3/14/10
by: Scott
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There are only so many ways to describe how awful this team is defensively, so I'm not going to bother. I'm not going to write another post-game report on this team until they win a game — and with the way they're playing lately, that could be a while.
In case you weren't aware, the Warriors are missing seven of their rotation players due to injuries and they still beat the Raptors easily. Their starting center last night was six-foot-eight Anthony Tolliver. He grabbed 11 rebounds while Andrea Bargnani brought down four rebounds in 39 minutes. As a team, the Raptors defended the perimeter as poorly as they have all season, and that's saying something. Blah blah blah, you've heard it all before.
At this point, I can't fathom why we should root for the Raptors to make the playoffs since it will only mean a guaranteed first-round slaughter and no 2010 draft pick (because the Raptors' first round pick goes to Miami if the Raptors make the playoffs). I suppose you could make the case that Chris Bosh would be more likely to re-sign with the team if they make the playoffs, but is he going to be that much more impressed by being a member of the worst team in the playoffs than he would be by a non-playoff team? This team in its current formation is unfixable — at the very least, it can't be fixed by this coaching staff.
I will be very interested to see how Bryan Colangelo responds to his team's performance — both in the media and in his actions. The coaching staff is obviously not getting its message through to the players (assuming they're actually trying to get them to play NBA-level defence) and most of the players appear to be more interested in their personal boxscores than in doing what it takes to win games. Unless some drastic changes happen immediately before the Raptors face the Blazers, Hawks and Thunder in their next three games, this team will lose seven straight games and 11 of their last 12 games. I'd say that's cause for alarm, and it's also not worth my time over-analyzing their inadequacies over and over again until they find a way to get their shit together. 
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