Game #9 : Toronto Raptors 113 - Los Angeles Lakers 104

[inthepaint]

You know it's amazing how half of the league still stuck in an era where they just want to throw money at players instead of developing them. Someone like Dolan still operates like it's the 90's, he just wants to buy everything & build a champion contending team right now. All the rookies the Knicks drafted over the years Simply regressed & got worse the following year cause nobody seems to give a shit how important player development truly is.

Yeah that's really revealing itself now over the past 2-3 years. It's an under-the-radar perverse side of tanking. It really undermines the development of young talent, because you put them on a losing culture right in their formative years.

Take the example of OG and Kevin Knox. Both solid players with good potential coming into the league. OG goes into a winning culture, starting playoff games right away, guarding Lebron-type players right from the beginning, and forced to work on his shot (which was his limitation coming out of college, but this year is shooting an amazing 52% from deep). Then kid has been given all the tools to break out because he grew up on a winning culture. Value added.

Knox on the on the other hand, is wasting away with the Knicks, and like in many tanking outfits, he's told to try to put numbers but the winning doesn't really matter that much at this point, because the focus is to continue to get higher draft picks and to leave cap space for outside big names. That not only hinders the development of the poor kid, but makes him feel less worthy of player within the organization. Value reduced.

That's why guys like SJ are shocked when they come here and can't keep up with the growth and effort mentality of our homegrown guys. By the same token, I find it very hard to believe that FVV, Siakam and even Boucher would be half of who they were today if they were picked up by Knicks or some other perpetually tanking team

[Hotshot]

Terrence. Davis. The. Second.

Fuck the draft and its silly hype.

You know it's amazing how half of the league still stuck in an era where they just want to throw money at players instead of developing them. Someone like Dolan still operates like it's the 90's, he just wants to buy everything & build a champion contending team right now. All the rookies the Knicks drafted over the years Simply regressed & got worse the following year cause nobody seems to give a shit how important player development truly is.

[G__Deane]

Well you have to remember that ESPN is an American network catering towards its audience. And the US will care more about what Lebron and AD did then what the opposing team did to stop them.. even if they were ex-champs.

The bigger question is when did TSN/Sportsnet first bring up the game? Was it before or after the CFL highlights?

I covered that this morning. Frustrating but also understandably, TSN had the CFL playoff games first, TFC playoff game next followed by the Leafs game then other NHL, then Raptors. Raptors should have been before the NHL for a day (I was sure they had lost based on that) but what can you do? We were the lead for most of the NBA playoffs and for days afterwards.....

We'll continue to be second fiddle (ahead of the Jays now) until we somehow convince a superstar to sign here.

[007]

Just finished watching the game, holy hell that was fun! Reminded me of when we wiped the Cavs a couple years ago - also without Lowry and Ibaka.

Boucher and Davis were amazing, Nurse has to trust the bench now!

[bertarapsfan]

Who edited the title?

[Puffer]

Three undrafted guys score over 50 points against Lebron and AD at home. You love to see it

I just had to see your post again so I could like it again. (Can you like your own post?)(No )

[DogeLover1234]

Highlight for me was start of the fourth, LeBron guarding Davis in the corner, Siakam drives misses and Davis flies by LeBron for the putback jam.

Fun game, bench showed up, starting guards showed up, Lakers defense (specifically LeBron) did not show up. Regardless, much better than I expected - onto the Clips.

[golden]

Meh. Forget the media.... they're doing what they gotta do to pay the bills. The people that matter are putting much respek' on our name.

Post-game comments from Lakers:

Lebron James: "...they were the better team....they have championship DNA"
Anthony Davis: "... they played well... they're a championship calibre team."
Frank Vogel: "...they have championship pedigree."

In the past, it would have been..... "They never beat us - it's on us for losing the game. If we played our game, we would have won."

Last night, the Lakers took their spanking and moved on. That's respect.

[RaptorsVictim]

Guys we have really great writers/content producers who are Raptors fans. William Lou, Blake Murphy, Sheldon Alexander, TruLBanks, RR guys. All are different and have different interesting perspectives. Production might not be as good as ESPN but it doesn't matter.

Here is a fair word about us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXiYV5ErheM

[RaptorsVictim]

The way OG, T Davis and Bocher are developing is just more than a dream, I hope by the end of the season those guys get so ready to the playoff.

[MixxAOR]

Guys we have really great writers/content producers who are Raptors fans. William Lou, Blake Murphy, Sheldon Alexander, TruLBanks, RR guys. All are different and have different interesting perspectives. Production might not be as good as ESPN but it doesn't matter.

[can't teach wingspan]

Terrence. Davis. The. Second.

Fuck the draft and its silly hype.

Three undrafted guys score over 50 points against Lebron and AD at home. You love to see it

[planetmars]

Fuck ESPN! They just put highlights of the game on YT & it's highlights of Lebron & AD the loser team!! They arent even trying to hide the bias!

Well you have to remember that ESPN is an American network catering towards its audience. And the US will care more about what Lebron and AD did then what the opposing team did to stop them.. even if they were ex-champs.

The bigger question is when did TSN/Sportsnet first bring up the game? Was it before or after the CFL highlights?

[G__Deane]

Fuck ESPN! They just put highlights of the game on YT & it's highlights of Lebron & AD the loser team!! They arent even trying to hide the bias!

The only highlights of lebron they should be showing is looking around for his hair plugs on the court after the Bouchard rejection swat

[Hotshot]

Fuck ESPN! They just put highlights of the game on YT & it's highlights of Lebron & AD the loser team!! They arent even trying to hide the bias!