GAME #66 - Toronto Raptors 927-38) vs Los Angeles Clippers (43-22) Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - 10:00PM ET

[golden]

After getting rest from games. It's not a myth. We literally sitting players right now with minor bruises and injuries. How can you still say they don't care.

FVV himself said that his hip injury is a day-to-day situation that flares up from time-to-time. The prudent thing would be to just shut him down for the season or else you could end up with an IT situation. But instead, we bring him back and then immediately play him 40+ minutes? That's going from zero to 100mph.

And Pascal averaging 40MPG over 3 games in 4 nights, all on the road, with a short-handed roster, is taking care of your players?

Just a few weeks ago we were talking about those guys + OG still suffering from Covid after-effects. Even when we have a full roster, those guys have heavy workloads on both ends of the court... especially with our aggressive D.

[A.I]

After getting rest from games. It's not a myth. We literally sitting players right now with minor bruises and injuries. How can you still say they don't care.

Especially considering OG and Boucher have been out. Pascal is forced to play a lot of minutes. Yuta and Stanley both played 30 mins in the Clippers game as well.

[MixxAOR]

41 minutes for FVV: coming back from injury.
42 minutes for Siakam: 3rd game in 4 nights. 40/39/42

I don't want to hear anymore myths about how Raptors staff takes care of their players.

After getting rest from games. It's not a myth. We literally sitting players right now with minor bruises and injuries. How can you still say they don't care.

[golden]

41 minutes for FVV: coming back from injury.
42 minutes for Siakam: 3rd game in 4 nights. 40/39/42

I don't want to hear anymore myths about how Raptors staff takes care of their players.

[GOLDBLUM]

Sam Mitchell noted in the post game, if you watch that drive by Pascal, instead of Birch sticking to the wing, he cut straight into the lane, which made it a much more difficult pass for Pascal to safely execute, even though on first glance it looks like Khem is wide open. In Sam’s view, and it makes sense to me watching it again, if Khem had the presence of mind to stay wider, it would’ve made the defender have to choose between the two of them and would’ve had a better chance for a positive result.

These are things they learn from more time playing together. Also Khem expanding his role beyond just playing under the basket...

[A.I]

Siakam also appears very much to be a rhythm + confidence player. He's been rediscovering his game the last few weeks, great to see him looking more and more like himself, but he still looks shook in the clutch. His hesitancy starting that break was obvious, he wasn't sure what to do. Then when he decided in his own end he was gonna take it, even though he had a teammate running each outside lane, he took it - the whole length of the court right into the charge. You can't overthink like that in that moment, too much delay. But that's what happens to him when his confidence is off.

Personally I think he needs to keep getting the clutch reps. He needs a couple shots to go down and he needs to get over this.

But yeah, coaching staff needs to balance him playing to his strengths a bit more. He has been getting back to that. They had him too much outside his comfort zone in the name of development this past year imho. Got to feed his strengths plus do a bit of new stuff.

This is why he has been given the ball down the stretch throughout the season. The last few, the double dribble and the charge, were bad plays and a confidence/hesitant thing, but before that he has made the right plays more often than not, took a lot solid shots that were half way down and rimmed down. I'm sure it sucks to see that happen multiple times.

His strengths were on full display in the Lakers game. Pick and pops, getting a pass right in the middle where he has enough space to get off a floater, catching passes on the run. Those are all things he is great at. It helped Kyle was also scoring so the attention wasn't solely on Pascal.

[S.R.]

That's just Trollosaurus Rex.

No, that's the kind of play that reminds you that Siakam is a guy who hasn't been playing basketball that long. His instincts just haven't been honed over the course of time like other comparable players and so, in the heat of the moment, the combination of instinct and skill isn't quite there. I can sympathize with that more than I can with FVV's mistakes which far too often arise from selfish play.

Having said that, there is probably some aspect of it where Siakam feels like he needs to do more late than he really needs to, which is something that, in my opinion, this coaching staff has exacerbated as a problem.

Siakam also appears very much to be a rhythm + confidence player. He's been rediscovering his game the last few weeks, great to see him looking more and more like himself, but he still looks shook in the clutch. His hesitancy starting that break was obvious, he wasn't sure what to do. Then when he decided in his own end he was gonna take it, even though he had a teammate running each outside lane, he took it - the whole length of the court right into the charge. You can't overthink like that in that moment, too much delay. But that's what happens to him when his confidence is off.

Personally I think he needs to keep getting the clutch reps. He needs a couple shots to go down and he needs to get over this.

But yeah, coaching staff needs to balance him playing to his strengths a bit more. He has been getting back to that. They had him too much outside his comfort zone in the name of development this past year imho. Got to feed his strengths plus do a bit of new stuff.

[The Claw Reborn]

If we beat both la’s i wudda had hope. The teams been doing well since birch and gill despite depleted roster. I think indiana is the team we cudda caught theyre schedule is fairly tough. But ya its done now.

This whole thing was pretty half assed. Shudda done a real tank if this is what management wanted. Or they shudda got the center help everyone knew they needed a long time ago. Now we’re a sliver out of playoffs with a low lottery. Worst place to be

We are one of the last holdouts, still refusing to raise the white flag but I think it is inevitable now...pushing the tank against our will has to happen .

