Everything the Raptors did wrong in Orlando they did right on a night where they could do no wrong and when the Magic couldn’t sustain any extended run.
With Jamario Moon inserted into the starting rotation at small forward, the Raptors played with sustained energy, passion and efficiency.
With T.J. Ford playing like the starter he truly is, the Magic could not match his quickness in the open floor.
Dominant and in complete control of the opening 12 minutes and first half, the Raptors led by as many as 23 points.
"This was the most important game of the season and we played like it,” Chris Bosh said.
"We couldn’t weather the storm,” Howard said. "They wanted it more than we did."
Fans mocked Howard each time Superman went to the line and raised the decibel level following each miss.
Van Gundy felt he didn’t do enough to get Howard more touches. At the same time, Howard said he felt frustrated in the wake of getting into foul trouble.
"I can’t get frustrated,” he said. "I can’t show my frustration as much as I did. The game is very intense."
And it promises to even intensify.
The name of the semi-selfish, semi-popular, little big man, only on this night he didn’t seem all that Me-J any more.
The name of the player they wanted benched that afternoon, traded away the day before.
The name of the point guard we love to hate, or hate to love, the basketball player we try to understand and maybe never will.
T.J. Ford paid no attention to the standing ovations, to the chanting of his name, to the attention he craves but said: "I didn’t notice." Then he said he appreciated it.
The NBA is a fickle world, moreso at playoff time. Home and away means more than it does in other sports, other leagues. One night, the Raptors can give up 43 points in the first quarter against Orlando. Last night they gave up 40 points in the first half.
"We did," Ford said, "what we’re supposed to do."
And the best-of-seven series no longer is a foregone conclusion.
When asked if he felt vindicated by a 21-point, sharp-shooting, penetrating, assist-pumping game, Ford said: "I don’t think I’m the person I’ve been made out to be the last few months."
"Their point guard play was phenomenal," said Stan Van Gundy, the Orlando coach. "It was the key to the game for them."
Last night, Ford and Calderon outscored Jameer Nelson and Keyon Dooling, 39-14, had more assists, 16-7, more rebounds 12-5, more everything. That wasn’t an advantage. That was a blow out.
"I wanted to prove it to myself," said Ford, who fashions himself a big player on the big stage. "It had nothing to do with you guys."
And as great as they played, it wasn’t just the point guards. It was Jamario Moon, in his first-ever playoff start, doing things he never has done before. This was a night for the forgotten and the occasionally unwanted. Jason Kapono again contributing. Andrea Bargnani, like the series, not looking lost.
But everything last night came back to the point guards. Ford started and played exceptionally well. Calderon finished and was almost his equal.
Nelson explained that his back tightened up during the game when he jumped at Jose Calderon and twisted something. It then locked up when he went to the free-throw line later in the game. It seized on the way back to the dressing room after the game.
"My whole time in the minor leagues I came off the bench most of the time," Moon said. "I can deal with it. Whether it’s being inactive or coming off the bench or being a starter, it really doesn’t make a difference. If I’m inactive I have to root my team on. If I’m coming off the bench I have to bring energy and if I’m staring the game I have to do what I’ve been doing all year."
Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy said Moon’s return seemed to bring the Raptors a sense of comfort that wasn’t there in the first two games when he was coming off the bench.
"That is their team," Van Gundy said, pointing to the 75 starts Moon made this season. "That is what they are used to. They are comfortable in that lineup. I think they just played in a comfort zone more than they had in the first two games."
For Moon the highlight of the night was the four offensive rebounds he pulled down, two of which led to scores.
"Coach always puts an emphasis on extra possessions so I just try to get in there and get as many as I can," he said.
But his highlight of the night was the response of the sellout crowd.
"The way we were playing and having that sixth man (the crowd) behind us it was unbelievable," Moon said. "I didn’t know this place could get this loud. You could feel the court shaking a little bit."
He compared Mitchell going with a starting lineup that included three bigs to his own decision of going with seldom-used centre Marcin Gortat in the fourth quarter of Game 2.
Dwight Howard needed a rest and Van Gundy felt the 7-foot Gortat has quick enough feet to stay with Bosh. Gortat did okay against Bosh but when Andrea Bargnani hit a two and followed that up with a three-pointer over Gortat the decision looked bad.
