Game #22: Toronto Raptors 104 - Philadelphia 76ers 110

[MixxAOR]

Guys you need to stop parroting the record without Lowry. Ya those wins against the Lakers and Sixers where awesome signature wins. But the other wins?? Hawks, Magic, Knicks Hornets and a struggle blazers and jazz. Ya its awesome that our bench was able to help out and keep us afloat but the weak teams helped that. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to throw Lowry right into the fire against 3 teams who have real shots at a confrence final, but theirs no world were we are a better team with TD and Boucher taking Lowry and Ibaka's minutes.
The real problems for this skid was pascal has struggled. He's only 20 games into being the number 1 option so stretches like this were expected from him. The sky isn't falling, were just facing advesity, something that every team has to deal with. Luckily we have 5 guys who have that championship DNA i expect us to be able to bounce back.

[Zak24gege]

Guys you need to stop parroting the record without Lowry. Ya those wins against the Lakers and Sixers where awesome signature wins. But the other wins?? Hawks, Magic, Knicks Hornets and a struggle blazers and jazz. Ya its awesome that our bench was able to help out and keep us afloat but the weak teams helped that. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to throw Lowry right into the fire against 3 teams who have real shots at a confrence final, but theirs no world were we are a better team with TD and Boucher taking Lowry and Ibaka's minutes.
The real problems for this skid was pascal has struggled. He's only 20 games into being the number 1 option so stretches like this were expected from him. The sky isn't falling, were just facing advesity, something that every team has to deal with. Luckily we have 5 guys who have that championship DNA i expect us to be able to bounce back.

With a full line-up we have yet to beat a +500 team (0-5). Overall we are 3 - 7 against teams having more wins than losses. We should be a better team with our two veteran players, however, since Lowry and Ibaka's return we have not had a good game on either side of the ball. Combined with Siakam, definitely not playing with the same 'enthusiasm' he started off the year with, we've gone from 2nd to 5th this week. CHI then LAC on Wednesday . Anyone thinking 2 - 0?

[Zak24gege]

I think it means yea you had your night, but we sent you home crying last year. Serge was the first one to say "Boss man, Boss man i think we can win 2 more". Don't think we have to worry about a homeless kid from the Congo who grew up during a civil war, resting on his laurels. MaFuzzy Chef is still hungry

I believe Serge was including Kawhi in his calculations?

[golden]

Guys you need to stop parroting the record without Lowry. Ya those wins against the Lakers and Sixers where awesome signature wins. But the other wins?? Hawks, Magic, Knicks Hornets and a struggle blazers and jazz. Ya its awesome that our bench was able to help out and keep us afloat but the weak teams helped that. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to throw Lowry right into the fire against 3 teams who have real shots at a confrence final, but theirs no world were we are a better team with TD and Boucher taking Lowry and Ibaka's minutes.
The real problems for this skid was pascal has struggled. He's only 20 games into being the number 1 option so stretches like this were expected from him. The sky isn't falling, were just facing advesity, something that every team has to deal with. Luckily we have 5 guys who have that championship DNA i expect us to be able to bounce back.

We were way better defensively when Lowry and Ibaka were out. And we were 3-2 against good teams with Lowry and Ibaka out. Those 2 things are related. Lowry changes the identity of the team from defense to offense, but we don’t have the reliable firepower to win those type of games. That’s what has happened.

[G__Deane]

Kyle was pushing for points in his hometown again, what did he drop 26?
But he changes how things are played, too much walking it up, too much half court play. Energy and speed drops noticeably.

Gasol .... 0 points .... 0 .... 7' veteran centre ..... but some pretty passes?
I guess he held Embiid to 10-8-6

[golden]

Kyle was pushing for points in his hometown again, what did he drop 26?
But he changes how things are played, too much walking it up, too much half court play. Energy and speed drops noticeably.

Gasol .... 0 points .... 0 .... 7' veteran centre ..... but some pretty passes?
I guess he held Embiid to 10-8-6

We all laughed at the Celtics when they added Kyrie and Hayward and got worse. It's basically a mini-version of the same thing here with Lowry & Ibaka. I've mentioned many times on here that it's challenging to re-integrate med-high usage players back into your team without significantly affecting the chemistry. Ibaka is now up to a ridiculous 27% USG on this season... it's no wonder the bench mob has gone completely to trash.

But my biggest fear was that the defensive intensity was going to drop with the Lowry & Ibaka coming back. Nurse's schemes require energy, commitment and diligence on every single possession. The old guys won't (or can't) put out the same type of effort, until the playoffs.

