2020 Playoffs Round 1 Game 2 Nets at Raptors Wednesday August 19 1:30pm on TSN

[MixxAOR]

[inthepaint]

I thought Pascal was good today. He shot the ball pretty well and made a lot of good passes that guys didn’t finish. He doesn’t need to force things - that’s when he gets in trouble. Forget about the closer, #1 option garbage and just play.

Came here to say your last line and you beat me to it. Yes, it's nice to have a "closer" but we gotta stop artificially forcing Siakam into one. It's a silly obsession that's gonna cost us games, if not a series. It's only the first round, but I'm already tired of static Siakam Iso's ending in low percentage midrange fadeways. All in the name of "making" him into some kind of player he's not, at the expense of his drives, spin moves, interior passing and spot up corner 3's that made him MIP.

In the clutch, I'd much rather have a rhythm/open shot from any of Lowry/FVV/Norm/Serge (all champions with lots of playoff experience) than a forced, out-of rhtyhm static shot over a double-team from Siakam, just because he's supposed to be our "closer".

He was forcing in the 3rd today, sat for a while, came back distributing in the 4th and the game opened up for us. It's a freaking team sport. Pistons did it in 04, Spurs did it, and even the greatest shooter of all time in Steph Curry needed a Klay Thompson to take the heat off him and make some clutch shots too. If we're gonna win it again, it's gonna be like that.

[DanH]

Impressive win on a night when everything that usually goes right was going wrong. Ice cold shooting killed our ability to counter the switching defence. Norm was great, needed an offensive punch from one of the bench guys and he stepped up.

[inthepaint]

Yah I don't think we need (or will see) Memphis Gasol. We just need better than today Gasol.
Maybe he'll get pizzed off (he was a litt;e fired today) and have a big game coming up. Nick said he wanted more from him, time to light a fire, maybe saving it for next round?

I hope so. For today:

Gasol --> team low -13
Ibaka --> team high +18

On the 2 games combined:
Gasol --> -6
Ibaka --> +35

I like Gasol, I think he's a great player and his defensive presence is key for the team, but on the other end he's gotta start putting the ball in the basket from at least one area of the floor consistently , otherwise the Nets (and maybe Boston watching film from this series) will start ignoring his offence, which will create negative spacing and shrink the floor for the rest of the team.

That said, this looks more like an outlier game than the norm; You'll never get all 7-8 rotation guys firing on all cylinders at the same time, there's usually someone with an off-night, and tonight it was him. I think he'll watch some film, regroup and turn it around.

[chris]

who was closer on 2014 Spurs. Genuine question

the 2012/13 and 2013/14 spurs teams are who i've thought the best comp are for this raptors team all season. they won one championship and should have won the other against lebron at his absolute peak, with the best supporting casts and coaching he's ever had. they had zero top 15 players and certainly no one who would be traditionally considered a 'closer.'

but they managed to be the best spurs teams' of their entire 22 year run while none of their HOFers were anywhere close to their peaks. and they played the best team basketball i've ever watched until the warriors fired mark jackson.

it's great to have a closer but i'm not convinced it's essential. it goes without saying that kawhi was incredible last year and carried us at times, particularly against philly, but also in select games in each of the other series. but the team deferred to him almost to a fault in my opinion and that passivity hurt us at times.

being passive is not an option this year. someone has to take the shot. i like the guys on our team that are willing to take them.

on another note, second straight game that gasol was nowhere to be found in the fourth Q. he was fucking awful tonight, especially at the defensive end where he just gave up a ton of layups and lobs to allen. golden is spot on that guys like him give marc trouble and that he fares much better against the brutes like embiid and vuc. serge will absolutely see his share of closing games this playoff run.

[chris]

Surprisingly, not really. We're seeing more and more smaller guys being successful guarding 7-footers these days.

agreed. OKC made a point of getting it into adams and wasted several possessions trying to take advantage of it, and got smoked.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Gasol had the worst net rating on the team last night. The best net rating on the team out of rotation players? Serge.

