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

[nubreed000]

I guess you have to ask "who created the game plan they all executed?"
And "who created the page everyone agreed to get on together?"
And "who had for sale what everyone bought into?"
Seems like there might have been some coaching responsibilities involved in all of that.

Somehow I don't see a bunch of players getting together after a practice and working all of that out themselves.

You know, it's not wrong to say "Nurse did an adequate job in this game." By twisting and turning to avoid giving any credit to the coach, whose job it is to create a game plan, get the players on the same page, insist on communication and get the team to buy in, you are going to tie yourself into knots.

I wonder if Stevens or Popovich get constant, blatant congrats and thanks from their players. And if not, does that mean they've been outcoached?

Nurse also made the decision to keep Kawhi in the game after 2 quick fouls. That's pretty ballsy, and all on the coach. Some people will just try their hardest to never admit they might be wrong, or not give credit where credit is due

[G__Deane]

I guess you have to ask "who created the game plan they all executed?"
And "who created the page everyone agreed to get on together?"
And "who had for sale what everyone bought into?"
Seems like there might have been some coaching responsibilities involved in all of that.

Somehow I don't see a bunch of players getting together after a practice and working all of that out themselves.

You know, it's not wrong to say "Nurse did an adequate job in this game." By twisting and turning to avoid giving any credit to the coach, whose job it is to create a game plan, get the players on the same page, insist on communication and get the team to buy in, you are going to tie yourself into knots.

I'm not sure if you're not understanding the point of my post or not
To a man, the players seem very supportive of Nurse and it's not the first time I've seen them indicate that some of them have failed to execute the game plan and go off script in bad losses.

When the Raps lose, there's 100 anti-Nurse posts (to be fair, it includes dozens from 2 people lol) but when they win, there's a single one or two giving any credit. I think fans grossly over rate the effect that a coach has. Stevens was a boy genius last year but average to worse this year with a better roster.

Nurse isn't COY but he's been very good during a challenging season. Let's see what the total playoffs bring.

I still say that it will be challenging to even get there, but they're 50/50 to beat the Bucks and maybe a bit better to beat the Rockets and just 30/70 to take out the GSW. It's gonna take more than just good coaching.

[Scraptor]

'How do I make sure Marc Davis never refs a pivotal game for us again?'

It really speaks to the disparity in talent that even with Kawhi in foul trouble we just kept batting them away.

I'm happy about the win, but just like Game 1 this game doesn't really tell us much about how good we are.

[G__Deane]

All that matters now is game 3. Don't get sun burned Raps, we got 2 games to play there.

[Demographic Shift]

Well the Raps easily survived the Marc Davis experience and won. Due to rotations the Raps are unlikely to see the Davis crew until the 2nd or possibly 3rd round. Thats if Davis crew grades out well enough to be in the officials rotation.

We just need to see Fat Tony at home in an early round game and we will have paid our dues to the two most mercurial officials in the NBA rotation.

Forgot Scott Foster. .but I think they keep that guy out west.

[DanH]

Much better game from Nurse in this one. Ball was mostly in the right players' hands. Fantastically ballsy call leaving Kawhi in two different times where the conventional wisdom is to sit him because of the fouls (after the 2nd and the 3rd foul). I hate resting guys because of foul trouble in general, but especially with a guy like Kawhi. Paid huge dividends.

Nice to see Lowry hit some shots. Even better to see the team not collapse when he sat down - played break even ball, exactly what we need from those minutes.

Kawhi is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. They did a better job hunting out advantages for him, and a tiny one is all he needs to just ravage the other team on any given play.

[Puffer]

I'm not sure if you're not understanding the point of my post or not
To a man, the players seem very supportive of Nurse and it's not the first time I've seen them indicate that some of them have failed to execute the game plan and go off script in bad losses....

Ooops. I had you mixed up with someone else. My bad. Not the first time I have suffered from bad communication and not being on the same page.

[golden]

Yeah, both of those guys playing well at the same time is the key. Kyle should be the perfect Robin to Kawhi's Batman.

It took 84 games to get to the pecking order we all expected. #1 option is obviously Kawhi, but #2 has to be Lowry going forward, and then Pascal #3. Lowry has to stay aggressive on offense. He's just not engaged enough when he tries to play the pure facilitator role. That's not good enough for the playoffs. And that edge he brings carries over to the rest of the team.

[G__Deane]

Yesterday just after tipoff:

I want to see Kawhi attack and attack and attack.
No threes and no jumpers lol
Go to the line 15X

He did everything except get the calls to go to the line.

