On a night when Violet Palmer turned down flowers and what looked like a proposal from Rocky the Nuggets' Mountain Lion, the saddest man in the Pepsi Center still had to be Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell.
There are a lot of adjectives I've heard used to describe Mitchell, from hard-working to ornery and sharp to blunt, but one word that never comes up is dumb. That man is no fool.
He's got to know his grip on the Raptors head coaching position slipped a little on Tuesday night in Denver, and has to wonder just how much rope he's actually got left.
Factor in the altitude all you want, but there's no reason the Raptors lost by 39 other than they quit early. Outside of Chris Bosh, the Raptors looked like a team without a prayer out there. Jermaine O'Neal returned and gutted out 19 minutes on a questionable ankle and was actually his team's second-best player.
Didn't take much. The bar wasn't set too high.
Mitchell has now lost every one of his five visits to Denver as the Raptors head coach, with every loss worse than the last one. There's a hidden message involved there. Players around the league will freely tell you Denver and Utah are the toughest places to play because of the altitude, so those are spots where coaches can find out what kind of commitment they have from their team.
It's easier to give up there.
Back in March, roughly six weeks before their season would end in disappointment at the hands of Orlando, Toronto went up to Denver and got pasted 137-105. Bosh was out with a sore knee, but the rest of the Raptors that Mitchell trotted out there, failed to guard anybody. Those are his words.
It's now December, in the midst of a season where they're definitely underachieving, and the Raptors still aren't guarding anybody.
Denver shot 60 percent in Tuesday's 132-93 romp, racking up the fifth-highest margin of victory in franchise history. The Nuggets were playing their fifth game in seven nights. They were supposed to be the tired team. Instead, they smelled a team eager to quit and went to work.
Is it Mitchell's fault? Debatable. There's no question that some of the holes GM Bryan Colangelo has tried to plug with Joey Graham, Will Solomon, Roko Ukic and Jamario Moon are currently springing leaks. Even former Euroleague MVP Anthony Parker, one of Colangelo's first great finds, is struggling, looking better-suited for a backup role at this point.
O'Neal, acquired to fortify the post, got sidelined just as he was really finding his groove. The pieces just haven't come together through 17 games... the Raptors are now under .500... the window to keep Bosh happy in between now and 2010 is shrinking... can't fire the players...
Fire the coach.
Can't fire the players got Eddie Jordan and Avery Johnson canned despite very recent success. Now, Mitchell, the 2007 Coach of the Year, is on the ropes.
He's smart enough to know what 39-point losses mean. He knows his bosses know. The next few games are probably make-or-break.
Can't fire the players is a powerful force. It's got Reggie Theus' tank running dangerously low in Sacramento and even has he coaches leading rebuilding efforts in Memphis and Minnesota a little nervous.
Why do you think Randy Wittman had to get assurances that his job was safe last week? Times like these are when teams can fracture. It's why Theus' inability to get a close win has the Maloofs throwing out veiled ultimatums regarding his future and why it's got to be maddening for him to keep losing close games like the one Utah took from him Monday.
With Kevin Martin back and the Spencer Hawes/Mikki Moore starting lineup swap working out, the Kings had an opportunity to take the lead twice in the final minutes, but Quincy Douby missed a pair of open 3-pointers. He's been shooting -- and missing -- a lot of clutch shots of late. Couldn't have anything to do with the mandate Joe Maloof gave through Sacramento Bee reporter Sam Amick in a telling Q&A on his excellent blog, could it? Douby is getting his chance and not cashing in.
He's taking Theus down with him. The writing has been on the wall for Theus since he entered the final guaranteed year of his deal without talk of an extension. The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper speculated weeks ago that Dec. 3 could be the date where the Kings look to make a move, since the team has a three-day break scheduled and could choose to end his employment if they've deemed he's not going to be the guy. The Kings have lost seven consecutive games, which doesn't bode well for him. According to the Bee, a recent meeting between Petrie and the Maloofs ended with the decision to give Theus more time, but that can change in an instant.
Just so you realize how cruel the profession can be, with the Kings down 93-90 earlier tonight, Theus drew up a nice play for a back screen to spring Martin on a curl. The play worked perfectly until point guard Beno Udrih slipped just before he made the pass. By the time he regained composure, Utah's Morris Almond had closed on Martin, eliminating the opportunity. Sacramento wound up with nothing but another loss.
You can't trade the players.
When they start looking unsure of themselves and playing like losing teams, the coach is always next to go. Mitchell and Theus are on the thinnest of ice.
Toughest part? Both know.
Tuesday's +/- report: Can't have one of these with out highlighting the game Chauncey Billups (+48) had against the Raptors. Hitting 5-for-6 3-pointers, dishing out 14 assists and one turnover and setting the tone for the beatdown of Toronto. No point guard is currently playing better... Joey Graham (-32) and Anthony Parker (-30, 2-for-11) got the worst of it for the Raps... Troy Murphy (+12, 16 points, 17 rebounds) was the hero of Indiana's upset of the Lakers with his late tip, but it was T.J. Ford (+21, 21 points, seven assists) who inspired the result, magnificently setting the pace and keeping his Pacers from staying down when L.A. took a 15-point lead into the fourth... Baron Davis (+5), Zach Randolph (0) and Al Thornton (+5) combined for 72 points on 32-for-60 from the field, but couldn't overcome a heroic effort by the smallest guy on the court in Dallas, guard Jose Barea (+21, 15 points, six assists, game-winning 3-pointer)... Rodney Stuckey (+16, 10 points, seven assists) help change the tone of things in Detroit's win in San Antonio, but it was Rasheed Wallace's (+7, 19 points) fourth quarter explosion that delivered the result... Manu Ginobili (-17, 13 points on 4-for-11) was out of sync as he and Tony Parker (+2, 18 points) reunited in the Spurs' starting backcourt... As for the +/- verdict on Theus' starting lineup switch, Hawes (+17, 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists) enjoyed the opportunity and Moore (-19, 0 points, three rebounds in 12:17) didn't... Morris Almond (+14, 12 points, six rebounds in 25:39) picked up quite a bit in the D-League. He'll be a contributor sooner than later.
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