Raptors Continue to Make the Same Mistakes

I almost routinely fall off my chair at the post-game quotes from the Toronto Raptors' players and Coach Sam Mitchell, because they apparently have the strange idea that they'll improve if they continue to say it over and over.

"It's different things and that's encouraging about this whole situation. It's not the same mistakes over and over," Chris Bosh said with a straight face following the Raptors' loss to the Celtics.

I won't try to convince you that the Raptors went into that game favored, and I dare not even suggest that they thought themselves to be the favorites, however, at the end of the day, the Raptors lost a game they should have won.

They squandered a 16-point lead, allowing Paul Pierce to score a whopping 24 points in the fourth quarter. The Raptors went away from the struggling Bosh in favor of Jermaine O'Neal, who had a great first half. The result was as expected. They missed bad shots, commited turnovers, and completely lost their composure in front of a hostile Boston crowd.

I've gotten to a point now where I listen to the general cliche statements from Mitchell, Bosh, O'Neal, and Calderon game after game and I'm always left with the same thought. Are you serious?

How can the three best players and the man coaching them not see the problems which are so obvious to the rest of us?

I had to leave the room as Sam Mitchell defended his decision to leave Jason Kapono on Paul Pierce. I again had to leave my room the other day as the Raptors' TV panel was talking about Jose Calderon being an All-Star in 2008-2009.

Bosh thinks they're making new mistakes. That's a positive. Paul Pierce indeed is different from Jamal Crawford, who is different from LeBron James, who is different from every other wing player who has embarrassed the Raptors' team defense.

It isn't that Kapono, Calderon, and Bosh are the worst defenders in the league. This team, however, has the worst defensive system I've witnessed in over 13 years of watching basketball.

They would probably double Shaq 20 feet from the basket if he told them before the game that he'd been working on a jumper. It certainly makes you wonder where these "things" that Mitchell is always talking about are.

Where are these plays? Where are these schemes?

Don't tell me the Raptors are too young to grasp a more advanced system, because this was always Mitchell's excuse in 2005-06 with rookies Calderon, Villanueva and Graham in a rotation which already featured youngsters Bosh and Araujo.

Roko Ukic laughed at the idea when asked about the time it would take for him to grasp the system. He said something along the lines of, "I've seen this stuff my whole life. Nothing new."

So as Moon sat on the bench, and Kapono allowed Pierce open look after open look, one had to wonder if the Raptors were going to out do themselves this season. Is some player going to come in determined to embarrass this system and score another 81 points? How about a 35-point fourth quarter?

Bosh is either stupid or blind. Perhaps, he just has a bad memory. Sure, Jalen Rose isn't Jason Kapono, Mike James isn't Jose Calderon, and Kobe Bryant's 81 and LeBron's 56 aren't Pierce's 24 fourth quarter points, but, the essential weakness with this team has remained the same regardless of who they put on the floor.

I'm going to petition outside the ACC in sub-zero temperature that Mitchell be removed as head coach and be demoted to the newly created position of head mop boy, effective immediately. Perhaps, from another perspective, he'd see the error of his ways. He'd still be about as close to the action as he's used to being, and still be contributing just as much to their wins. 

Should that fail, I shall tie myself to a pole a la Homer Simpson. Couldn't hurt to lose a few pounds with the holiday season around the corner. It is a cheap shot, but I can't resist. Perhaps someone will stuff Mitchell's stocking with a playbook six weeks from now? Toronto media might argue however, that he hasn't exacly been a good boy this year.