"I am doing the same thing that Sam did when he started a big lineup," he said. "You have something you think might work, you go with it regardless of what is going to be written or anything else. That is what you have to do."
"That’s been the thing with this series; when we’re aggressive and we’re shooting our shots, we get right back in the game," said Bosh, who scored 14 of his 15 points in the second half. "And we keep leads and we don’t have to worry about their defence."
"It’s a different game with this lineup," said Van Gundy. "You can’t put people in the paint like you can when they start their bigger guys (and) it’s much more difficult to defend."
And a lot of it had to do with Moon, who was taken out of the starting lineup in the first two games of the series as Toronto tried to match Orlando’s size rather than try to exploit an edge in athleticism.
"We knew Jason and AP (Anthony Parker) and Carlos (Delfino) were going to play a lot of minutes but we needed to get productivity out of Jamario," said coach Sam Mitchell. "So we just felt like the best thing to do was for him to start."
"(Being pulled) caught me by surprise a little bit. But I understand the business. If they want to come the next game and do the same thing, I’ve just got to deal with it. I do my job."
"Their point guard play was phenomenal and probably the key to the game for them," said Van Gundy. "They did a tremendous job in the pick and roll game, their decision-making was great, they made shots."
Anthony Parker‘s opening two games of the playoffs have been a study in contrasts. He scored a team-high 24 points in Game 1 but went scoreless in Game 2. "I think it (Magic defence) was pretty much the same," Parker said. "I didn’t get off to a quick start and probably could have created a few more opportunities for myself. Just wasn’t as aggressive as I was in Game 1, but it was only four shots, it wasn’t like I went 0-for-11."
Last night, for one night at least, you could add another 180: T.J. Ford from team-wrecking chemistry problem to the beloved sparkplug of a Game 3 victory.
This was how it was supposed to be in Toronto’s best-of-seven playoff series with the Orlando Magic, Ford, the Toronto starting point guard, and his backup Jose Calderon torching their inferior foes in the opposing backcourt. And certainly last night’s 108-94 win had more than a little to do with the little engines that run the Toronto offence.
For one night, and a big one, everything was forgiven, Ford’s late-season petulance and early playoff sluggishness a distant memory.
"Anytime you’re the starting point guard and you have bad games, they’re going to point the finger at you," said Jason Kapono, the Raptors sharpshooter. "But (Ford’s) a strong-willed kid and he had a great game tonight."
"I told you guys I was just missing shots," said Ford after it was over.
Said Bosh: "They’re going to leave T.J. a lot. Whether they think he can’t shoot, or he can’t score, we can’t worry about that. I told him, `Let the ball go, shoot it.’ When he dribbles back into the defence, that gives them time to readjust and they keep double teaming, and I don’t like double teams."
There’ve been some startling reversals in short history of the Raptors and last night – for one night in a season in which much of Toronto’s internal woes have centred around Ford’s reluctance to back up to the surging Calderon – you could add Ford’s transformation from me-first island to team-first stalwart.
"Whatever they feel the team needs at the time, whether it’s me being in the starting lineup, me not being in the starting lineup, right now at this point, whatever the team needs, I’m willing to do," said Ford. "I don’t think I’m the person I’ve been made out to be these last few months, but I just want to win … I always believe it’s going to turn around."
"It was like us against the world,” Howard said. "What can I do? They think Superman sucks. I’ll just show them that Superman doesn’t suck."
"It’s tough to play in an environment like that," Mitchell said of being the visitor. As for the home side, "it makes you keep digging a little deeper, no matter how tired you get."
The building has been loud before in playoff games. Remember six years ago, against Detroit, when Flip Saunders suggested this might be the loudest building in the league. The fans were incredibly loud a year ago when the playoffs began, but much of that was negative energy directed at the hated Vince Carter. This latest decibel level sounded about equal, but there was an overflow of positive vibes; the crowd even fell in love with T.J. Ford all over again – for one night, at least – as he scooted to 21 points.
The customers were gifted upon entry with red T-shirts from the corporate partner that has its name on Flying Bolt Field. Pre-game, the scoreboard showed any customer who dared not wear the new gang colours. Boos would cascade until the miscreant drank the Kool-Aid and suited up. They even turned on a camera-friendly blonde balking at the wardrobe addition and this is how you knew you weren’t at hockey. There, the patrons surely wouldn’t be encouraging her to add a layer.