[LJ2]

It took 84 games to get to the pecking order we all expected. #1 option is obviously Kawhi, but #2 has to be Lowry going forward, and then Pascal #3. Lowry has to stay aggressive on offense. He's just not engaged enough when he tries to play the pure facilitator role. That's not good enough for the playoffs. And that edge he brings carries over to the rest of the team.

Ideally yes, Lowry is the #2 option on offense. The type of offense Lowry is capable of providing...those stop on a dime, pull up, long range bombs, are devastating next to an inside/outside threat like Kawhi. We'll have to see how Lowry responds not just for the remainder of this series, but as the Raptors progress in the playoffs. Orlando's defense at the pg position is probably the weakest D Lowry will see all playoffs.

[slaw]

It took 84 games to get to the pecking order we all expected. #1 option is obviously Kawhi, but #2 has to be Lowry going forward, and then Pascal #3. Lowry has to stay aggressive on offense. He's just not engaged enough when he tries to play the pure facilitator role. That's not good enough for the playoffs. And that edge he brings carries over to the rest of the team.

This was a good game from Lowry. This is the Lowry they need. It wasn't just that 'he hit some shots' (ahem, Dan) it was that he was aggressive on offense in looking for opportunities and then he finished. Playing hard and doing all the little things is great but if you don't finish possessions (by scoring on offense or rebounding on defense) you are not doing enough. I loved the fact he ticked off Orlando as well. Great game from Kyle.

And, remember when Kawhi wasn't a take-over scorer 24 hours ago? 17 in the third quarter to ice it.

[Bendit]

I'm not sure if you're not understanding the point of my post or not
To a man, the players seem very supportive of Nurse and it's not the first time I've seen them indicate that some of them have failed to execute the game plan and go off script in bad losses.

When the Raps lose, there's 100 anti-Nurse posts (to be fair, it includes dozens from 2 people lol) but when they win, there's a single one or two giving any credit. I think fans grossly over rate the effect that a coach has. Stevens was a boy genius last year but average to worse this year with a better roster.

Nurse isn't COY but he's been very good during a challenging season. Let's see what the total playoffs bring.

I still say that it will be challenging to even get there, but they're 50/50 to beat the Bucks and maybe a bit better to beat the Rockets and just 30/70 to take out the GSW. It's gonna take more than just good coaching.

Have not seen a triple negative sentence in quite a while!

[Zak24gege]

What makes good coaches? Great players and fortunately for Nurse, he has one of the best in Kawhi.

[DanH]

It took 84 games to get to the pecking order we all expected. #1 option is obviously Kawhi, but #2 has to be Lowry going forward, and then Pascal #3. Lowry has to stay aggressive on offense. He's just not engaged enough when he tries to play the pure facilitator role. That's not good enough for the playoffs. And that edge he brings carries over to the rest of the team.

There's a lot of matchups where Pascal being second option makes sense. But not the Magic.

Still want Lowry running the offence though. We've got a nice thing with him and Gasol making the offence go and Siakam and Kawhi finishing. Just this series Pascal has been mostly contained, so Lowry's scoring is extra valuable right now (though again, not essential, just real nice to have).

[DanH]

This was a good game from Lowry. This is the Lowry they need. It wasn't just that 'he hit some shots' (ahem, Dan) it was that he was aggressive on offense in looking for opportunities and then he finished. Playing hard and doing all the little things is great but if you don't finish possessions (by scoring on offense or rebounding on defense) you are not doing enough. I loved the fact he ticked off Orlando as well. Great game from Kyle.

And, remember when Kawhi wasn't a take-over scorer 24 hours ago? 17 in the third quarter to ice it.

The team is obviously bonkers good when Lowry scores like that. He simply won't always put up a 70%+ TS%. The "finish" part is the part players can't control. I did like his aggressiveness in this one. It was mostly in line with the way he's played all season, which is good, except he was on fire a bit (much overshadowed by the white hot on-fire that Kawhi was).

It's worth noting though that if Lowry scored zero points in this one, and all else stays the same, the Raptors win by 7, because they still win the Lowry minutes by 8, and this game, unlike the last one, they didn't completely crap the bed when he sat (helps that he simply played more minutes). My arguments last game weren't that it wouldn't be nice if Lowry was scoring. My point was the team should be able to win even if he doesn't score, and their failure to do so was the real issue with game 1, because they needed to correct that issue (and they did), while the Lowry scoring "problem" would fix itself, he was not going to be averaging zero points for the series.