khandor’s sports blog

As was mentioned in this space on Monday …

The adjustments which Miami needed to make in order to win their series with Chicago included:

1. Giving increased playing time to [A] Mike Miller/SF, [B] Zydrunas Ilgauskas/C, [C] Eddie House/OG and [D] Udonis Haslem/PF];

2. Reducing the playing time of [A] Mike Bibby [PG] and [B] Jamaal Magloire [C]; and,

3. Having Dwayne Wade [OG] check Derrick Rose [PG].

Given the result of last night’s Game 2, it is now fair to say that a main reason this series is tied, 1-1, is because Erik Spoelstra [Head Coach] actually implemented several of the “strategic” adjustments which were recommend, in advance, right here.

For example:

#3) For significant stretches of the 4th quarter, Miami used the following 5-man unit with the associated Individual Match-ups:

PG, Dwayne Wade [vs D-Rose]
OG, Mike Miller [vs Keith Bogans or Kyle Korver]
SF, LeBron James [vs Luol Deng or Ronnie Brewer]
PF, Udonis Haslem [vs Carlos Boozer or Taj Gibson] 
C, Chris Bosh [vs Joakim Noah or Omer Asik]

#2.B) Jamaal Magloire was used for only 5 minutes.

#1.A) Mike Miller was used for 18 minutes.

#1.D) Udonis Haslem was used for 23 minutes.

If Coach Spoelstra wants to ensure that the Heat will win this series … by an ever-widening margin, then … all he really needs to do is implement the remaining “strategic” adjustments which were listed here on Monday that he chose to disregard in Game 2, i.e. 2.A, 1.B, and 1.C.

————————————————————————-

PS. Last night, actually Coach Spoestra did a solid job of earning his salary. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said for Coach Thibodeau … especially, when he fell asleep at the switch, and was much too slow in substituting Ronnie Brewer back into the game, in the latter stages of the 4th quarter, after Coach Spoelstra showed that he was going to milk the “3-1 Pick-and-Pop” – with LeBron James as Miami’s primary ball-handler, since Kyle Korver/OG was still in the game and being used to check Mike Bibby/PG

PPS. BTW … For those who still believe that Chris Bosh is incapable of playing Center for a title-winning team in the NBA, last night’s game serves as Exhibit A for how exactly this young man can best be used by an organization that is being run by a GM who really does know what he is doing when it comes to being able to win it all.

On June 23 2009, prior to that year’s NBA Draft, this corner said that the Raptors should trade down from the No. 9 position, in order to secure the services of more than just one good-to-very good young player, to go along with Toronto’s best player, Chris Bosh [C/PF].

With the 9th Pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors …

If the Raptors would have followed this simple prescription, at that specific point in time, instead of acquiring the services of DeMar DeRozan [OG/SF], in all likelihood, the last 2 seasons would have played out very differently for [1] Toronto, [2] Chicago and [3] Miami:

For example …

i. The Raptors might not have made the trade for Hedo Turkoglu [SF] at all;
ii. The Raptors [40-42, 9th/EC] might actually have made the playoffs in 2009-2010;
iii. The Raptors might then have been able to retain the services of Chris Bosh last summer;
iv. The Bulls [41-41, 8th/EC] might not have made the playoffs in 2009-2010;
v. The Bulls might then not have been able to obtain the services of Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, CJ Watson, Ronnie Brewer, Keith Bogans, Kurt Thomas and Omir Asik and Rasual Butler during the last 12 months; and,
vi. The Heat might then not have been able to obtain the services of LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Juwon Howard last summer.

Those Raptors fans who still believe that Bryan Colangelo is something other than “just an average GM” in the NBA:

are, quite simply, delusional.

LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, CJ Watson, Ronnie Brewer, Keith Bogans, Kurt Thomas, Omir Asik, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Juwon Howard did not leave their respective teams and sign with Miami and Chicago because they did not enjoy playing in Cleveland, Toronto, Utah, Orlando, Milwaukee, Turkey, Washington and Portland.

The chief reason they each chose to seek employment with their current team is because they each believed the GM for that franchise is someone who actually knows what he is doing, when it comes to being able to build a legitimate contender for the NBA championship.

Toronto Raptors 124
SAN ANTONIO SPURS 131
Mon Nov 09 2009, Game Scoreboard

Yes, indeed … the Spurs played without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

Yes, indeed … the Raptors shot 59.2% from the field.

But … if your team cannot DEFEND and REBOUND the ball effectively, or score efficiently, with the game on the line, in the 4th quarter …

Box Score

Crucial Play-By-Play Sequence [from 9:17 to 1:27]

Substitution Chart

Critical Factors

Critical Plays

… it really doesn’t matter very much, when it comes to winning and losing games against high calibre opponents in the NBA.

