by Mike Ball
--raptors.com
April 22nd, 2007

(TORONTO) -- Saturday afternoon certainly left a bad taste in the mouths of Raptors fans, but on Sunday, the mood around the team itself was loose and, surprisingly to some, decidedly upbeat for a team that had dropped the first game of their first foray into the NBA’s postseason dance.

A bigger dose of Chris Bosh Tuesday is likely part of the recipe for success. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

But to those following closely, the mood should be no surprise at all. This is a unit that knows who they are, knows that because of that, they will make mistakes and most importantly, knows they will learn from them.

“It opened our eyes to what we need to do better,” said Chris Bosh. “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to go out there and make every shot that we shoot. But we’re going to be in the place that we’re supposed to be. We’re going to make the pass we’re supposed to pass.”

Much was made of their collective inexperience in the postseason to which Mr. Bosh alludes, and there was no denying the nerves had some affect on the outcome.

“It was loud, it was tense and it was exciting and we have to do a better job of anticipating all of that,” said Bosh.

Sunday’s practice began, as they often do, with a game-tape session that saw the coaching staff point out the uncharacteristic follies made in Game 1. Time on the floor was spent on zone offence - a struggle at times Saturday - so the fact it was a focus came as a surprise to no one.

In just about every zone offence, there are generally two keys. You have to shift the zone and you have to penetrate the zone. Usually, you need to do one or both to be successful.

“Think about this. We don’t take threes in transition. We came down (Saturday night) three times made one pass and took a three-point shot. And we don’t take those shots. We don’t take ‘em!” the coach said with a smile, feigning exasperation.

Much of Saturday’s unforced errors are likely explained by a caught-up-in-the-moment mentality born of playoff inexperience and young players’ hefty desire to step up their play in the pomp and circumstance the NBA Playoffs provide.

They contained the opponent’s star, kept the Nets shooting under 43 per cent and had a capacity-plus crowd behind them in a big way (despite what Richard Jefferson might think), but the mistakes added up to a five-point loss.

Eliminating the awe and getting back to basics is priority one.

“Everybody knows that we don’t have a lot of playoff experience and we made a couple of mistakes. So many of the guys were just frantic and just kind of overwhelmed and we didn’t do the things we normally do,” explained Bosh

So like a studious class relieved to get the first semester of NBA Playoffs 101 out of the way and feeling confident heading into the midterm exam, the Raptors are preparing for game Game 2.

Tuesday night though, the crowd will be just as loud, the atmosphere just as intense and the stakes even higher than they were Saturday.

“It exceeded my expectations,” said Bosh. “I didn’t know what to expect. It was definitely… Umm… Loud.”

Expect more of the same Tuesday Chris.