The Raptors 101-79 win last night may have been their most impressive defensive performance under interim head coach Jay Triano and quite possibly all season. This sentiment was echoed by many of the players in the locker room after the game as they discussed one of the numerous "tweaks" that Triano has made to both the offensive and defensive systems. There was better communication on the defensive end as all the players, for at least one night against the Nets, were on the same page. Triano has changed the approach to the team's defensive preparation in a subtle way. Previously, the team used to review opposing personnel in clusters by position as they would break into smaller groups where the wing players would watch the opponent's wing players, the guard would look at video of the opposing guards and big men would watch their counterparts in a small group of three or four as well. Now because they are employing more switching defensively, as witnessed by Jamario Moon, Joey Graham, Jose Calderon and Roko Ukic all taking a turn guarding Devin Harris to give him different looks, they sit and watch video as a team to review opposing personnel and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This becomes helpful when players find themselves guarding a player because of the switching defensive assignments. It seems like the players are more aware and informed. All 10 of Toronto's wins this season have come when they have held opponents under 45 percent shooting from the floor.
There was a bit of comic relief on the team bus yesterday on the way to the game as an accident forced the bus to be re-routed. After taking the back streets of Jersey City, making me think I was part of a Soprano's episode with the places we drove past, the bus was still a good 20 minutes from the Izod Centre. A look at one's watch revealed that the players should be on the floor warming up some two hours before the game. Normally the players go out at a certain time in designated groups to go through their shooting and ballhandling drills with the assistant coaches. So with the bus quiet and everyone wondering how much longer to the arena, Jason Kapono, called out, as if he were one of the coaches "first group on the floor in five" which sent laughs through the bus as it crawled in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. To make matters worse, the second bus carrying some of the veterans and starters was involved in an accident. The fender bender necessitated the first bus drop off its passengers and the arena and double back to pick the rest of the team and coaching staff.
In the pre-game warm-up, there was a brief conversation, with Nets president Rod Thorn, which brought a smile to his face when it was pointed out how well New Jersey squad was doing in the early going particularly some of the young players. He commented that he liked Brook Lopez's touch around the basket saying he had good hands. Thorn also remarked that the 10th overall pick out of Stanford was aggressive, tough, and very competitive not backing down from any opponent in the early going. Thorn, who drafted Michael Jordan in Chicago, was impressed with Devin Harris' play saying that he did not think he would be this good this early. He figured Harris' scoring would increase slightly after the trade that sent Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee but was surprised at how much his scoring averaged had actually increased. Harris has been terrific in fourth quarters this year and I enlightened the Nets boss, who knew that his speedy point man has been tough to handle in the final period, that he entered last night's game with Toronto, as the NBA leader in fourth-quarter scoring.
Roy Rogers one of the Nets assistant coaches and one of a handful of players that has played for both the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies reflected back on his time in Toronto. He has fond memories of the city and still goes back to Vancouver during the summer to visit. He is a big fan of both Canadian cities.
Speaking of Vancouver, it's the city that both Jay Triano and Lawrence Frank are tied to by their respective pasts. Frank was the fourth assistant with the Grizzlies while Triano was a team broadcaster and one of the "poobahs" in the community relations department. Both expressed mutual admiration for one another yesterday as Triano discussed Frank's work ethic. "He was always there," said Triano of Frank. "I'd come to work and he'd be there and when I was leaving, he would still be there."
Frank said in the pre-game that he thought Mitchell did a great job in Toronto and that Triano has a myriad of skills both in basketball and interpersonally, that will make him successful.
Today, December 13th is the 25th anniversary of the NBA's highest-scoring game, a triple-overtime game in Denver back in 1983. Three former Nuggets who played in the game were on hand last night in New Jersey. Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe, and both Raptor assistant coaches Mike Evans and Alex English were members of the Nuggets squad in the contest that Detroit won 186-184. Amazingly, there were only two three-point field goals made. Vandeweghe scored 51 points while English added 47 points and Evans chipped in with 16. To listen to Evans, he always jokes that head coach Doug Moe told every player to pass the ball to Kiki or Alex and if they passed it back, you could shoot otherwise just keep giving it to them. While English and Vandeweghe smile, knowing Evans' statement had some truth, English said that it was only Evans that had the green light to launch three-pointers when Moe gave him a special signal by pressing three fingers on his hip to signal to Evans it was time to fire away.
