Post-Game Thread, Raptors - Away

[bobheckler]

9-1.  We are 9-1 in game 2 of back-to-backs.  We are 14-11 since the All-Star break.  If we played like this all season we'd be in 6th place, ahead of Milwaukee and just behind Washington.  Yeah, I know, "ifs and buts and candy and nuts" and "if pigs could fly we'd all carry umbrellas" and all the rest of those sayings that wishes aren't realities, but you have to admit the 2nd half of this season has been a lot more fun than the 1st half.  We might not make the playoffs this year but we're finishing the year like a playoff team.  35-42, and counting, sure beats the snot out of 25-57.  Before the season started the pundits opined that we'd only win 28 games, maybe 30 and that was assuming Rondo and Green would both be healthy and here.  I think there was one brave soul who predicted 32.  This board, being loaded with true believers, ventured guesses a little north of that.  Today, we already have 35 wins with 5 more opportunities to go. I'm going to give myself a little pat on the back by saying that I thought we had a shot at 35 wins and, if we got there, in the crappy EC, we were within striking distance of a playoff berth. Well, I've got one thing to say to those pundits.





This game meant something to both teams.  We are struggling to get back into the playoff picture and they are trying to keep Washington in their rear view mirror to keep home court advantage in the playoffs (winning your division guarantees you into the playoffs but not homecourt).  They were without Kyle Lowry and Amir Johnson, two starters, but that's part of the game.  They could make it all the way to the Finals and then have your center blow his knee out in game 6 like a certain team I could think of.  That's why you have to have a well-developed bench.

I had the Toronto feed last night.  I don't know their play-by-play announcer's name but the color guy is Leo Rautins, a 10-year professional career but only 2 of them in the NBA.  Like just about every Canadian I've ever met they were very polite and complimentary about everything and everybody in green.  If you didn't know better you'd have thought they were working for the Celtics.  They positively gushed about Stevens, Bradley, Evan Turner, Bass, you name it.  Even when they disagreed with a ref's call they were so nice and respectful about it.  Tommy they are not.

We started out very rocky, only 15 points in the 1st quarter and was down by 9 and only shooting 35%.  They shot 47% and was 8-8 from the line.  We had no ftas in the 1st quarter, nor did we deserve any.  We were not being aggressive enough to earn any.  We roared back to tie it up at the half with a 32 points 2nd and then took a 13 point lead with 3 minutes left in the 3rd, finishing the 3rd with a nice 11 point lead.  

1.  Then DeMar DeRozan and Sweet Lou Williams happened.  DeMar DeRozan can DeShoot.  Face up, on the move, off the dribble, you name it.  8 points after 1, 17 points at the half but only 20 at the end of 3.  Slowing down?  Uh uh.  12 points in the 4th and 6 in the 5 minute OT for a total of 38 points on a smoking hot 14-25.  Heads up for Brad Stevens, DeRozan only took 1 3pt fga in 43 minutes.  He did take 12 ftas, hitting 10, and he didn't get those by bombing away from downtown Brampton.  He attacked the paint and earned them.

2.  Lou Williams went nuts in the 4th quarter and OT.  His falling left 3ptr with :04 left in OT to give the Raptors a 1 point lead almost did it.  In fact, Williams only had 16 points after 3.  He had 5 points in the 4th and 6 of Toronto's 12 in the OT to end up at 27 point on 9-17.  Their guards lit us up.  The best thing I can say is that Terrence Ross was a no-show but Williams and DeRozan put on quite a show.

3.  Not one to shy away from competition, our little Mighty Mouse had a game too.  25 points on 10-19, 3-8 from 3.  Surprisingly, he only went to the line 2x.  He usually gets a lot more ftas.  4 assists, but also 4 TOs.  Oh well, can't have everything right?  Loved watching him rip up the gut for layups.  Rautins mentioned that the Bucks got Mayo on Thomas and tortured him, and that the Raptors' coaching staff must be aware of it, but I didn't see them working to get DeRozan on Thomas.  That would have been comical.  DeRozan could have stood there and shot flat-footed over him.  One good thing, and what really made a HUGE difference, is that all 4 of IT's TOs happened in the 1st 3 quarters.  He had no more TOs in the 4th and OT.

