No Easy Task To Make It Two In A Row.

I have to say the fact the Utah Jazz are 10-5, winners of 4 of their last 5 games is quite a surprise. The Jazz now without Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams you would think would be in full rebuild. After all Tyrone Corbin who took over from Sloan was only 8-20 last season. The trade that saw Williams go to the Nets did bring the Jazz some young talent in Derrick Favours and Devin Harris but this was not a team expected to do much this year by most. They have two solid bigs that are the main pieces to the puzzle in Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, they are the teams top scorers as well. Truth is by looking at the Jazz it just doesn't look all that impressive on paper. But the Jazz are by and large still a team that it is about the system more than the parts that make up the system. Corbin coached for years as an assistant to Sloan so that system for them mostly remains the same.

The Raptors have had almost the same lack of success vs the Jazz as they have had with last night's opponent that Suns. Raptors have lost to Utah 12 straight times. Two very different teams in terms of style. What it always largely comes down to when facing the Jazz is how you defend the pick and roll and if you are able to compete with them on the glass. The Raptors for the first time this season are pretty much healthy and have the full roster in place that Bryan Colangelo has assembled for this season. Dwane Casey is making some bold choices in terms of the roster of late. Unless your name is Andrea Bargnani it seems pretty clear you better perform or you could find yourself on bench. Rasaul Butler and Amir Johnson have already played their way out of the starting five. Demar DeRozan has been shown perhaps some more patience but to suggest he is secure in his starting role would not seem to be wise. If his production and decisions do not improve with Bargnani now back he could be delivered a message as well with a seat on the bench.

Heading in the opposite direction is a guy like James Johnson. Already a defensive type player, which with Casey is always going to give you opportunity. He is starting to make his presence known on the other end of the floor. Beyond the struggles of the Raptors youngsters in DeRozan and Ed Davis, the biggest glaring problem has been the lack of production from the small forward position. Linas Kleiza almost had won the job by not playing a single game. That is how bad Butler and Johnson had been. Ultimately Linas has not really been bad, but on a bench that needs scoring, he along with Leandro Barbosa have been the only two players providing that consistently. Johnson has been putting in work on his shot and over the last couple games we have started to see some results.

Ultimately the questions for the Raptors seem to be if they can produce on the offensive end of the floor. Is this going to be a Kevin O'Neil like offence that struggles to score, or can they be better than that. On nights when Andrea Bargnani is scoring the answer is better. But can we really expect this on a nightly basis? Andrea is averaging 23.4 points a game, That is a point or so better than Vince Carter under Kevin O'Neil with 22.5 per game. Here is where things differ though, Jalen Rose was the 2nd leading scorer on the Raptor squad in 03-04 after he arrived in a trade with Bulls. He averaged 16. 2 points per game, tied with Donyell Marshall who came in the same trade and averaged the same point per game total. Demar DeRozan and Leandro Barbosa are second and third in scoring on this Raptor squad at 14. 2 and 13.2 points per game. They also I think most would agree are not as consistent scorers as Rose and Marshall were. The Raptors Offence is ranked 29th in the league. That is second last in the league which is where the O'Neil led Raptors were as they were 28th with the NBA having one less franchise back in the 2003-04 season.

We can all agree the Raptors defence is at least heading in the right direction. 19th overall is a lot better than 30th. But the Kevin O'Neil Raptors were even better at 7th in the league out of 29 teams. The comparison between the two is not exactly a fair one. The team O'Neil had was far more talented than the one Dwane Casey has currently. But still that is the only real bench mark we have for a defensive minded Raptors basketball team. Tonight will be a challenge on both ends of the floor as the Jazz have a solid offence they run that is ranked 11th in the league and a defence that is middle of the pack at 16th.

Not to mention the schedule that helped the Raptors last night when they played a tired Suns team flips on them tonight playing a rested Jazz team that last played on Saturday. It was a 108-98 win over Minnesota. So if the Raptors get off to a slow start tonight as has been the pattern of this season the chances they make a comeback like last night is greatly reduced.

3 Keys:

Strike First, Strike Hard: Yes the immortal words of Strike Force. If the Raptors start off slow like they did in Phoenix you can just call the Jazz Demolition and give them the win. Anyone who has played basketball will admit this freely. To play from behind is a lot tougher than it is to play with a lead. Dwane Casey to his credit played every guy dressed last night vs the Suns. He will hope it pays off with more energy for his club tonight. But if they don't use it right away they will be in serious trouble.

Protect The Glass: The worst thing you can do against the Jazz is allow them to get rolling on the offensive glass. If they do, the Raptors will get 2nd chanced pointed to death. Any defence, no matter how good, always has to complete stops with defensive rebounds. The odds you stop a team the second time around drop off dramatically.

