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Bosh was subpar (amongst others) today, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the numbers.
I'm telling you, 2-3 years and Bosh will be top 3 player in the league (Reggie Miller already thinks he's top 5).
Raptors played in the first half like a team that hadn't played in four days- and had been to a baseball game and a tail party fundraiser! Oh wait, ...
While a shallow victory over the Pistons bench, at this point a victory is a victory and helps to secure that 3rd spot.
And Anthony Parker is the secret weapon for the play-offs!
Bosh was subpar (amongst others) today, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the numbers.
I'm telling you, 2-3 years and Bosh will be top 3 player in the league (Reggie Miller already thinks he's top 5).
Good game guys! I have to say though that I expected a much better performance from the Raps.....but it sounds like you all have the same feelings.
Angel- I wanted to make sure that you know that the Raptors-Knicks game is on in the US on NBA TV on Sunday. I knew that you did not have League Pass, but I thought that you might have access to NBA TV somehow?
Together in Toronto and Having a Few Laughs
Together in TorontoSam Mitc tossed perfect spirals toward his starting point guard, T. J. Ford, who dropped one to the hoots of teammates and coaches lingering in the Toronto Raptors’ practice gym last week. Mitc then punted the football to the ceiling.
No matter that this is hockey-obsessed Canada, that Mitc is the coach of the N.B.A.’s most improved team and that half of his players think of football as soccer. Such silly sporting juxtapositions seem perfectly natural to the Raptors; they were rebuilt to defy convention.
Players from six nations surround the selfless star Chris Bosh and the blustering but compassionate Mitc , a third-year coach. (Mitc , he will have you know, was a highly recruited high school tight end from Georgia before enjoying a productive 13-year career in the N.B.A.)
Somehow, these diverse personalities and voices (representing Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Senegal, Israel via Illinois and Texas) blend seamlessly rather than form a basketball Babel.
Returning to the playoffs after a five-year absence, the new-look Raptors — who share the ball as freely as they do jokes — may be the most refreshing team in the N.B.A.
In the same way that Bosh saw no contradiction in being selfless and a star, he embraced his team’s uncanny chemistry. “It’s not weird because it’s fun,” Bosh said in an interview Thursday. “I think every team should try it.”
But not every team has Bryan Colangelo as its architect. In the year since Colangelo arrived from Phoenix, where he had resurrected the Suns to win executive of the year honors, he has taken the right risks (under favorable conditions) to revive a moribund franchise in Toronto.
The change is obvious in the standings: The Raptors have won 19 more games than they did last season, the biggest jump of any N.B.A. team, and captured their first Atlantic Division le. The change is more subtle in Colangelo’s redesign of the locker room, his first step in conveying that this would be a first-class operation.
“I hope that the culture changed immediately when I got here back in March,” Colangelo said in an interview in his corner office at the Air Canada Center. “I think the perception was a cloud had been lifted off the Raptors. Everything across the board needed to be revamped.”
Not everything or everyone. Mitc is still here. And now Colangelo wants him to stay.
Rather than firing a struggling and emotional Mitc last season, Colangelo waited. Rather than give Mitc an extension before the season, he vowed to discuss it only after the season. Rather than fire Mitc as the Raptors started 2-8, Colangelo worked with him.
In trying to find comfort with the nine players Colangelo initially brought in, Mitc was reluctant to give playing time to the No. 1 overall pick from Italy, the 7-footer Andrea Bargnani, or the free-agent forward Jorge Garbajosa of Spain.
After prodding from management, Mitc grew more confident in them, and Bargnani responded with accurate shooting and aggressiveness befitting a rookie of the year. Garbajosa provided versatility and energy until he broke his leg and ankle last month.
The Raptors were able to stay afloat when Bosh missed 12 games in December with a knee injury. Now, despite losing Bargnani to an appendectomy last month (he may not return until next week because of minor illnesses), the Raptors have won eight of their last nine games.
Colangelo had been modest in his praise of Mitc , but last week he applauded him publicly for the first time as worthy of coach-of-the-year honors. When asked if Mitc was worthy of an extension, Colangelo smiled and offered his strongest backing yet.
“I have every intention to keep Sam Mitc ,” Colangelo said.
Mitc waved off questions about the extension, saying it violated his team-first mantra. “I’ve been asking all these guys to make sacrifices,” Mitc said after “football” practice. “Now that we’re winning, I’m going to jump up and down and say, ‘I want mine now’? If I do my job, in return, I’ll get taken care of.”
Mitc may have tripled his market value and will be in demand for coaching vacancies elsewhere. It is apparent that while Mitc still rides players hard, they respect him and he feels comfortable with this group.
“I love coming to practice, I love being on the bus with them,” he said. “This team is special because we’re winning.”
