Mike Ulmer has worked for seven news organizations including the National Post and, most recently, the Toronto Sun. Mike has written about the Toronto sports scene for more than 10 years and has penned several books on sports and culture.



April 21, 2007

(TORONTO) -- What the Toronto Raptors forgot Saturday would fill a small library.

What their fans remembered would fill all the rest.

And that sums up why the New Jersey Nets flew back home, giddy winners of the opening game of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals by a score of 96-91.

Jason Kidd was the best player on the floor Saturday night. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

Remember that home-court advantage everyone was talking about all season?

Pffft.

The Raptors need to win four of the next six games against a Nets team that withstood a host of calamities including a disastrous five for 19 shooting day from Vince Carter who, as you know if you were outdoors anywhere in the GTA yesterday, was booed with some enthusiasm.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Carter said. “This is playoffs. All that other stuff is gone. You worry about that the first time (you play). I wanted to win, more than anything. Now, you know it’s coming, you’re ready for it. It’s more about winning a playoff game.”

“They hold on to a lot of things,” Raptors star Chris Bosh observed later on. “People don’t forget things.”

Well that’s not actually true. The Raptors forgot plenty and because they did they let the Nets escape after a very uneven performance.

The Raptors were enjoying a lights-out 21-point performance from T.J. Ford and another 22 from Chris Bosh.

But the Raptors bled to death from a thousand cuts, nearly all of them self-inflicted.

“We made some bad turnovers,” said Raptors coach Sam Mitchell. “We didn’t get back in transition and when we got back, we didn’t communicate. There were too many times we didn’t find the right guy.”

The right guy, more often than not, was Richard Jefferson, who torched Toronto for 28 points. He was the key figure in a fast-break advantage that saw the Nets garner 20 points off the break while the Raptors got only eight.

“It’s tough to get back quick when you’ve got a point guard pushing the ball,” said Jefferson. “Jason was pushing the ball and I was just running.”

The Raptors struggled to move the ball, especially against a potent Nets zone defence in the second half.

“They played zone and they switched it up and we probably tired to force it a little bit, but you have got to try and create something,” said Anthony Parker, the owner of a 16-point night. “You just can’t pass it around the perimeter.”

Trying to cut into a static zone defence on the walk leads to just the kind of bad decisions that resulted in 12 Toronto turnovers.

“Guys were taking shots we hadn’t taken all year,” Mitchell lamented. “Guys tried to split a double team who hadn’t split a double team all year.” Kidd, meanwhile, racked up 15 assists. Jefferson was the principal beneficiary.

The Raptors bench never got untracked. Andrea Bargnani, another first-time playoff caller, struggled defensively and only recorded two points. Joey Graham, extremely effective in the late season added four in 35:17 of playing time.

Bosh, struggling with the effects of a cold, hit foul trouble early and when he was removed it was calamitous.

“He comes out it’s a two-point game,” Mitchell said. “A few minutes later it’s a 10-point game. That kind of stuff hurts you.”

Not if you’re New Jersey. Carter took his fourth foul early in the fourth and the Nets up four. By the beginning of the fourth, when New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank reinserted him, the Nets lead was boosted to eight points.

The Raptors had one more run left. Bosh missed a free throw that would have tied the game with three minutes. Jose Calderon later raced the ball downcourt and saw a man open in the corner. It was a fine play but for the fact that the man in question was Darrick Martin who wasn’t just not in the game but not among the 12 guys eligible to play.

A jumper from Bostjan Nachbar restored the three-point lead and that pretty well summed the evening.

There was something for everyone. Multi-millionaires playing like ninth-graders, 20,000+ people wearing and seeing red. Chris Bosh is right. People hold on to things. In the case of Saturday’s game, maybe they should learn to forget.