[Sonny]

Just my observation - Siakam's FGA has gone down since Lowry returned to the lineup. He isn't as aggressive as when Lowry was out of the lineup.

The offense revolved around Pascal, Gasol and Freddy when Lowry was out. With Pascal as the #1 option. Now it's all Lowry.

[golden]

Just my observation - Siakam's FGA has gone down since Lowry returned to the lineup. He isn't as aggressive as when Lowry was out of the lineup.

The offense revolved around Pascal, Gasol and Freddy when Lowry was out. With Pascal as the #1 option. Now it's all Lowry.

[MixxAOR]

Siakam last three games

5-14
9-22
7-18

He just hasn't been anywhere good enough. Vs Houston he chicken out from Harden match up for whatever reason. But with Heat Bam shut him down and vs Sixers it was Al Horford/Ben Simmons

I don't know why people act like this is not a thing when book was out on Siakam ever since Embiid started to guard him. He struggles against top defenders.

[S.R.]

You guys are drawing really broad conclusions from two very short series of games. This kind of thing got the Knicks excited about Andrea Bargnani.

[MixxAOR]

[The Great One]

I always find it funny when people call Lowry the GROAT. Their argument is, 'he's been here for 8 years and he's a champion' LOL.

Question, if the Raptors did not win the chip last year, what would be Lowry's legacy here? that he's a perennial playoff choker right? now he's a champion. And he is. Thanks to Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi was the reason why Lowry has a ring. Kawhi singlehandedly won them the championship last year. If not for Kawhi the Raptors would've EASILY lost to the Sixers in the 2nd round. Because from what I remember, Kawhi was the only player that showed up for the Raptors in that series.

The two most important games of that series were Game 4 and Game 7. I still remember Game 4 very well because they were down 2-1 so it was a must win game and Kawhi literally was the only Raptor that showed up in that game. The others played like a bunch of pussycats.

Game 4:

Kawhi - 39 points 14 rebounds 5 assists
Siakam - 9 points 3 rebounds 2 assists
Lowry - 14 points 6 rebounds 7 assists

Game 7:

Kawhi - 41 points 8 rebounds 3 assists
Siakam - 11 points 11 rebounds 2 assists
Lowry - 10 points 6 rebounds 6 assists

That's why I will never call Lowry the GROAT. If you watched the playoffs last year, you know who the real GROAT is.

[DanH]

I always find it funny when people call Lowry the GROAT. Their argument is, 'he's been here for 8 years and he's a champion' LOL.

Question, if the Raptors did not win the chip last year, what would be Lowry's legacy here? that he's a perennial playoff choker right? now he's a champion. And he is. Thanks to Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi was the reason why Lowry has a ring. Kawhi singlehandedly won them the championship last year. If not for Kawhi the Raptors would've EASILY lost to the Sixers in the 2nd round. Because from what I remember, Kawhi was the only player that showed up for the Raptors in that series.

The two most important games of that series were Game 4 and Game 7. I still remember Game 4 very well because they were down 2-1 so it was a must win game and Kawhi literally was the only Raptor that showed up in that game. The others played like a bunch of pussycats.

Game 4:

Kawhi - 39 points 14 rebounds 5 assists
Siakam - 9 points 3 rebounds 2 assists
Lowry - 14 points 6 rebounds 7 assists

Game 7:

Kawhi - 41 points 8 rebounds 3 assists
Siakam - 11 points 11 rebounds 2 assists
Lowry - 10 points 6 rebounds 6 assists

That's why I will never call Lowry the GROAT. If you watched the playoffs last year, you know who the real GROAT is.

Perennial playoff choker? No, we traded that guy for Kawhi. Lowry dragging this team to the playoff success it saw in spite of various injuries that killed his shooting some years is what he would have been remembered for, by anyone who could actually remember his play here, anyway.

[DanH]

Kyle was pushing for points in his hometown again, what did he drop 26?
But he changes how things are played, too much walking it up, too much half court play. Energy and speed drops noticeably.

Gasol .... 0 points .... 0 .... 7' veteran centre ..... but some pretty passes?
I guess he held Embiid to 10-8-6

Gasol was a +9 in a 6 point loss, even with a poor shooting night (and a couple dumb decisions trying to score inside). Recommend pointing the ire elsewhere.

Meanwhile we had a 95 ORTG in the 10 minutes Lowry sat. Gotta love that energy and speed.

[KeonClark]

T Rex posts like he gets his news from Stephen A Smith twitter feed