It's a game of move and counter-move as Sam Mitchell and Stan Van Gundy duel in the Raptors-Magic series.
Stan Van Gundy downplayed the notion of the series being a chess match between the coaches but it sure looked like chess pieces were being moved around from where I sat courtside Tuesday night in Orlando.
After hinting at going small during shoot-around on the morning of Game 2, Mitchell moved the first pawn by taking Rasho Nesterovic out of the game after just 5:06 of action and inserting Jamario Moon. The "easier" cover, guarding Nesterovic who isn’t a threat to beat too many people on the dribble from the perimeter, was no longer an option for Van Gundy’s big man Dwight Howard.
Mitchell in effect said if he’s staying on the floor, he’s going to have to cover Bosh. That move forced Van Gundy’s hand and as long as he was going to keep Howard in the lineup, "Superman" had to be engaged by guarding Bosh and not just standing in the lane blocking and changing shots.
Speaking of standing in the lane, if Howard ever gets a spot in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre they can just transplant some of the wood from the free-throw lane at Amway Arena. I mean the guy doesn’t leave the lane… at either end of the floor! I’m sure if you went looking for his footprints they would be there, in the key somewhere.
Hey don’t get me wrong, he’s earned that spot on a walk of fame by putting up back-to-back 20-point, 20-rebound games for only the second time since Nate Thurmond did it back in 1969. (According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Kevin Garnett did it in 2004.)
For those of you not sure who Thurmond was, go and look it up and check him out. He was the "Dwight Howard" of his era. 20/20’s are hard to produce and you have to give Howard credit for putting those numbers up in consecutive games. Some guys can’t get 20 rebounds in a week of practice.
But sacrificing Rasho had its price and Orlando had an edge on the other end of the floor. The one thing that Mitchell was worried about came to fruition as Rashard Lewis scored twice in the final quarter on post-up plays against Carlos Delfino. Lewis was able to crab dribble Delfino down into the paint as scored on a layup and jump hook in the lane.
When he wasn’t scoring, Lewis was attracting a double team as one of Keith Bogans’ clutch three-point shots came off an inside-out play where the ball went to Lewis on the low post, forcing Toronto to double team and rotate.
Hedo Turkoglu, who scored eight points in the first quarter, had a dreadful second half. He made one field goal in the second half but the one he made gave Orlando the lead. After a couple of airballs and terrible misses, late in the fourth quarter Turkoglu got into the lane against a smaller Anthony Parker on a drive and made a tough layup with 30.3 seconds remaining in the game.
Parker played Turkoglu well as he respected his counterpart’s shooting potential but you just had the feeling Turkoglu was going to put it on the deck and get to the basket after misfiring badly from the outside the entire second half.
The Raptors had their chances to win it and it would have taken just one rebound before Turkoglu’s layup but the desperately needed carom escaped them. Turkoglu’s deuce was the fourth foray on that trip up court and it eventually produced the go-ahead layup.
On their last possession, Toronto put the ball in Bosh’s hands and he opted, some think settled, for the 19-foot jumper as he decided not to take the ball to the basket as he was not sure he was going to get a favourable whistle. Following Turkoglu’s layup Bosh appeared to be fouled by Howard when he drove the lane but there was no call. The thinking here is that had he driven the ball, he may have got the call. Regardless, he got an open look and Mitchell said he could accept the shot Bosh took.
Is that the best shot Toronto could have gotten? I can hear the second-guess "kings" out in full force. Regardless, the ball was in the hands of Mitchell’s best player and it was a shot that Bosh has made in the past and is very capable of making. Toronto may have been able to go inside directly on the inbound pass if Bosh had set the "zipper" screen and brought Calderon out. Bosh may have been able to get position down low having received the ball on a pass close to the basket. At that point no drive would have been needed.
It was interesting to hear Calderon’s take on the final play as he thought it might turn into a repeat of the game in Boston where the Raptors won a squeaker using a similar play call. Calderon thought that Howard might "hug" Bosh on the screen and roll play similar to the way Kevin Garnett did giving him a lane to get to the basket.
But Jose said when he saw Howard in front of him offering Jameer Nelson help, he pitched it over to Bosh. A couple more dribbles going right might have used another second or two but may have made it a tougher for Howard to recover as he would have had to cover more distance.
So the chess match will continue in Game 3 and if Mitchell making changes to his starting lineup is successful, you can expect a counter from Van Gundy.
Don’t be surprised to see Mitchell go back to a previous starting group of T.J. Ford, Parker, Moon, Andrea Bargnani and Bosh. This lineup has a bit more length and defence to guard against Orlando’s post-ups but will have tough time dealing with Howard as the chess match continues.
