incomplete

Everything about this team draws attention to the lack of completeness. It’s just like my life. Incomplete tax return forms. Incomplete sex addiction therapy (it seems you need to actually have sex before they’ll follow through with that). Mochi the wonder poodle was recently neutered (and he’s handling it better than I am). And the Toronto Raptors. That’s actually a pretty complete list of incompleteness. I must be missing something.

With the Raptors, you have two point guards that must split time rather than have a complete impact on any game, and it’s questionable whether either one has the make-up to do so (although I think Jack could prove to be capable).

Our franchise player looks all-NBA for more than half a season, but has never made it through an entire year in good form, injury-free and dependable for 82 games. He’s a perfect fit for an incomplete team perhaps.

The guys relied on to win a few games without Bosh in the lineup, or at less than 100 percent, Hedo and Andrea, just aren’t the kind of threats that can carry a team. Does Derozan show the promise to be able to do so? Will …

26′ed

Happy 26th Birthday Chris Bosh. Your team lost by 26 points. Same amount as your previous home game - an early present? The most your team was able to score in any of the four quarters was 26. The least you were able to hold the opposing team to in any quarter was 26. There was a fat lady eating nachos (26 bucks with a beer) in the lower endzone section, row 26, seat 26. She booed your ass 26 times by my count. She might have been screaming “happy BOOOOOOOirthday” but I don’t think so.

Your teammate, Hedo Turkoglu, number 26, fell ill halfway through. He chose the number for the date on which his daughter was born. I imagine him speaking to his baby daughter over the phone before the game. She has not said her first words yet. He keeps trying to get her to say “ball”. He repeats it into the phone. Over and over again. “Ball.Ball.Ball.” All she does is bawl. Hedo is stricken with an existential angst that eats away at his insides. That means he gives up on his team halfway through the game. Perhaps for the 26th …

Entropy

At the end of January some scientists down in Australia concluded that the universe is 30 times more disorderly than previously thought. And the Raptors seem to have taken those conclusions to heart. Right now, with 13 games left, this team needs to fight against the tendencies of entropy. They can start against the Jazz, and maybe they should consider how jazz itself is something of an aural representation of entropy, at it’s best when it’s close to breaking apart and ultimately bringing a momentary transcendent order within our grasp, in the midst of combustive energies. That’s the task at hand for the Dinosaur team. They need to make some sweet music in this moment. They need to look dead-on at the current random nature of their play, and fight against complete disintegration, then strike some positive notes that give them some validity as a playoff team, whether they make it as an eighth seed or higher.

It’s time for them to start playing playoff basketball from here on in. If they can’t muster the appearance of playoff intensity now, then they are going to look like they do not belong in the post-season at …

Smegmania

Everyone has been looking for that one right word to express what has been going on with the Raptors. There was a whole thread of one-word descriptions on RF, most of them pretty unappetizing. Eric Smith said he couldn’t find any words to do the job. Jack Armstrong came up with “soul”, before going on to say the team was searching for their true identity. Then last night he hesitantly pronounced “fragile”, before the Raptors failed to actually break, and instead showed some pretty good resiliency, thereby keeping that identity, even in it’s most negative sense, elusive and happily in the shadows.

I have found myself in love with the entire roster as much, if not more than any other assembled cast in Toronto. At the same time, almost every single one of these guys has maddeningly disappointed to varying degrees at some point. A single word will not do. I am left standing under the bright lights, like Eve Plumb appearing along with the rest of the Brady Bunch cast members, on the Weakest Link, and with no answer to give the mean lady with the british accent, and the clock ticking. She offered …

1M Olympics

First of all, lets make no mistake about it - the necessary improvement with this Raptors team needs to come on the defensive end. It’s really too bad that they could not continue playing very well together as a group, as they were before the All-Star break. On both ends the concentration and focus was there before. Now these guys are looking like complete strangers again. There is too much looking for one guy to create stops, rather than to be a part of five guys all adding to the effectiveness of the defense from the point of attack to securing the rebounds.

