Assessing a late-game collapse in which the Raptors were outscored 13-0 in the final two minutes of last night's 107-97 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Jay Triano, Toronto's interim head coach, found a way to see the bright side.
"I can't fault our guys for blowing a lead," said Triano. "Luke Ridnour made two threes and Charlie Bell catches a deflection before it goes out of bounds. There were four plays in a row where the right thing happened but it just didn't go for us. I'm not upset with the guys or pointing the finger at anyone." He wasn't upset and neither, it seemed, was Chris Bosh, who had a 31-point, 11-rebound night and pronounced himself "happy" in the post-game locker room. He was speaking, one assumes, about his life in general, which includes a $14 million (U.S.) annual salary and an active life as a video-comedy hobbyist.
Still, the Raptors could have been waking up in Washington, D.C., this morning on their first three-game winning streak since their first three games of the season. Instead, because of some poor offensive decisions and lax defence down the stretch last night, they find themselves seven games under .500 and making a run at the league lead in blowing double-digit advantages. Eight of Toronto's 21 losses have now come in games in which they've held a lead of 10 points or more.
The Raptors, who led by as many as 13 points in the early going, led 97-94 with 2: 10 to play last night. But they surrendered two three-pointers in the dying moments that helped turn the tide, one by Charlie Bell to tie it at 97-97 and - after Charlie Villanueva gave the Bucks the 99-97 lead on an 18-footer by losing a forever-lost perimeter defender named Andrea Bargnani - another three-ball from Ridnour with 34 seconds to go to put it all but out of reach at 102-97.
Triano scoffed at Ridnour's 31 per cent three-point shooting percentage, suggesting the Raptors would gladly give the Milwaukee point guard the same shots again. And maybe there's some logic to that.
Maybe the bigger problem was that Toronto's two most important offensive possessions of the game ended in a pair of Will Solomon jump shots, a 19-footer with 1: 33 to play and the score tied 97-97 and a three-pointer with 1: 03 to go and the Raptors down 99-97. What a surprise that Solomon, a 23 per cent three-point shooter, missed both. Milwaukee, in other words, got more out of their crappy shooters.
"If you practise those shots every day, you're supposed to take 'em in a game," said Solomon.
So while Bosh was ultra-efficient all evening, making 12 of his 14 field-goal attempts, he didn't get a viable look at the hoop in the final two minutes. And while Toronto's defence had been credible in the first three quarters, when the Bucks shot just 44 per cent, it buckled badly in the fourth, when the home team, spurred by Villanueva's 13 points, shot 60 per cent. Michael Redd led the Bucks with 35 points.
The Raptors, who were playing without two starters in Jermaine O'Neal and Jose Calderon, both of whom were back in Toronto rehabbing injuries, claimed they got the short end of the whistle, and surely they lost a possible possession when the refs missed a call on a Francisco Elson travel-cum-turnover.
But Milwaukee didn't simply win by making low-percentage circus shots. They scored 12 of their 33 fourth-quarter points in the paint. Villanueva didn't score by coincidence; he scored 25 points, in no small part, because Bargnani couldn't guard him. And the Raptors, one could argue, needn't have made this one so dramatic. They didn't have one double-digit lead. They had a double-digit lead in each of the first three quarters, but never could they put a foot to the throat of their foes.
Said Bosh: "We broke down."
"I still was asking (teammates) how we lost this one," said Roko Ukic, the backup point guard. "They scored some incredible shots, and we didn't."