Let’s say Jamario Moon doesn’t have eight points and five boards in the first quarter, let’s say he doesn’t finish with 11 and 10.
How badly would you or we be killing Sam today?
Still think he could have gone to Kapono or Delfino for the reasons I’ve oft-stated but maybe the guy does know something. Maybe he knew that the Moon would provide some energy and rebounds and deflections.
Maybe he knows his team better than we do.
Maybe the dude knows something.
Maybe he’ll gloat.
Maybe not.
"I’m not going to take any credit for it, and I would be scared to death if you actually gave me some,” he told us after the game. “Some things you do are going to work, some things aren’t going work. (If) you do things based on what people are going to say about you, you’re in the wrong business.”
The first thing was to get out of the first quarter with a lead for the first time in the series. Which they did, taking a 28-20 advantage and expanding that to 61-40 at the half.
"We’ve been talking about that the whole week," Raptors point guard Jose Calderon said. "We beat this team for six quarters the first two games [of the playoffs], so we knew that we can play against them."
Another important factor for the Raptors was the fact the Magic made 11 turnovers leading to 20 Toronto points.
"We only had three [turnovers, leading to four points] in the second half, but the game was pretty well decided at half time," Van Gundy said.
"That’s one of the big things we talked about coming in, knowing you’re coming into a situation where a team’s got their back to the wall and they’re going to play extremely hard, they’re going to be jacked up by their crowd.
"We said the two things we felt we had to do more than anything else was to take care of the ball and get back and set our defence. You can’t set your defence when you’re turning it over and we turned it over."
Consider this sequence from the critical first quarter of the Toronto Raptors’ critical 108-94 win over the Orlando Magic last night: Much-maligned Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani was buried deep in the post against Orlando’s monster centre, Dwight Howard.
Somehow the sophomore Italian held his ground, and poked away the entry pass. Maligned T.J. Ford took the ball and headed off to the races. The layup didn’t drop, but nearly forgotten Jamario Moon hustled the lane and squeaked in a put-back to give the Raptors, who pretty much conceded the first quarter in their two road losses, an impressive 24-11 lead.
Go figure. The first-quarter lead held, and the Raptors have a chance to tie the series 2-2 at the Air Canada Centre tomorrow afternoon.
A generous load of credit for the victory goes to one player Mitchell was criticized for inserting into the starting lineup to start the series (Bargnani) and another (Ford) whom Mitchell was criticized for not benching last night.
And then there was Moon. “He didn’t say why, he just put me back in the starting lineup,” explained Moon, who started 75 consecutive games in the regular season before being replaced by Bargnani the first and second games of the series. “That’s pretty much it. I don’t know why.”
A convenient storyline during the series has been Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy, a sideline lifer, staying one step ahead of Mitchell in the tactical battle. But after last night, Van Gundy was left looking for answers.
“It’s on me. I’ve got to get us into some stuff that’s a little bit better,” he said. “I thought we had a good plan coming in, we did not and we go back to work [today] and try to figure some things out.”
It’s unlikely Mitchell will sit still, though with a win under his belt he might be relieved of the temptation to alter his starting lineup again. But you never know. It’s not like there are any certain answers.
And while it made sense on one level, the risks of playing two struggling shooters – Ford and Moon – at the same time when it seemed to play directly into the Magic’s game plan, basically allowing them to ignore two guys and let Howard and Nelson crowd Bosh. But what do you know?
Moon gives an energy boost that helped feed the crowd and Ford answered a lot of critics – myself included – by giving the Raptors just what they needed and making the Magic pay by hitting those mid-range jumpers. Bargnani was even good – battling Howard, hitting some key shots and generally being active. I’m tempted to point out that he still shot 4-of-11, was 1-of-5 from three and somehow avoided getting a rebound in 23 minutes, but the reality is he was effective and he deserves credit for competing as hard as he did. Similarly, Sam made some moves, didn’t make others and they all worked. The number one measuring stick for a coach – and it’s grossly imperfect – is did his team respond to his words and deeds? In this case the answer is yes. The coaching business no easier to figure out as a result.