Or are the Raptors winning because they are special? Having players with international experience lends a more mature perspective, said guard Anthony Parker, who starred for five seasons with Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Now better known as the brother of the Tennessee star Candace Parker, he said he was grateful to Colangelo for bringing him to the N.B.A. at age 31. (Colangelo created a buyout when his contract did not have one.)
“You realize that this is a privilege to play here, not a right,” said Parker, who wears 18 on his jersey, the number that symbolizes life in Hebrew.
The mind-set of a European player, Colangelo said, tends to be different because basketball is taught with more of a team emphasis than in the United States. But that was not the sole reason for the Raptors’ foreign influx.
Maurizio Gherardini, the Raptors’ assistant general manager, who was the top basketball executive in Italy, said, “I think that the decision was based on what we needed, on the players’ talent and what we perceived of their ability to melt into a group, not necessarily because of what was on their passport.” Colangelo hired Gherardini, who was Bargnani’s boss as Benetton Treviso’s general manager, to be the N.B.A.’s first senior executive from Europe, giving the Raptors an advantage in the expanding international market.
Colangelo credits the former Raptors general manager Rob Bab for signing point guard José Calderón from Spain. It was Calderón who helped persuade Garbajosa, his national team teammate, to go to Toronto, selling him on the city’s cosmopolitan nature and on the ease of playing with Bosh.
“He’s like one of us,” Calderón said. “We love him. That’s the best thing about this team: We love everybody. Everybody knows their role.”
Rasho Nesterovic, from Slovenia, acquired in a trade last summer with San Antonio, is the old soul in the locker room, while Ford is seemingly the origin of all team jokes.
After Colangelo acquired Ford in an off-season trade with Milwaukee, he gave him a contract extension, perhaps one reason Ford has played so fast and loose this season.
Ford’s breakout season, combined with Bosh’s emergence as a franchise player, has helped make the Raptors’ offense one of the more dangerous ones. The backup guard Juan Dixon also gives the Raptors more firepower. He was acquired when Colangelo jettisoned the disappointing Fred Jones to Portland by getting Jones to waive the final year of his deal to go home to Oregon.
Two advance scouts described Toronto’s offensive sets as simple yet finely executed. Still, the Raptors are the N.B.A.’s fourth-worst rebounding team and their weak team defense could hurt them in the playoffs.
A victory Friday over Detroit, which had clinched the top spot in the East, showed they are nearing the elite. Morris Peterson, the only remaining player from the Raptors’ 2002 playoff season, credited Colangelo for the turnaround. “Even though we weren’t winning, he gave us a new sense of hope,” Peterson said.
Isiah Thomas, the Knicks’ coach and general manager and Toronto’s first general manager, also played a role. By taking Jalen Rose from the Raptors last February (Wayne Embry made the trade as interim general manager) for Antonio Davis, Thomas saved Toronto $17 million. The flexibility helped entice Colangelo to take the job because he had cap room to sign Bosh to a long-term contract and lure free agents.
The Knicks and the Raptors meet tonight in Toronto, going in decidedly different directions. That hit home for Bosh when he attended the team’s season-ending party for loyal fans Wednesday. “It used to be called the RapUp party and we were wrapping up the season,” Bosh said. “We had three games left and it didn’t go past there.”
Now, Bosh realized with a grin, the real party has just begun.
Eastern Conference grades
Charley Rosen / Special to FOXSports.com
Toronto A+TORONTO A+
The sum of this team is much greater than its components. Kudos to Sam Mitc for integrating nine new players into a well-balanced ball club. He masterfully apportioned playing time so as to maximize the strengths of Chris Bosh, T.J. Ford, Andrea Bargnani, and Jorge Garbajosa, and to minimize their considerable weaknesses. He appreciated the subtle value of Anthony Parker, and coaxed unexpected mileage from Rasho Nesterovic.
Forget about sentimentalism (Jerry Sloan) and automatic repeats (Avery Johnson). Sam Mitc is hands down the Coach of the Year.
Now the bad news: Andrea's sinus infection must be pretty bad. He probably won't play until Wednesday.
And the good news: Luke Jackson has signed for the rest of this season and NEXT!
Raptors prove doubters wrongLuke Jackson, signed by the Raptors on Saturday for the remainder of the season plus the 2007-08 season, has done a bit of travelling around in his three seasons, and says Canada's lone NBA franchise had a distinctly different atmosphere than he's experienced on other teams.
"I've seen superstars all over the league, and I don't think there's any classier guy than Chris Bosh. . . the way he handles himself in the locker-room and on the court," said Jackson. "It really surprised me (arriving in Toronto), just the group of guys, how they treat everybody. I think this is a first-class organization, and I really mean that."
