Game 82: Raptors @ T-Wolves, Apr 9th, 8PM EST, TSN

[inthepaint]

This is it. Game 82. Like every Raptor fan on earth I've been longing for the playoffs for a long time, but I gotta say, this feels a bit bittersweet. I enjoyed the regular season this year. It got me through cold winter nights in January, you know, random Wednesday evenings in the vast Canadian Prairie with a beer, some wings, and my 4 year old asking about Spicy P. It gave me something to read about, write about, and talk about in between games.

It was great to see the team grow. A team that gradually morphed into something so different from last year, learned to play together, developed chemistry and camaraderie through the ups and downs of the regular season. It was another 55+ win season, which now have become so common we kind of brush it aside, but it still something that only 3 out of 30 teams will have managed this year, when it's all said and done.

It was fun, and there's one more to go. Ironically, this one has more meaning for us then for Minnesota. They've been out of playoff contention for a while, so their guys will be playing mostly to just end the season on W. Raps on the other hand, could clinch finals home-court with a W, and although some people think it's pretentious to think about that right now, getting out of the east is a real possibility this year, and if the opportunity to get home court advantage in the finals exists, we should not ignore it.

Raptors:
Kyle Lowry
Danny Green
Kawhi Leonard
Pascal Siakam
Marc Gasol

Timberwolves:
Tyus Jones
Josh Okogie
Andrew Wiggins
Dario Saric
Karl Anthony-Towns

Play it safe but get the W!!

[rightsideup]

go raps......great game thead

[007]

It would have been much simpler if GSW had lost last night, ugh.

Please win tomorrow

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Absolute must-win game.

We can't allow the Warriors to finish with a better record than us. No way can we beat them in the finals w/o homecourt advantage.

[Jclaw]

tried...could only "like" the original post once. It's not going to be an easy won. Was surprised to see that the Wolves are 25-15 at home which is pretty strong. And Wiggins tends to remember he's good when he plays us. Organizationally, Minny might want to lose to stay ahead of the Lakers in the ping pong race. Unfortunately the Pellies (who are playing Golden State) have even more incentive to lose with the chance to go from 9th worst to 6th. The 18-19 regular season was a great ride. Let's go out with a win.

[planetmars]

Interested in the Gasol/KAT match up. KAT's been great this season (I have him on the 3rd all-nba team).

Wiggins had a good game against OKC the other night. He always turns it up against the Raptors. Hopefully we see Kawhi cover him. It's fun when Kawhi is defending the opposing team's go to perimeter scorer.

Last time we played was all the way back in October. That's when they had Jimmy. Kawhi put up 35 that game. Wiggins did not play then.

Really want the win here. Let's go get it!

[DanH]

inthepaint playing for the game 1 playoff thread here. Reminds me, I'm gonna compile the game thread performances...

[DanH]

I think they should rest Green in this one. One last shot at finding some non-Green lineups that work could have some value, and we absolutely need him healthy for the playoffs.

[G__Deane]

We got the skinny on Minny. Go Raps, take us out with a W before the second seaosn starts ....

[DanH]

OK, so here's the game thread performance this year.

GT Starter	Wins	Losses	Win%
inthepaint	1	0	1
Scraptor	9	2	0.818182
Trex	9	2	0.818182
Jclaw	8	2	0.8
bertarapsfan	7	2	0.777778
consmap	6	2	0.75
MixxAOR	8	3	0.727273
Joey	2	1	0.666667
KeonClark	2	1	0.666667
DanH	1	1	0.5
Zainab	1	1	0.5
007	1	1	0.5
Maury	2	2	0.5
007	1	1	0.5
planetmars	0	1	0
Demographic Shift	0	1	0
Goldblum	0	2	0

inthepaint is obviously in for a game 1 start if he wins - can't be breaking that win streak - and drops into that middle mess of .500 teams if he loses.

We've got some obvious big hitters here: Scraptor and JClaw both had incredible years. Same goes for bertarapsfan, consmap and MixxAOR.

