"We’re trying to build on what we have been doing," Mitchell said.
"The message I had for the guys today was we have had four pretty good defensive games and we want to build on that and continue to try and get better."
If Magic players were watching this one hoping to pick up anything that would help with their preparation for the Raps, they were wasting their time unless they’re expecting to see plenty of Kris Humphries and Primoz Brezec.
Joey Graham got more burn in this game than he has in the past 12 games combined.
"As far as enthusiasm and defence, Jamario did all the intangible things," Mitchell said yesterday. "The deflections, he blocked shots, just a lot of things that we didn’t have from that spot in the past. We were lucky to find Jamario and were fortunate he was ready to play."
Mitchell recalls a game early in the season when Moon still was coming off the bench.
The 112-85 loss in Milwaukee was one of the worst games the Raptors would play all season and Moon was concerned.
"He asked one of the coaches after that game: ‘Do you think I’ll get another chance?’ I told him of course he would get another chance. Everybody sucked that night," Mitchell said.
"We just liked the things he was doing," Mitchell said. "Every time we looked up, Jamario was always around the basketball."
"Everyone knows I can shoot," Moon said. "I know I can shoot. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable with it. I still hesitate a lot when I shoot the basketball."
"Obviously I still want to come out here and do my best," he said.
"I’m still auditioning for next year, that’s how I’m looking at it. I still want to come out and do the same things I did the first time here, if not better."
While his players will get the day off, Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell and his staff will hit the books today in preparation for their first-round series against the Magic, which is expected to begin Sunday in Orlando.
"I’m going to sleep in and then come in and go to work around noon," Mitchell said of his plans.
Mitchell said he and his staff already have had some discussions about the Magic and "we already have ideas of what we’re going to do for Game 1."
"After Game 1 everything changes again," he said.
"You do all this prep for Game 1 and then everything is going to change after that."
—-
The contracts for Rautins, who has been associated with the Raptors since their inception, expires once Toronto’s post-season run ends.
Armstrong joined the team during the NBA lockout in 1998 and has endeared himself from the moment he appeared on Toronto’s sporting scene. His contract with Sportsnet soon will end.
Both Rautins and Armstrong are great guys whose delivery is different, yet effective.
It’s sad to think that one is likely not to return next year, but it also was sad when Toronto native John Saunders was told he no longer was wanted.
Or when Norma Wick was shown the door
And as he prepares for that playoff debut, he sees his true jumping off point as a start in a game here in early November.
"I think after (that) game it was pretty much even throughout the whole season," he said yesterday morning before the Raptors concluded the regular season with a 107-97 loss to the Chicago Bulls to finish with a 41-41 record. "I pretty much did the same thing – came out and brought energy, blocked shots, got steals, just got my hands on a lot of balls.
"After I started (that) game, I just tried to come out and do the same thing every game."
He forces team to keep him, accelerates contribution through his hard work in practice and finally earns starting job. He took over from Jason Kapono here on Nov. 10, a night after an eye-opening performance in Philadelphia, and Moon hasn’t looked back since.
He leads the team in blocked shots and is second in rebounding, plays with more athleticism than anyone else in the rotation, and his rookie gaffes are few and far between.
"I feel like my defence is great. The person I’m guarding, I look at their shooting percentage. If they’re shooting a bad percentage, then I’m doing my job."
The coach said when he first elevated Moon to a starting role he expected him to be ready to play in the second half of the regular season, not the second week.
Was it a gamble?
"Probably was, but we had watched him every day in practice. I had played him some in that Milwaukee game (a horrible blowout loss in the season’s fourth game) when we got blown out, and he didn’t look too good," said Mitchell. "And he went to one of the coaches and said: `Do you think I’ll get another chance?’ Coach told him he’d get another chance (because) everybody sucked that night."
Orlando vs. Toronto
Sunday, April 20: Toronto at Orlando, 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 22: Toronto at Orlando, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 24: Orlando at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26: Orlando at Toronto, 3 p.m.
Monday, April 28: Toronto at Orlando, 7:30 p.m., if necessary
Thursday, May 1: Orlando at Toronto, TBA, if necessary
Saturday, May 3: Toronto at Orlando, TBA, if necessary
There’s nothing like seeing an opponent up close in personal.
Not only did the Raptors have advance scout Micah Nori in Atlanta on Tuesday night to scout the Orlando Magic, they also sent assistant coach Jay Triano down there to see just what the Magic are doing these days.
