Mitchell's favourite?

What's wrong with the Raptors? Throughout their despicable 0-5 Western Conference road trip, I've been trying to put my finger on exactly what the problem with this team is.

Their talent level seems to be better than last season, but then why are they playing worse?

Then, I watched the Raptors allow Utah to break open what was a close game heading into the fourth quarter, and if I had any doubts about who to blame for the "pretender" label that is written all over Toronto this season, they were completely erased by the end of the game.

T.J. Ford was a -21 on the night and when he came into the game to start the fourth quarter, the Raptors might as well have left the court. After once again playing terrible in the first half and getting a quick hook that wasn't quick enough, Jose Calderon finally started heating up in the second half and brought the Raptors back into the game.

When Calderon gets going, the team gets going and everyone was looking good in a third quarter where the Raptors outscored the Jazz 27-18.

Enter T.J. Ford.

After Calderon's great third quarter and Ford's dreadful play in the first half, no one would have believed that Mitchell would leave the backup on the court for long. But if there's one thing I've learned watching Sam Mitchell coach the Raptors, it is that the unbelievable becomes reality quite often when Sam's running the show.

I've seen Mitchell put Matt Bonner one-on-one to defend Dirk Nowitzki in the closing seconds of a tie game. Hell...just yesterday I saw Mitchell allow Carlos Delfino to lineup as one of the two main rebounders on the free throw line late in the fourth quarter of a close game against Sacramento.

Just as sure as Nowitzki scored and won the game for the Mavs, Delfino failed to get the rebound and the Kings hammered the final nail into the Raptors coffin.

Mitchell struck again earlier tonight in the second game of a back-to-back in Utah when he decided to put Ford back into the game.

Ford played his usual fourth quarter role, getting into a one-on-one battle with Jazz guard Ronnie Price and when he wasn't throwing up wild shots, he was dribbling the ball off his foot and falling out of bounds.

Needless to say the Raptors quickly fell behind eight points and Mitchell still didn't turn to the bench to call the second best player on the team back into the game.

Just as Mitchell has done throughout the West coast road trip, he left Calderon on the bench way too long in the fourth quarter and if not for that, the Raptors may have actually had a chance to win more than one of the five games they've lost on the road in the past 10 days.

Even the cameraman couldn't believe Calderon was still stuck on the bench with about seven minutes to go. The camera was continuously focused on the Raptors all-star calibre point guard during breaks in the action. Calderon, who has been absent of his usual spirit in the last couple of games, looked sick to his stomach sitting on the bench as the game got away.

In a fourth quarter that epitomized Ford's career as a Raptor, T.J. lost his cool after being schooled multiple times by Jazz reserve guard Ronnie Price. After Price scored one of several layups he managed to get with Ford defending him, T.J. worried more about his pride then his team you can be assured, stormed down the court, ran into Price while simultaneously shoving him, and throwing up a shot all in the same motion.

When the ref called the obvious offensive foul, Ford tried to attack the referee who blew the whistle and had to be restrained by Jason Kapono. Ford was immediately ejected and in doing so, gave the Jazz another two points on technical free throws, although they didn't matter much. Ford's play had pretty much already ended any hope Toronto had of winning the game.

Even more mind blowing was Sam Mitchell jumping to Ford's defence and giving the refs an earful after the ejection.

Not only did Mitchell look like a fool because of the obviousness of the call, but how dare the head coach take a chance of costing his team more points in a game that the Raptors had a chance of winning before Ford threw it away.

Instead of yelling at the refs, Mitchell should have reamed out Ford for a) getting involved in a mano-a-mano battle with Ronnie Price when he should be focused on getting the Raptors good shots and b) for losing his cool on an obvious offensive foul and giving the Jazz two points on technical free throws.

Let's be honest; Ford should never have been in the game in the first place. Why was he? One can only speculate that he continues to get playing time because of his close relationship with Sam Mitchell. Not only has Ford's play hurt the Raptors since his return, but Calderon's play has clearly suffered as well because of the decreased playing time.

Sure, Ford has potential and yes, he has played well about 50 percent of the time during his days as a Toronto Raptor, but in the long run, Ford is a team killer. I've written about this multiple times and his play this season has convinced me that he can't improve as a player.

This is true especially on this Raptors team with Mitchell as his coach because either he's not smart enough to make good decisions or simply because he's not willing to. Only his coaches and teammates know the truth.

The Raptors will never be a real contender with Sam Mitchell coaching the team and they will never have a shot at a championship with T.J. Ford on their roster.

So let's hope Bryan Colangelo really does know what he's doing and it says here that he does. Don't be surprised when Sam Mitchell follows his little buddy Ford right out of Toronto. I'll even pay for the cab ride to the airport if Mr. Colangelo packs John Lucas into the trunk with T.J.'s luggage.

Other Raptors notes:

• The Raptors finally seem to have discovered that Jason Kapono is a good shooter. After 65 games Sam Mitchell has finally decided to give the best shooter in the NBA a chance to play and the Raptors have even passed him the ball a few times. Let's hope this continues.
• Carlos Delfino shoots 40% from the field and 38% from three point range. He also averages 4.0 three point attempts per game, which is more than Anthony Parker, Jason Kapono and Jose Calderon. Kapono is #1 overall in three point field goal percentage, while Parker sits in sixth and Calderon eighth. Maybe Sam Mitchell should re-evaluate who's taking the shots.