Game #14: Toronto Raptors 113 - Orlando Magic 97

[GOLDBLUM]

Masai should point to P Bev in negotiations with Fred... 3 years at 40 million.. I’d take that.

[bertarapsfan]

Masai should point to P Bev in negotiations with Fred... 3 years at 40 million.. I’d take that.

Ya that be a great deal if we could get him for that but his market value is going to be waaaaay higher. hell of a game regardless.

[S.R.]

Boston got almost no clean looks late in that game. Smart, scrappy play kept them close but they weren't getting quality shots off at all.

Still, C's are legit and not just a soft schedule mirage. Clippers probably need a couple months before we really see the Kawhi/George synergy.

[The Great One]

Do the Clips ever have homecourt advantage? that arena was full of Celtics fans. In their home opener against the Lakers it was full of Lakers fans. When they played the Raptors, it was full of Raps fans.

[The Great One]

They Clips are gonna play the Lakers in the playoffs this season, it's gonna happen and it's gonna be hilarious because the Lakers will have homecourt advantage EVERY game.

[inthepaint]

Siakam has a poor game but still contributes positively that's great but I don't see a superstar. He's All-Star still and it's amazing we got him in late 20s in the draft.

Superstars don't look like superstarts every night. Kawhi ended tonight with 17/6/3 in 37 minutes, Siakam ended 18/11/4 in 34 minutes. I don't think we know who Siakam is or will be. In fact, no one knows, not even Siakam.

[Puffer]

Superstars don't look like superstarts every night. Kawhi ended tonight with 17/6/3 in 37 minutes, Siakam ended 18/11/4 in 34 minutes. I don't think we know who Siakam is or will be. In fact, no one knows, not even Siakam.

The implications are pretty clear. Kawhi is a bum, Siakim is a REAL superstar. :-)

[TheWaterboy]

Seems pretty down in here. Davis was fantastic. Boucher a double-double. FVV big night. Siakam has 18/11/4 on a “bad” night. Norm with another solid night. Defense was great. Why so glum?

I held myself out during the course of the game mostly because what I really *wanted* to do was pile on the Portland-over-Denver and that would have distracted from the game. But since that's over...

T. Rex is simply not going to be convinced that he's underrating Denver any time so, so I'm going to set that aside for the moment. But I do have some things to say about Portland.

* There is no way Portland is significantly better off with Carmelo Anthony on the court than without. He is likely to give back on defense anything he can give you on offense (especially while getting integrated into their schemes), and he can be keyed on and game-planned for by opposing teams' defenses. If he scores in bunches consistently, then maybe the Blazers break even on that score.
* Carmelo will disrupt things off the court even if he isn't the knucklehead he's been at times during his career, not only because the coaching staff will need to spend a period of time just to get him integrated (he's not the sort of student of the game that a Lebron or a Lowry is), but also because he will be attracting additional media attention, and the baggage he brings will shift the media narrative and put the team even more under the microscope than they already are.
* Even if Carmelo isn't a knucklehead, he'll likely affect the chemistry and culture in negative ways just by being another outsize personality on a team that needs to grind it out until they get some of their current injured players back. And the last thing a player like Whiteside needs is another excuse to put himself and his ego above the team.
* The Carmelo move by the front office reeks of desperation. Until the rest of the team is healthy, other teams - even those with sub-.500 records are going to be circling Portland games on their calendar because the Carmelo pick has made Portland look very vulnerable.

I think that for all of these reasons, Portland is going to be no better with Carmelo than without until they're fully healthy. I also think that the impacts to their chemistry and culture are going to result in ongoing substandard performance when everyone's back, and that if they do manage to sneak into the playoffs (which is very unlikely in my opinion, but anything's possible at this point in the season), they're going to be obliterated by one of the Lakers or the Clippers in the first round.

[LJ2]

Boston got almost no clean looks late in that game. Smart, scrappy play kept them close but they weren't getting quality shots off at all.

Still, C's are legit and not just a soft schedule mirage. Clippers probably need a couple months before we really see the Kawhi/George synergy.

There aren't a lot of teams with two starting wing players with the size, strength and athleticism of Kawhi and George. Their defense in the playoffs will be scary.

On the bright side, Siakam and OG might one day be as good on defense as the two of them.

[G__Deane]

TORONTO — Wednesday night, as the Toronto Raptors were meandering through a lethargic start to their evening — which tends to happen during early season midweek games against not-great teams — Chris Boucher turned to Terence Davis on the bench and issued a challenge.

“He was like, ‘You know, when we get in, we’ve got to go up. We’ve got to try to pick the energy up,’” Davis remembered, soaking his feet in an ice tub after the game. “If you bring energy, then the game just takes care of itself.”

[G__Deane]

Where is this button. I can't find it.

When you're on the forum home page that shows at the headings for various discussions in bold (if there are new posts you haven't read), there's a little circle to the left of the post topic. For example this topic is:
The Unemployed Magicians @ Raps - Game 14 - Wednesday, November 20th 7:30 pm on TSN and 1050 on your radio dial.

To the left of the forum topic is a little circle and if you click on that instead of the topic, it takes you to the last point that you read aka new posts. If you don't use that (or didn't know it existed) then you're forced to scroll and scroll to find out where you left off

I hope I explained that corrected. Hope it helps

[LJ2]

Looks like the rest of November is pretty easy with all games against non-playoff teams, but Philly. Early part of December will be tough and give a good indication of how good this team is.

[G__Deane]

They Clips are gonna play the Lakers in the playoffs this season, it's gonna happen and it's gonna be hilarious because the Lakers will have homecourt advantage EVERY game.

Clips are 9-1 @ home and only played with Kawhi and PG together once. I think they'll be all right lol

[golden]

Boston got almost no clean looks late in that game. Smart, scrappy play kept them close but they weren't getting quality shots off at all.

Still, C's are legit and not just a soft schedule mirage. Clippers probably need a couple months before we really see the Kawhi/George synergy.

Celtics lost that game in the first half. Tatum, in particular, bricked like 4 or 5 straight possessions with clean open looks. It could have been a blowout. Celtics defense is stifling, just like the Raptors.

[slaw]

Mo Bamba is yet another illustration of how the Raps get it right (or are super lucky all the time) and other organizations get it so wrong (or are super unlucky all the time). Here is a 6th overall pick in year two who is actually worse than he was last year (or at least no better) and the Raps have Chris Boucher who is actually a better player in pretty much every respect. Check that, in every respect. And Chris Boucher probably won't even be in the rotation when Ibaka comes back.

There are a lot of things to say about this but I'll leave it at that. Man, it feels good to be a fan of this organization as opposed to how it felt 10 years ago....