Nobody calls, Sam’s happy
Raptor wins lead to off-court peace
In the worst moments of a horrendous November, Sam Mitchell, the Raptors’ coach, was getting calls from acquaintances at all hours, picking up the phone to entertain everything from tactical tips to cordial encouragement.
Jalen Rose, who styles himself an Everyman and has been shooting like one, heard a zillion pro tips from the shopping- mall chess masters: “ Everybody’s an arm-chair coach,” said Rose. Matt Bonner, who still doesn’t own a car but was given reason to reconsider his penchant for public transit after the Raptors lost 15 of their first 16 games, would hop into a taxi and swear the driver was an out- of- work NBA bench boss.
“ I get in a ( cab) and it’s like, ‘ Tell coach to try this,’ or ‘ Tell coach to try that,’ ” said Bonner. “I’m like, ‘Well, okay, I’ll tell coach my cab driver told me we should switch to a press in the third quarter . . .’ ” No wonder the Raptors looked positively giddy after yesterday’s practice at the Air Canada Centre. It’s been six days since they’ve lost a basketball game, and a win in Washington tonight could make it one remarkable seven days. But let’s not get crazy here. Though Chris Bosh, the ever-earnest 21-year-old forward, spoke yesterday of “ getting back into the Atlantic Division race,” realistic Raptors were just happy to be off the same old treadmill. They’re just happy to hear the words “ Well done” in lieu of “ This is how it’s done.” Mind you, the squad that led the Atlantic yesterday afternoon, the Philadelphia 76ers, shares a 2- 7 road win- loss record with the Raptors. And Toronto is only five games out of first place. Then again, if you’re five games in arrears just one month into the proceedings, the math says you’ll be 30-some games behind in six months.
Whatever, the season’s first win streak has brought with it off- court peace, if not playoff hope. “The funny thing about it: When you lose, everybody calls. When you win, nobody calls,” said Mitchell yesterday. “ I prefer to keep winning so no one calls. . . . Everybody wants to coach that never coached before. You take it for what it’s worth and you consider the source. If it’s people who I trust their basketball mind — if it’s coaches or people who’ve coached — you tend to listen. If it’s someone yelling out something riding by in a car at 40 miles an hour, I tend not to listen.”
Mitchell, when pressed, suggested the tips from passing cars have been unprintable, although there is no truth to the rumour that Jerome Moiso was seen driving by the Air Canada Centre spewing profanity through the sunroof of his Citroen. But the Raptors have been getting some documentable breaks for a change, which has leavened the mood considerably.
“ I got on the scale today and I was about 10 pounds lighter — figuratively, of course,” said Matt Bonner.
That’s at least partly because Joe Johnson stepped out of bounds in the dying seconds of Toronto’s win over Atlanta, and because a certain former Raptor used his patented fake limp to enter and exit the locker room for in- game “ treatment” during the Raptors’ win at New Jersey on Saturday night. As if to prove the long-spoken truism that NBA players never change, Vince Carter’s alleged ankle injury looked miraculously healed only minutes later, when an open lane presented an opportunity to pad his stats. Ditto the post- game moments, when Vinsanity grieved the defeat with smiles and hugs for former teammates. But Carter’s frailties are Jason Kidd’s problem now. In Raptorland, meanwhile, a month- long swoon has segued into unexpected swagger. Yesterday, for instance, Bonner was heard bragging about a post- practice victory in a for- profit shooting contest against Morris Peterson. “ I always beat him,” said Bonner, trading in humility for hubris, presumably just to fit in with the rest of a locker room suddenly chuffed.
“ You can’t doubt yourself. You can’t doubt what you’re teaching and what you’re trying to accomplish, because if you do the players will feel that,” said Mitchell. “ We felt all ( November) that we were getting better. I know I kept saying that and people were looking at me like I was crazy. But we were getting better.”