The Day After the Plan Died...

And now... for my next trick... Instead of taking you back in time, I will show you my newest invention.

It's called a time-condenser.

Essentially, what this does is, it blends yesterday and today into one single entity. And it gives you your recommended daily dose of protein, too.

OK, so that last part was a lie... but either way... here we go.

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It's just before noon, today, and we're watching some of the Philadelphia Flyers wrap up their morning skate at the ACC. I catch up on some old times with a producer from RaptorsTV that I haven't seen since last season. Things are well. That's good.

Doors open. It's about 12:45.

After watching about 10 minutes of Raptors shooting free-throws, Sam Mitchell comes over.
He was in a pretty cheery mood, despite last night's 103-94 loss to the Spurs.

“We had a good practice. Re-iterating getting the ball out, getting into our offense. We gotta remember to push the ball. We gotta run. We gotta play the way that we can play.”

It was essentially a day of reflection all around.

I had a nice little one-on-one with Mo Pete.

“So Mo... anything interesting, or exciting happen at practice today? A lot of Sam's talk was about pushing the ball, and playing defense... and how last night, (when the Raptors led the Spurs 25-16) the coaching staff wanted you guys to keep it up... but something went wrong, and well... it didn't necessarily happen...”
“Yeah, we went over the first quarter on film – and we watched what we did right, and stuff that went wrong – and we had a hard practice today. We didn't go at it that long, but guys came in and really worked. And we got some work in, defensively.”
“What do you think happened? I mean, everything went right that first quarter – and obviously, a game is four quarters, and teams will make their runs – but, what happened in your mind?”
“Well, we knew eventually that they were going to make a run. A team like San Antonio's not going to lay down and not show any fight. That second quarter, their bench players came in, and hit some big shots for them, and kept them in the game...

(Brent Barry hit all three of his 3-point attempts in the 2nd, after connecting on his lone attempt in the 1st)

...we weren't able to match their intensity. Then, you know, they came out in that third quarter, played well, and got maybe a 10 point lead... and it was hard to try to come back against a team like that.”
“How much of today's practice was looking back at yesterday's game? Or... in contrast, how much was it looking forward to the next game, or even tomorrow's practice?”
“Well, we're looking forward now. You know, the thing about us is we saw what we did wrong, and we try to correct it and look at the big picture. We correct the things we did defensively, and that's what you have to do if you want to become a better team. When we get stops defensively, our offense comes around, because we get some easy baskets, we get a chance to push the ball up the court. But when we get into that half-court set, we're not playing our brand of basketball... now we just got to get ready to play on Wednesday.”
“Now, on Wednesday... you've got a different looking Philly team – not on paper, I mean, they're pretty much the same – but, all of a sudden they're playing out of their heads.”
“Yeah, they're playing well. Anytime you've got a guy like Allen Iverson on your team... he's obviously going to help their team, but... they got some guys playing well. Kyle Korver, Andre Iguodala... and you got guys like Chris Webber, who's been a great player for many years – they got some guys who work. And that's what it's all about. If you work hard, and play together as a team... good things will happen.”

Last night, to sharpen that point, the Raptors didn't really play all that well as a team. They didn't push the ball much, and once again, didn't take open looks. The coaching-staff-instilled goal coming into every game is shoot 100 shots (or close to). They had 45 at halftime, but finished with only 76. The Spurs shot more – 78 – and they're a slow-it-down, half-court, team.

Another problem – one which the Raptors faced a lot of last season – is that they were stagnant in their half-court sets. The shot-clock would be winding down, the ball would be passed around the wing, but no one would take a shot... meaning they'd pitch it out to TJ Ford - who's jumper is far from reliable – and he'd be forced to take a prayer. TJ was 5-14 from the field.

Chris Bosh was 8-18, for 19 points and 17 rebounds... and despite a tough day at the office, Bosh was the last one off the practice floor. Practicing screen-and-rolls with Darrick Martin, and eventually just free-throws by himself.

“Chris, you're the highest paid player... and also the sweatiest...”
“[laughs]Yeah, you know... I always believe in working hard. That's my whole thing. That's how I got here, that's how I'm going to stay here. And, you know, it works, so... the harder you work, the more you're going to see the benefits.”
“Sam was talking a lot about re-gaining focus, looking at game-tape... what did you see that you liked, didn't like?”
“We stopped running. We stopped doing the things that we're good at. San Antonio's such a good team in the half-court that – if we play half-court basketball with them... - if they play half-court basketball with anybody, they're going to win 9 out of 10 games. You know, we kinda gave into them a little bit. We just have to stay dedicated to running, stay dedicated to trying to wear down the other team, and keep running... it's hard, but in the end it pays off.”
“How much of that is a mind-state thing? Just constantly telling yourself, you need to keep pushing and pushing?”
“It's tough. It's all mental. You know, because, you know you're going to get tired. And what happens is you kinda try to reserve yourself, because you don't want to get too tired... because you want to keep giving 100% on the court, but... you kinda save yourself.”
“Isn't one of the things with this year, though, the fact that you can keep pushing – no matter what stage of the game it is – because there are guys that can come off the bench and still do the job?”
“Well yeah, that's the main thing. When the starters came in, we didn't do a good job of establishing the tempo. The second group came in, and picked the defense up, they picked the offense up and got the easy buckets... you know, we were up by 6 or 7 points after the first quarter... (9, actually) and after that... we played [Spurs] basketball for 3 quarters.”

They've got another 8 quarters coming up at home (first 4 on Wednesday, versus Philly... the next 4 on Friday, against the Hawks), before heading out for a 5-game road trip out west.

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PROGRAMMING NOTE:

This Saturday, November 11th, from 7pm – 11pm listen to the debut of “The Coop and Cadeau Show” on the Fan 590, with my and my co-host, Dave Cadeau.