Silver lining to last night’s loss aside from the luck of getting a crapshoot pick are the “preserved” values of both Siakam and Van Vleet. Their performances last night especially being shown on National TV (TNT) is a great marketing tool. They both are still our tradeable assets, pieces for change for the team to get to the next level. Both 28 years olds who will be earning 33 million and 19.6 million respectively with 3 remaining years on their contracts.

[golden]

Pretty good game in LA again last night. Game plan was smart. And it sort of worked. We hung in with them right until the end, and some costly turnovers ended up costing us the game.

The defense was really great. Stanley and Yuta were showing their chops. Nice to have some size in the back court next to Fred. Makes defending the perimeter so much easier. Kawhi didn't look like he wanted to play at all. He had a nice pass to Reggie for that big 3. George hit a big 3 and took that charge. Their stars made differences down the stretch and that was game.

Fred was on fire for most of the game, except his tank sort of emptied in that 4th quarter. The only starter that was a positive. Pascal had a good game, until that 4th quarter when he decided to turn things over again. The half court violation and then the charge. The one thing that this team is terrible at is transition basketball.. I have no idea what happened. It used to be their calling card. Everyone (and it's not just Pascal), but everyone over thinks. They have the ball, going on a fast break on a 2-1 or 3-1 and they have to make a split second decision which ends up being the wrong one. It requires maturity to stop, slow down the game, and figure out how to get a nice clean bucket.

Birch had another efficient game.. almost securing another double double. I thought Gillie was better last night too. He boxed out great, and the use of his left hand was spot on. Flynn was invisible again.. to much pressure playing in LA or something? Could have used some scoring from him. Harris had his shot going, but you could see he was a rookie out there. Hope we can give him heavy minutes down the stretch.

Great night for the tank. New Orleans and Sacramento win. Although that Kings win was dicey. They were up big, and almost still found a way to lose to the Thunder. Thank-you Delon (again)!

I'm like 90% sure that the Raptor player with the ball has been instructed to take it hard to rim on every transition turnover, and only pass the ball as a last resort. You see it time and time again. It's not just Fred with blinders on getting stuffed at the rim and ignoring open teammates. It's also role players like Yuta and Stanley that don't pass. It has to be a team-wide philosophy that encourages aggression as a top priority.

The only player who consistently looks around for another option on the break is Lowry, who has the presence of mind to make plays like this:

Fred rarely does stuff like that.

[G__Deane]

They've done everything they can within the rules to tank. And we're not a sliver out of the playoffs, we're a sliver (ish) out of the play-in ... big difference. Aka, drafting 8th or 9th versus drafting 15th. I look forward to seeing what Masai, Bobby, Dan & co can do with an 8th/9th pick. And when you look at the odds to jump into the top four, it's well worth the effort (or lack there of.)

We were never gonna out-tank these bottom seven teams, they're far too genuinely atrocious for that. I hope that some day we'll feel very lucky that a team this good managed to finish this low. And hopefully we can get right back in the mix next year.

Are you aware that Masai is coming back that no one else is aware of?

[G__Deane]

If we beat both la’s i wudda had hope. The teams been doing well since birch and gill despite depleted roster. I think indiana is the team we cudda caught theyre schedule is fairly tough. But ya its done now.

This whole thing was pretty half assed. Shudda done a real tank if this is what management wanted. Or they shudda got the center help everyone knew they needed a long time ago. Now we’re a sliver out of playoffs with a low lottery. Worst place to be

Masai/Bobby whiffed way back when they released Len and did nothing to support this team by continuing to start Baynes .... funny thing is I don't think they were trying to tank back then but their inactivity turned into .... this

[slaw]

You know full well if he makes that pass this board grills him alive for not taking the shot....

What an annoying loss. Clippers look just wrong. Our full team destroys this team.

That's just Trollosaurus Rex.

No, that's the kind of play that reminds you that Siakam is a guy who hasn't been playing basketball that long. His instincts just haven't been honed over the course of time like other comparable players and so, in the heat of the moment, the combination of instinct and skill isn't quite there. I can sympathize with that more than I can with FVV's mistakes which far too often arise from selfish play.

Having said that, there is probably some aspect of it where Siakam feels like he needs to do more late than he really needs to, which is something that, in my opinion, this coaching staff has exacerbated as a problem.

[Jclaw]

They've had key guys out and won a lot anyway and are just getting everyone back and are a bit out of rhythm. It happens.

But the Raptors are playing great. Man if we had had this team all season.

Raptors fans are the best. "This team" includes a starting three of Stanley, Yuta and Khem. And we still love them. I totally agree.

[G__Deane]

So is it really 2 in a row in LA ..... or another good showing for 2-3Q and then let the tank in through the side gate?
I'm up for a W ....

Tank in through the side gate ....
You have to think some of the more competitive players would be kinda down about the obvious sitting out of healthy players every game. Games that were winnable if firing on all cylinders. On the flipside, management is doing a masterful of rotating key players in and out of the rotation where Nurse has them somehow be competitive most games. I'm sure he understands the tank but gotta annoy Nurse too....

[MixxAOR]