Paul Jones

Paul Jones is the voice of the Raptors on the FAN 590 and writes regularly for Sportsnet.ca.

It was another second half to forget on Wednesday night for the Toronto Raptors. It was also the fourth straight loss for the team. No, there wasn’t a sub-20 point quarter in the scoring department during the third or fourth frame, but there was cold shooting and untimely turnovers.

Toronto averaged 10 turnovers per second half over the course of the three game losing streak -- and guess how many turnovers they had in the second half on Wednesday night? Yep, you got it, 10; the daily number.

The gaffes, combined with a cold hand as the team shot 40.5 per cent from the floor in the final 24 minutes has many a Raptor fan, and player for that matter, quite concerned.

I can hear you saying, “What about the defence?” You’re right; the defence is still not up to scratch but that drum is going to sound all season. As one NBA coach said to me in the preseason: “Toronto may just have to outscore teams this season and just try to get timely stops.”

There was recently another interesting take on the 'outscore your opponent' theme by the NBA's Western Conference coach of the month, Alvin Gentry, who directs the high-octane Phoenix Suns. As he sat in his office before the Raptors and Suns game, Gentry was grilled by members of the local media about his team’s defence. When he had answered all the questions he finally said, “Guys, I know you don’t want to hear this but the best defensive team is the one that has the most points at the end of the game.”

You know what, he’s right. So if the Raptors aren’t going to stop opponents, they may just need to keep scoring, and let its offence be the defence. But that means Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu can’t put up a combined 2-for-13 in the final quarter when the team as a whole shot 35 per cent from the floor.

So what’s it going to take to help turn things around? Pure and simple: a win. They need a notch in the left hand column for its confidence and belief in the team and its system. Right now Toronto is going to have to find the elixir on the road as they have three games in four nights away from home against conference opponents Atlanta, Washington and Chicago.

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Speaking of the Hawks, it was one of my burning questions during the Southeast Divisional preview at the beginning of the season: When does Mike Woodson get the respect that he deserves? Coaches always seem to get all the blame when a team loses and very little credit when a team wins, and such is the case with the man they call Woody.

Despite the fact the Hawks have improved in the win column every year of his tenure, Woodson has been on the hot seat. Check the team’s win totals over his time at the helm and you’ll find a constant upward progression: 13, 26, 30, 37 and 47 a season ago to go with a first round playoff victory. So you can answer this question: How does he not have a contract for next season with the Hawks?

The Hawks are getting great play from Joe Johnson and Josh Smith who has moved away from his penchant for launching three point attempts to playing more consistently on the inside. He is currently second in the NBA in individual scoring in the paint at 12.0 point per game, just behind Dwight Howard and one spot ahead of Chris Bosh. Smith has only taken three long range bombs this season and not coincidentally is posting a career high in field goal percentage 53.5 per cent.

Atlanta is also getting solid play from Jamal Crawford who they acquired in the off season in a trade from Golden State. Crawford is currently second in scoring in the NBA amongst players that do not start games at 16.9 points per game. Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks leads in that category at 18.5 points per game.

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Allen Iverson back to Philly, huh? Not a good fit. Why? Head coach Eddie Jordan’s Princeton style offence is one that is predicated on ball sharing, ball movement and player movement without the ball. You tell me, does that sound like something that Iverson will go for at this point in his career, particularly going back to Philadelphia? It would nice to see The Answer go back to the City of Brotherly Love and help turn things around, but I don’t see it happening at this stage of his career -- with that style of offence. But his return ostensibly to help the team has more potential at the box office as you will be able to break out and dust off the old AI jerseys and maybe fans will come back to the arena.