blogsketball

“This is the first time the Raptors have led in this game.”

Of all the words I don’t want to hear Chuck Swirsky say, those are the ones  that are irking me the most lately. That’s not even a slight against the peanut-shaped headed MLSE windbag <— that is. For the third straight game this year, the Raptors have let the opposition jump out to an early lead, only to see their comeback efforts fall short all night. Tonight the lucky opponent is the Orlando Magic.

The Raps did a good enough job on Rashard Lewis (19 points) and Dwight Howard (15 points, 7 rebounds), but they didn’t count on Hedo Turkoglu going for 19 and 11 in 31 minutes.

They had a chance to win this game in the fourth quarter and when Jose Calderon was in the game, it looked like they had a shot at digging themselves out of the hole they spent the entire game in. Calderon was doing a masterful job at running the offence; he had everyone involved, his own three-point shot was going and it was when Calderon was in that the Raps tied the game up and took what would be their only lead of the game.

With everything clicking, Sam Mitchell decided it was time to put TJ Ford in. The substitution annoyed me, because with Calderon playing that well at the point, why take that away from him? Why not take out Parker or Delfino and have Ford play the off guard? Even still, why not just let Ford sit while Jose’s getting it done?

Here’s what Ford did when he came in:

The motion of the offence comes to a screeching halt because Ford wants to save the day. This was fine when he took over against Boston and it worked, but when it’s not there, you’ve got to play a different role. Tonight it wasn’t there.

Orlando point guard Jameer Nelson hits an open trey to take the lead back. Guess who’s supposed to pick him up? TJ Ford couldn’t answer this question because he let Nelson drive to the hoop and lay it in to put the lead back to five on the very next play.

On the next possession, Ford forces it and completely misses the lauyp. On the other end, Hedo grabs an offensive board and the Magic score.

A fluky Juan Dixon basket cuts the gap a little more but a Keith Bogans trey pushes the lead to eight with a minute left and this thing was done, but not before Ford would force the issue again, start to fall out of bounds on the baseline and throw the ball away out to half. He then forces up a trey (no good) and the Raps briefly play the foul game before giving up and letting the clock run out.

If you’re Jose Calderon you’ve got to be upset. It’s one thing to get yanked out of the game in the midst of doing your thing, but why didn’t Mitchell see the ship sinking and go back to Calderon?

Bottom line, after two good wins to start their season, the Raps find themselves on a three-game losing streak. All of these 8-3, 10-2 scoring runs are great, but when you’re making them from ten-down throughout the night, what good are they? All that happens is they hurt my heart when they fall short.

If you’re Jose Calderon, how are you not pissed off with this game? He can opt out after this year, can’t he?