4.  Kelly put on a nice little show for his Canadian homies.  He hit a straight-away 3pt bank shot to end the 2nd quarter and send us into the locker room up 11.  Rautins asked "did he call glass on that?" and he play-by-play guy said "he doesn't need to, it's his country!".  The whole damn country.  Kamloops is in British Columbia, 4000 kms away.  Kelly was showing a bit of everything last night.  5-10, 3-5 from 3 for 16 points.  He was driving, he was doing his Dirk-ish wrong-legged fadeaway, he was taking his man off the dribble.  A little sloppy at times, tried to do a little too much but I'm ok with that.  He's usually TOO tentative.  Being a finesse player doesn't mean being passive.  You still have to be aggressive, just aggressively slippery.  He done good last night and Brad had him in during crunch time in during the last 1:15 of the 4th and for those last :04 of OT.  Brad was shuttling Kelly and Bass in and out like passenger pigeons.  Bass rewarded Brad's confidence in him with a BIG traffic rebound with :18 left in OT and Kelly was wheeling and dealing on offense.  After seeing that stupid comment by Mario Chalmers about not knowing his role on the Heat, it's obvious that the players on the Celtics know their roles.  One big reason for that is that Brad is excellent at seeing what each player's fortes are and putting them in position to use those strengths to help the team.  That's why marginal minute players like Wallace, Pressey and Gigi come in and do well.  They know why.  Chalmers, apparently, doesn't.

5.  Chicken or the egg?  Has Marcus Smart grown as a player and that's why he was able to hit those two HUGE shots or will those two shots grow him?  We were 3-7 from the field in OT.  IT had 2 shots blocked, including his last one almost at the buzzer.  Smart will be on Sportcenter because of his putback to win the game at the buzzer, but his corner 3pt fgm with :32 left was icy, icy cold-blooded.  Two of the 3 fgm in OT were his.  He had 15 points on 6-9 and 2-5 from 3.  That's 4-4 from 2 and I like him taking shots other than 3s.  4 rebounds, 4 assists and only 1 TO, 2 steals.  I've harped on his shooting mechanics before but I don't doubt he'll figure out how to score as he gains experience but he has some good instincts to work off of and his instincts with the clock down to a few seconds and Thomas going to the rim was to go to the rim and see if there was any clean up work available and those were very, very good instincts.  Staying cool and putting the shot up quickly to beat the buzzer and finishing was big but it only happened because his instincts told him to go to the rim on the Thomas penetration and not hang around outside.  The last minute of last night's game, though?  Beautiful.

6.  Evan Turner tried to will us over the finish line in the 4th quarter.  After giving up an 11 point lead he did everything he could to win it in regulation.  With 2:47 left in the 4th and the 11 point lead down to 3 he grabbed a defensive rebound and 5 seconds later fed IT for a 17'er.  With :32 left and a tie game he twirled his way into the lane for an improbable layup.  With :12 seconds left and the game tied again after a DeRozan layup, he hits a 12'er to get us a 2 point lead.  Leo Rautins said something that we have been hearing Sam say for years and that is that players who do well (or poorly) in one system might thrive (or suffer) in another.  We've seen that with Jae Crowder who wasn't getting minutes in Dallas but is invaluable to Brad, we see it in Cleveland with Kevin Love (going the other way) and Rautins pointed out that is what has happened to Evan Turner in Boston.  18 points on 9-17, 10 assists with only 4 TOs (2.5:1 is just fine) and 3 steals.  His 6 rebounds are almost an afterthought but I'll bet he is one of the better rebounding SF in the league.  In fact, looking it up, only PJ Tucker, Wilson Chandler, Nicolas Batum, Trevor Ariza and James Harden average more rebounds per game than Turner.  Notables like Gordon Hayward, Jeff Green, Wiggins, Joe Johnson and Khris Middleton are all behind him.  He had a tough time guarding DeRozan, picking up 5 fouls, but everybody has trouble with DeRozan once he feels his rhythm.  

7.  Sully's shot is not there, and he had 2 TOs, but his rebounding sure as hell is.  Zero points on 0-3 but 7 rebounds, 4 of them offensive in just 12 minutes.  The ones I liked were the 2, just off the top of my head, that he ran down in the corner and saved the possession.  3 months ago he couldn't have done that, he was too slow.  The rust is still coming off, but his instincts and nose for the ball haven't gone away.  I don't know what that means to and for Jerebko but, from my perspective, it's all about the team and the team gains by having a leaner, lighter effective Jared Sullinger.

8.  Zeller with 20 points in 20 minutes.  He's up, he's down, he's back up again.  One rebound away from a double-double.  All in all a pretty good night against the bigger Valanciunas.

9.  Tyler Hansbrough and Brandon Bass went to war last night.  Statistically Hansbrough won, but Bass fought him.  Hansbrough is Bass without the money mid-range shot.  He is strong, he is relentless, he loves contact.  NCAA Champion, NCAA Player of the Year, #13 pick.  And yet, he is a starter on a good, but not great, Toronto Raptor team only because Amir Johnson is out.  So, was the draft wrong, and he should have been picked higher than #13 given his college bona fides, or is he an NBA rotation player (and probably picked appropriately somewhere around 13th) because the college game doesn't always translate well into the NBA?


