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TORONTO — If there isn't a home where crazy old basketball coaches can gather in their dotage and compare notes on just how ridiculous their chosen path was, there should be.
Consider this sequence from the critical first quarter of the Toronto Raptors' critical 108-94 win over the Orlando Magic last night: Much-maligned Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani was buried deep in the post against Orlando's monster centre, Dwight Howard.
Somehow the sophomore Italian held his ground, and poked away the entry pass. Maligned T.J. Ford took the ball and headed off to the races. The layup didn't drop, but nearly forgotten Jamario Moon hustled the lane and squeaked in a put-back to give the Raptors, who pretty much conceded the first quarter in their two road losses, an impressive 24-11 lead.
Go figure. The first-quarter lead held, and the Raptors have a chance to tie the series 2-2 at the Air Canada Centre tomorrow afternoon.
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A generous load of credit for the victory goes to one player Mitchell was criticized for inserting into the starting lineup to start the series (Bargnani) and another (Ford) whom Mitchell was criticized for not benching last night.
And then there was Moon. “He didn't say why, he just put me back in the starting lineup,” explained Moon, who started 75 consecutive games in the regular season before being replaced by Bargnani the first and second games of the series. “That's pretty much it. I don't know why.”
Moon made his coach look great, bouncing into Raptors playoff lore with 11 points and nine rebounds in the first half alone as Toronto sprinted to a 21-point lead.
And Mitchell had yet another example that shows his profession has as much certainty as log-rolling, or professional gambling (sorry David Stern): You can practise and plan all you want, but you never know exactly how things are going to work out and – realistically – you're eventually going to go down.
But not last night. The Raptors were on fire, and so was Mitchell.
After Ford helped the Raptors to a nice start, he gave way to Calderon, who drilled three second-quarter three-pointers. The Raptors expanded their lead, raising the question of when to come back to Ford.
Mitchell made the switch at 3 minuets 25 seconds of the second quarter. The night going the way it was, the switch worked. Ford was transformed instantly from the confused and hesitant point guard who was on the floor the first and second games into the slashing, cocky floor general that makes him so dangerous.
By halftime, Ford had scored 18 of his 21 points on the night, and the Raptors were all but home.
Not that Mitchell is about to puff his chest. That would mean he was worried what anyone thought in the first place.
“I'm not going to take any credit for it, and I would be scared to death if [the media] actually gave me some,” he said. “… I'm just going to coach the basketball team. Some things you do are going to work, some things aren't going to work. [If] you do things based on what people are going to say about you, you're in the wrong business.”
A convenient storyline during the series has been Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy, a sideline lifer, staying one step ahead of Mitchell in the tactical battle. But after last night, Van Gundy was left looking for answers.
“It's on me. I've got to get us into some stuff that's a little bit better,” he said. “I thought we had a good plan coming in, we did not and we go back to work [today] and try to figure some things out.”
It's unlikely Mitchell will sit still, though with a win under his belt he might be relieved of the temptation to alter his starting lineup again. But you never know. It's not like there are any certain answers.
Before the game, Van Gundy referred to the scrutiny of Mitchell since Chris Bosh's jumper fell short at the buzzer the second game, the final nail in the Raptors' defeat, but he was speaking about the lot of all coaches.
“Because we win, the storyline is the start of the game, and the Raptors aren't ready to play, and they're not ready to play because Sam's an idiot,” Van Gundy said. “But [if] Chris Bosh's ball bounces in, the story is about the Raptors' resilience, how Sam kept 'em in the game, and how Stan couldn't make any adjustments to keep it from happening. That's coaching, that's the NBA, that's the way it goes.”
