Everything Round 2: Raps vs Sixers

[planetmars]

Zach has a playoff winners and losers column out:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page...-dame-warriors

Pascal Siakam

Oh, you thought he was fake -- a regular-season mooch who would quake in the playoffs? Drink some hot sauce. He was Toronto's best player in the highest-stakes moments of their highest-stakes first-round game -- their close-ish Game 3 win in Orlando. He defended everyone. When the Magic slotted smaller defenders on him -- as they had to in playing their best five-man lineup -- Siakam beasted them.

He was an ironman, leading the team in minutes, and bridging the gap between the starters and small-ball lineups featuring Leonard at power forward. (That said, the Siakam-as-solo-starter lineups should probably vanish as the competition ramps up.)

He's real.

Masai Ujiri and Marc Gasol

The Raptors did not appear to need Marc Gasol. Serge Ibaka was thriving as a full-time center. Nabbing Gasol would mean demoting Ibaka to reserve duty, and no one was sure how he would take that. (Nick Nurse experimented with flipping the starting job between them, but it was clear from the start that Gasol would supplant Ibaka.)

Jonas Valanciunas had found his water level as a backup scoring force. Why risk chemistry for a marginal upgrade?

But Ujiri and his staff knew better. Gasol is much more than a marginal upgrade, even if he's barely shooting -- just 5.6 attempts per game against the Magic! He has changed the look and feel of Toronto's team. He shored up the Raptors' defensive rebounding. He yields nothing in the post; Nikola Vucevic couldn't dislodge him, and he gives Toronto a chance to guard Embiid without sending urgent double-teams.

He and Kyle Lowry share a basketball sensibility -- head-on-a-swivel selflessness that can bleed into fastidiousness -- and together, they injected a sometimes sloggy half-court offense with new verve. With about five minutes left in the third quarter of Toronto's Game 4 blowout, Gasol caught a pass on the move at the left elbow with two shooters -- Siakam and Leonard, looking dangerously like the "Thanks, I'll be taking the ball from you now" Kawhi from two years ago -- open on the right side.

In one motion, Gasol turned his head, glanced at Siakam, and fired the ball to Leonard. Ibaka can make that pass; he needs a second to scan the floor. That second is everything. Gasol gave that second back to the Raptors, and that alone has justified the trade.

[Shredder]

We recently dropped cable and I subscribed to Sportsnet Now and TSN Direct.

I was watching the Leafs and Raptors game back and forth, relatively easily on Tuesday night. Both feeds worked well and were clean, but TSN was a bit better. (Connected my laptop to my TV via HDMI)

Currently, I'm paying $20/month each for both of those channels, but will drop them both once basketball is over. I might keep Sportsnet to watch the Blue Jays, but I'm not sure yet...

Outside of sports, my wife and I don't really watch any other TV. Maybe just the news channel in the morning while getting ready for work. Otherwise everything else is online streaming (netflix, amazon prime, etc.)

We got rid of cable recently as well. Essentially the same reasons. It wasn't just $50-60 in savings either, we switched our phones and wifi to and cut our bill in half. The big 2 (Bell and Rogers in the east, I know Telus is big out west) screw you on price, and make it seem like big savings when you bundle. But if you look into it, you can get faster internet, and the same service on phones with others for much cheaper. There's obviously cons, with 3rd party internet you don't have the same tech reach and tend to wait longer to get service calls, and the cheap phone plans don't have the same reception in rural areas. But the savings are significant.

We have apple tv and each tsn and sportsnet have apps and its pretty seamless. My only complaint, would be channel surfing, and a lack of a PVR. Other than that I have been thoroughly impressed and the $150+ a month savings is pretty substantial. Those playoff tickets look a little more doable know

[JawsGT]

Lowry can definitely fight through screens. But i dont want him chasing reddick all game. Your primary ball handler shouldn't be doing that unless hes got siakims motor. Now there isn't anything wrong with kyles motor, but if you want him able to have his legs under him and knock down a shot down the stretch of a game, it might be prudent to give him an assignment that requires less energy. At least thats my take. I do agree with keon somewhat, but also trex somewhat. I dont think he needs to average 20ppg, but hes gotta be aggressive and the fresher he is late in games the better.

[The Great One]

I dont think t rex noticed that Lowry has adjusted his game this year to better suit his new surroundings.

I dont think he noticed a career high in pts for Kawhi. Career high for siakam, career high for fred. Not sure he noticed the best scoring season of serges career. I'm not sure t rex noticed Danny greens resurgent season. Or Kyle's career high assists, and lowest attempts in years.

sometimes I wonder if t rex notices anything at all

That's cute. Great excuse for him only averaging 10ppg against Orlando. I honestly didn't expect anything less lmao. I mean, you have people here defending Lowry scoring ZERO points....i guess 10 a game for an all star is good enough

[DogeLover1234]

We also didn't have the Most Improved Player in the League ... and we didn't have Danny Green to cover the ace guards ... we didn't have Marc Gasol protecting the rim ... it's a completely different team this year. And we've gotten here, with this team, with Lowry not scoring 20 a game. Why would we change everything now? That's exactly the wrong thing to do in the playoffs, and something Casey would do.

Yeah plus I think everyone discounts the fact that in the DD/KL era the supporting cast played overall poorly, in part because nobody was playing like Lowry now. Things like the Lowry transition bombs from three have been replaced with those oops to Siakam, which are more sustainable both for Lowry’s career and the team. Lowry and Gasol are just so smart that it opens so much up for everyone else on both ends.

At this point I say agree to disagree to the notion that Lowry has to score 20 to beat good teams. He certainly can, which I think he was trying to prove in game 2, and might if he cant get others going, but its not a must. We’ve seen in virtually all superteams that someone has to take a back seat and do the dirty work, Kyle does that stuff better than just about anyone in the league.