A great gutty, grind'em game.  We almost got blown out early, pulled ourselves together in the 2nd and 3rd, almost lost it in the 4th and then found a way in OT.  This WAS playoff basketball.  Both teams shot 48% from the field, so it was a respectable shooting night for both.  Both teams had a not-unworldly number of TOs (15 for us and 16 for them).  Both teams had a comparable number of points scored in the paint, 56 and 54.  We had 16 fast break points to only 8 for them (yeah!) but where we did well is we had a robust 97 fgas to only 83 for them, which offset their massive 38-22 fta advantage.  We were also very opportunistic with their turnovers, creating 25 points off of their 16 TOs.  This was a growth game for us.  

We're back in 8th place because Miami and Brooklyn both lost.

Miami is in Indy today.  If Miami loses we will be 1 game up in the loss column on them for 8th.  Tomorrow Portland is in Brooklyn.  Brooklyn is starting to play well, they are 8-2 in their last 10, but Portland is a good team.  If Portland wins we will be tied with Brooklyn.  I don't know who owns the tie breaker.  Tuesday Charlotte plays at Miami.  We have off all the way to Wednesday, when we are in Detroit.  It seems like we play better the closer the games are together, so I'm not sure that's such a good thing.  

Masters of our own fates, again.  I am all in for making the playoffs.  If we don't make the playoffs we'll still probably end up with the 11th or 12th pick and that's not going to get us a franchise player, but the playoff experience, ah!  Remember Brad Stevens last year?  Now look at him this year with a year's experience under his belt.  We can trade for and/or sign players with playoff experience but, unless Danny fires Brad (HIGHLY improbable) or Brad goes back to college (not likely, especially since he can see the progress he and the team has made in just one year), then the only way for our coach and his staff to gain that critical playoff experience is for us to make the playoffs.  Better this year, when we don't expect much, than next year or the year after that when our team is readier, but he isn't.



bob



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[bobheckler]

btw, forgot to mention, Brad's final ATO play.  It was something straight out of arena football, where the wide receivers can start running towards the line of scrimmage before the hike.

He had IT WAY in the back court and just start running towards the half court line.  By the time he caught the ball he was in full stride and already almost within range of a long one.  When you only have 2.6 seconds on the clock, that was a great way to prevent a double team or a tipped inbounds pass which would start the clock.

This video is of Smart's highlights from the whole game.  The final play starts at about the 2:00 mark.  Watch where Brad has Thomas starting his run from.  He gets the ball about 30' out and was in the paint with his 2nd dribble.

Have you ever seen a coach call this play before? I'll bet you'll start seeing them now...


Another game.  Another winning, and highly creative and innovative ATO by our sophomore coach.    







bob



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[sinus007]

Bobh,
Thanks for the summary. Just a couple additions.
I'm one of the schmundits who predicted 32-35 wins this season. And the Celtics on the verge of proving me wrong - Yeeesss, baby!
Hansbrough played last night as an all-star which he is not and, most probably, never will be. Bass, OTOH, played as he always plays which is 80-90% of the time, the reason he's called Steady-Eddy. Also, TH always tries to get under your skin, e.g. last night in OT he tried to rile Zeller to get a technical (thankfully TZ was a cool customer and TH just fouled out).

AK

[beat]

Bob

on that final play...........

Lets not forget there were actually 2 final plays.

With 4 seconds we started the first one , ball went to Sully and he held it........ Brad quickly called another time out, thank goodness he had another, he made a couple subs, and then with just 2.6 seconds we got a lot of magic and even more luck.

I'll take luck over the best drawn up play any day of the week.

beat

[Sam]

Bob,

Thanks for not criticizing Jae, who had a VERY quiet night as he was supposed to play "only limited minutes" because of his twisted ankle but wound up playing 30 minutes in discomfort.  For a guy with a bad ankle, I thought he did a great job on defense down the stretch (end of the fourth and overtime).

Sam

[beat]

Bob

didn't notice the thread you posted about the "next" to last second play before I posted my earlier reply here.

beat

[bobheckler]

Bob

didn't notice the thread you posted about the "next" to last second play before I posted my earlier reply here.

beat

beat (and everybody else),

No problem. It's better we get the info out here than to have some nice tidy little site, I think. If some clean up or re-organizing is necessary afterwards that's easy enough to do, but let's give the board members the good stuff and figure out where it should go later.



bob



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