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

[A.I]

This is the same sense of entitlement mentality that the team is playing with. It doesn't matter what you did 4,5,6 years ago. You're only as good as your last game. Who was coaching those 2 championship players, btw. That's kind of an important factor, no?

[planetmars]

The one thing I was really counting on in this series was Orlando's inexperience coming in... but they had a lot of composure. Vucevic was the only guy that looked a bit psyched out.. but everyone else was just doing their thing. Even Ross looked confident (despite having a bad shooting night).

Going to be a very tough series. Already gave up home court. Raptors need to play perfect ball going forward. Too many defensive misqueues last time out. Couldn't hit wide open 3's. Gasol's to take the lead for example. Siakam missed 4. Kawhi air balled the game tying one. Enough has been said about Lowry.

Hopefully Danny doesn't get two ticky tack fouls early. He's our most consistent 3pt shooter. We need to move the ball a lot to get guys clean shots, and we need to make them. That 3 to end the half was money Danny. We may need him to score double digits if Lowry is still not feeling his shot. Plus Danny is our net rating god. We win when he's playing. Danny and Kawhi need 40 minutes tomorrow.

The defensive adjustments in the second half were great. Only thing I'm a little worried about is the double teaming on Vucevic. He's a great passer and can get guys clean looks from the corner. Orlando just missed a lot of those. They may not going forward. Siakam especially is terrible at reading that double team. He needs to only commit on that when Vucevic puts the ball on the ground. And not before.

I was hoping for a win in 4 or 5.. I don't see that happening anymore. Hopefully it doesn't go 7.. and hope we can grab that momentum by a big win tomorrow. A win by 10 or higher would be really nice for our confidence.

[KeonClark]

Then he's not Top 5 player. Shit he's not To 10 player if he's that.

Big reason why he's called a top 5 player is because of his defense, and yet we've only seen glimpses of it this year

[Scraptor]

Kawhi isn't Lebron or Durant. He can't score at will, or make players around him better with his passing. He needs a great coach, system and supporting cast to help him. He had Pop, Duncan and Parker in 2014. Now he's got Nurse, Gasol and playoff Lowry. That's a serious downgrade.

If people were expecting Kawhi to win games by himself, then yeah, he's overrated. But they shouldn't be expecting that. And if Nurse can't call a timeout to get him in the game, then what's Kawhi supposed to do... sub himself in?

He's not LeBron or Durant but I watched him win multiple games in the 2017 playoffs, and score 26 points in 24 minutes at will vs the Warriors before Zaza cheapshotted him out of the series.

I can and do expect him to win games for us. Just because it didn't happen in game 1, doesn't mean he won't do it in the future.

[golden]

your going to need Zantac earlier than usual...
raps are going to win this series...

I'm already on 222's from the splitting headache of game 1. I'm still calling Raps in 6, but from all that cockiness the team had displayed "... the regular season is just practice, man...", I was kind of expecting some type switch-flipping to happen in game 1. There really is a switch..... right?

[Scraptor]

I'm personally worried at our final chances, round 1, not that much. Looking at this squad, at our current performance/stage as it is, realistically and unbiased doesn't boost confidence or optimism.

I think game 1 is a bad way to evaluate this team's chances.

I really believe that all the load management, injuries, and roster turnover hurt our chemistry. Marc has been starting for just over a month... the players need time to get used to each other and the sets.

I think that is the one advantage that's overlooked with this squad... we're going to get better and better the deeper we go in the playoffs.

I doubt we beat the Warriors but I have faith we have a good shot at facing them.

[nubreed000]

That makes going 0/7 FG and 0/2 FT much more acceptable. How about next time Lowry takes zero shots if that's not what we need him for? Distribute those 7 shot attempts to players who can actually make them and the outcome of the game is much different. Make our own Ben Simmons, where the defender can just sag off of him because they know that if he gets the ball then there's another brick coming. These guys need to stop excusing a piss poor performance. This isn't the G League. You're the starting PG for an apparent "title contender" and you can't even hit a free throw.

[A.I]

Big reason why he's called a top 5 player is because of his defense, and yet we've only seen glimpses of it this year

[planetmars]

Would be nice to see Kawhi try to cover DJ a little more. Not all the time but in a set or two to confuse the Magic. If Kawhi can get the better of DJ that could get in his head a bit.

Isaac is long but he's really only a corner 3 specialist. He does most of his damage in the paint. Lowry is a pretty good post defender. So as long as he forces Isaac to take some type of floater or hook shot or something it could work in Toronto's favour.

Just saying.. try it for a possession here or there, not all the time.

[planetmars]

That's what I was trying to say after the game on Saturday. We didn't lose because of Lowry. Fred was our biggest issue. Even though he scored 14 and hit a couple of 3's.

[slaw]

Kawhi isn't Lebron or Durant. He can't score at will, or make players around him better with his passing. He needs a great coach, system and supporting cast to help him. He had Pop, Duncan and Parker in 2014. Now he's got Nurse, Gasol and playoff Lowry. That's a serious downgrade.

If people were expecting Kawhi to win games by himself, then yeah, he's overrated. But they shouldn't be expecting that. And if Nurse can't call a timeout to get him in the game, then what's Kawhi supposed to do... sub himself in?

That's serious underestimation of Leonard just to take shots at other guys. What I would say is he isn't going to win games playing 33 minutes.

[golden]

That's what I was trying to say after the game on Saturday. We didn't lose because of Lowry. Fred was our biggest issue. Even though he scored 14 and hit a couple of 3's.

But Lowry's supposed to make 4-5 winning plays in a row to overcome that, according to Nurse. Hitting 2 FTs would have made a big difference....... low bar for an all-star, I know. But then again, Fred is also a big-time, clutch winning player, according to Nurse.

[A.I]

Would be nice to see Kawhi try to cover DJ a little more. Not all the time but in a set or two to confuse the Magic. If Kawhi can get the better of DJ that could get in his head a bit.

Isaac is long but he's really only a corner 3 specialist. He does most of his damage in the paint. Lowry is a pretty good post defender. So as long as he forces Isaac to take some type of floater or hook shot or something it could work in Toronto's favour.

Just saying.. try it for a possession here or there, not all the time.

[golden]

That's serious underestimation of Leonard just to take shots at other guys. What I would say is he isn't going to win games playing 33 minutes.

You're completely off-base here, slaw. Like Keon said, Kawhi's top 5 status derives from his 2-way value on the defensive end, not as a takeover score-at-will guy, like Durant or prime Lebron. This is nothing new. And who is taking shots at the other guys? Obviously, FVV is getting the brunt, but Lowry's got to step up and make winning plays and make shots. If not, he's putting a ton of pressure on Siakam. Even Gasol can't escape blame here even though he had a decent game, since he has the ball in his hands a ton.

You just took a shot at Nurse, which I'm agreeing with. Kawhi can't sub himself in a game when the other team is going on a run. Nurse's explanation of the Kawhi being "stuck at the scorers table" was beyond lame. I bit of the rookie coach showing there. I mean, even if Nurse didn't want to sub in Kawhi, you still have every reason to use your timeout just to break the flow & re-group.

[DanH]

If Kawhi isn't a top 5 take over score at will guy, who are we putting over him, exactly?