Here’s kind of a cool stat. The Raptors had 31 assists on 42 field goals. Of the 11 unassisted field goals Ford had five of them, four of them coming when he started undressing Arroyo late in the second quarter, for which he clearly didn’t need much assistance.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chris Bosh quite so animated than after the game last night. It wasn’t that he was acting all crazy, it’s just that when he was talking at the press conference he was all engaged and almost bubbly. You could tell he was just so happy to win that game. There wasn’t a hint of concern that it wasn’t a great all-round night for him. He was praising his teammates, the crowd, the coaching staff. There is a big, big difference being down 3-0 and down 2-1 and Bosh was obviously demonstrating just that.
"The way those two guys played," coach Sam Mitchell said, "is a reminder of just how good they can be when they’re on their game."
Again, Orlando stuck Howard on Moon, and had the big man pretty much lag off him and clog the paint. But Moon had a solid first half, finishing with 11 points and 10 assists.
"Just energy," Mitchell said of Moon’s contribution.
And even the occasional made jumper. The most memorable one occurred midway through the second quarter. He drilled one three-pointer that elicited the Raptors bench to leap up in excitement. Bosh even got in Moon’s face, pointing his finger at him in jubilation.
It also sent the crowd into delirium. There was not much reason to quiet down for the rest of the evening.
Sam Mitchell will have his praises sung now because his lever-pulling, it will read, produced the difference between success and failure, between the champagne and the ice bucket. He will deserve it, even if he won’t take credit for it in public.
But one of Mitchell’s great abilities as a coach is his intuition, and his courage to trust it. Ford was 2-for-17 and Moon 1-for-8 over two games, and the first-quarter debacles in both Games 1 and 2 were decisive and debilitating, respectively. So it was not a small pair of dice the coaching was throwing. It was not a small amount of trust to bestow in the undrafted rookie from Alabama, and the mercurial Texan guard.
Did it work? Well, Toronto led 44-31 before Chris Bosh found the scoreboard. At halftime, the franchise player had three points, and the franchise led 61-40.
As for Moon, he has been imperturbable all season – he barked a laugh when asked pre-game if he was nervous -†and he was cool again.
"[Ford] always walks up to me and says, ‘I believe in you. I believed in you when nobody else believed in you," said Moon. "You like to hear that."
The playoffs is about matchups as much as talent; that’s why a 67-win Dallas team could fall to a 42-win Golden State team last season. Mitchell’s pre-game calculus was deceptively complex: Every potential solution created a potential problem. But Mitchell figured it out.
But at the heart of the equation was whether Toronto could play with playoff poise, could play with pride, could play up to its talent. Done.
"We play basketball like that, we can get right back in this series," said Bosh.
Going down 0-3 is like entering palliative care – nobody makes it out alive. Well, 3-1 is almost as fatal. So it’s too early to say it’s a series quite yet, if only because this Toronto team has unleashed efforts like this during the season and then gone backwards. They have found a formula, and now they have to duplicate it. Is it a series? On Saturday, we find out.
Jason Kapono drew a foul off the dribble, and drew another foul fighting for an offensive rebound. If you could have bet on both longshots happening in the same game, you would be buying your own island today.
Howard’s loss of composure was also striking. And for anyone who questions the impact of the off-court friendship between Howard and Chris Bosh, the way they shoved each other — with Bosh initiating the contact, and Howard retaliating on the way back downcourt — should convince you that between the lines, it’s a battle.
Andrea Bargnani was not brilliant, but give him some credit — when he was called for a defensive foul, and then a technical foul, in the third quarter, he showed both fire and fight. He got called for the foul by trying in vain to push through the extended, cartoonish arm of Howard, who had him trapped deep in the post — if anything, it was a foul on Superman. And anytime Bargnani shows enough passion to draw a tech, it at least shows there’s a competitor in there.
Rashard Lewis, with a sort-of guarantee: "Most definitely we have control. We’re up two games to one. We’re still confident that we can come in this building and win a game, and that is what we’re going to do Saturday." It’s big talk for a guy shooting 40% for the series, and who has attempted five free throws in three games.
VIDEO: Post game press conference
n the first two games, Ford shot an abysmal 2-for-17 from the floor and was the poster child for the Raptors’ horrid first-quarter flops at Amway Arena. In Game 3, he was the catalyst in the Raptors’ sudden resurrection in this series.
"We did what we were supposed to do tonight," said Ford, who finished with 21 points. "We won Game 3 at home and we still have Game 4 here Saturday to put the pressure back on them in Orlando for Game 5. We have to take care of business again Saturday."
