FanHouse

I think the world's got D'Antoni-in-Toronto fever, because, as The Globe and Mail's Michael Grange notes, the media's pounding Raptors coach Sam Mitchell with hit pieces. We've been over L'Affair Vescey, in which New York Post scribe Peter Vescey published a vicious indictment of Smitch's preparation only to completely retract it a few days later. More recently, Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski said Smitch altered the team's weekend flight and practice schedule so he could spend Sunday afternoon on the fairways of Orlando.

After the Raptors went down 3-1 to Orlando on Saturday, sources said [Bryan] Colangelo flipped out over learning that Mitchell played a round of golf the following day.

If, as Grange indicates in his column, the players were upset with Mitchell's schedule changes ... screw 'em! He's the coach. It might not have been the best idea for Smitch (and reportedly third-string point guard Darrick Martin), especially considering he had to go a bit out of his way to get practice done Sunday morning in order to make his tee time. And judging by Orlando's dominance in Game 5 Monday, maybe some more film room study could have helped.

And sure, Mitchell should have clued Colangelo into the plan. By hiding the round of 18 Smitch shows he thinks he did something wrong. But I don't see the harm in the actual activity ... unless there was a no-fun decree from the boss.