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Fri, Jan 2nd 2009, 13:16
Inexperience is costing Raptors victories
What ails Jermaine O’Neal? It is, he says, fluid on his bruised right knee that will “probably” keep him out of tonight’s game against the Rockets.
What ails the Raptors? Perhaps, not unlike his ongoing knee troubles, it’s a matter of miles on the biological odometer. In the case of O’Neal’s teammates, they haven’t rolled up enough.
“I think it boils down to experience. How much experience do we actually have?” O’Neal, 30, said yesterday, attempting to explain why his team is eight games under .500 with 50 to go. “I’ve never even looked at playoff experience on this team. I’ve never even looked at it.”
To do the research, O’Neal’s 70 games of post-season work dwarf the combined totals of the rest of the club. The nine other Raptors averaging 10 or more minutes a game this season can together claim 67 playoff outings. And though Jason Kapono is the only resident owner of an NBA championship ring, he saw action in four games of Miami’s 2006 title run.
Indeed, the club’s lack of athleticism is an oft-chronicled weakness that needs to be addressed, and management, from president and GM Bryan Colangelo to aides Marc Eversley and Masai Ujiri, spent a lot of post-practice time huddling with Chris Bosh yesterday, presumably showing the all-star the calluses on their BlackBerry thumbs as proof of serious pursuit of possible team-improving deals.
But O’Neal pinpointed a breach in the roster that isn’t as often dissected: Their tendency toward venison-in-the-headlights demises.
“I’m interested to see how many double-digit leads we’ve given up this year. I would have to say 16 or 17,” said O’Neal.
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