleaguered Toronto Sports Fan
Raptor fans have to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves if it’s really worth continuing this reactionary cycle of feeling bitter and victimized. The more defensive we get about how great our city is, and the more we just leap at every little thing someone says, the more pathetic we look.
It’s time to stop moping around, wondering why nobody likes us. It’s time to stop waiting breathlessly for an inflammatory quote that we can react to. I’ve been guilty of this in the past, certainly, but it’s time to stop.
Let people say what they want to say. What we have to do now is demand more from the Toronto Raptor organization. Send emails, chain yourselves to the big rusty sculpture on the west side of the ACC. Demand results.
If this city isn’t really cursed after all, and an MLSE sports property can actually be succesful, you watch: all of a sudden Toronto is the next big thing. People will want to be a part of something when it actually looks like it might be something, or the place to be. A brief moment in the Vince Carter era notwithstanding, this just simply hasn’t been the place to be.
THE FAN 590’s Zack Cooper covers the Toronto Raptors first regular season win against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the ACC.
The great thing about a win like that, is that nobody shot lights out or played above themselves. Everyone just played hard, played their roll and did what they are counted on to do.
Reggie was, once again, the main attraction. I have no idea if he’s being put on display to be traded later on, but if he keeps putting together games like the last two, it might be difficult for Toronto to actually trade him. I’m split about what I would do. I mean, the guy is 30 years old, and plays a position the same position as Ed Davis and Amir Johnson, two of the apparent cornerstones of the future of the team. He’s got an expiring contract and the type of game that would make him incredibly attractive to a lot of teams, especially contenders. Of course, he also plays with the same type of energy, grit and determination that the Raptors hope to emulate and he’s a great roll model for the younger players.
The fact is that no matter what Evans brings to the team, it’s not likely they would re-sign him this summer, so they would probably lose him for nothing. I mean, what’s the point of re-signing him when the team has already made longterm commitments to Amir and Davis?
Besides, Reggie, Kleiza had the type of game we’ve come to expect from him. He scored inside and outside, grabbed some boards and played hard. I really do think he’s going to end up being the team’s #1 option before Christmas. He doesn’t do anything spectacularly well, but he just gets it done.
Bargnani had a little more trouble getting inside against the Cavs, and floated back out to his comfort zone behind the three point line where he shot better than he did against New York. Still, he made some awful plays on defense and got only 1 rebound in 30 minutes. If Reggie is traded, Bargnani is probably going to be affected the most.
