It wasn’t necessarily the shootout I thought it was going to be but that was far and away the best game of the young season and one of my favourites in the last few years. Despite the loss, there’s very little to be unhappy about. They battled for a full 48 minutes and fell inches short of overtime (literally and figuratively) with the best team in the NBA so far. If any number of things had been slightly different in those last few minutes, the outcome would have changed. Against a team of this calibre, putting yourself in a position to win is all you can ask for and the Raps did that.

In bullet form, here’s my take on the game:

- The single most interesting thing about last night’s game was the way we guarded the pick and roll. Normally if the opposing point gets a pick, our bigs hedge the guard to buy some time for Jose or Jack to get back into position. This often leaves the player that set the pick open for a period of time while our big rushes back. I guess Triano respects Nash’s ability to find that man and his ability to hit the shot enough that he didn’t think hedging was going to work. Instead, the Raps just switched on every pick. This would usually leave Bosh on Nash and Calderon on Stoudemire. It seems stupid but it actually worked really well. Caldy fronted Stoudemire enough that Nash had to lob it over him and in the time it took the pass to get there, another big would always come over and double. I thought that was some really good coaching and it seemed to really neutralize Phoenix’s deadly pick and roll game.

- The defence in general was really good. Rotations looked a lot more crisp and effective than they have in any other game and there weren’t an abundance of the lapses we’ve come to recognize with this team. Frye was left open a few too many times and he punished us for it but on the whole, great effort.

- With Wright’s ankle bothering him, Sonny Weems (4 pts, 2 rbs, 1 ast) got 8 minutes off the bench. Anyone who read my pre-season stuff would know that I was pretty high on Weems and I’ve been pretty disappointed with his lack of floor time. He threw down a massive alley-oop, played with energy and didn’t force anything. In short, he did his job. I wish a dude whose name rhymes with Banton Bright would do the same.

- After a somewhat disappointing game in LA, DeRozan (6 pts, 2 rbs, 1 ast, 1 stl) bounced back well. He did a good job of getting to the rim and taking his shots when they were there. He also looks like he’s really committed to hustling his ass off. It doesn’t always show up on the box score but he narrowly missed some huge offensive boards and some nasty blocks. Hustle keeps a young guy on the floor and if he’s willing to do that he’ll be great.

- While there will be his detractors, Turk (20 pts, 6 rbs, 3 ast) showed us why Colangelo overpaid to bring him here. His big shots were what kept us in it down the stretch. He hustled like a dog to get his hands on a loose ball leading to a jump, won the jump and then canned a three to tie it with 1:30 on the clock. The next trip down the floor he was given the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock and again he drained it, albeit with his foot on the line, again tying it. If his left foot had been 5 inches further back, this one probably would have gone to overtime. He missed his last two but they were open and they almost dropped. He’s a crunch time player and it’s great to see him start showing us that.

- Bosh (25 pts, 10 rbs, 2 blk), as always, was awesome. Two things I’d change about the way we’re using him though. First, we have to go to him every play early in games. He has shown quite clearly that he can get to line pretty much at will. If we had gone to him more consistently in the early goings, maybe we could have put Amar’e on the bench. Getting the opposing bigs in foul trouble early is huge and Bosh can do that for us. If they double him our shooters can get hot with open jumpers. Win-win. Second, we have to give him the ball when we are in a rut and we have to give him the ball down the stretch. He’s proven that he won’t settle for jumpers anymore. He will attack and there’s no negative to attacking in either of these situation. He has to at least touch the ball in these situations and we didn’t do that last night.

Maybe I’m just getting too excited over one game, much like I did when we beat Cleveland but that one made me a believer in this team. They’re going to score over a hundred almost every game of the season; they’re going to figure it out on the defensive end; Triano can run an NBA club. I don't think there's a ton of negatives you can take from last night's game. I assume there will be those that will try but who wants to hear their shit anyways.

Wawaweewa.

Seb Beitel
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Jordan Steffler 2009-11-16 11:49:58 | Quote I agree Seb. I did like what I saw last night from the Raps as well. A couple inches throughout the games on tips, loose balls, shots, and the Raps get a win. The pick and roll defense was interesting. It's a catch 22 though. Amar'e went 10-15 from the field and 10-11 from the line. He had one of those games. I don't know if this was due to the smaller defender on him or what. Then when you look at it from the other side, if we didn't switch, Nash would be wide open off the pick, and we all know what he's capable of doing with some daylight. You pick your poison basically. Good call Triano, because we were closer to Phoenix this year than we have been in quite some time. I like Turk making his way into the offense finally. It's nice to see what a difference he can, and will, make. A lot of positives to take for sure. Probably the happiest we will be about a loss all year. 0 0

Seb Beitel 2009-11-16 13:48:59 | Quote I see what you're saying but I don't think it's a pick your poison kinda thing. If Bosh hedges the pick, Amare rolls and Nash will find him. Either that or Bosh doesn't fully hedge so he can get back and Nash kills us by running around him. At least this way we have a defender on Nash and Amare the whole time. It might be selective memory too but I don't think Amare was getting all those point off the pick and roll. 0 0

Rizwan Jafri 2009-11-16 16:14:45 | Quote Agree with you on basically everything. One thing that really sticks out to me is getting the ball to Bosh, as you said. He is dominating right now and you need to get him hot to start off. He is fully capable of putting Amar'e on the bench in the first quarter; heck I'd be happy if Frye was on the bench he went 6-8 from 3. 0 0

Jeremie Beitel 2009-11-20 13:21:01 | Quote Late comment, but I wanted to weigh in on the pick and roll defence. I only got to see the 4th, but watching the switch strategy I wasn't so much impressed by the coaching as shocked that I was seeing this in an NBA game. I think it might have been the right move, but its a serious problem if we're admitting that our starting point guard can't effectively guard the most popular play in basketball. It made Amare more effective, but even more so, it means that were committing three guys to defend two, every single time. (Calderon , and Bargs were on Nash and Amare, and every time, Bosh had to slide down.) There's a reason why Frye hit 6 threes, and its because the other big man could never guard him because he was needed for pick and roll defence. 0 0

Seb Beitel 2009-11-20 14:14:04 | Quote i think it becomes a problem if you're doing it againat every pick and roll in the league. against maybe the moat effective one i think it was a savvy coaching move and it seemed to work well. if frye hits 5/7 threes so be it. i have a feeling other teams might use this same d against the suns throughout the year. 0 0