Game #73 Thunder (42-30) @ Raptors (51-21) Friday March 22nd 2019. SN 4:30pm (Whitehorse) 7:30pm (Toronto) 7:30am (Taipei)

[inthepaint]

Just saying all the other stuff is great, but if he goes 0 - 6 or 1 - 9, which he has (not exclusively though), we lose. When he is on, we are unbeatable. If he is off, we struggle. He is our MVP - most variable player.

Exactly, the fact that when he is on we're unbeatable, to struggle when he's off, goes to show how important and impactful he is on this team. 3 point shot is high variance shot. Even Steph Curry and Harden can have games where they go very cold from 3. That is a very important part of their game (like it is for Lowry), but all of them make a big difference on the floor for their respective teams, even when their shot is off.

[Zak24gege]

No shit. Kawhi also needs to pass sooner before he's trapped, Gasol needs to rebound better, Siakam needs a jumpshot, and Ibaka needs he's 3 back. Every player has an area they can grow, if they didn't they'd get complacent. Doesn't take anything away from the million other things they're doing on the court though and how vital they are for the team, especially in Lowry's case.

Just saying all the other stuff is great, but if he goes 0 - 6 or 1 - 9, which he has (not exclusively though), we lose. When he is on, we are unbeatable. If he is off, we struggle. He is our MVP - most variable player.

[GOLDBLUM]

This just in re: Kawhi.

He play.

[Tmac2darak]

Any loads being managed tonight?

I'm assuming kwai is playing. They should've announced it by now.

Dont like their chances w/o both he & Kyle.

[golden]

Any loads being managed tonight?

[inthepaint]

He does have to hit some 3's though...

No shit. Kawhi also needs to pass sooner before he's trapped, Gasol needs to rebound better, Siakam needs a jumpshot, and Ibaka needs he's 3 back. Every player has an area they can grow, if they didn't they'd get complacent. Doesn't take anything away from the million other things they're doing on the court though and how vital they are for the team, especially in Lowry's case.

[bertarapsfan]

Am i the only one who find college basketball boring?

March madness is the best 3 weeks in any sport in my opinion. Single elimination means the best team doesnt always win.. makes for great upset and exciting games. Some of the dudes playing in high pressure games are just noraml dudes who are tall or can shoot. It makes for exciting late game when teams are more common to make mistakes... not hit free throws, turnovers etc. A team can make up a 9 point deficit with 45 second left fairly easily. The passion of the student section fans and the ability to latch onto a cinderilla team like loyola from last year make it a genuine exciting enviroment. and to top it all off you can make a bracket challenge with your friends for a bit of money. Even people who arn't that big of fans can get on board picking what team has the best mascot, they knew someone who went to the school etc. I made a thread in the sport junkie forum to talk about the tournament but hasn't got much traction. Check it out if your watching the madness and we can shoot the shit about it.

[Zak24gege]

Just a shoot out to Blake, Korean and the other writers covering the Raptors at The Athletic. It would probably be worth signing up for the next couple of months. I believe you can quit any time. Worth it for the playoff run if nothing else... and it IS worth it for everything else.

Great stuff! Guy's here have been on Nurse for his rotations. Confirms what posts are recommending!

[Zak24gege]

Lowry is a very adaptable player. If he plays with Ibaka, his assists + Ibaka's scoring go up. If he plays with Gasol, his own scoring goes up. If he plays with guys running and gunning like Siakam, he also excels at hooking them up. If he plays with ball dominant players on the wing like Kawhi, he also learned to be involved on off-ball/secondary screens that fly under the radar but opens up the floor. If he plays with deadly corner shooters like Green/FVV, he finds them (or interchange with them for his own spot-up shot).

This also has been one of the best defensive seasons I've seen of Lowry. Not just with charges, but also post-defence on switches, transition defence, on-ball pressure defence on opposing guards (FVV has been like that too this year, so maybe that's credit to Nurse), overall team defence/switches, as well as swarming/doubling opposing bigs under our rim for steals (him and Green are a nightmare for opposing bigs down low unnder our rim) . Basically, if Lowry missed playoff time we'd be fucked. Just too impactful in too many different areas.

He does have to hit some 3's though...

[007]

Am i the only one who find college basketball boring?

March Madness is the only college basketball I watch lol. I find the tournament to be incredibly entertaining, even though the basketball itself is obviously lower-quality compared to the NBA

[Zak24gege]

Almost forgot there was a Raptors game today, been so busy watching March Madness lol

I find it hard to watch as well. Shows how amazingly good the pros are...

[inthepaint]

Lowry never ceases to amaze me. All bench? Awful. Bench + Kawhi, even worse. Bench and Green (nba plus minus leader), bench and siakam? Just below 0

Lowry and the bench? Winning! I'm honestly wondering if Lowry has been a part of net negative lineup in any time of the past 6 years

Lowry is a very adaptable player. If he plays with Ibaka, his assists + Ibaka's scoring go up. If he plays with Gasol, his own scoring goes up. If he plays with guys running and gunning like Siakam, he also excels at hooking them up. If he plays with ball dominant players on the wing like Kawhi, he also learned to be involved on off-ball/secondary screens that fly under the radar but opens up the floor. If he plays with deadly corner shooters like Green/FVV, he finds them (or interchange with them for his own spot-up shot).

This also has been one of the best defensive seasons I've seen of Lowry. Not just with charges, but also post-defence on switches, transition defence, on-ball pressure defence on opposing guards (FVV has been like that too this year, so maybe that's credit to Nurse), overall team defence/switches, as well as swarming/doubling opposing bigs under our rim for steals (him and Green are a nightmare for opposing bigs down low unnder our rim) . Basically, if Lowry missed playoff time we'd be fucked. Just too impactful in too many different areas.

[Puffer]

This was compiled by Blake at the Athletic. It's the clearest data I've seen on how important the starters are this year, and also how important it is that we stop dicking around with all-bench lineups.

This confirms what the eye test has been telling us for a while: 2 starters on at all times, albeit difficult to achieve, keeps the team humming. Couple of things to note from this:
--Kawhi plus bench doesn't work. Opposing teams double or triple him daring the rest to do something, and they don't.
--This doesn't include the effect of the 5th starter (Centre) and I suspect some noise would be introduced, but from what we've seen, Lowry works very well with either Ibaka or Gasol, and FVV + Gasol is also good (small sample)

Just a shoot out to Blake, Korean and the other writers covering the Raptors at The Athletic. It would probably be worth signing up for the next couple of months. I believe you can quit any time. Worth it for the playoff run if nothing else... and it IS worth it for everything else.

[KeonClark]

This was compiled by Blake at the Athletic. It's the clearest data I've seen on how important the starters are this year, and also how important it is that we stop dicking around with all-bench lineups.

This confirms what the eye test has been telling us for a while: 2 starters on at all times, albeit difficult to achieve, keeps the team humming. Couple of things to note from this:
--Kawhi plus bench doesn't work. Opposing teams double or triple him daring the rest to do something, and they don't.
--This doesn't include the effect of the 5th starter (Centre) and I suspect some noise would be introduced, but from what we've seen, Lowry works very well with either Ibaka or Gasol, and FVV + Gasol is also good (small sample)

Lowry never ceases to amaze me. All bench? Awful. Bench + Kawhi, even worse. Bench and Green (nba plus minus leader), bench and siakam? Just below 0

Lowry and the bench? Winning! I'm honestly wondering if Lowry has been a part of net negative lineup in any time of the past 6 years

[The Great One]

Almost forgot there was a Raptors game today, been so busy watching March Madness lol

Am i the only one who find college basketball boring?