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

[Rudy Bargnani]

Minny has 36 wins and the Lakers have 37 wins. If they catch them they go from likely 10th pick to 11th. At 10th pick they are 5% more likely to have top 5 pick than if they finished 11th. Minny holds tiebreaker over Lakers.

Do the wolves try to lose?

[DogeLover1234]

Minny has 36 wins and the Lakers have 37 wins. If they catch them they go from likely 10th pick to 11th. At 10th pick they are 5% more likely to have top 5 pick than if they finished 11th. Minny holds tiebreaker over Lakers.

Do the wolves try to lose?

Im sure management would prefer that, but I could see KAT turning this into a “prove em” moment. Should be a win regardless, plus starters could use some competition.

[KeonClark]

Im sure management would prefer that, but I could see KAT turning this into a “prove em” moment. Should be a win regardless, plus starters could use some competition.

Prove what? He can lead a team to 37 wins, unlike those 36 or less win garbage teams?

[Rudy Bargnani]

Bobby Marks has a tweet that Kyle Lowry has bonus money at stake the next two days. Any idea what that is? Looks like he already played 65 games and his minutes are in line.

[The Great One]

Kawhi playin tonite?

[planetmars]

Bobby Marks has a tweet that Kyle Lowry has bonus money at stake the next two days. Any idea what that is? Looks like he already played 65 games and his minutes are in line.

Found a sportsnet article on this:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/...on-incentives/

Lowry will earn a $200,000 bonus for each of the following:

*All-star appearance
*All-NBA team appearance
*All-Defensive team appearance
*Raptors reach conference finals
*Raptors reach NBA Finals
*Raptors win NBA championship.

But all of those benchmarks will only pay out should Lowry reach certain totals in minutes per game and total games played, ones Marks reports are unlikely to be met:

Toronto Raptors PG Lowry’s $200K All-Star bonus is considered unlikely even with the point guard appearing in the All-Star Game last season. Lowry must appear in 65 games and play more than 25 minutes per game for the bonus to trigger. Last season, Lowry played in only 60 games. The same minutes and games criteria are also in place for All-NBA and All-Defense, if the Raptors reach the conference finals and NBA Finals and if they win the championship.

Not sure what can happen anymore in 2 days. He reached the 65 game mark with over 25mpg.

He got the ASG nod.. probably won't get all-nba or all-defense. Should get the Conf Final, NBA finals, and Chip though.. so another $600K.

[bertarapsfan]

great reflection on the season got me feeling nostalgic on the season. minus the 4 year old I don't got one of those.

[bertarapsfan]

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.

Nows my chance to prove if im a Micheal Carter Williams or a Damian Lillard. Im honored

[G__Deane]

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

Well, he's gladly put a lot of pressure on himself, so Kawhi.....let's see what you've got.

[KeonClark]

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

Stay thirsty my friend

[DogeLover1234]

Prove what? He can lead a team to 37 wins, unlike those 36 or less win garbage teams?

lol as if the "prove em" line has ever been about team success. Wiggins will spend the game planning his vacation, KAT will try to drop 50 cause someone called him overrated in that player poll.

[GOLDBLUM]

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).

Nice work with this, as always Dan. Wouldn’t want this done any other way.

DAMN! Looking at the strength we got up top I’m feeling very confident. Inthepaint with a fantastic regular season closer leading the way? Nicely done. And then followed by Scraptor, JClaw, Berta, Consmap and Mixx???? That crew is as strong and well balanced as the Raptors squad we gather here to support. We. Look. Good.

My vote, unlike Keon, would be to have Mixx in the mix. 8&3 is a strong showing over a fairly large sample size and his threads are dope. After that it drops off significantly with respect to the rest of us.

TRex... I agree with the break glass in case of emergency theory here. Hopefully he won’t be necessary on our march towards victory. (I suspect he’ll feel the same.)

[GOLDBLUM]

For the scoreboard watchers, not sure that this is official yet but here’s the GSW/NOP lineup report for tonight per the GSW SBNation site.

Injuries: Anthony Davis (back) is probable and Stanley Johnson(ankle), Frank Jackson (concussion), Trevon Bluiett (thumb), Darius Miller (thigh), E’Twaun Moore(quadricep) and Jrue Holiday(abdominal) are out for the Pelicans.

Andre Iguodala (toe), Andrew Bogut (rest), Kevin Durant (rest) and Damian Jones (pectoral) are out for the Warriors.

[KeonClark]

T Rex would come in here and brag about his record and how superior he is, but his head is now too big to fit inside the thread

[KeonClark]

For the scoreboard watchers, not sure that this is official yet but here’s the GSW/NOP lineup report for tonight per the GSW SBNation site.

Injuries: Anthony Davis (back) is probable and Stanley Johnson(ankle), Frank Jackson (concussion), Trevon Bluiett (thumb), Darius Miller (thigh), E’Twaun Moore(quadricep) and Jrue Holiday(abdominal) are out for the Pelicans.

Andre Iguodala (toe), Andrew Bogut (rest), Kevin Durant (rest) and Damian Jones (pectoral) are out for the Warriors.

I should call the Pelicans, might have to chance to crack the roster tonight