Game #6 of the NBA Finals Raps@Warriors Thursday June 13th 9pm on TSN

[DanH]

He needs to make open threes but what kept him off the floor in the 4th quarter was his defense. It was not good.

The final 3 minutes, when Siakam certainly should have been back in - for his defence - to defend the lead, the team gave up 9 points on 6 possessions, and the three possessions they got a stop on were all very lucky: an illegal screen call on Boogie, a very borderline (if I think correct) offensive goaltending call, and a barely-over-and-back turnover. The defence was awful without him. I don't believe for a second it would have been worse with him.

[golden]

It only took three rounds of embarrassment after embarrassment for it to occur.

Pierce called Raps over Bucks and Raps over Sixers, IIRC.

[golden]

Agreed. The Raptors have a comfortable lead if Siakam isn't missing open looks.

Siakam shouldn't be the guy getting end of clock 3's. Lowry, Gasol and Green have to take those open shots in rhythm as soon as they're available. Messes up the offensive rebounding too.

[golden]

You don't need to do that.. Klay and Steph are too smart to avoid traps like that.. they can swing it to someone who can get a free bucket at the rim or a wide open 3.. and even though you can't trust their other guys.. a wide open 3 is a wide open 3.

Just play defense like we've done all series. Just need to execute better on offense. They won't have KD that can rattle off like 11 points in 12 minutes. That will help.

Tomorrow in my opinion will be a lot like game 4. Klay came back that game.. as did Looney.. and they only scored 92 points. The splash brothers had 55 between them and we still won by 13. And they won the first quarter that game too.

I joked about throwing out a "Triangle and 2" on Steph and Klay.... and Nurse actually used it. lol.

[Zak24gege]

Kawhi was tired. He WAS the offense the previous 3-4 times down the court. I think by now it's fair ot say that Nurse knows more what Kawhi needs than we do as fans yet we still second guess him as some sort of weird hobby....

If he pulls up and drains a 3 or drives and is fouled or makes a jumpshot or layup, Nurse is a genius for taking the timeout.

So many fans judge the action by the result only, commonly referred to as 20/20 hindsight. It wasn't the right or wrong call based only on whether it worked out ....

To me that timeout was not an issue as I'm pretty sure Kerr would have called one on their next possession anyways. The non-timeout call after the 15 sec. dead ball turnover is the head scratcher? If they had the Kyle corner 3 play dialed up from the earlier timeout (after Lowry's 2), I wonder if they assumed they would need the 3 points for a tie. The Cousins turnover meant only 2 points would win the game. Why go for a low percentage 3-ball when only 2 would have won the game. Sure if Lowry makes the shot he is a hero and Raptors are champs but he did not so it's fair to ask the question: Given the situation, was the Lowry corner 3 the best shot to get a bucket?

[Zak24gege]

But they had to have anticipated the double on the iso...everybody is complaining about the momentum killing timeout, but this is the LACK OF timeout that bothered me more. Set something up to FREE kawhi off a pick and let him read it from there, that was too simple

Agree 100%. The only way this makes sense is that Nurse was giving Kyle a shot at being the hero. Simple as that.

[planetmars]

Agree 100%. The only way this makes sense is that Nurse was giving Kyle a shot at being the hero. Simple as that.

Nah.. Kyle wasn't the first option.. it was a Kawhi ISO.. and Nurse just let Kawhi make the call (since no timeout, no plan). Kyle was the bail out and it didn't work. Nurse just had faith in Kawhi to make a play.

But on the other hand it could just be as simple as Nurse forgetting he had a timeout left ... which is a pretty big blunder I would say.

Really it comes down to Nurse having a brain fart. Hopefully it was just a one off and doesn't cost him the series.

[G__Deane]

Couple things. A lot of people criticized the decision immediately, so this isn't simply a criticism in hindsight. Secondly, while it is true that a decision isn't necessarily right or wrong based solely on results, it is equally strange to contend that when your result is a failure that one shouldn't look back and see what decisions may have contributed to that failure.

