Game 2, Playoffs Round 1: Orlando Magic @ Toronto Raptors - Tuesday April 16th 8pm ET, TSN

[KeonClark]

Most NBA officials look like henchmen, like they fell off the back of the truck

[KeonClark]

Is there anybody cooler than Lou

[wall-e]

Do you guys remember when Kyle Lowry used to drive to the hole, or post up (he had a mean fade-away), and shoot 3's. Bascially score at will from anywhere on the floor, and take over games, now he just settles for 3's all game. what happened to the man?

[KeonClark]

Do you guys remember when Kyle Lowry used to drive to the hole, or post up (he had a mean fade-away), and shoot 3's. Bascially score at will from anywhere on the floor, and take over games, now he just settles for 3's all game. what happened to the man?

Father time caught up to him. He's 33...he peaked at 30 when he got skinny, he was never the fastest to begin with and he put on some weight again. CP3 is fairly limited now too from his peak game...but both man can still be very effective

[The Great One]

The replies lol

https://mobile.twitter.com/HPbasketb...14570080755712

[inthepaint]

The biggest bummer about G1 isn't so much the worry about the Magic. I think they handle them, but games like that spell doom for you when you play better teams and the margin for error is tighter. If they can only play a little better then its not going to end well for the team.

Yeah but remember, any team will have ebbs and flows throughout the season and throughout the playoffs too. There is such thing as "playing down to the competition". I don't like it either, but it's a real fact about most teams, and in other sports too. Complacency can be a real issue.

Take Golden State last night. Paradoxically, If they were up by 6 mid-third quarter last night instead of up by 31, they most like win the game, because the focus would have remained there. They relaxed too much, and the clips jumped on them. No one is questioning GSW's ability to reach the WCF/finals because they didn't sweep the Clips though.

Now, yeah, we're not golden state, but to me personally the amount of points by which we win the game tomorrow will have little bearing in determine our ability to, say, beat the Bucks in the ECF for example. Just like the fact we swept GSW in the regular season has little bearing on what would happen if we faced them. That said, if we lose tomorrow we'd be in deep trouble in the series, nevermind the later rounds.

[tDotted]

Do you guys remember when Kyle Lowry used to drive to the hole, or post up (he had a mean fade-away), and shoot 3's. Bascially score at will from anywhere on the floor, and take over games, now he just settles for 3's all game. what happened to the man?

He's deferred to Kawhi all season. Kind of annoying to watch.. I wish he just played his game

[Demographic Shift]

He's deferred to Kawhi all season. Kind of annoying to watch.. I wish he just played his game

A couple of wins will put the Kyle angst in the rearview...

[The Claw Reborn]

Most folks on Raptors Republic = Ovechkin
The Claw Reborn = Svechnikov

Keep beaking

Im no worse than that poster who thinks hes judgment is superior or this moron in this article....https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...972-story.html

i only state facts

but someone who used to don a uniform with a name “lumberjacks” in front would still be marketable than this coach after this playoffs if he does not keep his act together.

[Superjudge]

Lowry played very, very well in a lot of Playoff games, too much attention being paid to "media". Its all there for reaction.

[MixxAOR]

Are Magic going to cool off? Or is this JR Smith shooting 60% from 3 on a series situation?

[chris]

I see a lot of posters saying some variation of if "we are not true contenders unless we win convincingly tonight or take this series down in 5" or whatever. I don’t know what they’ve seen out of either us or Orlando to make them think this series would be easy, but think they might be disappointed.

How many teams in the entire league have we struggled more against this year than the Magic? Maybe two? They crushed us twice and the other three were rock fights. There’s a reason Danny Green ranked them last out of potential first round playoff opponents he wanted to face, and admitted we struggle against them.

That team is just uniquely constructed to counter most of the things we do best at an extremely high level. We are the most efficient team in transition and they are near tops at stopping that. We have been the best 3pt shooting team since we acquired Gasol and they are great with rotations and contesting shots with their length. Game 1 looked a lot like the first half start of the season, where even though we got some open shots they were not coming in rhythm off multiple passes being pinged around, as we have been doing the last few weeks.

I think we’ll win this series in 6 or 7 but the only way that’s happening is if we consistently play the type of suffocating defense we’ve only reched a couple of times this season for brief (minutes long) stretches to put games away. I don’t think there will be any blowouts. I expect them to look a lot like game 1, though hopefully with a couple more lowry makes and heavier minutes for the starters. And I don’t think that makes us any less of a contender.

[DogeLover1234]

Lowry played very, very well in a lot of Playoff games, too much attention being paid to "media". Its all there for reaction.

Yeah dude cant win. Its pretty well know that the team goes as Lowry goes historicaly but he really only gets the blame for losses and no credit for the wins.

Nurse didnt have a great game but it was all due to in game stuff. Think he got caught in the moment, first playoff game and all. Hopefully he can figure out how to manage some of that stuff, and get these guys dialed in for 48 minutes.

[Scraptor]

I see a lot of posters saying some variation of if "we are not true contenders unless we win convincingly tonight or take this series down in 5" or whatever. I don’t know what they’ve seen out of either us or Orlando to make them think this series would be easy, but think they might be disappointed.

How many teams in the entire league have we struggled more against this year than the Magic? Maybe two? They crushed us twice and the other three were rock fights. There’s a reason Danny Green ranked them last out of potential first round playoff opponents he wanted to face, and admitted we struggle against them.

That team is just uniquely constructed to counter most of the things we do best at an extremely high level. We are the most efficient team in transition and they are near tops at stopping that. We have been the best 3pt shooting team since we acquired Gasol and they are great with rotations and contesting shots with their length. Game 1 looked a lot like the first half start of the season, where even though we got some open shots they were not coming in rhythm off multiple passes being pinged around, as we have been doing the last few weeks.

I think we’ll win this series in 6 or 7 but the only way that’s happening is if we consistently play the type of suffocating defense we’ve only reched a couple of times this season for brief (minutes long) stretches to put games away. I don’t think there will be any blowouts. I expect them to look a lot like game 1, though hopefully with a couple more lowry makes and heavier minutes for the starters. And I don’t think that makes us any less of a contender.

Great post. In hindsight I was probably too optimistic about our prospects, because I think their talent level is fairly shit, but they overcame it with defense and scrappiness.

We'll need to absorb and utilize some of that same grit in the later rounds and especially the Finals if we get there.

[Demographic Shift]

Im no worse than that poster who thinks hes judgment is superior or this moron in this article....https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...972-story.html

i only state facts

but someone who used to don a uniform with a name “lumberjacks” in front would still be marketable than this coach after this playoffs if he does not keep his act together.

Its not that you have an unflattering view on Nurse .. or Demar... or Fred... thats fair... diversity is our strength here at RR (I almost puked keying that in .. the diversity is our strength schtick)

Its the sheer volume of repetitiveness on your theme....... show some flair and say it differently .