Yet as much as the defense is a sore spot, I still find the way they play on the offensive end to be a part of the problem. The shot selection, and the way that shots are settled for without making the opposing defenses work, leads to a whole lot of transition points going the other way. The play on the offensive end mirrors what happens on the defensive end. There’s just not a great idea of what each guy needs to be doing to add to the sum of the parts. …

Yet Another Corner to Get Around

It seemed like it happened already. There was Andrea Bargnani, playing some very nice help defense, blocking shots, playing with energy, bringing home a win with Bosh out of the lineup. Cue Colangelo blathering on about the man’s greatness to a couple of puckhead radio guys. Jay was doing a great job with Bargnani. Andrea was understanding what he could do out there, establishing himself in this league and becoming the player they had all imagined when he was picked at number one. He had definitely turned the corner.

Well, around every corner is another corner. Andrea has shown what he can do. Now he needs to do it with some consistency. Against sub-par teams, and in home games, it’s hard not to be happy with his game. Against stiffer competition, particularly while on the road, the drop-off is dramatic. There is no reason for this team to lose three games in a row, with or without Bosh. But if Bargnani fails to bring any energy to games, then the losing streak could seem endless. He becomes a 7-foot barrier to success. Colangelo goes in hiding. Jay Triano looks like the main character in a …

Confidence

If you’ve seen the greatest of all Elvis movies, and surely you have, then you’ll know of the song Confidence. It comes in the pivotal moment of Clambake where Elvis needs to sing a song, and some ugly kid needs help in being convinced to slide down a slide in the playgorund. So Elvis sings:

with a C and an O and an N and a F and an I and a D and an “ents” - put ‘em all together and you’ve got confidence!

The song owes much to Sinatra’s High Hopes as imagined by a von Trapps tribute act, with instrumental interludes of children’s songs as though interpreted by Aaron Copeland, thrown in for good measure. It’s truly beautiful. To top everything off, Elvis takes a basketball with rainbow-colored panels, and sinks a one-handed shot like he was a pre-gun-toting Agent Zero. The video should be played in the Raptors locker room before every game. Just for the heck of it.

Confidence is what has been on display as of late, more than just high hopes, and it’s getting the job done. It is one of the key elements of team play that …

Post-Valentine Heart

At the time of writing this, I’m getting anticipatory feelings about real basketball action resuming, and thinking about what the Raptors need to finish the season strong. And I think it’s going to come down to heart. As simple as that. Well, actually finding a consistent three-point threat woudn’t hurt. But heart is going to be a big part of the equation.

What does that entail exactly? It’s hard to say. Those damn Yankees needed miles and miles and miles of it. What kind of tremendous poetic imagery is that? They don’t write songs like that anymore. It makes me think of a terrible mess of roadkill though, so I guess it’s a good thing they don’t. But what better way to describe the impact of heart? It’s a tough one, and although I’m tempted to drink some Sprite in order to come up with flourishes that would make a Jack Kerouac sit in the center of his own universe and cry at the beauty of it all, I suspect the Sprite trick works about as well as the dunk contest ended up.

We know it when we see it. It was mostly heart that allowed …

Boshtown

Chris Bosh makes it a homecoming while enjoying the All-Star weekend in Dallas. But with what he’s been saying of late, it seems that his heart lies back here in Toronto. He’s been talking about recruiting other players, and letting them know what the city has to offer, and he doesn’t appear to see that as a major challenge. Of course winning would help that whole process along nicely. So let’s hope that continues to happen, and the current culture around the whole team takes root enough to lure in some more talent into Bosh’s long, welcoming arms.

But how does Bosh get past the perceived notion that he’s in the Great White North where all that really matters is hockey and curling? How does he get over not being in the USA himself? Hears how he puts things in a pretty nice perspective -

“It is a hockey town, but they know what basketball is. They cheer when the ball goes in, and when we win they cheer even more. It’s a pretty simple game. People follow basketball all over the world. So for people who say its a hockey town, its getting a little …

The Message

Mr. Colangelo put together a little message that was sent out to all the major media outlets last week. He said something a little different from “it’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under”, although he did point out that he was close to going there early in the season when the schedule was tough. But pointing at the tough schedule “wasn’t an excuse, it was a reality” Keepin’ it real Bryan. Keepin’ it real fo sho. And what a great way to make excuses without making excuses.

The biggest part of his message had to be this line: “I’m talking about not only a tweak, but in a big deal, we’re going to be a buyer, not a seller.”

My question is - who is this message directed at? Is it a message meant be heard loud and clear by all the pushers and pimps, those being the sad GM’s of teams in financial hardship? Is he meaning to make them very aware that the Raptors are ready to look at offers even if Bosh is off the table? Or is the message meant mainly for Chris Bosh …