"Sometimes you hit a rough patch but we’re home, we’re in our environment," Toronto Coach Sam Mitchell said. "You’ve got to have short-term memory in this game."
"We let them set the way the game was going to be played and we couldn’t stop them," Magic center Dwight Howard said. "It cost us the game."
All season the Magic have been able to come back with their specialty shot — the 3-ball — but not this time. They made just 6-of-27 shots, and in fact, really haven’t connected from downtown much since the first quarter of Game 1.
After hitting 9-of-11 from 3-point range in the opening quarter, the Magic are 17-of-75 for a chilly 22.7 percent.
The Raptors played small and outrebounded the Magic 42-34, hustling to corral long rebounds.
Panic not Orlando fans, the oxygen masks did not drop. If it happens again on Saturday, we’ll start having T-Mac flashbacks. But for now, we’ll write it off to one thing.
Clang.
"Everybody plays defense when you’re on fire on offense," Chris Bosh said.
"We haven’t made them pay," Van Gundy said. "That can change overnight."
In Toronto, you have to give Raptors coach Sam Mitchell credit for changing up the game plan away from 7-footer Rasho Nesterovic trying to handle Orlando’s monster center, Dwight Howard. Instead he inserted athletic rookie forward Jamario Moon into the starting lineup, slid perimeter 7-footer Andrea Bargnani to center to open up the floor, and the Raptors were off to the races
Say what you will about Toronto’s disappointing regular season and first-quarter flops at Amway Arena, but the Raptors aren’t ready for extinction. Sorry, Magic fans, these dinosaurs aren’t marching off to the tar pits just yet.
In fact, you could say the Raptors have shown more guts in this series than the Magic. When the Raptors fell behind early in Games 1 and 2 on the road, they at least fought back and made a game of it. The Magic? They fell behind early and never were a threat afterward. They got hit in the mouth and never hit back.
And after the first two games, Toronto Coach Sam Mitchell was being portrayed in the media as the second coming of Red Klotz. Two Canadian newspaper columnists even went as far as to say Mitchell’s job was in jeopardy.
"Ridiculous," Van Gundy said. "A year ago, Sam Mitchell was Coach of the Year and now he’s suddenly an idiot?"
You should have seen Nelson after the game. He collapsed with back spasms as he made his way to the locker room and was on the floor writhing in pain. The only way he could have felt any worse Thursday is if he’d been Wesley Snipes.
Now it’s the Raptors who are rocking and rolling on their home court. Now it’s the Raptors who have the momentum. Now it’s the Raptors who seem to want it more.
Now the playoffs have really begun.
Now we see if the Magic are truly for real.
Jamario Moon’s insertion into the lineup yielded instant dividends as he led the Raptors rebounding effort with 10 on the way to outmanning the Magic 42-34 – a rare feat indeed. He didn’t take a single bad shot and always looked to pass when the Magic were daring him to shoot. Bargnani’s defense on Howard was fundamentally sound and forced Howard into taking a few uncomfortable looking shots, Howard still got his on the offensive glass but overall, he was well-contained by the Raptors and the whistle-happy officials. Howard might be a beast but there are weaknesses in his game that are there to exploit, he doesn’t have great footwork, is turnover prone and isn’t a great passer out of double teams. The pressure the Raptors put on him today showed that.
A big cog in the machine was Bargnani’s defense on Howard. Never thought I would ever say that, but he kept active on the defensive end, and forced Howard out of his comfort zone around the paint. He contested shots, played great positional defense and was an all around pest for the big guy. The Raptors won the battle of the boards 42-34, Orlando still grabbed 10 offensive boards, but they were hard fought.
I wonder what all the people who were bashing TJ will be saying tomorrow. Lucky night? It was all because of Calderon? There’s always an excuse for people not to give TJ credit, but let’s let the light shine on him tonight. He dropped 21 points, had 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but what I liked the most on his night is that he went 6-6 from the line. Six points with the clock stopped and forcing Jameer Nelson to put himself into foul trouble with a lot of time left on the clock. We’ve said it a few times here, but Orlando cannot match Toronto’s speed. If Ford is able to realize that his dribble penetration can be lethal in this series, the Raptors will still be able to pull this off.
The story here was the point guard play, especially the very impressive play of Ford, who led the Raptors with 21 points while providing the offense, especially in the first half, where he scored 18 of his 21 points, as he keyed the run that pushed their lead back up to end the first half.