Instead of blaming the coaching staff, or individual players …

Matt Bonner drives in for the two-handed slam

Courtside – Without D, Raps are doomed

Raptors take one on the chin

as this season progresses, slowly but surely, important questions will need to be asked instead of the architect[s] responsible for [re-]constructing this year’s Raptors team hoping thinking that the current roster was going to be capable of Defending and Rebounding like a high end team in the NBA. 

re: How an astute NBA observer might expect the first part of the schedule to unfold for the Raptors this year

Game 7– @ San Antonio [Mon Nov 09]

The end of the first road trip won’t come soon enough for Toronto. Although there are likely going to be cross-match opportunities for the Raptors to exploit Bargnani’s perimeter skills vs The Big Fundamental this should be more than cancelled out on the other end of the floor when either TD or The Dyessman will get an opportunity to ply his trade vs Il Mago. Tony Parker, based on his combination of quickness and size, is one of only a handful of starting PG’s in the league [e.g. CP3 and Devin Harris] that present a truly difficult match-up situation for Jose Calderon. In general, the Spurs have too many weapons for the Raptors to contend with successfully. This is a very solid San Antonio team … with a slew of solid back-ups on their 15-man roster … that will be a legitimate threat to reach the WC Finals again this season. A major challenge for Jay Triano & Co., on the other hand, will involve how to avoid pointing an accusing finger towards their star player, Chris Bosh [in a contract year], while getting off to a slow start.

Raptors expected W-L Record: L, 2-5

The QUESTION is … for, let’s say, approximately $6.4 M … 

What two NBA franchises would Allen Iverson, possibly, be the best fit with at this stage of his career?

[i.e. based strictly on their respective player rosters and regardless of any Salary Cap/Luxury Tax restraints on a 1 year contract]

SCENARIO ONE

If the Cavaliers are truly serious about trying to win the 2009-2010 NBA Championship, then Cleveland needs to ratchet up its Offense with a line-up that looks like this:

STARTERS
PG – Allen Iverson [UFA, high cost]
OG – Anthony Parker [UFA, medium cost]
SF – Lebron James
PF – Anderson Varejao
C – Shaquille O’Neal

KEY SUBS
PG/OG – Mo Williams or Daniel Gibson
OG/SF – Keith Bogans [UFA, low cost]
SF/PF – JJ Hickson
C – Zydrunas Ilgauskas 

———-

SCENARIO TWO

If the Heat are truly serious about trying to reach the 2009-2010 NBA Finals, then Miami needs to ratchet up its Offense with a line-up like this is:

STARTERS
PG – Allen Iverson [UFA, high cost]
OG – Dwyane Wade
SF – Jamario Moon [UFA, low cost]
PF – Udonis Haslem
C – Jermaine O’Neal  

KEY SUBS
PG – Mario Chalmers
OG – Daequan Cook
SF – Michael Beasley
PF – Joel Anthony
C -  Chris Mihm [UFA, low cost]

———-

For a single season … a move like that would still leave Miami and/or Cleveland in the free agent sweepstakes expected to take place next summer [i.e. 2010] … while giving their respective teams a definite boost this year, in an effort to reach their specific goal.

Are either of these two situations likely to occur next month?

Hmmmm …

[Probably not ... although either one would certainly be very interesting to see materialize this summer.]

No one likes to see an NBA player sustain a serious injury of any kind.

Magic PG Nelson has torn labrum in right shoulder

However … with Mikael Pietrus [G-F] and Keith Bogans [G-F] now healthy, Orlando should use:

* JJ Redick, as their Starting PG 
* Anthony Johnson, as their primary Back-up PG [in his current role], and
* Courtney Lee, as their 3rd-string PG

since the following line-up is still plenty good enough to get the Magic to, at least, the Eastern Conference semi-finals this season.

STARTERS

1 – JJ Redick
2 – Mikael Pietrus
3 – Hedo Turkoglu
4 – Rashard Lewis
5 – Dwight Howard

KEY BENCH SUBS

1 – Anthony Johnson
2 – Courtney Lee
3 – Keith Bogans
4 – Tony Battie
5 – Marcin Gortat

RESERVES

4 – Brian Cook
5 – Adonal Foyle

EXTRAS

Jameer Nelson [injured]
Mike Wilks [injured]
Jeremy Richardson

——————

If he’s ever going to become a truly serviceable player in the NBA, at some point in his career, JJ Redick [6-4, 190] will need to adapt successfully to the Point Guard position … and, there’s no time like the present for him to accomplish this specific goal.

Otis Smith, Dave Twardzik, Stan Van Gundy and JJ Redick … the ball is your hands and the shot clock is ticking.

——————

NOTE: Option B - The Magic could always try to acquire a player like Blake Ahearn from the San Antonio Spurs or a veteran like Troy Hudson.

