Official Game Thread: Toronto @ Chicago (2/13/07)

Raptors Win, Raptors Win, Raptors Win!

Bosh cool as ice with the game winning free throws. Gotta say i was super dissapointed with Sam Mitchell's substitution pattern, Specifically subbing out Calderon for TJ ford at around the 4:30 mark in the 4th Q. Calderon was dominating out there. Also unhappy about MP3 getting those clutch time minutes especially since he was playing pretty poor 1st half. Mo pete did hit that one three but where was the GArbage MAN in the fourth Q???? he single handely kept us in the game in 3rd quarter when the bulls started making their run.

 

Don't look now but on another forum i check (I will not name) they are reporting that it's scoreboard gate part deux. Apparently with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter they didn't count a basket by the raptors. Not sure if there is any truth to this or not.

If this is true i'm especially pissed:
1) because this is professional sports and we have complete morons working the scorers table.
2) Because our bench is "supposed to be watching" and missed it, again. After they said they would count. Someone needs to be fired.

 

I was yelling at my tv to keep Jose in... I was screaming at Mitchell to keep Jose in but I knew he was going to put TJ in for no god damn reason at all...

TJ isn't that bad, but it's just the piss poor decision of Sam, when Jose was playing stellar and making the Raps play amazing.

Plus the play calling in the crunch time was just god awful by Mitchell.

We win though!

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Mitchell is so stupid. Why in the world would you put TJ in just for the sake of it when Calderon was playing so well and leading the team so well.

How may times is he going to do this?</div>

I totally agreed, he was doing good up until the last 4mins... WHY would he put in MoPete for GABo..... GABO had the hot hand.. .

Why would you take Jose out for Ford when Jose was killing the bulls... they couldnt stop this guy.

I pray Sam doesnt make dumb moves like when we get to the playoffs...
Dumb moves like that is what Colangelo will be keeping his eyes on, not all about winning the games...

 

<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don't look now but on another forum i check (I will not name) they are reporting that it's scoreboard gate part deux. Apparently with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter they didn't count a basket by the raptors. Not sure if there is any truth to this or not.

If this is true i'm especially pissed:
1) because this is professional sports and we have complete morons working the scorers table.
2) Because our bench is "supposed to be watching" and missed it, again. After they said they would count. Someone needs to be fired.</div>

I know what your talking about. There was a little confusion with the scoreboard but in the end they got it right I thought. Just a little delay i adding the points, but i may be wrong. By the way I was critical of Sam Substitution pattern but i will say this the raptors players got really tight at the end of the Game specifically Anthony Parker, can't blame Sam for That

 

Calderon was exactly who we needed to break the Bulls' zone. He was one of the few Raps who was actually taking it to the basket. Bosh was getting doubled every time he touched the ball and TJ was just standing at the perimeter.

It just makes me mad. Mitchell keeps saying he has no preferences when it comes to the pgs but that's obviously not true. I have nothing against TJ but Calderon was playing much better than him tonight. If TJ is playing better than Calderon, by all means he should put TJ in but that certainly wasn't the case tonight.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Drunkballer Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I know what your talking about. There was a little confusion with the scoreboard but in the end they got it right I thought. Just a little delay i adding the points, but i may be wrong. By the way I was critical of Sam Substitution pattern but i will say this the raptors players got really tight at the end of the Game specifically Anthony Parker, can't blame Sam for That</div>

Agreed....they were a bit behind, then they put up 2 extra points for the raps, just as they made a basket, evening it out. It all added up in the end.

 

<div class="quote_poster">norespect Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Agreed....they were a bit behind, then they put up 2 extra points for the raps, just as they made a basket, evening it out. It all added up in the end.</div>
Good to know!

I think we should throw out there cb4 making 2 clutch free-throws at the end; he's rapidly breaking the non-clutch label he was given previously.

 

<div class="quote_poster">a13x Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don't look now but on another forum i check (I will not name) they are reporting that it's scoreboard gate part deux. Apparently with 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter they didn't count a basket by the raptors. Not sure if there is any truth to this or not.

If this is true i'm especially pissed:
1) because this is professional sports and we have complete morons working the scorers table.
2) Because our bench is "supposed to be watching" and missed it, again. After they said they would count. Someone needs to be fired.</div>

Well, they did also take 1.5 seconds away from the Bulls later in the game, so it does even out

 

Anyone remember that Video of Colangelo on Draft night when the Bulls selected Tyrus Thomas, Colangelo thought that L. Deng might be expendable and immediately called to see if he could aquire him via trade??? Man that guy has a good eye for talent.

 

When Gordon put that last shot up, I thought we were done. Luckily Ford played good defense, and forced Gordon to put up a bad shot. If we win tomorrow (which we should), we could go into the All-Star break 4.5 games ahead of New Jersey.

