Practice is good... Practice

Raptors shoot-around is a pretty low-key atmosphere. Guys tend to be smiling, and joking around – at least by the time they let reporters in. I’ve been witness Mike James going off from the 3-point line. On Sunday, he hit like 14 of 20… but on Friday, he hit 18 of 20. Looking at the consistency of his jumper is like watching a blissful breeze blowing through blades of bright green grass – or as the current season would have it: a light dusting of snow swooping across the top of a quiet roadway. If it were spring or fall, I’d just call it poetry in motion.

But with only a select few reporters in attendance at practice, everything’s pretty easy-going. It also helps when the team’s coming off a tough-fought win the night before (in Charlotte).

Chris Bosh was the first to talk to reporters. He reflected on how he’s getting better by the day. The coaching staff’s continuously preaching to him to drive to the free-throw line, and take advantages of mismatches (he said Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace is probably his toughest match up). Bosh also said that his added strength and weight (“a whopping 5 pounds”) has made it easier to deal with the daily-grind of going against bigger players.

I then spoke to Charlie Villanueva - who’s easily becoming my favorite interview. I asked him about what it was like to play Emeka Okafor (his UConn teammate) the night before, and have the opportunity to go against his closer buddy from the Huskies, Ben Gordon, in just a couple days.

“I got Ben… and I also got my high school roommate, too – Luol Deng. He was my roommate in my sophomore year at high school (Blair Academy HS in Blairstown, NJ). I got two of my closest friends that I’m going to playing against.”

I asked him how that feels, to which he responded: “It’s going to be exciting, you know… talk trash to Ben and Lou. We’re going to go back and forth, so it’s exciting. Right now, I’m 1-0 on Luol, because we beat him to go to the championship game in the Final Four.”

And then, thinking of a question posed to me in a comment here (what up Ferg!?), I wanted to get into some “Fantasy Hoops” talk. I asked Charlie how important it was, seeing as how he had 9 rebounds against the Bobcats, to get that 10th.

“It’s really important for me, because I’m trying to be a double-double guy.” I asked if that was a personal goal, or if it were a Fantasy thing… “maybe you drafted yourself, or something,” I said.
He laughed it off and said: “I want to be recognized as a double-double guy. If you get recognized like that, you could make a whole lot of money, and stick around long in this league.”

I was curious if money was a motivator for him. He said he was more looking at it from a durability standpoint, wanting to stay in the league for 14 or 15 years. Just in case Fergus wanted specifics, I asked if Charlie actually played Fantasy Hoops.

“Nah. I don’t even know how to mess with that.” I thanked him, and told him his value was going up in Smallworld.

I talked to Mike James for a couple quick minutes, while waiting for Sam Mitchell to emerge from a conversation with Wayne Embry and newly acquired assistant coach, Gene Keady (pronounced KAY-dee).

When Mitchell came up, everything was really smooth. He wasn’t at all on edge, until a camera lit up (the reporter had alluded to the fact that he thought Mitchell had it out for him – sound familiar?) “Hey guys, I’d like to be able to see here when I leave, guys.”

The camera turned away about two minutes later, and it was then pretty much just a light conversation. One of the reporters playfully asked how Mitchell felt about Bosh’s recent play. The response? Drenched in sarcasm.

“I hate everything he’s doing…He sucks right now, and I’m just truly and highly disappointed in Chris right now… If you’re going to ask me a question like that, after the guy’s been going to the free-throw line 14 times a game, in the last 3 or 4 games, and scoring 20-plus points a night, and getting more than 10 rebounds… if you ask me if I’m pleased with that… then I’m going to give you that answer.”

I worded a follow-up question to that wisely… I said: “Sam, how about his passing game… you’ve got to be pretty pleased with that… well, I don’t want to say have to, but I’d imagine you would be.”

“That’s one of the things we’ve been talking to Chris about. If you’re going to command a double-team, you need to make smart decisions with the basketball. He’s getting better at it… He’s been doing a good job passing the ball.”

The discussion continued for another 10 minutes, but it got pretty candid, so we turned off the recorders. Mitchell talked about how he felt Chris would stay after his contract expired, noting obvious reasons about growth here, but also the obvious fact that Toronto can pay him more. The conversation spilled into politics a few minutes later, and continued for about 30 minutes. No need to get into that mess, though.

The reason everyone was so cheery… the night before, the Raptors pulled off their 3rd win in their last 5 games.

Raptors 111, Bobcats 103

Bosh scored 19 of his 30 points in the 2nd half, while adding 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Charlie V had 19 and 9. Emeka Okafor left the game with a sprained toe in the 3rd.

==
On Friday, there was another practice I covered, but in all honesty nothing exciting happened. A reporter kept pressing Mitchell about Charlotte’s building “plan.” Sam was with the Bobcats for about two weeks before accepting the head coaching job in Toronto. He didn’t know the plan, but the reporter kept pressing, making for a pretty sour scrum.

The extent of the excitement was, as mentioned earlier, Mike James nailing 18 of 20 three-pointers.

I sometimes wish I had a shot like that… but then I realize I might not have the same joy of covering the Raptors that I wake up to now. I might have had to play for them. I’d imagine it’s much easier to just do the talking.

On a sidenote... Joey's "better" brother, Stephen Graham got signed by the Rockets the other day. The Raptors are in Houston on the 21st.

==
But first, the Raps host the Bulls on Wednesday – I’ll be there… but the following two home games, against Golden State and Philly, I’ll be doing updates. We’ll speak sometime in the middle, I’d imagine.

Keep those comments coming.