[RandomGuy]

Gasol had the worst net rating on the team last night. The best net rating on the team out of rotation players? Serge.

Gasol is not much of use versus this Nets matchup. Hopefully, we can use him more versus Bucks (if they or we get there).

Tatum is legit and I think they are favorites versus Raps if I have to be unbiased. Still trust these Raps to win it all.

[planetmars]

Gasol had the worst net rating on the team last night. The best net rating on the team out of rotation players? Serge.

It won't matter honestly, but Serge should start in game 3. Serge is just a better match up for Allen. Actually Serge would be better against Theis and Boston as well. Not a friendly first two rounds for Marc these playoffs.

We'll need him against Vucevic in the conference finals though

[G__Deane]

I hope so. For today:

Gasol --> team low -13
Ibaka --> team high +18

On the 2 games combined:
Gasol --> -6
Ibaka --> +35

I like Gasol, I think he's a great player and his defensive presence is key for the team, but on the other end he's gotta start putting the ball in the basket from at least one area of the floor consistently , otherwise the Nets (and maybe Boston watching film from this series) will start ignoring his offence, which will create negative spacing and shrink the floor for the rest of the team.

That said, this looks more like an outlier game than the norm; You'll never get all 7-8 rotation guys firing on all cylinders at the same time, there's usually someone with an off-night, and tonight it was him. I think he'll watch some film, regroup and turn it around.

Team low -13 and that was in only 17 minutes. When the offense is struggling, you need more than 0 points on only 3 shots and zero f/t. plus a team high 3 turnovers. He actually took a few early shots that clanked and then gave up.

Time to look in the mirror Marc.

[S.R.]

I'm a bit worried about Marc being completely out of rhythm. Between Christmas and the start of the bubble, the guy only played 8 games. 8 games in 7 months. That's a huge amount of time you're out.

Then in the bubble Nurse had him in just 15-25 mpg and sitting a bunch, barely using regular rotations as he tinkered with things. All fine, except Gasol's not up to game speed right now at all. Hopefully he gets there.

[slaw]

Team low -13 and that was in only 17 minutes. When the offense is struggling, you need more than 0 points on only 3 shots and zero f/t. plus a team high 3 turnovers. He actually took a few early shots that clanked and then gave up.

Time to look in the mirror Marc.

The Nets came out on fire and, honestly, outplayed Toronto for the first three quarters. I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on plus/minus garbage. Gasol was bad but he had these games last year as well and he followed them up with good performances.

To S.R.’s point, he does look “off” in term of his timing. He had some uncharacteristic turnovers and let himself get pushed around by the Nets guards. See what happens in game three. Got a week to get him ready for the Celtics.

[LJ2]

Gasol is not much of use versus this Nets matchup. Hopefully, we can use him more versus Bucks (if they or we get there).

Tatum is legit and I think they are favorites versus Raps if I have to be unbiased. Still trust these Raps to win it all.

Tatum is really good, but Raptors have way better personnel to guard him than the Sixers. Pascal will need to assert himself in that series though because he has the size and length to be a tough match up for them.

[S.R.]

Tatum is really good, but Raptors have way better personnel to guard him than the Sixers. Pascal will need to assert himself in that series though because he has the size and length to be a tough match up for them.

I think the Boston challenge will be they're much less flawed than the other contenders. Lack of rim protection and inside bigs is about it. Their perimeter defence is very good and Toronto's scoring mostly comes from perimeter players - several of them undersized while Boston's guys are long. They're probably the toughest matchup challenge for Toronto.

[Demographic Shift]

I think the Boston challenge will be they're much less flawed than the other contenders. Lack of rim protection and inside bigs is about it. Their perimeter defence is very good and Toronto's scoring mostly comes from perimeter players - several of them undersized while Boston's guys are long. They're probably the toughest matchup challenge for Toronto.

Unless they pound the ball inside off relentless pick and rolls on Kanter and Thiess.
When they collapse down to try to help... make your threes.

X factor....Does Kyle have one more series in him to make Marcus Smart wish he hand't been born ?