EDIT: Luol Deng KILLED us tonight. He probably could've scored at least 40 if he wanted.

 

That foul call at the end was borderline at best, but then taking an extra 1.5 seconds away from us at the end is BS. Oh well, we shouldn't have let it come down to that.

 

I can't wait till Bargnani and Bosh hit their primes. We are talking about a Dirk/KG like combo. That's scary.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Dan G Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That foul call at the end was borderline at best, but then taking an extra 1.5 seconds away from us at the end is BS. Oh well, we shouldn't have let it come down to that.</div>

That was a legit foul. Don't be bias. Now the scorekeepers did mess up the clock situation though.

 

Well, I'll disagree with the majority of you here. Jose Calderon was not playing good basketball when he was subbed out. He drove the ball 3 times within 4 or 5 possessions and was either denied entry, blocked, or had to pass out. And he was holding onto the ball far too long (uncharacteristic of him). The Bulls may have been one of the few teams to actually scout him properly and they (Ben Wallace in particular), took that drive away from him towards the end. I didn't mind subbing TJ Ford in and the problems with our offense were already evident before he was put in the game. I won't blame Sam for that substitution.

I will give him some blame for our absolutely terrible defense. Luol Deng must have scored 20 points off that soft jumper 3 feet inside the 3 pt. line and we wouldn't put someone on to shadow him. It was not as if he was even making spectacular moves or running constantly off the ball. We were just not respecting the dude who singlehandedly kept them in the game in the 1st half. And, I seem to say this every game, but we did not box out. I'm beginning to wonder if Sam has ever taught our players to deny the baseline and watch out for the person following his own shot. The Bulls dominated the glass (moreso than usual) tonight.

Our offense in the latter half of the 4th quarter was just too brutal to watch. The Bulls began playing a soft zone on us: it allowed them to collapse on Bosh, but did not prevent them from getting a hand out on the shooter. Now, there are several obvious ways to break a zone. You can overload the players on one side and find the open man. We didn't do this, instead we set up Bosh in the middle, put 2 shooters in the corners, and had two guards relatively in the middle. Basically we spread out our players pretty evenly. Another way is to have players setting picks and moving off the ball. This is a common complaint against Sam and of course we didn't move off the ball today. The last way is to get the point guard to penetrate and kick out. This is what really pissed me off. Like I mentioned before, Calderon was not able to drive and that was mainly because Bosh was set up in the middle and there was always another defender ready to stop him. As a result, most of our possessions either had the point guard dribbling too long and shooting off a predictable pick. Or (this happened for the last 4 possessions) we swung the ball around the perimeter, tried to force it to Bosh, passed out, and basically settled for a contested 3 pt. jumper. I fail to understand how you can call timeouts and not make an adjustment to break such a simple zone. Essentially, we were bailed out by 2 key offensive rebounds by Bosh and some clutch free throws.

 

The Raps' D pissed me off near the end. Duhon hit 2 clutch shots, and they still leave him open for a second open 3. Also, we're lucky Bosh got that rebound near the end; that was a bad decision to drive it on Ford's part IMO. They should have ran an iso' for Bosh, see if he could draw a foul or score or kick it out to Bargs, Parker or Mo-pete for an open shot.

 

BTW, Bosh is slowly becoming a pretty clutch player. I was impressed that he knocked down those free throws.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Drunkballer Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Anyone remember that Video of Colangelo on Draft night when the Bulls selected Tyrus Thomas, Colangelo thought that L. Deng might be expendable and immediately called to see if he could aquire him via trade??? Man that guy has a good eye for talent.</div>

Wow you're right. I do remember that video...Colangello's a genius when it comes to finding/seeing talent.

 

Ok we can all agree that the offense sucked for the last four minutes. Again, like last game I dunno if you can say anything about taking Calderon out of the game, he had played an extended stretch and was probably pretty burned out.

Maybe not at the end of the game, but prior to that I was impressed with the was Ford was playing. He started to do some thing like make passes he normally doesn't and just moved the ball a little better than usual. Give him some time and he'll be great.

Anthony Parker was in the game much longer than he needed to be. He does a great job, but he must have been dying out there. I know Bargnani tonight playing long minutes screwed things up but I would have like Graham to get a few extra minutes ... I like how he's attacking the basket lately.

 

WOW that was disheartening, thank God for bosh. TJ Ford isn't such a bad idea, he has proven himself in the clutch and plays solid defense when he wants to, also coming up with a key defensive play when he got the offensive call on gordon i believe. Calderon was sucking it up too, so i don't know what you guys are talking about. mp3 shoulda been taken out for kramer, wtf was sam thinking on that one.