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No Pizza For You!
Posted on | November 11, 2009 | 3 Comments
How bad are those Chicago point guards defensively? Letting Calderon into the lane as much as they did and letting him shoot 80% from the field! They obviously need to make a trade for a PG who can play some defense.
I’m being fascetious, of course, obviously referring to the criticism that is often leveled against Calderon for that very reason. As we saw tonight, when a player is dialed in, there’s not much a single player can do to stop him. While Bosh had another spectacular game (28 & 11), it was Calderon’s play that put the Raptors over the top. He out-scored his more vaunted counter-part, while being defended most of the second half by Chicago’s best perimeter defender, Kirk Hinrich. I don’t hear many calls for Calderon’s head, now, do I.
Other than Bosh and Calderon, the player that impressed me the most was DeMar DeRozen. He had been playing fewer and fewer minutes from a high of 23 in the season opener, to 12 against San Antonio. Tonight he played 19 and hit highs in scoring and rebounding. He played exactly the type of game the Raptors need him to play to be successful. At one point, every time a shot went up on either end DeRozan came flying in to try and get his hands on the rebound, and in many cases, he did. He finished with 9 rebounds (in only 19 minutes), but got his hands on a lot more than that. There’s been a lot of unwarranted criticism of DeRozan lately, especially with the good play of Brandon Jennings, who the Raptors could have drafted, but DeRozan hasn’t played badly, he’s just not getting the minutes he would probably get on a less talented team. While many have called for DeRozan to move to the bench, I don’t really understand it. It’s certainly not DeRozan’s fault that the Raptors have been failing defensively. In fact, the team rarely gets beaten in the first quarter, when he’s on the floor, and has probably been most productive in the third quarter. Starting him or moving him to the bench is going to have very little, if any, impact on the Raptors at this point. It’s a knee jerk reaction from people who simply want a change for the sake of making a change.
The best reason for starting DeRozan is twofold. The first is that he is exactly the type of the players that is best to play with the starters. Wright is better defensively, but hurts the team on the offensive end, especially when he gets a case of KrisHumphriesitis, and doesn’t realize there are better offensive players on the court. DeRozan makes better decisions on the offensive end, and doesn’t need the ball to be effective, as Belinelli does. DeRozan is the Raptors best rebounder from the wing position and needs to learn to play with the starters. The dividends will pay off most when it counts, in the final months of the regular season, but, as he showed tonight, it’ll pay off once in a while early on, too. I wouldn’t expect this on a regular basis from DeRozan, at least not yet. He needs to keep up the effort and he’ll find his minutes climb back up.
Now, in my game preview, I said the Raptors would win (check), that Calderon would have a big game (check), that Bosh would dominate (check, although not close to 40, as I predicted), and that Bargnani would struggle (check). The problem with my predictions, however, was that they were predicated on Noah guarding Bargnani, which did not happen. Noah spent the majority of time guarding Bosh, who still managed to have a great game. Despite being guarded by players he should have been able to score easily on, Bargnani shot badly, looked disinterested and played horrible, horrible defense again. Opposing teams are going to see how badly he guards the pick and role and will start taking more advantage of it. I don’t know how many times Bargnani failed to even slow down the driver, not once attempting to get in front of them. It was frustrating to watch over and over again. I was glad to see him on the bench during crucial minutes in the fourth while Amir Johnson got the call. Amir didn’t score the ball much, but he certainly helped the team when it counted.
Johnson was the only real standout from the Raptors bench in a game which saw the starting front court play 37, 38 and 40 minutes. Belinelli played pretty good defense, but didn’t shoot the ball well, Wright again tried to score when he shouldn’t have and Jack had his worst game as a Raptor and now seems to be getting a lot of the criticism that had been aimed at Calderon. Well, I guess some fans need someone to rant about.
Possibly the most notable game stat was that the Raptors failed to hit 100 points for the first time this year. In fact, ironically, it was not their offense that won this game but their defense, as they held Chicago scoreless for six minutes in the crucial fourth quarter. Well, at least we’ll say it was their defense. In truth, it probably had quite a bit to do with the fact that Chicago was playing their second game of a back-to-back and looked very tired by the time the fourth rolled around. Many of those misses would have been makes earlier in the game. Still, you need to find a silver lining where you can, and the Raptors did look much better on the defensive end, especially in the fourth.
GAME NOTES:
I haven’t mentioned Turkoglu much in my last few posts, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He didn’t shoot well tonight, but he rebounded and dished the ball well. Basically, he did what he needed to do, and that’s good enough for now.
UP NEXT:
The Raptors fly out to California to play Los Angeles’ other team. The Clippers are playing about how you’d expect them to play without injured Blake Griffin: Badly. They aren’t a really high scoring team, and despite having Kaman and Camby, they aren’t great on the boards. Does this mean the Raptors have a good chance to win back to back games for the second time this year? Check out my game preview Friday to find out.
I’m also going to add a category for who I predict to win, since I’m now 6-1, my only wrong prediction being against Orlando. Oh, well. 6-1 is still good enough for second place in both the East and West, tied with Miami and the Lakers.
3 Responses to “No Pizza For You!”
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November 12th, 2009 @ 12:01 AM
Nice recap and sweet predictions… Keep up the good work.
November 12th, 2009 @ 8:34 AM
A few observations.
Jose played well I agree, but his aggresiveness getting to the rim happened mostly in the first half with Rose guarding him and it’s obvious Rose is not physically sound right now. Not to take anything away from Jose offensively but defenisvely they switched A LOT on pick and rolls and had Jose guarding the wing or big then double teamed his man if the ball went ot the mismatch. Worked tonight but won’t work forever.
Bosh is still Bosh thank goodness, and Barg’s is unfortunately still Barg’s but Derozan was very active. I was also someone who liked Jennings, (Johnson and Holiday as well) in the draft, however Derozan has shown me an ability to not force his game and contribute on the glass which is needed. If he defends better, which takes time, he will turn out to be a very good acquisition.
No matter what silver linings we’re looking for defensively the Bulls missed 13 or 14 shots in a row! And they were all on jumpers. If thats not tired back to back legs I’m not sure what tired legs are but a win’s a win.
November 12th, 2009 @ 11:37 AM
Kelsie,
I noticed the changed Triano made with switches on the pick and roll, and it worked partially because Bosh and Johnson were able to defend the guard on the perimeter. It wouldn’t work with Bargnani on the floor.
And a tired team tends to take a lot of jumpers because they are easier to get, but I agree that the Raptors capitalized on the Bulls tiredness. That’s the important thing.