GAME #33: OKC Thunder 98 - Toronto Raptors 97

[suspenders]

I was at the game. Exciting game but a few screw ups by the refs. Can’t believe CP got away with that travel.

We should have won. We seemed to just not care at times. C’est la vie.

[G__Deane]

Boston had 36 free throw attempts to Toronto's 17 in last night's game and OKC shot 23 free throws to Toronto's 12 attempts tonight.
Can it be explained by the fact that we're not aggressive in the paint? Too many threes? Partially, but c'mon!

[inthepaint]

Hangover game (for both teams actually). Could have gone either way. If it takes this big free throw disparity, iffy officiating and being down 3 key players in order to lose by 1 on a b2b to a western playoff team, that tells me this team is tough to beat (even when they play sluggish like this at half of the level they are capable of)

[MixxAOR]

There was noone on that team who could have guarded Siakam. It's pointless taking anything from this game with so many players missing.

[G__Deane]

Hangover game (for both teams actually). Could have gone either way. If it takes this big free throw disparity, iffy officiating and being down 3 key players in order to lose by 1 on a b2b to a western playoff team, that tells me this team is tough to beat (even when they play sluggish like this at half of the level they are capable of)

No moral victories....

[inthepaint]

No moral victories....

Of course not, still a loss, it will affect the standings and possibly seeding at the end.

That said, at the same time you look at that angle, you also gotta look past the squeaker wins and squeaker losses (which are basically toss up games that somewhat even themselves out over the course of the whole regular season), and look at how the team is playing and doing overall. Right now, I see a team with a high end coach that never had all their top 7 guys (core of playoff rotation) fully healthy for most of the season, and is still hovering at .650 to .700 ball (which happens to be the same record as title favourites clippers and almost the same record they had last year at this stage of the season). And already having played their hardest part of their schedule, with one of the easiest schedules on the league remaining

[KHD]

fuck this league. the referees have been blatantly anti-toronto all season long and yet somehow they're at a 0.66 win rate.

[slaw]

Good news in that the schedule until end of January is not that tough. Pretty much all winnable games even undermanned.

[G__Deane]

Of course not, still a loss, it will affect the standings and possibly seeding at the end.

That said, at the same time you look at that angle, you also gotta look past the squeaker wins and squeaker losses (which are basically toss up games that somewhat even themselves out over the course of the whole regular season), and look at how the team is playing and doing overall. Right now, I see a team with a high end coach that never had all their top 7 guys (core of playoff rotation) fully healthy for most of the season, and is still hovering at .650 to .700 ball (which happens to be the same record as title favourites clippers and almost the same record they had last year at this stage of the season). And already having played their hardest part of their schedule, with one of the easiest schedules on the league remaining

Absolutely. Lovin' the optimism
But as you say, I guess a well played loss is better than a blowout loss .... but not by much

[big boi]

OG, the guy has been MIA lately?

He’s definitely been off. Frustrating end to the game. More suspect reffing, raps seem to be getting a tough whistle. Still very proud of this team. ESPN seems to be picking up on how well the raptors are playing after losing Kawhi and Danny, saying they’re a big surprise team, what they haven’t realized or covered is that we’ve done it while being decimated by injuries. It’d be nice to see this team healthy for a little bit and perhaps then Masai could see if any tinkering could be done to enhance our chances of playing deep in to the playoffs.

[slaw]

Been an overall disappointing season so far from him.
Last year he had a few valid excuses and we cut him a lot of slack.
This year, He has to show something more; he seems to be consistently OK with very few great games

He's been very good against not-so-good teams but he's struggled offensively against the better teams. It seems to me that his offensive game lacks polish more than anything else.

[SkywalkerAC]

Really would have preferred to win that one. When's Pascal back?

[G__Deane]

He's been very good against not-so-good teams but he's struggled offensively against the better teams. It seems to me that his offensive game lacks polish more than anything else.

Also I'd say he looks a little slow/unenergetic/unmotivated out there, exacerbated in the eye test by his low key personality. Dude doesn't look angry-impose-my-will-meet my compete level guy right now. I used to say the same thing about Bargnani

[007]

Really would have preferred to win that one. When's Pascal back?

Apparently Norm is going to be the first one back out of the big injured trio. No real updates on Pascal and Gasol

[DanH]

Would really like McCaw's offensive improvement to be followed by a similar defensive improvement. Just a disaster in this one on that end.

OG should have played more. He missed his shots but man we needed his defence. Terry continues to look great. The mistake not fouling at the end sucks but the reality is you've usually already lost if you get stuck playing the foul game. They needed to execute offensively down the stretch and they didn't at all.
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