Jackson spent time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers, then the Idaho Stampede of the National Basketball Development League before joining the Raptors initially on a 10-day deal on March 25.
The one negative from an upbeat Raptors practice Saturday was the absence of prized rookie Andrea Bargnani. The big Italian was originally expected to play his first game Sunday after missing 12 following an appendectomy. But he's been suffering from the flu for most of the week.
"He's still feeling poorly," said Mitc ."Hopefully we can get him through a couple of workouts Monday and Tuesday and play him Wednesday (regular-season finale versus Philadelphia)."
The Raptors sorely need a healthy Bargnani for the playoffs. With his accuracy from three-point range, he's a headache as a bigman to guard and helps spread the floor. And he can spell off Bosh, who's been logging major minutes in his absence.
But how much he can contribute after such a lengthy layoff - not to mention, he's returning at a time when the intensity of the games will be shifting into high gear - remains to be seen.
"Obviously we need him, and that's concerning that he may not be as sharp as he was before he had the appendicitis and then got sick," said Mitc . "But what can you do? Nobody tries to get hurt or sick, it's unfortunate that it happened at this time of year but that's how it is sometimes."
Welcome Luke. Feel better A.B.
Mark Cuban : " Mitc is the coach of the year "
I really like this Raptor squad...They're one player away I think from getting to the ECF and making a run at the finals.
Mark Cuban : " Mitc is the coach of the year "
Wow- Stern and Mark both making sense in the same week.
Craziness!
Has Mitc got ejected in 1st Q? If so, why?
http://www.nba.com/games/20070415/NYKTOR/boxscore.html
I only see him listed as one technical.
Way to go Raptors- won again!
I needed this something good to come home to.
P.S. Good game by Malik- 18 points ( 7 of 12 from field; 1 of 3 from three point range Is that stat right?; 3 of 3 from the line ) 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal
Yea Maliky!
Yes, Malik played very well. He did a very good job defending Bosh- probably from all that practice against TD in SA.
Raptors clinch the # 3 seed and home court in the first round. They also tie a franchise record 47 wins! Rasho has never played on an NBA team that has won fewer than 47 games.
Ugly, ugly second quarter again. Great game from Jose. Graham played and tied his career best in points even though he was sick.
Yea Raptors.
Thanks for the summary Ploto- great read as always.
What's with Bosh? PFs aren't supposed to be shooting free throws like that.
Honestly, Bosh should drive on every posession (when he isn't double teammed). Nobody can stay in front of him, so it's a guaranteed foul.
Garbajosa remains positiveApril 15, 2007
(TORONTO) -- Jorge Garbajosa was back at his locker, Sunday night, taking calls from visitors in the media for the first time since a shocking leg injury, March 28.
Garbajosa was injured late in a game against the Boston Celtics when he lunged at a player and his full 245 pounds came down on his leg.
Garbajosa said he no longer feels any pain from the dislocated left ankle joint injury which was set in Boston before surgery the next day in Toronto.
As for the play, there are no regrets there either.
“I did what I had to,” Garbajosa said yesterday. “I was doing my job. I think anyone would do the same.”
The prognosis of a return, about six months from the time of the injury, hasn’t changed for the 29-year-old Spanish rookie.
“The first week is hard,” he said. “You are wondering what happened to you, but now I am just trying to be positive. This is what happened. Now what can I do to come back as soon as possible? I have to be ready and I have to be positive."
He expects to shed his cast from four to six weeks and begin his rehab in earnest then.
In the meantime, Garbajosa, a starter in 60 of his 67 games who contributed an average of 8.5 points and 4.9 rebounds a night, will follow the club, often in person.
“You have to be in this locker room to know what is going on, to feel what kind of relationship we have with each other,” Garbajosa said. “The first thing I wanted to do was come here and see my teammates. I love them. When the injury happened, they were coming to my home to see how I was, calling me, sending me messages. I can say that they are more than my teammates, they are my friends.”
As for videotape of the injury, Garbajosa has seen it…once.
“I saw it the night I was in Boston. At the hospital it was on TV. I knew everyone was going to ask about it and I preferred to know. I’m not going to watch it any more.”
It is awesome how the Raptors' guys look out for each other- no doubt their success is greatly owed to that. Hard work too of course.
Because he laughed
Hey when is the Raps first play off game- what night and time?
Nachbar on fire, Nets might move into 6th seed, i was hoping they wouldn't meet in the first round.
Very happy for Boki but I want the Wizards!
Wizards up by one game with 2 to go:
Wizards have Orlando at home and at Indiana
Nets have at Knicks and home against Bulls
Nets have tiebreaker, I believe.
I hope they don't meet in the first round too.
I want all the Slovenians to progress as far as possible.
Way to go Boki.
See what I found!
Look how handsome Uros looks.
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