Break up the Raptors!! Toronto has won four of its last five games and had a solid second half in defeating the Grizzlies 103-82. Toronto held Memphis to 12 of 34 from the field (35.2 per cent) in nailing down the win and will get another test Sunday against the Boston Celtics. I can hear the howls now on either side. If Toronto wins, like the Houston game, they beat a struggling team. If they lose, their four wins in a five game stretch was a mirage. Hey, bottom line, there is no asterisk beside any win at the end of the year in the standings and all the W's and L's count the same way, regardless of circumstances.
Speaking of the defending champs, they are having their issues lately having lost four straight and seven of their last 10 slipping to third in the conference. But head coach Doc Rivers is philosophical and trying to keep his team in the right frame of mind. Paul Pierce is not worried, and maintains that there is still a positive attitude in the locker room.
The "Find a former Raptor in the house" tour continued Friday night as I spent some time in the pre-game talking with former Toronto head coach Kevin O'Neill. He had many questions about former Raptor employees and reflected on his time as head coach.
"We were a playoff team, until Jalen (Rose) broke his hand" said O'Neill.
Looking back at the 2003-04 season, who knows, he may have been correct as I remember the Raptors had a stirring comeback win over Golden State in which Rose fractured his left hand. They won the next night in Phoenix where the ever intense O'Neill had the infamous "lamp incident" after finding out Rose would be out for four to six weeks. I'm not saying taking out a lamp at the Ritz Carlton is acceptable but I can see where K.O. had his competitiveness get the best of him when he heard about Rose. Still, the Raptors were 25-26 at the all-star break. However, a subsequent injury to Vince Carter (Bruce Bowen was accused of allegedly sticking his leg under an airborn Carter while contesting a jump shot), put VC on the shelf, Toronto only managed eight more wins the rest of the season.
That was it for O'Neill but as a basketball lifer K.O. found another job. He's a good teacher and don't be surprised to see him back in the college game at some point as he loves to work with players and teach the game. We talked a great deal about young players in the game and why Memphis rookie O.J. Mayo will be a better player in the pro ranks than he was in college and some similarities between he and Bosh.
Funny, the loudest cheer at the ACC in Friday's win came for the free pizza slice after the Raptors surpassed 100 points. Can't say this is a rarity because I hear it all the time with crazy promotions to feed the house in other arenas around the league. I kind of like the Pat Riley suggestion when he was the coach of the New York Knicks and the fans were disappointed one night when the Gotham Gang failed to break the cash register for a $1.00 depriving them of some food. In typical defensive minded Riley fashion, Riley's words were something to the effect that if you want to be fed, then cheer for defence.
So what does Portland do now? They already threatened legal action against any team daring to sign Darius Miles to throw a wrench into their salary structure. Now the Grizzlies have called Portland's dare and re-signed him to a 10-day contract.