Secondary Scoring: I am never sure if you can doubt anything much about Andrea these days, but I will go out on a limb and say he isn't scoring 30+ tonight. Can the Raptors with Bargnani scoring at around his average find enough offence to keep pace with the Jazz? If they can they will have a chance to be in the game. If not they have no shot.

Recap tonight and tomorrow at some point will be talking with Raptors play by play announcer on the T.V side of things Matt Devlin. Should be fun to have Matt in The Starting 5 tomorrow. So look forward to that. If we are talking about a 2nd win in a row for the Raptors that would be a surprise but a welcomed one. Game is on TSN2 tonight at 9pm with Matt and Jack calling all the action from Salt Lake City.

Raptors Rewind- Triano Era Begins

Well unless you have been living under a rock you know that tonight is a new era for the Toronto Raptors. Sam Mitchell was fired and Jay Triano has been named his interim replacement. All of this and the Raptors will be on ESPN as well against the Utah Jazz. To know what we can expect is anybodies guess. Jay Triano has had one practice as the head coach so you can't expect a lot of changes as far as scheme. The attitude is another matter. If the Raptors can not get up for this game they really are the walking dead. National T.V and your coach has been fired. Raptors need to respond with effort. The Jazz were having some injury issues but playing through them and doing well. No Carlos Boozer which will be helpful for the Raptors effort to get a win. But his replacement Paul Millsap has been taking advantage with Boozer sidelined. AK-47 has had a bad ankle of late and is a question mark for this one but he would go.

1st Quarter

First play of Triano era a success a feed down to Bragnani for a dunk inside. Jermaine O'Neal would score in the paint and the start and this game had started like the one in Denver. Raptors started that game well which we forget. But just as in Denver the Raptors had a 6-0 start. Anthony Parker had 4 straight points still sporting that black eye. Raptors were off to a 10-4 advantage early. Jazz would rattle off 7 straight to take an 11-10 lead. Bryan Colangelo was helping out on the broadcast. But he could not have been liking the now 9-0 run by the Jazz. Causing Jay Triano to burn his first time out as the Interim head coach.

The run has now climbed to 11-0 and the Jay Triano era did not look much different from the Sam Mitchell era. The Jazz now had a 17-10 lead and a Raptor turnover gave Jazz a chance to extend it and they did. Raptors were 0-7 and the Jazz lead was climbing thanks to a 15-0 run. Jose Calderon would finally break the run with a 3 point shot. But Paul Millsap would get a two in response and Deron Williams had a steal and score. Williams had 10 and Raptors looked much the same as they had on this entire trip. Raptors got a basket and a foul for Bargnani and later a 3-ball from Kapono and the lead was down to 4 for the Jazz. But the Jazz started another run of 6-0 highlighted by an AK-47 alley opp dunk. Jermaine O'Neal had 3 fouls already in the first quarter and Almond was at the line for the Jazz. He extended the run to 8-0. Roko Ukic would score on a drive but the Raptors trailed by 10 after one 33-23. New coach but a pretty similar effort compare to what we have seen on this trip. That was obviously a concern.

2nd Quarter

Utah would start the second quarter on yet another run. They would score the first 5 points of the quarter. Joey Graham would break the run with a drive, a basket, plus a foul. Joey made the free throw for the 3-point play the old school way. Joey would drive and score again but the Jazz were getting it done on offense and the Raptor defense looked like swiss cheese. A Bosh basket followed by a created turnover and score for Toronto and the Raptors cut it back to 10 point lead at 42-32.

Kyle Korver made a 3 pointer and Jazz get another 2 pointer and they were up 15 with the score 47-32. Millsap had a very easy basket in the paint and this was looking like a replay of what happened in Denver minus Sam Mitchell. A Bosh turnover would lead to Matt Harpring getting fouled. He would split a pair and it was 52-34 Jazz with still well over 5 minutes to play. Joey Graham adds to his highlight reel with a dunk. Joey had 7 for the Raptors and was playing well but he was one of few that were. Another basket for Joey and he was trying to bring the Raps back with score 52-40. But Kyle Korver had a 3-ball to answer for the Jazz. Jose Calderon would pick off a truly brutal attempt at a pass. Calderon would take it all the way for rare transition bucket. That is something Jay Triano has indicted he wants to see more of with the Raptors running. Raptors were showing flashes of hustle but flashes were not going to be good enough. Williams would get banged up but remain in the game for the Jazz who had a healthy lead of 64-48. Chris Bosh would miss a shot and he was just 3-9 on the night. Raptors would get one last chance to score with a time out called with 3.9 seconds left in the half. A Bargnani shot from half court was not what Triano drew up in the huddle I am thinking. But that is what the Raptors would get and it would not fall. So the score remained 64-48 Jazz at the half.