Triano flew down, caught the game and then headed to Chicago early Wednesday morning to get his report ready for Sam and the rest of the staff and be in his usual place for the game against the Bulls.
Toronto kept all but one of its starters — Jamario Moon — on the bench the second quarter, but all five were back when the third quarter began. They were on the sideline late in the period when Chicago rallied from six down to grab a 76-75 lead, and the Bulls pulled away from Toronto’s reserves in the fourth.
Darrick Martin, the Raptors’ point guard who was waived last month but remains with the club as a wise old head, explained the mood around the team this way the other day: "It’s a long season. If you reach your goal and you make the playoffs, you see that light at the end of the tunnel and you get rejuvenated."
And the Raptors should enjoy their time in the spotlight. In drawing Orlando, they have an opponent they think they can beat, and with good reason.
The Magic gambled in the off-season and spent $118-million (all currency U.S.) on free agent Rashard Lewis. They were rewarded with more than 50 wins.
Be it injuries, chemistry, the underachieving Andrea Bargnani or the overpaid Jason Kapono, the Raptors moved sideways this season, falling short of all their preseason goals other than actually qualifying for the playoffs.
While Colangelo’s major moves have been lacking in some respects this season — Bargnani’s stalled development as a No.?1 overall draft pick and the four-year, $24-million contract awarded Kapono — he’s shrewdly avoided hamstringing the future with contracts that clog the salary cap. As a result, this summer and likely next season will provide some opportunities to reload.
Good thing, too. Life in the Eastern Conference promises only to be more unpredictable.
Well, here’s a new word to describe the Raptors’ regular season: Average. Painfully average.
It was the order that he put his players on to the floor that was a bit surprising. The first big man off Mitchell’s bench was Brezec, who last played a meaningful minute on March 11 in Los Angeles.
Of course, Mitchell might need to lean on Brezec against Orlando. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Dwight Howard could put Toronto’s starting big men – Nesterovic and Bosh – in foul trouble. In that case, Brezec would probably be the better matchup for the Magic’s Superman, as opposed to Andrea Bargnani.
The half, however, did not completely lack memorable moments. Just before the first quarter ended, Calderon launched the ball on a rope at the Chicago basket from beyond half court. The shot found nothing but net.
The Magic-Raptors playoff schedule was released late Wednesday night, way past Sentinel deadlines.
What might strike you is how unsexy the TV execs view the Magic and Dwight Howard, putting them on NBA TV twice in the first four games and then at least once if Game 5 is necessary.
Games 1 and 4 are on TNT, a nationally recognized network, and the middle two are on NBA TV, the league’s version of the NFL’s NFL Network.
Toronto comes to town and what happens in the following days will determine if the past seven months were a success. Here’s the simplest of playoff guides:
One series and done — Ugh.
Two and done — Good year.
Conference finals — Gravy.
NBA Finals — We build the Magic two new arenas.
NBA championship — Global freezing in Hell.
Howard is confident enough to say, "We want Toronto to feel like they’re in hell."
He’s also light-hearted enough to add with a laugh, "This is Superman against Lex Luther," referring to his match-up against Raptors star and buddy Chris Bosh.
Howard now is seriously starting to think about his legacy, realizing he is at the stage of his career when he’s expected to lead like a franchise player.
" Patrick Ewing [Magic assistant coach and former NBA great] is always talking to me about this. You get remembered for what you and your team do in the playoffs," he said. "You can do a lot of great individual things, but what really matters is if you led your team. I know a lot of it is on me — and that’s OK. I can handle that."
It’s a match-up of two teams whose principal incumbent players got their feet wet in playoff debut defeats last season. The Magic got bopped in four games by Atlanta, and the Atlantic Division champion Raps were upset by New Jersey in six. For two teams that looked at times this season like they were both set to make further leaps forward, we’re quite non-plussed.
after a solid start to 2008, the Raps had gone just 9-15 over March and April prior to last night’s finale in Hicag. All-around good guy Chris Bosh has seems to have called out just about everybody even remotely associated with the Raptors organization, most notably with his implication that he doesn’t trust his teammates and that he expects more of the Air Canada Centre crowd in Toronto.
The Magic took two of three from Toronto this season, and with Toronto playing as poorly as it has for the last two months — and Orlando being the only team in this series with Howard on its roster — it seems reasonable to expect that they will take the upper hand in this one.
The Phoenix Suns signed forward Linton Johnson for the remainder of the season, the team announced today. Johnson is eligible to be on the Suns’ 2008 NBA Playoff roster.
