Monday, October 16, 2006

Shooting the Lights Out

Practice on Saturday was a big bag of boring. I got there at noon, joining a half-handful of other reporters, who waited about an hour to watch the same ‘new rules’ video that we had seen days before.

After the video, however, only a few players came out (3 for a Toronto Life reporter doing a story on the Raptors being the UN of the NBA)… of interest, only Mo Pete… and really, there wasn’t much interesting.

So let’s move on to Sunday.

It’s noon again, and I stroll in to the media center (after gleefully checking press row, and seeing that I’m back to courtside, baby!). I see one of the ACC employees, and confess that the previous game I forgot her name. She forgave me, and even offered me the paid meal – for free! Yeah, apparently I wouldn’t be eating for pizza for breakfast (again).

Bacons, eggs, potatoes and a danish it was. Thank you.

Oh right, there was a game. Vince Carter was in town. He got the usual boo’s, but even afterwards (as evidenced by my fellow reporters’ clips), he wasn’t really impressed with the passion involved.

Chris Bosh would sit this one out for precautionary reasons. He had missed the last two practices with a sore left heel. We found out about 25 minutes before tip-off that Andrea Bargnani would start in his place.

Bargnani picked up a couple quick fouls, and had to head back to the bench. However, TJ Ford was keeping just about everyone else involved, dishing out 5 assists in the first 6 minutes – en route to 9 at the half. If Ford hadn’t missed 4 easy lay-ups, he stats would be much more bloated.

It is what it is.

The Raptors trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, but brought it to 10 by the break.

Kris Humphries exploded in the 3rd, getting 5 points and grabbing 7 off the glass in just under 5 minutes. Sure, he tapped a lot to himself off of missed buckets, but the boxscore doesn’t lie. Hustle is hustle. Especially for the Minnesota Muscle (you heard it here first).

PJ Tucker was a beast around the basket as well… he shot 6-of-7 for a team-high 18 points in just 21 minutes. He was one of 7 (yes, 7 Raptors not named Bosh) to score in double-figures.

Jose Calderon was also huge, with 9 points, 6 rebounds (he seemed to be grabbing everything), and 5 assists… to go with 3 steals, in contrast to just a couple of turnovers.

Freddy Jones had 14 points, but had to leave the game in the 2nd half after falling hard on a dunk attempt. He’d have x-rays on his wrist. No word yet.

For the record, Bargnani had 11 points, 4 boards, and 5 fouls in 11 minutes.

The Raptors outscored the Nets 30-20 in the 3rd, and then 37-28 in the 4th, en route to a 119-110 win over New Jersey.

After the game, Coach Sam Mitchell was obviously pleased (you could actually see him smiling on the bench, almost throughout the entire 24 minutes). His scrum, however, wasn’t as much a scrum, as it was a press conference.

My only verbal contribution was this:

“How much of a relief is it, to see that with Chris out, everyone seemed to step in and play their role, and play it pretty well?”
“Well, I thought our guys on the bench… I thought PJ, Joey, and Kris Humphries, Jose, Jorge… you know, all those guys played well coming off the bench. I thought they just played exceptional. You know, PJ Tucker, he and Kris Humphries just bring energy and a little toughness, getting some loose balls, some offensive rebounds. I thought Jose’s been running the team really well, with that second group… and Freddy...”


After sticking my mic in front of Bosh for all of about 30 seconds, I went over to Humphries…

“It’s got to feel pretty good to get a lot of good praise from your coach… he had nothing but fond things to say about you… your hustle, how you’re active around the glass.”
“Oh yeah, you know coach… coach gives credit where credit’s due. And we all appreciate that. It definitely feels good to have someone in your corner.”
“Was it nice to have the fans in your corner as well? I can’t say I watched every Jazz game, but these fans were cheering for you pretty hard when you came out of the game…”
“Toronto has great fans… I’ve seen some hockey games… whatever sport it may be, you know, Toronto people come out and they support. And I look forward to having a sold out place, and really playing hard for all the fans here.”


Then it was on to PJ Tucker, or “Baby Mule” as coach Mitchell called him. In all honesty, I asked him a couple questions… but didn’t get more than 5 or 6 words for each. So I’ll save the space.

I went over to Jose, for a brief one-on-one…

“That was quite the game you put out there… and Sam was saying that you’re probably the guy that’s in the best shape on the team.”
“Yeah, but today, I don’t know. It’s not my best day. I help to win, but I think it’s not very good, I’m not very happy today with my work, but the best thing is the win. I feel great, though. I feel more comfortable this year. I play with confidence, and that’s it. I just try to play like a team, and have a good feeling this year. Everybody trying to help everybody, and this is a good feeling to have.”
“Now, it seems that you might be a little modest…I mean, it seemed like you were doing everything right – at least, from my perspective.”
“No, like I told you… I feel with a lot of confidence this year, and I know the NBA this year. Everybody try to help me out last year, and now I learn about all these things they talk about. I don’t know. I pray for play this year, and help this team for win.”


A little small-talk ensued, and then the long wait for Ford.

TJ was sitting, half-dressed, and talking on his cell phone for about 15 minutes while the remaining media (which was dwindling) waited. Cezary Trybanski and LaVell Blanchard were both saying goodbyes, as they had just both been let go… and about 10 minutes later, Ford was finally cool to talk.

At this point, it was just me and Raptors TV… so I let it rip… the questions, that is:

“So it is you getting used to the ball, or your teammates?”
“Ah, well, you know… it’s been a stepping stone for me. I’m just glad I was able to have a good game today. Pretty much, as far as finding my teammates, getting people open shots, and having guys knocking them down. That’s one part of my game that I’ve been struggling with the past two games, so we’re taking steps… and hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, it’ll come together just in time for the season to start.”
“Yeah, I mean it seemed like a huge turnaround for you… last game, you had 8 turnovers… this time, you had 11 assists, to just 1 turnover… I mean, everything seemed to be going right for you, with the exception of a few lay-ins.”
“It’s all about, you know, the first couple games – it just didn’t feel like I was in shape. My body was tired. Mentally, I’m at a different part right now, and I think I’m just going to continue to get better. This is part of the preseason, getting in shape, getting all the rust out, and getting used to your teammates. It’s been an adjustment that I’ve just had to make the last couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, your team had to make quite the adjustment with Chris being out, I mean… everybody seemed to be getting in on the scoring act.”
“Well that just shows you how we’re going to play… it just shows how deep this team is. No matter on any given night, it could be anybody’s night… and well, we depend on Chris, and we hope he gets well soon… I think he’s going to be fine, but it’s just gives us the opportunity to see what happens when one of your main guys goes down and can’t play. Who’s going to step up? I think everyone did a good job tonight.”


Good times were had. The lights went out midway through the 4th, and stayed at half-capacity (which was quite nice) until about 1:47 remained. When the light came back on, it was bright… but I think I handled it well.

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