TRex was basically unbeatable, except that at the end of his 2nd win streak, he failed to even create a game thread, leading directly and irrefutably to a loss. That loss is assigned to TRex above (showing how dominant he was when he actually started a thread). I'm conflicted here. Can TRex be trusted with playoff game threads? I'd say no... But in the spirit of load management, is the performance when he does play more important than the game he didn't show up for? Maybe TRex should be our ace in the hole - break glass in case of emergency, about to be eliminated option.

If the playoffs go as deep as we all hope (and we don't just sweep every series), we've got a few other smaller sample solid performers to fall back on as the occasional losses pile up. Joey and Keon both had good records in a few games, and then basically anyone else who got a win can step in (sorry Demo, planetmars and Goldblum, it just can't be risked).

[G__Deane]

I have an incredible winning percentage on games I drink beer.....almost all of them

[golden]

Game 82, aka, Kawhi's last practice.....

[slaw]

TRex was basically unbeatable, except that at the end of his 2nd win streak, he failed to even create a game thread, leading directly and irrefutably to a loss. That loss is assigned to TRex above (showing how dominant he was when he actually started a thread). I'm conflicted here. Can TRex be trusted with playoff game threads? I'd say no... But in the spirit of load management, is the performance when he does play more important than the game he didn't show up for? Maybe TRex should be our ace in the hole - break glass in case of emergency, about to be eliminated option.

TRex's brand seems to be the important thing here. He can open the thread with his name on it and outsource the actual content of the game thread...... it is 2019.

[KeonClark]

OK, so here's the game thread performance this year.

GT Starter	Wins	Losses	Win%
inthepaint	1	0	1
Scraptor	9	2	0.818182
Trex	9	2	0.818182
Jclaw	8	2	0.8
bertarapsfan	7	2	0.777778
consmap	6	2	0.75
MixxAOR	8	3	0.727273
Joey	2	1	0.666667
KeonClark	2	1	0.666667
DanH	1	1	0.5
Zainab	1	1	0.5
007	1	1	0.5
Maury	2	2	0.5
007	1	1	0.5
planetmars	0	1	0
Demographic Shift	0	1	0
Goldblum	0	2	0

inthepaint is obviously in for a game 1 start if he wins - can't be breaking that win streak - and drops into that middle mess of .500 teams if he loses.

We've got some obvious big hitters here: Scraptor and JClaw both had incredible years. Same goes for bertarapsfan, consmap and MixxAOR.

TRex was basically unbeatable, except that at the end of his 2nd win streak, he failed to even create a game thread, leading directly and irrefutably to a loss. That loss is assigned to TRex above (showing how dominant he was when he actually started a thread). I'm conflicted here. Can TRex be trusted with playoff game threads? I'd say no... But in the spirit of load management, is the performance when he does play more important than the game he didn't show up for? Maybe TRex should be our ace in the hole - break glass in case of emergency, about to be eliminated option.

If the playoffs go as deep as we all hope (and we don't just sweep every series), we've got a few other smaller sample solid performers to fall back on as the occasional losses pile up. Joey and Keon both had good records in a few games, and then basically anyone else who got a win can step in (sorry Demo, planetmars and Goldblum, it just can't be risked).

This has become one of my favorite annual traditions, thanks Dan.

Scaptor and JClaw are there every year it seems like. Consistent. I think consmap usually preforms well also. And what a rookie year by berta. They have to be our go to guys when inthepaint gets knocked out of the paint.

I'm conflicted with Mixx, I love his posts but you gotta draw the line somewhere, and the other 4 are on a 60+ win pace. Mixx was "only" on a 57 win pace. I think 4 is the key after (or IF) our final win streak dies out. 4= the amount of losses it takes to be eliminated in a round, so in theory they all get a crack at saving a series.

TRex, while I admire his GDT performance, can go AWOL at any moment. I'm not sure I'm comfortable giving him the keys to this high performance engine.

[KeonClark]

Game 82, aka, Kawhi's last practice.....

Technically he practice like 60/82 but who's counting...Kind of interesting...60...a nice round number...maybe it was all a plan. Time to find out how well it worked!

Also when googling Kawhi I just read he was born in 1991...2 years to the day younger than my younger sister. WTF why am I so old now