Fans have criticized moves made in-game all season. Then they have an "I told you so" if the play doesn't work and they shut up if it does

Again, if Kawhi comes out of that time out and hits a 3 or drives for a lay up or gets fouled or FVV hits instead of passing to Lowry or Lowry makes that 3 or steps in for a floater or ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

I'm just saying that more are adamant that is was the wrong move since Lowry got tipped. What if Kawhi was quoted as saying "I signalled to Nick to call the t/o becuase I was gassed ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

Armchair 20/20 quarterbacks make me laugh....not that that's the case here

[G__Deane]

To me that timeout was not an issue as I'm pretty sure Kerr would have called one on their next possession anyways. The non-timeout call after the 15 sec. dead ball turnover is the head scratcher? If they had the Kyle corner 3 play dialed up from the earlier timeout (after Lowry's 2), I wonder if they assumed they would need the 3 points for a tie. The Cousins turnover meant only 2 points would win the game. Why go for a low percentage 3-ball when only 2 would have won the game. Sure if Lowry makes the shot he is a hero and Raptors are champs but he did not so it's fair to ask the question: Given the situation, was the Lowry corner 3 the best shot to get a bucket?

Absolutely not. So why was Kyle standing there? Maybe he could have broke in and FVV bounce passed to him. Maybe the play was for iso Kawhi and FVV and Kyle didn't react to the break down. Who knows?

One thing for sure is I don't think they wrote up a play where with seconds to go and down 1 point, the ball should end up in Kyles hands for a contested three

[jimmie]

Absolutely not. So why was Kyle standing there? Maybe he could have broke in and FVV bounce passed to him. Maybe the play was for iso Kawhi and FVV and Kyle didn't react to the break down. Who knows?

The timeout that wasn't called was the right call, IMO. Flow play vs. letting the Warriors set up their defense was better odds, esp. given how dominant Kawhi had been for the past few minutes. Credit GSW for the quick and effective double on Leonard. He didn't have a good shot and so he made the right call and moved the ball, which has been the Raps calling card for offensive success all year. Clock was just too short to allow Kyle a good look. You take it and move on.

[Scraptor]

Fans have criticized moves made in-game all season. Then they have an "I told you so" if the play doesn't work and they shut up if it does

Again, if Kawhi comes out of that time out and hits a 3 or drives for a lay up or gets fouled or FVV hits instead of passing to Lowry or Lowry makes that 3 or steps in for a floater or ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

I'm just saying that more are adamant that is was the wrong move since Lowry got tipped. What if Kawhi was quoted as saying "I signalled to Nick to call the t/o becuase I was gassed ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

Armchair 20/20 quarterbacks make me laugh....not that that's the case here

I don't see why anyone has to be made completely impervious to criticism, such that every single decision is deemed infallible.

You can like Nurse on the whole and still believe that he screwed up one thing.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Pierce called Raps over Bucks and Raps over Sixers, IIRC.

No he picked against us in both series.

[rocwell]

Kevin Durant underwent surgery for ruptured Achilles.

[golden]

No he picked against us in both series.

I know for sure Pierce picked the Raps right before the Bucks series started. I was watching the pre-game and everybody joked that he was jinxing us. Then when we went down 0-2 Pierce tweeted "Bucks got this", jokingly.

Pierce's first instincts about the Raps have usually been right over the years. Even when he said stuff we didn't want to hear, like ".... I love Kyle & DeMar, but I just dont' trust them in clutch playoff situations....." Pierce is still right about that, as we just saw old playoff Lowry re-appear for the last 2-3 minutes of game 5.

[slaw]

Fans have criticized moves made in-game all season. Then they have an "I told you so" if the play doesn't work and they shut up if it does

Again, if Kawhi comes out of that time out and hits a 3 or drives for a lay up or gets fouled or FVV hits instead of passing to Lowry or Lowry makes that 3 or steps in for a floater or ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

I'm just saying that more are adamant that is was the wrong move since Lowry got tipped. What if Kawhi was quoted as saying "I signalled to Nick to call the t/o becuase I was gassed ..... THEN was the timeout the correct call?

Armchair 20/20 quarterbacks make me laugh....not that that's the case here

If I understand this train of thought then no decision can ever be legitimately criticized if it doesn't work cause that's 'armchair 20/20 quarterbacking'. Is that your position? I'm going to tell my boss that the next time he criticizes a decision of mine that doesn't work and give him the, 'well, what if it did work? would you be criticizing it then?'....

If you're arguing that we can't be sure taking the timeout had any impact then, okay, that's fine I suppose. Except that it was pretty obviously a turning point in the game as something happened straightaway from it. Seems legitimate to me to argue that the timeout had some impact adverse to Toronto.

As for your hypotheticals, the answer is, of course, that results matter. If Toronto had come out of the timeout and scored and rolled to a win, then, yes the decision would have been either a good one or a neutral one. But that didn't happen. What did happen is that GSW went on a 9-0 run and won the game. So, yeah, the effects of the decision are going to be considered when determining whether the decision was correct. How is that laughable? That makes no sense - how do evaluate a decision otherwise?