Great amounts of disgust and questions swirled in my mind as I watched the Toronto Raptors become worm food for the Sacramento Kings during the 2nd half of the game last night. Some of them were:
1) Why is it that the team plays better against powerhouses such as the L.A. Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, and others while they writhe and die against lowly pack shops such as the Philadelphia 76ers, the Sacramento Kings, the Houston Rockets, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Miami Heat, etc?
2) Why is it that every season the team gets destroyed by THE SAME internal difficulties such as lack of defense, lack of consistency, relational troubles among teammates, "playing according to the level of the competition", the inability to work through injuries (especially to the star player), the sheer willingness to settle for the unwise and poor perimeter shot when they could easily score big transition and/or inside buckets, etc.?
3) Why is it that they seem to keep requiring "closed-door team meetings" when the team has an atrocious losing season, as if the athletes are children needing to go on time-outs?
4) Why is it that when trouble comes, the GM and/or the head coach are the ones to take the blame thrust upon them by the fans and the media? Shouldn't we also blame ourselves, the scouts, the assistant coaches, and all of the players as well?
5) Why is it that athletes make excuses for their less-than-inspiring performances, blaming the other team's transition defense, teammates, coaching, the opposing star players, inability to score, etc, INSTEAD of blaming themselves?
and finally...6) Why is it that Raptors fans and their media are showing poor sportsmanship when it comes to villains such as Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady? Sure, those two guys betrayed the team, but it's been 5-10 years now and both guys are on different teams and have moved on. WHY HAVEN'T WE? Shouldn't we learn to forgive and go?
There, I'm done being frustrated. Now all we can do is wait and pray for better results. Here are the recaps for both games (against the Lakers and the Kings; the Laker game in which they played brilliantly but failed because of a Kobe Bryant game winner, and Sacramento because of a horrible 2nd half): the Lakers game - http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_09.html
the Sacramento game - http://www.nba.com/raptors/features/features_2010_03_10.html
On a brighter note...the OHL's London Knights will hit 100 points in the OHL standings for the 6th time in 7 years!!! Talk about consistency and professionalism. I don't think many other teams have done this. Tomorrow night will be critical for Nazem Kadri and the boys at home in the John Labatt Centre against the Western Conference-leading Windsor Spitfires. It will be a chance to prepare for the playoffs as the Knights officially have the 2nd seed in that Western Conference. I'll be back after Saturday to run-down that game and also the final game of the season on the road against the Erie Otters. Be good, everybody!
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