The Boston Celtics put a serious "beat down" on the Toronto Raptors yesterday afternoon at the Air Canada Centre and it looks as if the Boston offense if finally rolling. The Celtics have now won five straight and while their start resembles very closely that of last season when they won the NBA title, head coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers said his team is doing it very differently this year. Last season they won games with their offense in the early part of the season and the defence evolved into one of the best in NBA. Right now, it's the Celtics defence that is dominating the rest of the league. If you don't believe me, just look at the stats. Now that the offense is starting to come around, look out!!
Rivers says the reason that the offense is starting to click is because of the role players. He has chatted with many past NBA champions, including Michael Jordan, who told him, it won't be your stars that are the problem next year as you try to defend your title, it will be your role players. Pat Riley called it the "disease of me" but Rivers has another name for some of the lesser lights thinking that their role needs to be expanded in the process of trying to repeat. Rivers jokingly called it the "Trophy Tour" where the guys have spent all summer taking the trophy from place to place and believing they could do more to help win another one. Some of them are setting screens but not making contact instead slipping to the hoop and looking for the ball on the pass so they can score. He's had a few chats with players and now that they have been, ahem, shall we say, refocused, the offense is back on track.
One of the players Rivers worried about was point guard, Rajon Rondo. It seemed like teams watched what the Lakers did in the finals to defend him. Rivers has told Rondo now that opponents have adjusted he needs to amend his approach and start to use his speed and quickness and become more aggressive. So it was no surprise to see Rondo disrupting Toronto's offense by making life difficult for Jose Calderon at one end and then beating him on the dribble at the other end.
It was nice to see former Raptor owner John Bitove at a game last week. Thanks to his vision and belief of having a Canadian broadcast crew for a Canadian NBA team, I received an opportunity to "cut my teeth" and sit where I sit today. But time rolls on and it was interesting to hear that Bitove, an Indiana grad, is now watching his son, who was just a little guy running around when the Toronto franchise was first hatched, play college ball. The younger Bitove is now playing at Wake Forest. Brett Bitove was one of three non-scholarship players to earn a spot on the Demon Deacon's roster. The 6'3" guard is a product of The Benjamin School which is a prep school in Palm Beach Gardens Florida.
And finally, with the Raptors returning from a trip to Florida last week with games against Miami and Orlando, it meant more reading material. It seems like every trip to Orlando, Pat Williams, the Magic's Senior VP, gives the broadcasters and writers his latest book. Williams is a motivational speaker who has now penned 52 books. He and his wife Ruth have 19 children including 14 of who have been adopted from four nations. For those who have teenage children and find it hard to cope, at one point 16 of Williams' children were teenagers at the same time. Try that on for size. Williams came to the floor of the Amway Arena in Orlando in the pregame last Tuesday toting a stack of books and asked me to introduce him to all the Toronto broadcasters and writers on the trip. He laughed as he approached Leo Rautins. You see, Williams had a hand in selecting Rautins 17th overall in the first round of the NBA draft back in 1983
