Tony Parker was on fire in the first half against Toronto last night. He scored 10 of San Antonio’s first 14 points and at one point was responsible for 21 of San Antonio’s first 42 points.

However, what looked to be an epic game for Parker trailed off to see him finish with 23 points. An impressive scoring outburst, but not nearly as gaudy as it appeared it might turn out to be.

Did Toronto switch up their defensive game plan at the game to slow down Parker? Nope. Turns out it just took awhile for their initial game plan to have some success.

“Going into the game one of my assistant  coaches brought up the fact that when they make less than five three’s they don’t normally win games,” Triano told me Sunday evening after his teams win over San Antonio. “So we weren’t going to run two or three guys at Tony Parker trying to stop him. If he was going to continue to make mid-range jumpers we were going to accept that.”

At first glance this strategy is perfectly sound. The problem is that while the game of basketball may be based on X’s and O’s it is played by men with egos. And, for the most part, normally all of those egos are so large they can barely all fit in the same locker room. So the thing that caught my attention is the fact the man guarding Parker for most of the night, Jarrett Jack, is a proud man who places a big emphasis on his defensive abilities. When he was out on an island for the night getting lit up there must have been part of him that wanted to stray from the game plan and lock down his man.

Luckily for the Raptors their starting point guard was able to check his ego so that the team could pick up a pivotal win.

“I think that Jarrett (Jack) was a little bit upset at one point that he was getting school here and nobody was there helping him,” Triano told Hoops Addict. “But that was our game plan. We wanted to make Parker beat us, hopefully frustrate some of their other guys and not run guys off the three-point line. They only hit four three-pointers and I credit my staff for being right that if we held them to less than five we would win the game.”

While credit goes to the assistant coach, it should also go out to Jack for humbling himself for the sake of the team. There aren’t a lot of players in the NBA that can check their ego just so their team can pick up a win.

After the game while talking with Jack in front of his locker it was clear by his scowl that his ego was a little bruised by what transpired.

Still, even with a bruised ego, Toronto’s gritty point guard was saying all the right things.

“It’s rough,” Jack admitted to me after the game. “But you have to know it was all part of the teams (defensive) scheme and at the end of the day you have to follow the game plan.”

As tough as this pill was to swallow, it’s not a surprise Jack did the right thing. This season Toronto’s locker room has been plagued with injuries, players venting to the media and inconsistency on the court. Through all of this drama Jack has kept his mouth shut and let his actions do the talking. The only talking Jack has done has been mentoring the teams younger players.

By sticking with the teams defensive game plan this amounts to yet another of the many lessons Jack has taught his teammates this season.

Hopefully his teammates were paying attention to the valuable lesson their point guard taught them on Sunday afternoon.