One thing I forgot to mention is that Bryan Colangelo mentioned in his visit to broadcast booth a couple interesting things. The first that he was having a lot of conversations about finding another big to bring in to the roster. He also said we should hear something on Nathan Jawai soon. Do the two go together? Only Bryan Colangelo knows for sure. But you can bet he will be working the phones a bit harder after that first half.

3rd Quarter

So could Jay Triano come up with a good half time speech and get this team on the comeback trail? I mean what kind of a speech really could you say. I'll give it a shot. Hey WAKE UP, YOU COST A MAN HIS JOB. YOUR ON NATIONAL T.V AND GETTING YOUR BUTTS KICKED. SHOW SOME PRIDE AND PLAY SOME BASKETBALL!!! Something like that would seem about right to me. Raptors were getting killed on the glass being out rebounded 29-18. The first play of the second half Bosh fumbled the ball and turned it over. He had not looked like himself. The Jazz would convert that turnover into a 3-pointer. Jermaine O'Neal would block a shot and come down awkwardly on that left leg. He would remain on the floor and have a terrible miss on the offensive end and he was back on the bench. The trainer looking him over. The risk of that O'Neal trade was becoming a concern. But O'Neal was quickly back up and ready to check back into the game. But maybe he shouldn't have been as the Raptors were getting killed much like they had in Denver. J.O was back and had a dunk but the Raptors were down 75-56. This game was off the rails again with an Okur 3 pointer. It was just as ugly and a little more painful to watch than the game in Denver.

Kris Humphries was out with a sore knee for Toronto. I missed that bit of info. So no Hump in garbage time which was fast approaching. Jermaine O'Neal must have felt ok as he tried to draw a charge but in stead would get called for the block his 4th foul of the game. Raptors were down 24 points. Bosh would drive to the hoop and draw a foul and head to the line. Bosh would make the free throws but it was not going to matter. The Raptors chances of winning are about as good as O.J Simpson getting out of jail on parole in 9 years. I mean Jay Triano has only had a practice and a shoot around to work with this team. So maybe this is expected. However I would have expected my effort and energy from the Raptors and I have seen little evidence of that. People blamed T.J Ford for a loss of chemistry on this team last year. But T.J is long gone and I suggest that same lack of chemistry is still here. You can blame T.J Ford, you can blame Sam Mitchell but fundamentally there are issues with this team that have extended beyond that. What they are I am really not sure. Raptors were down 87-65 by the way. The beat went on to the end of the third quarter with the Raptors down 91-67.

4th Quarter

I'm not really sure what I can say again in this 4th quarter. I will give Jay Triano credit for one thing. Chris Bosh was not in the game for this 4th quarter. No sense in having him be out there in a situation like this. I was on Sam Mitchell at the end of his run for that. Chris Bosh gets hurt and you can start thinking about the draft lottery. Ok scratch that praise for Jay Triano cause in comes Bosh and Calderon with the Raptors down 28. I mean what the heck is the point of this. Sure Triano wants to get guys use to playing under him but there is no reason to risk you best players in a game like this under any circumstances.

I tell you this has been one of the most frustrating West Coast road trips that I can recall. I mean there have been some bad west coast trips in this team's history but I just can't recall a more disheartening one. Please take out the starters it is 97-69 for my personal sanity. This was just painful to watch. The Raptors were being totally out classed in every single way. Raptors trailed 100-71 and when Raptors give up 100 or more they are 1-8 heading to 1-9.

If this team does not find itself quickly by the end of this month of December the season could be lost and without much hope of saving it. This was always going to be a tough month. I think everyone knew that. But no one expected it to be like this. Thankfully garbage time was here without a stupid injury. That is about all there was to be thankful for. Will Solomon and Hassan Adams in with a cast of reserves. This was more than a losing streak it was a total loss of confidence. Your beat down update is Utah 108-82 with thankfully under 3 minutes to play. I am really asking myself when is pride going to kick in for this Raptor team. 110-85 is another scoreline that is a humiliating one and on ESPN to boot so everyone saw it. Jazz will dribble it out for a shot clock violation and the ugly final was 114-87. Raptors had 23 turnovers and were out rebounded 52-38 those were just 2 of about 100 reasons why the Raptors lost. The boxscores need to start coming with a parental advisory or something.

Raptors/Jazz Boxscore

I am reminded of a line from Sam Mitchell in his early days with the Raptors. " We need to find some men on this team that want to play and if you don't than just quit " I think I nailed the quote but close enough. Some where Sam was watching this game and saying see it wasn't just me. Time will tell if he would be right in thinking that if he in fact was.