Game #25: Brooklyn Nets 102 - Toronto Raptors 110

[Puffer]

Only thing to watch is they are a dominant offensive rebounding team. Going to need to be a focus to gang rebound, or kill them so much in transition that they have to back off the aggressive rebound chasing.

Boom.

Marc almost took care of the Raptors defensive rebounding all by himself.

[KHD]

didn't see all of this one but I'm hoping we see Gasol have more nights like this. We aren't built with him as a main scoring option, but we're so much better when he's at least a threat.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Gasol and Ibaka combined for 27 rebounds

[golden]

Just realized that Serge Ibaka is officially 7-ft tall without shoes. Wtf. Now it makes sense why he's slower footed than you would hope. And he's the tallest guy on the Raptors.... Gasol is 6-11.

[G__Deane]

Love the 15 rebounds.

5 of them land in your hands free and uncontested if you're positioned correctly so you know he went and got some

[DanH]

Visiting TO for Christmas... anybody have any suggestions on best/cheapest way to get seats? I will try the usual methods of ticketmaster and stubhub but not sure if there are any other avenues I haven't heard of. Hoping to see the Mavs and Thunder.

Christmas day seats vs the Celtics are at ridiculous prices, but I will drop a few fuck Bostons in the game thread as is customary for the holiday season.

Seatgeek is a good tool for quickly finding good seat deals.

[G__Deane]

Just realized that Serge Ibaka is officially 7-ft tall without shoes. Wtf. Now it makes sense why he's slower footed than you would hope. And he's the tallest guy on the Raptors.... Gasol is 6-11.

I'm not sure that passes the eye test, Golden

[G__Deane]

Clippers lost to the Bulls (no Kawhi, load maintenance, left knee soreness) and the Rockets lost to the Pistons lol.

[planetmars]

Nice quality bounce back game even though there were moments there where you felt Brooklyn was going to tie or take the lead. Siakam had a nice first half. Good defensive game from him which I liked even more than his offense early on. He's slowly getting his energy back which is nice. Norm is really impressing me. Less and less bone head plays, and is just on fire from 3. Again has become our most consistent 3pt shooter. Who would have thunk?

Gasol and Serge were really active on the boards. Serge still really has no offensive game. Missed his 15 foot bunnies. Airballed a 3. But he had some nice put back layups/dunks and was active around the rim to get to the free throw line. He was pretty good defensively though. Kyle hit a couple of big 3's.. missed some good clean looks though. Just want to see one nice KLOE game from him since he got back. Marc was great. Active early. Hit a few 3's. more than 10 points. That just helps the offense when he can make his shots.

I don't know why McCaw got so many minutes. He was terrible on offense. Had some nice passes I guess. Defense was sound but not anything OG or Norm couldn't do. Was it Nurse just giving him Fred's minutes so that the offense can click when he gets back? No idea. Was a +11 though so we didn't lose the minutes he was on the floor. So many WIDE open three's that he just blanked on. I don't get the love. I mean he had more minutes than OG last night.

Brooklyn just isn't that good right now. Borderline playoff team that will get the 7th seed because the bottom half the East is a joke. Should be an easy 4-0 sweep for the team that gets them in the first round. Even with Kyrie back. They'll be awesome next year though.

Nice to keep that Atlantic home streak alive.

[G__Deane]

Nice quality bounce back game even though there were moments there where you felt Brooklyn was going to tie or take the lead. Siakam had a nice first half. Good defensive game from him which I liked even more than his offense early on. He's slowly getting his energy back which is nice. Norm is really impressing me. Less and less bone head plays, and is just on fire from 3. Again has become our most consistent 3pt shooter. Who would have thunk?

Gasol and Serge were really active on the boards. Serge still really has no offensive game. Missed his 15 foot bunnies. Airballed a 3. But he had some nice put back layups/dunks and was active around the rim to get to the free throw line. He was pretty good defensively though. Kyle hit a couple of big 3's.. missed some good clean looks though. Just want to see one nice KLOE game from him since he got back. Marc was great. Active early. Hit a few 3's. more than 10 points. That just helps the offense when he can make his shots.

I don't know why McCaw got so many minutes. He was terrible on offense. Had some nice passes I guess. Defense was sound but not anything OG or Norm couldn't do. Was it Nurse just giving him Fred's minutes so that the offense can click when he gets back? No idea. Was a +11 though so we didn't lose the minutes he was on the floor. So many WIDE open three's that he just blanked on. I don't get the love. I mean he had more minutes than OG last night.

Brooklyn just isn't that good right now. Borderline playoff team that will get the 7th seed because the bottom half the East is a joke. Should be an easy 4-0 sweep for the team that gets them in the first round. Even with Kyrie back. They'll be awesome next year though.

Nice to keep that Atlantic home streak alive.

The Gasol argument suggests that as long as you're (+) the rest doesn't matter and you can throw up zeros lol.
Play McCaw 48 minutes!

[golden]

I'm not sure that passes the eye test, Golden

Yeah, something’s off here. ESPN, NBA.com and BBref are all showing 7 ft. But Blake Murphy reported 6-10, which seems correct.

[bertarapsfan]

That 1st half from Siakam is exactly what we need to see from his mix of offense. He drove to the basket and hit a couple 3s early. Then took it to the rim a few more times. They ran that play where McCaw pitched him the ball while Pascal gained speed from half court. The Nets were playing the drive so pascal just hits the dribble and puts up a mid range jumper.
After that Brooklyn had no clue what to do with him. Play him tight, he blows by, Sag off he pull up for 3 or dribbles into lane and takes the midrange.
People have been complaining that Pascal should only post up/drive but that half showed exactly how dangerous he can be. And the 3/mid range is what brings his game together.

[S.R.]

Clippers lost to the Bulls (no Kawhi, load maintenance, left knee soreness) and the Rockets lost to the Pistons lol.

Clippers also had no Lou Williams and no Pat Beverly, but the real kicker was their starting C only had 4 points so that was the game right there.

[JawsGT]

That 1st half from Siakam is exactly what we need to see from his mix of offense. He drove to the basket and hit a couple 3s early. Then took it to the rim a few more times. They ran that play where McCaw pitched him the ball while Pascal gained speed from half court. The Nets were playing the drive so pascal just hits the dribble and puts up a mid range jumper.
After that Brooklyn had no clue what to do with him. Play him tight, he blows by, Sag off he pull up for 3 or dribbles into lane and takes the midrange.
People have been complaining that Pascal should only post up/drive but that half showed exactly how dangerous he can be. And the 3/mid range is what brings his game together.

I dont think he takes enough mid range shots actually. He should replace some of his drives with an occasional jump shot, as it might prevent some of those off balance and awkward layups he sometimes takes. I guess he just needs some time figuring out defences, but sometimes it seems he's forcing things on the drives he makes, when a mid range pull up would have been a decent option. The system is designed that way I suppose, most guys on the team seem expected to either shoot 3s or shots at the rim. Serge and rhj seem to take mid range shots regularly, but i think they are the only ones. I dont think it would hurt if pascal dropped a few more mid rangers each game.

[DanH]

The Gasol argument suggests that as long as you're (+) the rest doesn't matter and you can throw up zeros lol.
Play McCaw 48 minutes!

The Gasol argument is that so long as you are consistently in the plus, and it can be shown that you are the difference between your lineups being positive versus negative, as has been the case with Gasol, you should probably keep doing what you are doing.

Does any of that apply to McCaw?