Game 55 Toronto Raptors vs Atlanta Hawks - 7:30 PM EST Apr 13/21

[The Great One]

If Boucher didn't take that shitty step back we would have a chance

But he scored 38/19 the other night! he must be good!

[Demographic Shift]

Good effort..and we get the “R”

The Rommel

[Jclaw]

We’ve had the Trent game. Now the Flynn game. Plus a loss. All good. Hear me out Republic. I’ve got an idea. It goes against tradition. But this year is against the Raptors. Why don’t we have the losing poster keep posting and a winning poster would be done. Just for the last 20 games or so. Much less turnover that way.

[consmap]

We’ve had the Trent game. Now the Flynn game. Plus a loss. All good. Hear me out Republic. I’ve got an idea. It goes against tradition. But this year is against the Raptors. Why don’t we have the losing poster keep posting and a winning poster would be done. Just for the last 20 games or so. Much less turnover that way.

Lol I'm down

[DanH]

We’ve had the Trent game. Now the Flynn game. Plus a loss. All good. Hear me out Republic. I’ve got an idea. It goes against tradition. But this year is against the Raptors. Why don’t we have the losing poster keep posting and a winning poster would be done. Just for the last 20 games or so. Much less turnover that way.

Just keep in mind you risk angering the basketball gods and have that bad karma result in us ending up 9th, missing the playoffs and getting a middling pick.

[G__Deane]

We’ve had the Trent game. Now the Flynn game. Plus a loss. All good. Hear me out Republic. I’ve got an idea. It goes against tradition. But this year is against the Raptors. Why don’t we have the losing poster keep posting and a winning poster would be done. Just for the last 20 games or so. Much less turnover that way.

Or we could go on a winning streak and have to find a new thread starter every game anyway

[consmap]

So what's it gonna be

[A.I]

In a shitty season, Malachi Flynn has become a bright spot and is looking like a stud and a steal at the 29th pick.

[inthepaint]

Good game for the tank. Decent outing for Siakam - 30/6/7 68% from the field (though 1-5 from 3), solid defence and the highest +/-. Career high for Flynn with clutch buckets. If they continue to rotate rest for a regular starter plus FVV taking long to return from the hip injury, they'll most likely maintain this current win-loss ratio till the end of the season, which is the right approach this year.

[Dvdvideo]

Nice game by flyn, but what has me most excited was how birch played. He's fast on his feet, he's big enough to fight down low. He's a huge upgrade over baynes.

Also one odd side note, Yuta totally surprised me in this game with his ball handling.....it was off the hook a couple of times for someone his size.
maybe they should let him touch the ball occasionally.

[Puffer]

If OG is going to dribble the ball this much then he better work on his ball handling skills. I think Birch handle is better than OG.

Must say I have been surprised by his handles. He's not really good or anything, but pretty adept for a big his size. He has hit some really heads up passes as well.

[golden]

In a shitty season, Malachi Flynn has become a bright spot and is looking like a stud and a steal at the 29th pick.

Another bright spot is Nurse allowing Flynn to play through his mistakes so he can develop. Sure, that's only of necessity and because he has no choice, but still progress.

[planetmars]

That was a pretty fun finish there.. Early on Flynn looked like real garbage.. he was either air balling a 3 or hitting the side back board on one. Like his groove was completely off, and then he just caught on fire in the 4th quarter. Was going to turn into a Raptor legend like Trent Jr but wasn't meant to be.

Siakam did well sort of.. he again had 5 turnovers.. and in the 4th quarter was avoiding getting his own.. just kept running into traffic and throwing it back out to just anyone who was open.. and then forcing someone like OG or Fynn or Trent to make a play. It worked when Flynn caught the ball, but he was just on fire. Siakam's playmaking has to be better if that's the role he wants to play. Or we need to figure out how to swing the ball over and over again like the Hawks did.. Huerter and Bogdanovich were on fire, but they also got a lot of clean looks. Hated that last play though where he felt like he had to take the ball to the rim instead of passing it back to Flynn one more time. I mean Flynn was looking for that ball.. his hands were red hot. It's the Derozan syndrome hitting Pascal. That $30M contract has ballooned his ego. He does not have to be the guy that scores in the clutch every time. Even MJ passed it out to Kerr for a 3 in a critical playoff game.

