Game 1: 42 points - down 10 at half Game 2: 33 points - down 3 at half Game 3: 39 points - down 19 at half Game 4: 37 points - down 19 at half 1st half 4 game average: 37.7 points per first half. Avg. Half time deficit 12.75 points Is it great defense by the Nets? or Great offense? Are the raptors nervous? lack of ball movement and execution? just not hitting our shots? Sam Mitchell's coaching eg. players arn't prepared? This stat is the only reason I think the raptors have an big time outside chance to win the series. I mean its hard to win when your consitently down at half time. Hopefully the team gets their Sh*T together and wins game 5 at home. Than if we have a good half in new jersey keep things close who knows maybe shots fall at the right time and we're headed back to Toronto for Game 7. Yes at times New Jersey has looked good; Carter getting what ever he wants at will sometimes, Kidd has been phenomenal especially shooting the 3 pointer and they get contributions from Collins and Moore defensively, Nachbar is deadly off the bench and Jefferson has been up and down. But god damnit this is the same Nets team that finished the reg season at 41-41 yes they finished strong but the raptors have been absolutely dominated by them, there first halfs have been painful to watch and IMO several players have "choked" in the playoffs. Yet there is still hope, I think but maybe im being overly optimistic. Also as a side note - - the quality of basketball has been piss poor. I was excited for this series as a Raptors fan but much like I was excited for the Nuggets/Spurs, Golden State/Dallas and Utah/Houston i figured non Nets or Raptors fan would enjoy tuning into our series. But man has it been filled with turnovers, missed shots, bad defense. There is just no flow, its a frieken eye sore. Anyway, I don't what i was trying to say in this rant, oh wait I remembe; yeh so if the raptors can start scoring 45+ points in the first half I think we have slight chance to comeback. This team cannot continue to let Mikki Moore and co get away with big first half leads.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s contributing to our poor performance and you hit on a lot of them. Basically for me it starts with us not really being prepared. We should realize that NJ is going to take away our tendencies like any good team would. So once that has happened it gets us off our regular game plan. We start playing poorly and the players get nervous. The coaching staff rather than make necessary adjustments is playing right to Lawrence Frank. NJ is leaving our guards open by design so they can shoot those jumpers because they know those are low percentage shots. Our coaching staff is saying to our guards “shoot those shots because you’re open” the same way they did all year. Also, we’re not promoting any real movement off the ball so all the pressure is on TJ and Jose to get things done. On the defensive end we are playing way too soft. If everyone on NJ can run up court the way they have without being hit or at least impeded (Kidd especially) we’re going to give up tons of easy baskets. Our perimeter defense has been terrible all year and in this series it’s really showing.
