Mike James critical of Mitchell

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Toronto guard Mike James was critical yesterday of Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell for failing to double-team Bryant in an effort to shut him down.

"You can't point fingers at anyone, but at the end of the day, when a person's that hot, you can't allow somebody to be on a deserted island," James said in an interview on Sirius Satellite Radio's Full Court Press. "And we kept our players on an island the whole night trying to play him one-on-one and now he's so aggressive and the referees are giving him every call.

"I felt like we should have been double-teaming. Let Lamar [Odom], let Smush [Parker], let anybody else get 30, but he can't score another basket. And I just think there really wasn't a scheme."

James said the Raptors also should have tried to be more physical with Bryant, at least let him know they were paying attention.

"You got to do something to let him know it ain't going to be this easy," James said. "I think some of the guys found themselves watching also and I think even the coaching staff almost got mesmerized by it because after a while it just became a fiasco. It became like a little sideshow and that was the most frustrating thing about it."

The 27-year-old Bryant, who joined the Lakers out of high school and is in his 10th NBA season, scored 55 of his team's 73 points in the second half. He raised his scoring average to an NBA-leading 35.9 points.

"I think the surprising thing with Kobe is that he continued to get to the rim so easy," Heaney said. "When he made his move from the perimeter to the basket, I have no idea where the interior defence was."</div>
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Art...orts/Basketball

 

Well James isn't alone on this one. I'm sure everyone watching that game was wondering the exact same thing. I don't really like it when players or coaches criticize others on their team through the media but I can understand it for this case. Mitchell caused his players to get flat-out embarassed that night so James is just trying to return the favour.

 

kobe should have "just" scored around 60 pts in that game...
you know....amazing showing, wowie zowie performance, but certainly not historical making...just that toronto loves to make history for opposing players and the coach just knows how to yell at his players without looking at his playbook and think of an effective/efficient gameplan

 

I don't know about James not knowing what a double team is, against McGrady we did it, this was not even close to how we played Tmac. James is actually right. I watched the game again because I just didn't understand how we let him take and make that many shots, especially the inside ones. He had about 7 uncontested layups/dunks in the game, not counting the one on the fastbreak where he stole the ball and dunked. He had about another 3 lightly contested layups, that's already 20 points right there, 22 counting the fastbreak dunk. He had about 7 jumpers off the dribble with single coverage, another where the guy defending the pick setter sagged off and gave him an open three, that's another 14+ points [some were three's]. He then had 4 catch and shoot jumpers with single coverage, I think 3 three's, and one a two, what can you do about that though. The toughest shot he made was when MoPete had him stuck in the corner, and instead of doubling, Matt Bonner just kinda stood behind and watched, he got an AND1 on the play too.

The rest of his baskets were him FT's, and 5 other makes with him driving and hitting contested jumpers [over normally Bonner], 2 tough layups, and then when he split the double on the pick and roll and got the AND 1 on Bosh.

With that kind of coverage, if he's hot, give him the shots which is a lot, and he could score 100 points, even if he's not hot, if you're allowing him to get to the basket like that, that's another 60 point game for him.

 

The players themselves are to blame along with Mitchell. Sure, Mitchell did not double team Kobe, but a lot of the times it was just horrible one-on-one defense with no help arriving when he did drive to the basket.

I don't think Mitchell really decided to double team Kobe unitil it was already too late. From what I saw and heard, Mitchell was going to let Kobe make all the shots and not let anyone else get involved.

 

Sam mitchell is the players coach! he is friends with them, like he wants to impress and be friends.... i thought the coach had to be an authority figure on the team! that is why our players criticize, on and on!

Sam needs to get it in their heads that he is the coach and what he says is final. If he cannot do even that, than all hope is lost with Sam Mitchell being the Headcoach.

I wonder if Bzdelik is still looking for an opening position? he would be great!


SAM! stop "nicing" up to the fellas!

 

I still don't understand why we employed that strategy, and when we realized it wasn't working, which was like 4 mins into the 3rd quarter, we should've changed.

Remember the first game we played against them, we aggressively doubled, he had 9 assists, that's very good, but we got the win and he only put up 12 shots in 26 minutes and had 11 pts.

Sam didn't just not double him, he also put Jalen on him in the 2nd and 3rd which allowed him to get a lot of open looks he normally wouldn't get with another defender. We were also clearly able to win the game down the stretch, cause it's not like they were playing amazing defense, but Sam seemed to be enjoying the show instead of trying to get his team to win. We allowed Kobe to get hot, and when he did, we kept allowing him to get easy ones. It's not a coincidence that since Jalen started playing more again, we've had a lot more all-star and not so all-star swings have big games on us.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">Remember the first game we played against them, we aggressively doubled, he had 9 assists, that's very good, but we got the win and he only put up 12 shots in 26 minutes and had 11 pts.
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We actually lost that game and that's probably why Mitchell went with the strategy of "let Kobe get his while we focus on the rest of the team". But the main reason we lost that game was because the Laker scrubs were having a rare productive outing. If you ask me, we should've played Kobe like we did the first game again b/c odds are, their second unit won't outplay us like that twice in a row.

The strategy Mitchell used on Sunday worked on Lebron last season when he dropped 56 points but still lost the game. The problem is that if it doesn't work, not only do we lose the game, but we also get totally embarassed in the mean time.... Having Kobe drop 81 on us in a historic nba moment is a prime example of that.

 

Mitchell is....I can't find a word to describe him that won't get me a warning or have the censor kicking in.

I've just noticed how Mitchell tries to ride Bosh. Against Utah, a blowout almost all the way, Bosh played 41 minutes. Against the Lakers, a blowout which was over about 9 minutes into the fourth quarter, Bosh logged 43. Tonight, against the Bulls, another blowout most of the way, Bosh played 41. This game, Bosh was showing the fatigue. He wasn't shooting the free throws like he normally did, he didn't show the same quickness at attacking the basket, and he couldn't rebound with the same power he did at the beginning of the season. We've seen Bosh's rebounding numbers drop pretty drastically, and he's becoming more content taking the mid-range shot. Why so? Because Mitchell doesn't recognize the signs that are being transmitted from his star player and continues to play him even though the game is over. Bosh is a hardworker and will give his all on the court, but playing your star 41+ minutes in blowouts is simply absurd.

Back-to-backs are also situations where we see Bosh play a lot on the first night then almost just as much on the second nights.