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.
Since the start of the 2006-2007 season, in Toronto, there has been a stark contrast between how the GM and the Head Coach ’see the NBA game’, in terms of Offense, Defense & Rebounding, and how the Raptors use their player personnel – e.g. the abandonment of the ‘100 Shots Per Game‘ philosophy; the flip-flop between (i) Nesterovic & Bargnani (C), and (ii) Calderon & Ford (PG), as Starters; the sporadic use of Jason Kapono (last summer’s primary Free Agent signee) & Kris Humphries (who was also given a contract extension last summer).
I don’t think this season was a total disappointment for the Raptors.
Did I expect more from this team?
Would it have been better to see this crew improve on their 47-win season total from last year?
Am I concerned about the apparent regression of Andrea Bargnani?
Well, the answer is a resounding YES to every one of those questions.
However, injuries played a major role in Toronto’s step back this season.
Talk all you want about defense, intensity, consistency and creativity; those are all things that plagued the Raps throughout the year. But it was the injury bug that had the biggest impact on Toronto’s success – or lack of it.
Think about the impact that Jorge Garbajosa had on this team last year. He had a magnificent rookie season. Garbo was the man who drew the assignment more often than not on the opposing team’s best player. He had grit and attitude and his basketball I.Q. was second to none.
Toronto missed Garbajosa in their first round series against the Nets last spring. As well as Joey Graham played at times down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs, having Garbo could have made a major difference when trying to shut down/slow down Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.
So here we are … getting ready for the playoffs. Toronto’s regular season is over. And while we all (well, most of us) had loftier goals in mind … this team did finish only 6 games off last year’s record-setting season. Six games. That’s it. Six games … despite major injuries to two key players/starter and a nagging injury that kept the best player out of the line up for nearly one-fifth of the season.
In my mind, that’s not that bad.
Are changes needed and will changes be made in the off season?
Absolutely.
But the “second season” is upon us … and success in the playoffs could do a lot for the future of this team and how Bryan Colangelo assesses what needs to be done and who needs to stay or go.
The playoffs are where this team should truly be judged. Another first-round exit would be a disappointment. But worrying about 47 wins versus 41 wins or anything else is a moot point in my eyes … for now.
I had contacted Jack hoping that he might answer some questions I was going to email him. I got much more then that. I was offered the honour of having a one on one conversation with Jack. What was going to be a 10 minute chat turned into a much longer conversation.
Leo Rautins and Jack Armstrong like the Toronto Raptors’ first-round NBA playoff matchup against the Orlando Magic, Armstrong so much so that he’s picking the Raps to upset the Magic in seven games.
"I’ve seen it so often, where a team stumbles into the playoffs, then comes out of nowhere to win," Armstrong said.
Both analysts say the Raptors will need to improve defensively to be competitive.
"That has been a thorn in their side as of late," Rautins said. "If they can maintain defensive intensity for 48 minutes, they have a chance. They really do. But I think their superior guard play has to be the key. That’s where they have a distinct advantage over the Magic."
TSN will have first shot at the Raptors-Magic playoff telecasts, but the network’s commitment to NHL playoff coverage may cause conflicts.
My primary concern lies in the strength of Orlando’s big three of Howard (20.9 ppg), Turkuglo (19.6 ppg) and Lewis (18.3 ppg). I’m not sure the Raptors can control them consistently throughout the series.
Also, Stan Van Gundy provides the Magic with a coaching advantage over Sam Mitchell.
we can’t beat Orlando with the lineup we’ve been throwing out there. The problem is not Howard since he will get his double-double regardless of what we throw at him. The issue will be matching up with his supporting cast: Hedo Turk, and the Vernon Wells of the NBA, Rashard Lewis. Their front court is impressingly large with all three coming in at 6′10 or more. Considering the size and athleticism of these dudes, I have no confidence in our ability to neutralize the Magic frontcourt.
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Whether or not the Raptors can win their 1st Round playoff series vs the Magic is really quite unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
What’s more important is that I can see at least 20 other teams in the league whose roster of players, draft picks, coaches & management I would trade straight-up for the Raptors if was the owner of Toronto’s current team.
2 full years after the dismissal of Rob Babcock this is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Raptorland.
khandor’s last blog post..Odds to win the 2007-2008 NBA championship
I think that’s a little harsh. 20?! I say 15 teams, at most, but more importantly, you’ve got to remember the depths from which we came.