[Nilanka]

I feel like Lowe needs to really emphasize his love of Siakam after TMac and RJ spoke to him like he's an idiot (about not picking Russell for MIP), lol.

[Nilanka]

That's cute. Great excuse for him only averaging 10ppg against Orlando. I honestly didn't expect anything less lmao. I mean, you have people here defending Lowry scoring ZERO points....i guess 10 a game for an all star is good enough

The issue is you're using preconceived ideas and applying them here unnecessarily.

"Lowry has to be the 2nd option" - No he doesn't

"Lowry has to average more than 10 ppg" - No he doesn't

We can all agree that when Lowry is aggressive, he's at his best. But excluding Game 1, Lowry HAS been aggressive, and the Raps have looked like world-beaters. So I don't really see a problem.

[Shredder]

Lowry can definitely fight through screens. But i dont want him chasing reddick all game. Your primary ball handler shouldn't be doing that unless hes got siakims motor. Now there isn't anything wrong with kyles motor, but if you want him able to have his legs under him and knock down a shot down the stretch of a game, it might be prudent to give him an assignment that requires less energy. At least thats my take. I do agree with keon somewhat, but also trex somewhat. I dont think he needs to average 20ppg, but hes gotta be aggressive and the fresher he is late in games the better.

Like who? Reddick is that player in their starting line-up. Would you put him on Simmons? Butler? Harris? Embiid??
The defensive coverage will go
Gasol-Embiid
Siakam-Harris
Green-Butler
Kawhi- Simmons
Lowry-Reddick

[The Great One]

The issue is you're using preconceived ideas and applying them here unnecessarily.

"Lowry has to be the 2nd option" - No he doesn't

"Lowry has to average more than 10 ppg" - No he doesn't

We can all agree that when Lowry is aggressive, he's at his best. But excluding Game 1, Lowry HAS been aggressive, and the Raps have looked like world-beaters. So I don't really see a problem.

He needs to average more than 10ppg if they want to beat top end teams like Philly. It's the playoffs, he's an all star, he needs to elevate his game and play like an all star not like an average NBA point guard.

[Nilanka]

He needs to average more than 10ppg if they want to beat top end teams like Philly. It's the playoffs, he's an all star, he needs to elevate his game and play like an all star not like an average NBA point guard.

But he is elevating his game by all accounts, except for raw PPG.

[Nilanka]

Lowry needs to be a threat to score, and take advantage of the opportunities given. But there is plenty of firepower in our starting lineup for Lowry to continue at his current pace, and still be able to beat top teams like Philly.

[JawsGT]

Like who? Reddick is that player in their starting line-up. Would you put him on Simmons? Butler? Harris? Embiid??
The defensive coverage will go
Gasol-Embiid
Siakam-Harris
Green-Butler
Kawhi- Simmons
Lowry-Reddick

I would put him on anyone else other than embiid of course. The only advantage simmons would have is in deep post. He catches the ball 12+ feet out hes doomed. Cant shoot and would not be able to back lowry down. But kawhi's ability to disturb simmons makes that a no brainer. Harris would be more problematic cause he can shoot. Jimmy might make the most sense, cause then green can chase reddick around. None of this is ideal, and lowry will likely guard reddick quite a bit, but i dont like it and i'd avoid it as much as possible. It requires alot of energy to run PnR on one end and chase a knock down shooter through multiple screens every other possession. He will get tired at some point, and that could be a bigger problem. This is the raps biggest weakness defensively IMO. If I'm philly and lowry is guarding reddick, i'm running tons of off ball stuff every possession just to get lowry running. Let him get smacked around on embiids screens and maybe he becomes less effective offensively. Maybe he tires, maybe he gets frustrated and emotional, maybe he gets t'd up arguing a moving screen that lays him out etc etc. Guarding jimmy isnt ideal either, but they will have to concede something. I'm just not convinced lowry guarding reddick is the best scenario unless they park jj in a corner, which they surely won't.

[KeonClark]

That's cute. Great excuse for him only averaging 10ppg against Orlando. I honestly didn't expect anything less lmao. I mean, you have people here defending Lowry scoring ZERO points....i guess 10 a game for an all star is good enough

I've been nothing but consistent throughout. I was one of lowrys harder critics after game 1, went toe to toe with danh for a couple days. 0 points is not enough.

what is enough is somewhere near his season average, which he was in games 2 thru 5. The 10 ppg you're hollering about is a skewed stat resulting from that 0 pt game I criticized in a 5 game sample size. So what you're really doing is still complaining about game 1 in a dominant 5 game series where Lowry played well in all 4 wins.

besides that, this is all started by giving you undeniable on off numbers, league leading defensive stats in multiple categories, and you're still stuck that Lowry needs to be like ALL STAR PG Kemba walker. How's his team doing btw

[suspenders]

What do you pay for wifi?

$50/month for 150mbps download / 15mbps upload unlimited.

[The Great One]

I've been nothing but consistent throughout. I was one of lowrys harder critics after game 1, went toe to toe with danh for a couple days. 0 points is not enough.

what is enough is somewhere near his season average, which he was in games 2 thru 5. The 10 ppg you're hollering about is a skewed stat resulting from that 0 pt game I criticized in a 5 game sample size. So what you're really doing is still complaining about game 1 in a dominant 5 game series where Lowry played well in all 4 wins.

besides that, this is all started by giving you undeniable on off numbers, league leading defensive stats in multiple categories, and you're still stuck that Lowry needs to be like ALL STAR PG Kemba walker. How's his team doing btw

I mean, Kemba Walker doesn't have Kawhi Leonard on his team.

You put Lowry in charlotte and he'd be in the same exact situation as Kemba.