11
As I hope came across in my column, coaching is crazy. Sam and his staff huddle and ponder and think and decide to change the starting lineup in Game 1 and get – arguably – burned by it in Game 1 and 2. In Game 3 he makes another change, though really just a return to the lineup they used most this season (Bosh, Bargnani, Moon, Parker and Ford was in place 36 times this season and the Raptors were .583) but not regularly for a while, given injuries to Ford, then Bosh and then Bargnani's performance compared with Nesterovic later in the season.
And while it made sense on one level, the risks of playing two struggling shooters – Ford and Moon – at the same time when it seemed to play directly into the Magic's game plan, basically allowing them to ignore two guys and let Howard and Nelson crowd Bosh. But what do you know?
Moon gives an energy boost that helped feed the crowd and Ford answered a lot of critics – myself included – by giving the Raptors just what they needed and making the Magic pay by hitting those mid-range jumpers. Bargnani was even good – battling Howard, hitting some key shots and generally being active. I'm tempted to point out that he still shot 4-of-11, was 1-of-5 from three and somehow avoided getting a rebound in 23 minutes, but the reality is he was effective and he deserves credit for competing as hard as he did. Similarly, Sam made some moves, didn't make others and they all worked. The number one measuring stick for a coach – and it's grossly imperfect – is did his team respond to his words and deeds? In this case the answer is yes. The coaching business no easier to figure out as a result.[amp]nbsp;
One Series, some things, v1.3
1. Obviously T.J. Ford is a Globe reader. There it was in black-and-white[amp]nbsp;yesterday morning and on the Internet too, my personal challenge to T.J.: time to show up! Okay, that was lame, but Ford was not. That was a solid as he's looked all season with his mid-range jumper. He stepped into in it with confidence and knocked them down and when he does that he is very tough to contain, especially if your name is Carlos Arroyo. But the most important part of his game might have been the energy he took the floor with. He had a steal before the game was 10 seconds old and got the Raptors into some early transition with a couple of defensive rebounds.
2. Here's kind of a cool stat. The Raptors had 31 assists on 42 field goals. Of the 11 unassisted field goals Ford had five of them, four of them coming when he started undressing Arroyo late in the second quarter, for which he clearly didn't need much assistance.
3. Interesting story line to follow this morning. Apparently Magic guard Jameer Nelson collapsed in the hallway outside the Magic dressing room in the game after being hit with a sudden back spasm. According to Magic coach Stan Van Gundy he took a hit defending a screen-and-roll and then the back spasms kicked in. If he can't go Saturday that could be a major problem for Orlando. I think Keyon Dooling has been pretty good in stretches for them but my guess is he's not quite the floor leader Nelson is, and Arroyo is pretty suspect defensively.
4. I don't think I've ever seen Chris Bosh quite so animated than after the game last night. It wasn't that he was acting all crazy, it's just that when he was talking at the press conference he was all engaged and almost bubbly. You could tell he was just so happy to win that game. There wasn't a hint of concern that it wasn't a great all-round night for him. He was praising his teammates, the crowd, the coaching staff. There is a big, big difference being down 3-0 and down 2-1 and Bosh was obviously demonstrating just that.
5. I was sitting in the lower bowl in temporary press seating as opposed to down on the sidelines as is normally the case. It was kind of cool to be ‘in' the crowd. People were really into it, everyone wearing their red shirts and drinking beers. One thing about this job is you forget about how much fun people have at games, and obviously even more so at a playoff game and even more when the Raptors are winning. Lots of smiles on lots of faces.
6. On that note there is no doubt that the crowd got into Howard's head a little bit when he was at the free throw line, where he was just 3-of-8 on the night and had to back off a few times.
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