Jan 15 2009
Bulls squeeze out tight victory over Raptors
Derrick Rose had 25 points and 10 assists in beating the raptors 102-98 Wednesday night in Toronto. After playing an absolutely terrible first quarter, the Raps woke up and played a pretty decent game. (A game I had to go to a bar to see, as it was on TSN2.) Andrea Bargnani continued his stellar run since starting, scoring a career high 31 points on 10-14 shooting, and Chris Bosh contributed 25 points of his own. Unfortunately, with the game on the line, Bosh had his shot rejected by Noah on what looked like a broken play, sealing the Bulls’ victory.
A few notes: On that final play, coming out of the time out, it looked as though the play call was for a Kapono jumper. While that may not have been my choice of play to run, I’m okay with the call. Apparently no one asked Jason Kapono though, as he seemed simply unwilling to take the open shot, instead deciding to look inside to a Bosh iso on Noah. Which brings me to my next point. Bosh’s post moves are becoming a little predictable. As Noah said after the game, “I knew he was going to try to pump fake because he pump fakes a lot.” Bosh’s go-to in the post has turned into a pump-fake fade away jumper. Especially late in games, he seems to rely on his jump shot when, in my opinion, he should pump fake and then step in, as opposed to away, giving you a higher percentage look and opportunities for the foul call, or grabbing some boards. Which brings me to my next point:
Why didn’t Bargnani get a touch on the last posession of the game??? I understand that Bosh is the franchise, and he wants the ball in his hands at crunch time, but a simple glance over to Bosh’s and Barg’s stat line shows that Andrea was shooting the lights out all game, going 10-14 from the field, while Bosh went 8-18. Taking the higher percentage shot in this case, would be going with Andrea. Now I’m not saying that Andrea is better than Bosh, and ultimately it’s hard to complain when Bosh gets the ball with a chance to tie/win the game, but complain I will. Go with the hot hand, go with the guy who’s only missed 4 shots all game and has been playing out of his mind since you’ve shown him some trust- maybe you should show him a little more and see what he can do.
2 more things: Why the fuck is Will Solomon starting, and for fuck’s sake why is he on the court in crunch time? The offense is stalling out all over the place as Solomon is picking up his dribble with 20 seconds on the shot clock, etc. I want Roko starting, developing, and learning, because he’s still young and still able to learn, as opposed to Will, who is who he is, and doesn’t have a hell of a lot of upside.
Finally, on a good note, the Swirsk was back in town as the Bulls radio play-by-play guy. He was given a well deserved warm reception, and it was great to see him. Say what you will about his commentary, but he energized the Raptors fan base the way that no other radio or T.V. personality has, and that in itself is a hell of an accomplishment.
