Nets v Raptors 2020 Playoffs Round 1

[Jclaw]

[CENTER]Philly game thread coming soon but this is no game thread

It seems a bit weird to know our first round playoff foe for certain so far in advance.

So here's a chance to get all your Nets/Raptors thoughts out before we get going in just about a week from now.

Obviously this starting thread needs but one thing.

'Berta said it best

Nets up 20 in 2nd. Looks like they will be our matchup. Them and lebron are the last 2 we need to cross off the revenge tour. Let's get em

[/CENTER]

[Maury]

Walk in the park.

[KeonClark]

Fuck Brooklyn

[A.I]

Keep LeVert and Harris in check and we can cruise to a sweep.

[planetmars]

Keep LeVert and Harris in check and we can cruise to a sweep.

Really just LeVert. Harris is just another Fournier/Redick/Korver. Just a guy who can shoot. We have experience with those guys and have prevailed.

[planetmars]

I wanted the Nets over the Magic just to get a different look.. but it's really hard to game plan for this match up.

I just can't see the Nets winning. They might get a game. LeVert can get crazy hot and score 50. They shoot a lot of 3's and really love to run. But even then.. we are just clearly the better team.

Kyle loves playing against Brooklyn. He had the "don't wake the bear" game earlier this year. He's going to be jawing at the Nets bench all series long. Fred/OG will make LeVert cry. They have no bigs. We should own the paint.

I really hope we can get a sweep. Masai deserves a sweep.

[planetmars]

Nets up 20 in 2nd. Looks like they will be our matchup. Them and lebron are the last 2 we need to cross off the revenge tour. Let's get em

Also Detroit. They beat us in 2002 in 5 games (first round).

[bertarapsfan]

Also Detroit. They beat us in 2002 in 5 games (first round).

Dwayne is taking care of them for us

[golden]

[The Great One]

2nd worst offense? I really hope Nurse has something up his sleeve come playoff time.

[A.I]

Really just LeVert. Harris is just another Fournier/Redick/Korver. Just a guy who can shoot. We have experience with those guys and have prevailed.

Agreed, but I just threw Harris in there because he could get hot and nail 3s in bunches just enough for the Nets to steal a game.

[DanH]

2nd worst offense? I really hope Nurse has something up his sleeve come playoff time.

It's not a meaningful sample size. Most teams will manage to be a bottom 10 offence for one 6 game stretch or another during the season. Especially considering how the main driver of that low ORTG is our extremely high turnover rate, which I think has more to do with how little the team has cared about execution, and is just trying stuff out during the bubble. We're up 3 turnovers per 100 possessions in the bubble compared to the rest of the regular season.

[DanH]

The other good news about that best-defence, worst-ish offence tweet is that we are about 8 points below the average bubble offence, and in a group of 4 teams with nearly identical ratings (including the Lakers and Thunder). On defence, we are 7 points better than the 2nd place team, and 11 points better than the average.

[planetmars]

The offense has been bad. Sikam is rarely getting into the paint. Our transition offense seemed non existent. We weren't shooting that well early on, and took turns into who was going to help us win a game (Lowry against LA, Fred against Miami, etc). It took a few games for Norm to get a bit of his groove back. Serge's minutes were off.. he didn't get to play with Lowry for much of his time which hurts his game. We were very sloppy. Kyle had 9 turnovers that one game. Siakam was very turnover prone. Plus SJ got a lot of 4th quarter minutes. Also our bubble schedule was one of the toughest in the league.

And of course the Celtics game was an utter disaster.

I like that we play Brooklyn for at least 4 games. They have a paper soft defense. We can get some guys comfortable and rolling going into round two. I like that Fred won't be shell shocked right away with long defenders. If he has his groove early it will really help everyone.

[inthepaint]

I like that Siakam is trying to expand his game and hone his pull up 3's, midrange jumpers. etc, but that also comes with a drawback; We're seeing less of his drives, spin moves and overall offensive pressure in the paint. That's where he's at his best. Those are skills and muscle memories he only recently developed. You gotta keep honing them so you don't regress them.

My take is as long as the traditional MIP Siakam we've come to know is on the back pocket for the playoffs, and that skillset is still being honed and maintained in practice, it's all good. If all of a sudden he lets go of that of stuff and is now onto just contested fadeaways from iso's and static off-the-dribble 3's, then we're in trouble.

There's a balance to be found between hiding stuff till the playoffs, and using it now in real game situations so it doesn't feel unnatural coming playoff time.