Jose Calderon was even more impressive though, scoring 18 points off the bench while adding 13 assists and grabbing 7 rebounds. Jason Kapono also continued his impressive play off the bench, adding 15 points. Tonight’s key was a more balanced scoring effort, as even though Chris Bosh had an underwhelming game (15 points, 5 rebounds and assists, 4 turnovers) it was still solid enough. Moon added 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Parker added 10 points and 6 rebounds.
I have no idea why teams forget about their giant in the middle. The Lakers used to do it with Shaq and now the Magic are doing it with Howard. He looks pissed and I am sure he is letting his team know it. The Raps can’t stop him, just throw it in there all the time. He is going to miss some but he will just tap it back in. Personally I hope the Magic don’t correct this but I don’t see how they cannot.
I was clapping to myself, yelling at the screen and loving every minute of it. That is Toronto Raptors basketball. Now we need it again on Saturday afternoon and then it is a whole new series.
If only Bosh had hit that shot on Tuesday.
After helping cut his team’s series deficit to one game, T.J. Ford proved that, in addition to scoring, he can also perform simple math. "We’re halfway to our goal, which is to get back to 2-2. We have to take care of business again on Saturday." That’s a pretty lofty goal, T.J. But how do you get "back to 2-2" when you were never 2-2 to begin with? Best not to ask questions.
This off season Calderon will become a restricted free agent. With the recent news of Darius Miles being cleared from waivers, the Blazers have some serious cap room for the 2009 off season. Many have speculated that with such a large cap space and a need for a premier point guard that the Blazers will make a serious run at 2009 free agents Chris Paul or Deron Williams. Recognizing these juxtapositions, Blazer fans must ask themselves: do we want Calderon now or a chance at Paul or Williams a little later?
At this moment, I think Hedo is holding Dwight ever so gently in the Magic locker room. The fearless ACC laughed in the face of holy repercussions and let Howard have it. After going 14-20 in Orlando, the ACC’s verbal assault on Jesus Christ Superstar forced him to shoot 3-8 from the line. I was gettin all tingly when the Canucks’ chanting of “Howard, Howard” forced the second coming to miss two free throws in the 2nd quarter. Just phenemonal. Guy with beach towel, I salute you.
I had a bad feeling that this was going to happen once the Magic got to Toronto…
The Magic looked rattled through a majority of the game. I’m not sure whether it was the crowd noise, or whether the Raptors just started hitting their shots, but they better get it together before game 4…
You just had to know that the tandem of Toronto Raptors guard T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon would eventually mesh into a cohesive unit; in Thursday’s game against the Orlando Magic, the pair proved to be formidable as they combined for 39 points, leading Toronto to a relatively easy 108-94 win over Orlando at Air Canada Centre.
The scarlet shirts given out to the fans at the Air Canada Centre said "I am Red-Y for Raptors," and after a few minutes it became clear the Toronto Raptors were just as ready for the Orlando Magic.
None more than T.J. Ford, whose inclusion in the starting lineup had been the source of much chat on local sports talk shows after two tough outings.
Well, shut your mouth, at least for now, because Ford went off for 21 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals to lead the Raptors to a 106-90 victory in a must-win Game 3 of their Eastern Conference preliminary series.
T.J Ford has lived to start another day though and that was a surprise. Bosh saying T.J needs to shoot more also was for most Raptor fans. If anything they would prefer T.J was on the bench but Bosh does not seem to share that opinion. Jamario Moon would get the start his first playoff start. Crowd was jacked and the Raptors would not allow a big run early which they had in both games in Orlando it was a decent beginning not great but decent.
Mitchell’s bad coaching decisions and widely apparent buddy, buddy nature with players leaves many Raptors fans calling for change. This doesn’t look likely to come to fruition, as Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment also owns the Raptors. This organization is notoriously paralyzed by bureaucracy, with a Board of Directors continually more interested in avoiding short term financial loss (buying out Mitchell’s coaching contract) than focusing on the long term future of the franchise. This fact coupled with Mitchell’s untimely 2006-07 Coach of the Year win, leaves this Hoop Doctor thinking that ‘timing is everything’ for Mr. Sam Mitchell.
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Unlike some, we like to see others succeed and, to that end, support all Raptors related sites. It’s one of the reasons behind the Linkage posts: a jumping off point to others great work.
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