Restart Game #4: Toronto Raptors vs Boston Celtics - August 7, 2020 - 9:00 PM ET

[G__Deane]

Boston played really good D. How many flat possessions did the Raptors have? How many turnovers did they have?
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To me it looked like the Celtics were getting ready for this game to make a statement. Mission accomplished. If this was ever going to happen then now was the perfect time for it to happen. May it serve as a wake up call and a good lesson.

We also need to all keep in mind Nurse may have all sorts of things in his back pocket that he could not use last night because he doesn't want to show his hand before he needs to in the playoffs.

Even if you have "special plays" your regular plays should have avoided that beatdown. Let's stop trying to find excuses, they were terrible for one night.

[bertarapsfan]

Hoping pascal early struggles is just due to him not playing ball for a long time. He is settling for jumpers early in games and starting out cold. The thing that makes him dangerous is a mix of drives, post up, mid range and the ability to splash the 3. I think he should make a conscious effort to score inside early before expanding him game to the perimeter.

[S.R.]

I swear every so often when you start to get really high on this team, because it really seems like they're trending all the way up, they lay an egg like that one.

[DanH]

You are going to have stinkers now and again. Frankly it’s amazing how rare these sorts of games are for the Raps. Nothing to see here, moving along.

[golden]

Even if you have "special plays" your regular plays should have avoided that beatdown. Let's stop trying to find excuses, they were terrible for one night.

In the playoffs, you hunt mismatches and attack the weak link (e.g. Kemba) over and over again. That's a fairly obvious "special play" that was held back last night.

[A.I]

Even if you have "special plays" your regular plays should have avoided that beatdown. Let's stop trying to find excuses, they were terrible for one night.

It shouldn't happen, but it happens to every team once in a while. I'll book it off as a rare off night for every player on the team in the same game.

[iblastoff]

You are going to have stinkers now and again. Frankly it’s amazing how rare these sorts of games are for the Raps. Nothing to see here, moving along.

i was gonna say i honestly cant remember the last time they played this bad.

[G__Deane]

It shouldn't happen, but it happens to every team once in a while. I'll book it off as a rare off night for every player on the team in the same game.

That's what I'm saying. It's not holding back some kind of special plays, they just laid a collective egg

[inthepaint]

It shouldn't happen, but it happens to every team once in a while. I'll book it off as a rare off night for every player on the team in the same game.

It's indeed very rare. I don't know how far you have to go back to find a night where your top 7 rotation players shot 11% from 3. Some of that is certainly credit to the Celtics defence, but no defence can just plain hold the main 7-player core of a NBA team to 11% from 3. A lot of that is simply attributed to a bunch of guys having an off shooting night at the same time.

[DanH]

That's what I'm saying. It's not holding back some kind of special plays, they just laid a collective egg

Little of column A, little of column B. Not special plays so much as strategies. Nick running skeleton offence/basic defence to hide stuff is not new.

[golden]

Little of column A, little of column B. Not special plays so much as strategies. Nick running skeleton offence/basic defence to hide stuff is not new.

If we meet the Celtics in the playoffs, I’m sure we’re going to see the Jumbo lineup at some point. Size up front is a problem for them.