I didn't like OG's game either. He was efficient (7/12 with 15 points) but I didn't like his defense in this one. He always looked a step slow and out of position. Very unlike him. I wonder if he just stopped giving a sh!t since they have such a putrid record? Also ended up with 5 fouls, although one of those was to stop the clock at the end of the game.

Boucher was no match for Capela and it shows why we need a starting caliber center. Capela is an energy big, and we just had no way of preventing him from getting into the paint. He could do anything he wanted and ended up with 19 and 21. This is where I miss a Serge/Marc or even JV. We had it pretty good for a long time. Those guys wouldn't let a guy like Capela get 21 boards.. like ever.

Birch played really hard.. like he really wanted to get his career high. And then he ran out of juice and had to sit.. but playing for his favourite team would do that I guess. Hope he continues to play hard if he can come back next year. Why was hood taking 10 shots? I know we don't have much depth, but Hood needs to know his role a bit.

Too bad Trent had a quiet game. Feels like that's his calling card. He'll come out on fire, or come out like a whisper. No in between game. He's got to figure out how to get hot when his shot isn't falling. More drives to the rim maybe? He he has a pretty decent mid range jumper, and should go to that to get his groove back. I think we're going to see a lot of performances like that from him.. but again he's only 22 and Norm had that same problem before he figured it out eventually.

Any loss is good for the tank.. but not enough teams played last night for it to make a difference. Minny is going to end up with a bottom 3 record so who cares if they lost.. OKC had a lead at one point on the Jazz but folded up pretty quickly in the second half.. Thunder are tank experts at this point. No chance fighting them anymore for lottery seeding. But with the Wiz win yesterday, that makes our record even. They do have two games in hand though. Team to worry about are the Kangz who have this tank thing down pat by now. They are getting closer and closer to our 8th pick. Apparently Holmes hurt his hamstring the other night too.. uh oh.

[The Great One]

Must say I have been surprised by his handles. He's not really good or anything, but pretty adept for a big his size. He has hit some really heads up passes as well.

OG is iso-ing a lot this year. I admit, his ball handling has gotten better since his rookie year but still nowhere near good enough to be an iso player. Right now he's a 3D guy like a Danny Green.

[slaw]

Siakam did well sort of.. he again had 5 turnovers.. and in the 4th quarter was avoiding getting his own.. just kept running into traffic and throwing it back out to just anyone who was open.. and then forcing someone like OG or Fynn or Trent to make a play. It worked when Flynn caught the ball, but he was just on fire. Siakam's playmaking has to be better if that's the role he wants to play. Or we need to figure out how to swing the ball over and over again like the Hawks did.. Huerter and Bogdanovich were on fire, but they also got a lot of clean looks. Hated that last play though where he felt like he had to take the ball to the rim instead of passing it back to Flynn one more time. I mean Flynn was looking for that ball.. his hands were red hot. It's the Derozan syndrome hitting Pascal. That $30M contract has ballooned his ego. He does not have to be the guy that scores in the clutch every time. Even MJ passed it out to Kerr for a 3 in a critical playoff game.
.

What do you expect from Siakam? You criticize him for avoiding getting his own in the 4th (whatever that means) and then criticize him for forcing a shot instead of a pass! He had 30/7/6 on 13/19 shooting in 40 minutes. Yeah, he had 5 TOs but who else is going to initiate offense on the floor? Rodney Hood? This team lacks firepower when it is at full strength, let alone now when they are running out 3-4 guys who should be in the GLeague.