Arrrgh! Raps blow it again
Mavericks 93 Raptors 91 Toronto coughs up 6-point lead in final seconds Rose vows not to become ‘sideshow’ after benching
Forget Jason Terry’s buzzerbeating basket, although it’s hard to forget something that must have felt like a knife through the stomach for the Raptors and their fans, and consider the real game-breaking play last night. Heaven knows Sam Mitchell is. Even the sting of Terry’s gamewinner, a shockingly open runner in the lane that gave the Dallas Mavericks a 93- 91 win that was loss No. 14 in 15 games for Toronto, did not hurt the coach as much as what he saw as the real turning point.
Because the coach preaches effort over everything, seeing his team lose because no one the floor was able, or willing, to dive for a loose ball, must have driven him to the edge of apoplexy. Up six points with 1: 42 remaining, all the Raptors really had to do was grab a loose ball and ride out win No. 2. But when the Mavericks were able to rebound an Erick Dampier miss while the Raptors stood around and watched, Dirk Nowitzki turned it into a crucial three- pointer that cut the lead in half and gave the Mavs life. And after Matt Bonner’s jumper with two seconds left tied the game, Terry calmly curled around a screen to take an inbounds pass, got an open path to the basket and put in a runner over the out- stretched arms of Chris Bosh.
“ Forget the last play, the game should never have come to that,” said Mitchell. “ We get that rebound, it’s a different game; we’re up six with the ball.
“ The ball falls on the floor and we don’t get an offensive rebound — again.”
It wasn’t as if Mitchell didn’t have enough going on to have to explain another tough loss for his team. He decided sometime between Saturday’s loss to Golden State and last night’s loss to Dallas to remove Jalen Rose from the starting lineup, a move that is necessary but contentious nonetheless. The coach has tinkered with the starting lineup all season but one of the few constants has been Rose, who has been in the worst and most prolonged shooting slump of his career. The 12- year NBA veteran was shooting just 17 per cent from three- point range entering last night’s game and just 34 per cent overall.
“ He’s playing hard, he’s trying to do the things we want, it’s just (that) it’s 14 games in and it hasn’t clicked,” Mitchell said before last night’s game. And if this move doesn’t work, more changes may be in the offing.
“ We have to try this for two, three games, maybe four games, whatever,” said the coach.
“ If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. We’ll keep trying things, changing the lineup until we can find the group of eight or nine guys who can give us the best chance night in, night out to win.”
Rose, who finished with seven points in 20 minutes last night and watched the final seconds from the bench, took the high road when discussing his demotion.
“ I’m just doing what I’m asked to do like I’ve done since I got here,” he said after the game. “During a bad season, Jalen Rose is not going to become a sideshow.”
Mitchell said before the game he wasn’t all that concerned with how Rose reacted. A year ago, Rose was very publicly disgruntled when he was taken out of the starting lineup for 16 games; he’s been very quiet this year with any unhappiness he might be feeling.
“ It’s not my job to tell a guy how to deal with things; Jalen’s a professional,” Mitchell said before Rose had a chance to express his opinion. “ The stuff last year didn’t bother me, all I care about is results.
“ As a coach, you can’t take everything someone says personally. I can’t take it from a media person, I can’t take it from a player; it comes with the job.”