Roko Ukic was spectacular last night in posting a career-high 22 points in Toronto's 91-89 win over the San Antonio Spurs. It was obvious that Ukic was not a major component of the Spurs scouting report as they expected Jose Calderon to be running the show. That fact combined with Ukic's quickness, confidence and determination all worked the rookie point guard's favour. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich probably thought to himself "hey, if a rookie point man is going to beat me, then I live with it."
But make no mistake, Jermaine O'Neal had a major hand in Toronto's victory. No, the boxscore does not reveal a terrific offensive performance, in fact, a quick look at the offensive numbers will tell you O'Neal had an off night at that end of the court. He had plenty of good looks and couldn't make shots and while his body language was not good early in the game, he came through when the Raptors needed him. In addition to O'Neal's double-figure rebounding performance, he blocked six shots, changed others and allowed Toronto to limit the Spurs supporting cast. While the Big Three of Manu Ginobili (32 points), Tony Parker (22 points) and Tim Duncan (20 points) had their usual output as they combined for 74 points, the rest of the squad could only manage a meagre 15 points. In particular, Matt Bonner, who came into the game averaging 22.5 points per game in the previous two contests, put up a bagel. Bonner was zero of four from the floor while Roger Mason Jr. did not get his usual number of uncontested looks as Toronto had defenders in the vicinity of Mason the entire game.
So how do you attribute this to O'Neal? Well it helps to have six-time all-star who realizes the value of solid one-on-one post defence. With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, O'Neal played Duncan straight up without a double team which meant Toronto did not have to rotate out to shooters. O'Neal held his ground and received the benefit of the whistle, or maybe no whistle, on occasions when players with less "cache", would have been called for fouls against Duncan.
It was interesting to speak with former Raptor, and now Timberwolves assistant coach, Ed Pinckney the other night in Minnesota. "Easy Ed" quizzed one of the team's vets, Mike Miller about the three-point shoot-out at all-star weekend and having been a participant, Miller says Kapono should walk away with his third straight title. Pinckney says that Miller told him not to underestimate the difference the "TV distractions" make to a shooter. With cameras hanging close to the hoop and others shadowing your every move while you are shooting, not to mention wires and cables all over the floor, it can really divert a shooter's concentration away from putting the ball in the bucket. It's very different than practicing in an empty gym with the ball racks.
So why did the Timberwolves have such a good month in January (10-4) winning Kevin McHale coach of the month? Simple, communication as McHale has a special bond with many of the players as he was the general manager responsible for bringing most of them into the fold. He communicates well with them and the simple fact is, they just play hard for him.
