It’s a shame that Andrea Bargnani’s magnificent effort was wasted. That was my first thought as his 30 foot desperation heave grazed the outside part of the net in the waning seconds at MSG. In what was one of the best road performances ever by a Raptor, Bargnani’s monster 41 points served as the sole reason the Raptors were in this game, and perhaps if only one more Raptor had stepped up on either end of the floor, this could have been a memorable win.
There were two things that were key to Bargnani’s success (41pts, 16-24 FG, 7rebs, 6ast). First, after Mike D’Antoni went with the popular strategy of putting a small forward on him in the form of Wilson Chandler, Bargnani recognized that that he had 25lbs and 4 inches on Chandler, who isn’t a great defender to begin with. He demanded the ball and hit easy mid-range jumpers which had no chance of being blocked, it set him in rhythm and he took it from there. It also helped that the Raptors made a concerted effort to keep him involved through re-posts and hi-los. Second, when the Knicks’ rather poor doubles came, Bargnani’s positioning afforded him great vision, and he spread the ball like a water sprinkler on a summer day. He had 6 assists on the night and could have had a lot more if some of his mates had finished off their looks (Weems, Barbosa). Last night we saw what Bargnani looks like “in the zone”, and it was a thing of beauty. We saw just how impossible he is to guard when he’s tuned into the game and how easily players can play off of him in a spread-out floor, certainly much better than with the previous “franchise” player.
I have a sick feeling that Amare Stoudemire will be tormenting the Raptors during the entire duration of his stay in New York. He had a quiet start and it wasn’t just about him missing shots, the Raptors were throwing quick doubles at him before he even dribbled the ball, forcing him to give it up early. The Raptors’ fresh legs made excellent interior and perimeter rotations early on, and the potent Knicks offense was relatively contained. The strategy of doubling Stoudemire is obviously a risky one given New York’s sharp shooters, but it’s one that was paying off early and I didn’t see any reason to deviate from it. Stoudemire can score on any Raptor easily, it’s a fact that needed to be acknowledged, and Triano giving Johnson the daunting task of stopping him one-on-one backfired early. On the first three possessions on which the Raptors didn’t send a double for Stoudemire, the Knick picked up two fouls against Amir Johnson, sending him to the bench. Johnson’s ineffective 6 point and 5 rebound game can be directly tied to the Raptors choosing to play Stoudemire through single coverage.
The Raptors shot 60% in the first quarter while affording New York 52%, and found themselves with a 32-28 lead. At least it wasn’t a blowout and we had one player going, now, if only somebody else would step up we could have a real shot this. Other than DeMar DeRozan’s bi-weekly good game (19pts, 6-11FG, 5reb, 2ast), not much was happening. It’s in the second quarter that Jose Calderon started getting violently abused by Raymond Felton, and the coach didn’t exactly help, more on that in a bit. Jerryd Bayless faired a little better but only in the second half, the latter did have a nice passing first half where he made a sweet drive ‘n kick and a great lob pass for scores, but he was stuck in his own little battle with Toney Douglas who had the hot hand from deep.
There’s something eerily similar about Calderon/Bayless getting torched by Felton, and Stoudemire killing the Raptors in the fourth quarter. They came against a very comparable lineup, one that is so defensively deficient that you have to question why any head coach would opt to go for it the second time when it burned him the first (even this drunk guy would agree). It’s common knowledge that Calderon has trouble sticking to his man, and that Bargnani is not a great help defender. Felton saw this and went ape when a Raptors lineup of Weems/DeRozan, Barbosa/DeRozan, Bargnani, Bayless/Calderon and Kleiza came forth, in other words, no second big man. After blowing by his cover, he found no resistance as he glided in for layups with Bargnani being put in a position that he’s known not to be very good at. With the wings stuck to the three point shooters and Kleiza’s feet securely cemented to the MSG floor, the interior defense came apart. The Knicks rode Felton and the bad Raptors defense to an 18-6 run to end the half, and the once cozy 13 point lead had turned into a 59-57 halftime deficit.
The teams held serve in the third with Bargnani and DeRozan doing the heavy lifting, for the Knicks it was Felton killing the Raptors on the pick ‘n roll and finally getting Stoudemire off the ground. The ex-Sun had started 1-8 and looked out of sorts and hurried, almost expecting the Raptors to double, but when it never came he gradually settled into a zone which the Raptors never budged him out of. Back to the lineup described in the previous paragraph, the one with no Amir Johnson or Ed Davis. The Raptors deployed a similar lineup in the fourth, only this time Bargnani was guarding Stoudemire instead of Gallinari. The Knicks saw the opportunity to exploit and here’s how they did it: they put Bargnani in pick’ n roll situations along with Calderon, when the Raptors’ hedge failed, Stoudemire found himself behind Bargnani going up against a Raptors help defense consisting of the likes of Kleiza, Weems and sometimes even Calderon. It was just too easy for him. They say layups get your confidence going and sure enough, Stoudemire started hitting his jumpers against Bargnani in face-up situation as well. The help never came. Note to TV production crew: nobody wants to see the Knicks bench after each made layup.
I felt bad seeing Bargnani trying to defend Stoudemire when Ed Davis had done a better job of it. I could understand if a one-big lineup was profiting us on offense but such was not the case, our offense was Bargnani going one-on-one and finding teammates when help came. Simple as that. The lack of a second big on the floor for crucial parts of the second and fourth quarter also tilted the early rebounding advantage the Raptors had, it ended up 48-42 in New York’s favor. The Raptors also gave up 60 points in the paint, many to Stoudemire in situations described above.
It also boggles my mind how Linas Kleiza saw 30 minutes and all Julian Wright saw was Triano’s ass blocking his view. A versatile defender like Wright would have gone some way in providing better help when Felton was on his way to the rim, maybe the Raptors could’ve switched him on Felton and given the Knicks a different look instead of the same old Jose. Clearly, the Knicks had it going offensively and a counter measure was needed but never came. In two games where the Knicks have entirely shred us, our best perimeter defender has played a total of two minutes. There is something wrong with that.
When it was all said and done, it was a tight game late in the fourth. Credit to Triano for timing Bargnani’s rest with the TV timeout, it allowed him to come in fresh into the game and he scored 6 points in the final 1:42. Bargnani was doing his best to counter Stoudemire exploiting a mismatched Raptors defense for eight late points – after finishing an acrobatic reverse And1, Bargnani hit a straight-away three to tie things up. This was after Linas Kleiza (still on the court for some odd f*&*!%$#g reason) blessed us with a five four-second call which we got a reprieve for by the way of Gallinari missing a three. Following Bargnani’s game-tying three, the Knicks got the ball back with 28 seconds left and Felton dodged Calderon – who went for the steal – and stepped back for a jumper that bounced off the rim teasing Raptors hearts, and more importantly wasting at least two seconds off the clock. The soft New York rims let the shot fall, and the Raptors only had 2.5 seconds to tie the game. Triano didn’t run a play, he gave the ball to Bargnani closer to midcourt and asked him to pull a miracle. I never believed in miracles.