Easily the most impressive performance last night on the docket in the NBA was put forth by the Magic:

Magic 118, Bobcats 80
Full Play-By-Play
Box Score
Recap

If you look at that 1st Quarter demolition Orlando laid on Charlotte [an improved squad, in their own right], it’s apparent that the Magic mean business this year.

The most impressive individual lines from the perspective of this corner?

The three highlighted in bold and italicized below.

——————————————-

Field Goals			Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	pts
M.Pietrus	G	24:50	5-8	1-3	2-2	0	4	4	2	4	1	4	2	13
J.Nelson	G	20:38	2-5	0-1	6-6	0	5	5	1	4	0	1	0	10
H.Turkoglu	F	24:10	2-5	1-3	4-4	1	1	2	1	6	0	1	0	9
R.Lewis	F	22:05	5-8	0-2	7-8	2	1	3	4	4	1	2	1	17
D.Howard	C	25:05	6-9	0-0	8-10	3	5	8	1	2	0	5	5	20
B.Cook		18:20	1-10	1-3	6-6	1	3	4	0	2	1	1	0	9
T.Battie		18:18	3-3	0-0	2-2	1	6	7	0	0	1	0	0	8
C.Lee		17:54	4-8	0-1	1-2	0	4	4	1	2	1	1	0	9
A.Johnson		17:14	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	7	4	0	2	0	0
A.Foyle		15:20	2-4	0-0	3-4	3	3	6	1	3	1	1	2	7
J.Redick		13:58	3-4	1-2	5-5	0	2	2	0	1	0	1	0	12
J.Richardson		12:00	0-4	0-0	2-2	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
M.Wilks		10:08	0-2	0-0	2-2	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	0	2
K.Bogans			-	-	-
M.Gortat			-	-	-
D.Jones			-	-	-
Total		240	33-70	4-15	48-53	12	37	49	18	33	7	19	10	118
			47.1%	26.7%	90.6%	Team Rebs: 5				Total TO: 19

——————————————-

If Orlando can get consistent production from their three main new additions to the line-up, like this …

* Pietrus, with a solid all-around game;
* Johnson-A, with 0 shot attempts, 7 assists and 2 turnovers; and,
* Battie, with a solid all-around game;

they are going to join the Celtics and the Pistons, as a legitimate 3rd team, in the fight for the No. 1 Seed (overall) in the Eastern Conference Playoffs this season.

[Note 1: With Keith Bogans and a healthy JJ Redick ... i.e. two improving 3PT-shooters ... coming off the bench for the Magic, there will be few, if any, gaping holes remaining in Orlando's line-up.]

Orlando vs Toronto (Tue Apr 22) – Game Summary

When the Raptors play this well, on the road, in the playoffs …

* Shooting a higher Field Goal % than their Opponent (45.7 to 42.7)
* With a higher 3pt Field Goal % than their Opponent (37.9 to 29.0)
* With more Made 3pt Shots than their Opponent (11 to 9) 
* With a higher Free Throw % than their Opponent (90.0 to 82.6)
* With more Assists than their Opponent (21 to 19)

and finish only 1 point shy on the Scoreboard …

Tor 103, ORL 104

after being down by as many as 18 pts, at one stage, and with a clean look on their final possession to win the game outright …

it can seem as though Toronto put forth a tremedous effort, battled hard and was just unfortunate to lose a game that could have very easily gone either way.

Yes, indeed, that can sometimes be exactly how it seems.

But … seeming isn’t the same thing as BEING the case when trying to understand the reason(s) one team lost and one team won a specific game in the NBA playoffs.

With 3:00 remaining in the 4th Quarter of yesterday’s Game 2, with these line-ups for each team:

PG – Jose Calderon v Jameer Nelson
OG – Anthony Parker v Keith Bogans
SF - Jason Kapono v Rashard Lewis
PF - Carlos Delfino v Hedo Turkoglu
C - Chris Bosh v Dwight Howard

the following sequence of possessions occurred:

