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January 7, 2002
PASSIVE RAPTORS LOSING TO INFERIOR TEAMSOnce again the problematic passive beginning, where the team seems content to spar and counterpunch in the opening quarter rather than attack, cost the Raptors in Memphis. Instead of dictating play and tempo and forcing the opposition to play at their level to stay in the game, the Raptors played down to their opponents level. When they tried to step up their intensity it was too late; an inferior opponent had grown confident and determined. The old tired legs of the Raptors stayed glued to the floor most of the night; the spry young legs of the Grizzlies had too much spring in them at the end. The team has this artificial arrogance that when crunch time hits they will find a way to win. On most occasions this has not come to pass. This team has not had enough success to believe it can win with anything but a solid consistent effort, and is slowly falling away from their goal of being an elite team in the Eastern Conference. One step forward, one step back does not get a team to the finals. Earlier, a decided home court victory over Cleveland was followed by the Laker atrocity—one period of good against three periods of bad. The team got lost in the bad officiating, got caught up in too much individual play, and forgot about the solid help defence that wins games. The team is in the midst of a set of games against the cellar-dwellers, Memphis, Chicago, and Atlanta for the next few games—they also play the rejuvenated Clippers and the struggling Pistons. They have already blown a chance at putting together a solid winning streak with their loss in Memphis; and since hope springs eternal there is the hope that the team will learn from that mistake and play well enough to defeat the rest of the bottom feeders. The players and the coach talk about finding an identity—when 48 minutes of hard work would solve all their problems. Too often this team loses to an inferior opponent and then creates reasons for the loss. This team does not appear capable of learning from their mistakes—they make them over and over again. The Players The rotation continues to be in flux. Nagging injuries to Jerome Williams, Alvin Williams and Antonio Davis, as well as the more severe injuries (at least severe enough to keep them out for long stretches) suffered by Hakeem and MoPete have forced Coach Lenny to juggle on many nights. And the spotty play of some of the veterans—Dell Curry, Tracy Murray, has not made it any easier. Dell came in against Cleveland and seemed hesitant to shoot, passing up several open looks. If a writer writes, then a shooter shoots, always. While JYD’s energy is certainly beneficial to the team (his defence and his rebounding often spark the team) he must learn to control that energy on the offensive side of the court. At times he thinks he’s Vince Carter and throws up these acrobatic type shots. He should stay simple, learn to hit the medium jumper and forget about the spectacular—it’s not within his skill level. If there is one area the team greatly misses Charles Oakley it is late in the game, as the Raptors do not have anyone willing to take the charge in the paint. Leader update The peaks and valleys exhibited by the team mirror the performance of their leader, Vince Carter. As Vince learns the particulars and the intangibles involved in being a team leader the team struggles to find its consistency. Through the Christmas and the New Year games Vince has alternately shown the potential for being the leader of an elite franchise and has also shown the inexperience of a young man. No two games can better illustrate this fact than the consecutive home games against Cleveland and the Lakers. Against the Cavaliers, whose game often matches their nickname, Vince’s complete arsenal was in full display. We saw runners in the lane and left-handed sweepers, long range bombs and short range jumpers, step backs and fadeaways; we saw solid positional defence and his ability to break down the defence enabled him to feed open team-mates for easy baskets. Against the Lakers Vince turned individual as he matched up with Kobe and tried to do too much on his own. When the poor officiating began to turn the game around Vince did nothing to stop it, got frustrated and began picking up cheap fouls. This eliminated any hope the Raptors had of getting back into the game. Beefs Game officials have two main objectives--to ensure that the game is played within the rules, and to make sure that they are not the deciding factor in the game. In what was certainly the worst officiated game in Toronto this season the officials for the Sunday Laker tilt failed miserably on both counts. The Lakers got the calls for most of the minor and all of the major violations committed against them, while the Raptors didn’t even get the calls on most of the major violations. A quality first period had the fans on the edge of their seats and whetted their appetites for possibly a classic forty-eight minute match-up. But even before the period ended the game began to turn, as if on a swivel, as the Lakers began to realize that they could get away with holds off screens, bumps along the baselines, slaps on the wrists, molestations, and muggings on defence, while on the other end they were rewarded with trips to the foul line any time a Raptor made contact. Coach Lenny blamed the lack of calls as the reason why the game turned. The team got frustrated and was thrown off their game. Yes, the team has to learn to fight through these obstacles, but in reality they shouldn’t have to. The claim that the team does not go inside enough may be related to the fact that when they do attack the basket they get whacked and do not get the call. It is human nature to then begin to back away and start throwing up perimeter shots. It is common NBA knowledge that respect gets you calls, that aggressiveness gets you calls; but where does this thought-process come from? It may be naïve to think a foul is a foul no matter the time of the game, who is committing the infraction, who it is being committed on, and which team is attacking. But isn’t this the goal for officials? The reason that NBA officials are by far the worst of any of the four major North American sports is because each individual official is seemingly left to his own interpretation of rules. A foul to one is not a foul to another, and depending on the circumstances in the game the official may call that particular foul on one player but not on another. Such subjectivity is the reason why nearly every night the highlights show a player or a coach react with such frustration that it nearly gets them ejected. NBA players may often show a spoiled brat mentality, which certainly can annoy the officials, but the league should not accept this mediocrity. Dallas maverick owner Mark Cuban is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get the league to realize this fact. The Laker- Raptor game was officiated by supposed experienced personnel but when the free throws are 29-5 it is obvious that only one team, according to the officials, is playing hard. What happens to the officials when they come to Toronto? On most NBA courts the home team has an advantage, sometimes decidedly, when it comes to calls, but for some reason the Raptors not only do not receive an advantage they are often at a disadvantage Perhaps these officials came in on the flight with the Lakers, went through customs with the Lakers, and rode to the hotel with the Lakers. Or maybe simply going through customs is enough to build up aggression in the officials and they take it out on the Canadian team. The star system is definitely in effect in this league. Vince Carter is about to be voted the most popular player for the third straight all-star game. Is he not a star? Why does he not get star respect? Are the Raptors not respected? Even Shaq on his way out of town agreed that calls weren’t made—though he said that if he doesn’t get calls then nobody should. Personally, I think each fan that attended the game should send a bill to the league for the ticket prices they paid because they were ripped off. |