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

[DanH]

Ya they have been really working to take away Danny. But ill live with that if thats the guy they want to shut down. We have too many options if they start to send doubles to kawhi now danny and gasol are going to rain down the 3s.

Yeah, this is the end goal with a shooter like Danny. Scoring a bunch of points is great, but if you can get the opposition to refuse to help off a role player, your offence is going to absolutely take off even if they don't get a single point from there on in.

[G__Deane]

Well, there you go. I think sometimes people momentarily forget that the other team is not just a CPR dummy waiting for you to do stuff to it.

Thought I was on the wrong website for a second there ....

[bertarapsfan]

Danny was off offensively. Felt like I was watching Patrick Patterson there. Hesitant on his shot. Couldn't even get a layup down. Orlando did a good job denying him any clean looks but he was still off. Maybe they remembered how he went 5/5 from 3 in our last regular season game.

Ya they have been really working to take away Danny. But ill live with that if thats the guy they want to shut down. We have too many options if they start to send doubles to kawhi now danny and gasol are going to rain down the 3s.

[KeonClark]

lol. And it's a situation where you are thrilled to be wrong. Like I said.... gonna take it to the next level when we need it. But hey, you agreed with it, IIRC.

I didn't commit to as hard as you. And my name isnt attached to an easily pulled quote. Its all you buddy

*backs away slowly*

[golden]

Danny was off offensively. Felt like I was watching Patrick Patterson there. Hesitant on his shot. Couldn't even get a layup down. Orlando did a good job denying him any clean looks but he was still off. Maybe they remembered how he went 5/5 from 3 in our last regular season game.

Maybe his thumb injury messed up his rhythm.

[inthepaint]

Danny was off offensively. Felt like I was watching Patrick Patterson there. Hesitant on his shot. Couldn't even get a layup down. Orlando did a good job denying him any clean looks but he was still off. Maybe they remembered how he went 5/5 from 3 in our last regular season game.

Well, there you go. I think sometimes people momentarily forget that the other team is not just a CPR dummy waiting for you to do stuff to it. In the playoffs they will actively try to take things away, and sometimes guys will have off games because of that. Like, Green & Vucevic didn't all of sudden forget how to play, it's just there's an active 3D chess behind the scenes trying to neutralize them. That's way playoffs are an exciting time, even though you play the same opponent, every game can look dramatically different.

[planetmars]

Danny was off offensively. Felt like I was watching Patrick Patterson there. Hesitant on his shot. Couldn't even get a layup down. Orlando did a good job denying him any clean looks but he was still off. Maybe they remembered how he went 5/5 from 3 in our last regular season game.

[inthepaint]

In my view Lowry will most likely average around 14, which is the average for his career. Siakam is currently averaging 17, and has the ability to creep up to 20, as there's still room to grow there. So in terms of purely putting the ball in the bucket, I think we're looking at Siakam as the second highest scorer on the team. Lowry will have 20+ games here and there, but he will also have games in single digits. Games like these past 2 are outliers on different extremes, and realistically most of his games will come somewhere in between. A lot of it will depend on what the other team is doing too of course (what the defence is giving you)

And tbh, I like that opponents have to guess a bit who they have to pay attention to other then Kawhi. Any of our starters can go off if the opposing D neglects them, and that's a strength. You won't have 5 of them going off at the same time though, even though they're all capable of it. I think Green is due to light up soon.

[planetmars]

Not sure why we are still talking about this. Game 1 is old news.

But anyway I don't get how you can blame Lowry for that game 1 loss. He shit the bed scoring wise.. but was not the reason we lost. The guys that need to get all the blame were a) Fred and b) Nurse.

Fred was a -16. Kawhi played only 33 minutes. Kyle only had 34. That's why we lost.

Lowry scoring would have helped. But just like Gasol missing the open corner 3 or Kawhi airballing the final 3.. those would have helped too. But the reason we gave up the huge lead and lost in the end was because of Fred and Nurse.

[golden]

You've taken your lumps plenty on that comment since last night haha

lol. And it's a situation where you are thrilled to be wrong. Like I said.... gonna take it to the next level when we need it. But hey, you agreed with it, IIRC.

[DanH]

Speaking on the offensive side of the ball strictly, Lowry not scoring was 100% THE biggest reason we lost game 1. Of course theres other more complicated reasons. A failed possession here, a turnover there... but a 15 ppg all star got 0.

I love Lowry. You know that. But it's fair to be critical, scoring is something that all stars are asked of, game in and game out. This is pro sports. It is results driven. You dont get credit for trying. "It probably wont continue" and "hey, shots are gonna miss" do not excuse you from criticism.

I don't understand how this can be your position when we handily won Lowry's minutes. How can that be the main reason we lost, when we won the toughest minutes (those against the Magic's best players) with Lowry on the floor? And immediately got destroyed as soon as he sat down? If we even just got kinda destroyed when Lowry was sitting we'd have won that game. If we broke even like this game we win it fairly comfortably.

Obviously blowout wins like this require Lowry to score. But this team is WAY too good to allow one player not scoring to cause them to lose against the Orlando freaking Magic. No matter who the player is.

No one is happy about Lowry not scoring. But if you think the biggest reason for the game 1 loss is Lowry, I just can't connect your perspective to what actually happened in that game.

[KeonClark]

lol. I'm taking that to the next level when we need it.

You've taken your lumps plenty on that comment since last night haha

[KeonClark]

Have I ever disagreed with any of that? Lowry was never going to consistently not score. My issue was with people flipping out over him not scoring in game 1 as though it was part of a trend (it was not) or as though it was going to be a problem going forward (it was not) or as though it was the reason the Raptors lost game 1 (it was not).

Speaking on the offensive side of the ball strictly, Lowry not scoring was 100% THE biggest reason we lost game 1. Of course theres other more complicated reasons. A failed possession here, a turnover there... but a 15 ppg all star got 0.

I love Lowry. You know that. But it's fair to be critical, scoring is something that all stars are asked of, game in and game out. This is pro sports. It is results driven. You dont get credit for trying. "It probably wont continue" and "hey, shots are gonna miss" do not excuse you from criticism.

[golden]

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.

lol. I'm taking that to the next level when we need it.

[DanH]

lol. This is complete nonsense. There's no such thing as "all else stays the same" in sports. If Lowry doesn't score, the entire dynamics of this game change ..... for the worse. Much, much worse. Just give up, Dan. You lost that argument. Lowry is an all-star, franchise player and sole "driver of wins", in your own words. If he scores zero points and we lose, then he should take the lion's share of the blame.... just as you give him the lion's share of the credit for every win.

I give Lowry the lion's share of the credit in every win? Really? Kawhi gets first star in this one, obviously. Lowry was also very good. Lowry would have been the reason they won game 1 if they'd pulled it out, but obviously they didn't.