3:00 … Tor/Calderon Made 3Pt Shot (over Bogans) … ORL 98, Tor 97
2:41 … ORL/Nelson Driving Layup Attempt Blocked by Bosh
2:30 … Tor/Kapono Missed Leaning Jump Shot; Kapono Turnover (stepped out-of-bounds)
FULL TIME-OUT
2:13 … ORL/Howard Fouled by Delfino
2:03 … ORL/Turkoglu Missed Jump Shot; Offensive Rebound by Lewis (vs Delfino)
2:01 … ORL/Lewis Made Layup (vs Delfino) … ORL 100, Tor 97
1:47 … Tor/Calderon Made 3Pt Shot … ORL 100, Tor 100
1:26 … ORL/Lewis Missed 3Pt Shot; Defensive Reound by Parker
1:04 … Tor/Delfino Driving Layup Attempt, Fouled by Turkoglu; Delfino Missed 1st Free Throw Attempt, Made 2nd FT … Tor 101, ORL 100
20 SECOND TIME-OUT (ORL)
1:02 … ORL/Turkoglu Missed 3Pt Shot, Tap-out by Lewis/Delfino; Offensive Rebound by Nelson (vs Calderon)
0:51.6 … ORL/Lewis Missed 3Pt Shot; Defensive Rebound by Bosh
0:47.0 … Tor/Turnover by Bosh (bad pass); Steal by Bogans
0:35.1 … ORL/Howard Fouled by Bosh
0:30.3 … ORL/Turkoglu Made tough Driving Layup … ORL 102, Tor 101
20 SECOND TIME-OUT (Tor)
0:26.5 … Tor/Bosh Missed Driving Layup Attempt (Blocked Shot by Howard, no foul called)
0:18.7 … ORL/Turkoglu Fouled by Kapono; Turkoglu Made 2 Free Throws … ORL 104, Tor 101
0:09.6 … Tor/Delfino Made Driving Layup … ORL 104, Tor 103
20 Second Time-out (Orlando), Dooling replaced Bogans
0:09.3 … ORL/Offensive Foul by Dooling
FULL TIME-OUT (Tor)
0:03.0 … Tor/Bosh Missed 18′ Jump Shot
GAME OVER

meaning that Chris Bosh, Carlos Delfino, Jason Kapono and Jose Calderon each committed the types of serious miscues which can derail an inexperienced team playing on the road in the post-season … e.g. Giving up an Important Offensive Rebound, Missing a Critical Free Throw, Committing a Turnover & Missing a Crucial Jump Shot. 

Until Toronto’s best players are put into these specific types of End-of-Game situations more times during their NBA careers, it is likely that they will continue to come up on the short end of intensely played playoff games that are usually decided by individual player execution during the final three minutes of the game.

Looking ahead to Games 3 & 4, in Toronto, it will be interesting to see:

(A) How Orlando’s best players … in most cases, equally inexperienced as Toronto’s … are able to handle the intensity of playoff competition during this specific phase of the game, where Winners & Losers are frequently determined in the NBA’s post-season; and,

(B) If Toronto decides to give increased playing time to the specific Small-Ball Unit (i.e. Calderon, Parker, Kapono, Delfino & Bosh) that finished Game 2 … with its strength (3Pt Shooting) and weakness (Offensive Rebounds Allowed).

During Sunday’s Lakers v Nuggets Game 1, Jeff Van Gundy (NBA Analyst) made an insightful comment – one of many he makes, per game – about the value of a coach’s ‘words’ alone toward the performance of his team, vs what their habits are, on a daily basis …

“(as a coach) You cannot influence a team with your words, at halftime or in the pre-game talk … they are going to do what they do.” – JVG

… which is exactly what I thought of while evaluating the Boxscore from Toronto/Orlando Game 1 … where the the Rebounding numbers were, as follows:

Toronto 35 (Individual) + 11 (Team) = 46
Orlando 42 (Individual) + 6 (Team) = 48

meaning that the Raptors and the Magic both performed pretty much as expected when these two teams are matched-up against one another, since during the Regular Season …

Orlando (+0.31) finished 16th in ‘Rebounding Differential’; while,
Toronto (-1.54) finished 22nd.

For Toronto to effect some type of fundamental change to the ‘Rebounding Differential’ numbers in Game 2 … they will need to address their Individual Player match-ups vs the key ‘board men’ for Orlando, who are D12 (22), Turkoglu (6), Bogans (5), Lewis (4), Evans (2) & Nelson (2) … for example, by going to a player rotation that I suggested on different web sites several weeks ago …

STARTERS
1/Calderon v Nelson
2/Moon v Bogans
3/Graham v Lewis
4/Humphries v Howard/Turk
5/Bosh v Turkoglu/D12

KEY SUBS
G/Parker v Dooling/Evans
F/Kapono/Delfino v Evans/Dooling
C/Nesterovic v Foyle

which is what a ‘Top Notch’ GM & Head Coach combination, like RC Buford & Gregg Popovich, would have done with the Raptors’ player personnel … several months ago … e.g. when TJ Ford was pulling his ’sulking’ I’ll-only-play-as-a-Starter-for-this-team B.S.

Unless you can ‘think the Individual Player match-up game’ like a ‘Top Notch’ NBA head coach, it’s very difficult to truly understand what THE DIFFERENCE is between ‘the Winners’ & ‘the Losers’ in this League, in the games that have a lot of meaning … i.e. versus Plus .500 Teams.

Enjoy Game 2 this evening! … which Orlando will probably win to go up 2-0 in this 1st Round series.