Magic @ Raptors April 1st at 7:30 pm TSN

[DogeLover1234]

OG still out is concerning. Hopefully he recovers in time to play in 2 to 3 games before playoffs.

Eh I think its more likely they are playing it safe for a young player with a head injury, no sense getting a bad head injury in a meaningless game before playoffs.

[Zak24gege]

OG still out is concerning. Hopefully he recovers in time to play in 2 to 3 games before playoffs.

[Zak24gege]

It's not an either/or situation in the playoffs. Role players need to step up when your stars are schemed out. I mean, we've experienced this for years with Kyle and DeMar getting shut-down and our role players not knowing what to do when they had the ball in their hands (except pass it back to Kyle and DeMar). And we experienced it the other way so many times with Lebron's Cavs teams, whose role players (JR Smith, Channing Frye, etc...) somehow all turn into prime Ray Allen when we try to double or triple team Lebron.

I mean, if opposing teams try to take away Kawhi & Pascal, and leave Lowry, Gasol and Green wide open.... we're in a pretty good place.

I'm going say our top 7 or 8 players all need to be greedy - not greedy as in not passing and going iso-crazy - but greedy when it comes to stepping up and being the man if your team needs you to do so. We have a veteran, play-off experienced roster with all of our play-off rotation guys capable of putting up 20+ points... even our 8th guy OG - Norm?? have made clutch plays / shots in past play-offs. With the exception of Kyrie, can't think of any top 4 EC teams having a player with as much experience as our top guys (excl. Siakam, FVV who really only have last year and I think Fred was injured). Kawhi, Danny, Kyle, Marc, Serge... these guys individually have as much playoff experience as most other EC teams entire starting line-ups combined. Hopefully this gives us a sustainable competitive advantage over the competition...

[rocwell]

[golden]

Balanced scoring is great but frankly, depth is over rated in the post season. I want Kawhi (and not with 15-20 points) or maybe Pascal if he's hot to lead the team in scoring virtually every game. If Serge or Danny has to be the leading socrer in a post season game, I feel we're losing. You're just not winning playoff series with my different leading scorers imo

It's not an either/or situation in the playoffs. Role players need to step up when your stars are schemed out. I mean, we've experienced this for years with Kyle and DeMar getting shut-down and our role players not knowing what to do when they had the ball in their hands (except pass it back to Kyle and DeMar). And we experienced it the other way so many times with Lebron's Cavs teams, whose role players (JR Smith, Channing Frye, etc...) somehow all turn into prime Ray Allen when we try to double or triple team Lebron.

I mean, if opposing teams try to take away Kawhi & Pascal, and leave Lowry, Gasol and Green wide open.... we're in a pretty good place.

[golden]

Green had a great game, enjoy it because in the NBA next game he could go 0 - 4 as the team's 3 - ball goes cold. We shot 19 - 37 (51%) from 3 so like everything in sports (nature) the outcome being measured has an underlying statistical distribution. In this case, for this season (78 games) the Raptors average 3P% is 36.5%. Since the AS break (18 games) our 3P% 41.9% (5.4% improvement. The difference is even greater if you simply compare pre vs post ASG - 34.6% to 41.9% a difference of 7.3% ! Two factors. First, we traded away our 2 poorest %-wise 3P shooters and secondly improved ball movement with Gasol has resulted in more wide open / uncontested 3's. My take is the second factor is by far the primary driver.

As I started out saying, 51% is great, however don't be upset if we only shoot 30% or even 25% the next time out vs the Nets who also rely heavily on the 3-ball. The is when we need to rely on our defence to win...

Big game out West. DEN vs GSW with 1st place on the line. No Load Management for these guys!

The overall 3P% does look like it could be sustainable. Also the AST/TO ratio is trending up nicely, even as the assists are increasing above 30 per game. Playing these desperate playoff bubble teams could be a good end-of-season tuneup heading into the real thing, as long as nobody gets injured.

[inthepaint]

Balanced scoring is great but frankly, depth is over rated in the post season. I want Kawhi (and not with 15-20 points) or maybe Pascal if he's hot to lead the team in scoring virtually every game. If Serge or Danny has to be the leading socrer in a post season game, I feel we're losing. You're just not winning playoff series with my different leading scorers imo

Disagree. Yes you need top end talent to win, but one-trick ponies won't get you far. We saw this on the DeRozan/Lowry years, where Casey would ride or die with them, then teams would trap them in the playoffs daring the other players to do something about it and we'd have no answer. Now if they attempt to do that with Kawhi/Siakam, others will make them pay. So if someone like Green/Lowry/Gasol or even Serge (like he has vs the bucks many times) has a massive game because all the attention is on Kawhi/Siakam, that's not losing, that's having a good playoff adjustment, which we never really had much in the past.

Golden State didn't win with just Curry/Durant, they needed every bit of Klay & Draymond. Same with Cleveland the year they won. Yes Lebron got them that title, but he needed every bit of Love/Frye/Korver/Kyrie bombing threes from outside to win vs GSW.

[Zak24gege]

Can't remember a better quarter from the starters (of any combination) than that third quarter last night. Pure unselfish, eye-pleasing and defensively aggressive basketball.

And yes, it deserves repeat. I can't believe they threw in Kawhi Leonard in that DeRozan-Green trade.

Green had a great game, enjoy it because in the NBA next game he could go 0 - 4 as the team's 3 - ball goes cold. We shot 19 - 37 (51%) from 3 so like everything in sports (nature) the outcome being measured has an underlying statistical distribution. In this case, for this season (78 games) the Raptors average 3P% is 36.5%. Since the AS break (18 games) our 3P% 41.9% (5.4% improvement. The difference is even greater if you simply compare pre vs post ASG - 34.6% to 41.9% a difference of 7.3% ! Two factors. First, we traded away our 2 poorest %-wise 3P shooters and secondly improved ball movement with Gasol has resulted in more wide open / uncontested 3's. My take is the second factor is by far the primary driver.

As I started out saying, 51% is great, however don't be upset if we only shoot 30% or even 25% the next time out vs the Nets who also rely heavily on the 3-ball. The is when we need to rely on our defence to win...

Big game out West. DEN vs GSW with 1st place on the line. No Load Management for these guys!

[golden]

When is the banner unveiling ceremony?

[Beneperez]

Can't remember a better quarter from the starters (of any combination) than that third quarter last night. Pure unselfish, eye-pleasing and defensively aggressive basketball.

And yes, it deserves repeat. I can't believe they threw in Kawhi Leonard in that DeRozan-Green trade.

[The Great One]

Hey we're Atlantic Division Champs, did anyone know that was on the line

When is the banner unveiling ceremony?

[slaw]

Hey we're Atlantic Division Champs, did anyone know that was on the line

Hey, Raps beat out both Philly and Boston. Nets are also likely a playoff team. It's not a small thing. I know that everyone only cares about Finals wins and everything else is meaningless but it is still an accomplishment.

[Zak24gege]

It took a decade or so, but the Titanic Division is actually a tough division. One of the best in the NBA.

4/5 teams in the play-offs. The South-LEast Division - 1/5 play-off teams. Better format than Hockey.

[golden]

Hey we're Atlantic Division Champs, did anyone know that was on the line

It took a decade or so, but the Titanic Division is actually a tough division. One of the best in the NBA.

[grindhouse]

Right now lin needs burn to get our guys rest but if I see him in the playoffs play 1 single min I am going to be pissed kid is trash. For a Ivy League kid he makes the worst basketball choices