Game TWENTY FIVE: Thunder @ Raptors, Wednesday, December 8th 2021, 7:30 PM EST, SN1

[Rudy Bargnani]

For how long are we going to just send help too much and leave open 3's? I know when it works, its great but we keep getting broken down by it over and over and over and over. It's madness!!

Who am I to question NN but I will. This is what forums are for.

In my view if you have strong defenders on the floor you gotta reign in the over-helping, scrambling, switching D on the closing seconds of a close game. Especially when you are up 2. Stay at home and trust your defence. I remember in the Kawhi year the raps lost to Detroit on Dwayne Casey's first game back on a breakdown in communication because the D was too switch happy. You can run that system all game but in the end stay at home and make the other team beat you and don't get beat by your own mental breakdowns or lapses implementing a complicated system.

Now of course that is why Nurse is an NBA coach and I'm in my basement eating my kids stale halloween candy. You take the good with the bad and Nurse's system has it's benefits but man that is frustrating to watch.

[A.I]

Exactly.
NN doesn't have the personnel to carry out that scheme so why not adjust?

Because he's probably focusing on the long term and trying to get them to play this style better. If they do, it'll be way easier to switch defenses, dial back to a conservative style defense and they'll be good at it, turn it back up mid game and they'll adjust to that.

Nurse loves to switch defenses on the fly, we've seen him do it many times. He really hasn't done that this season.

The team has had moments where they did play well defensively, like the Wizards game. Its just the inconsistency which is the result of the youngest team in the NBA (without Dragic on the roster).

[DanH]

Well, I guess now we know if you punt an entire quarter by running no real offence and play bench guys who should never see the floor, sometimes you lose games against terrible teams.

Nurse seemed to be betting they could turn it on when they needed to, and they did, but you cut it that close and you live and die with luck.

That's a sucky loss. Even shorthanded.

[LJ2]

Could have really used a Lou Will type of guy off the bench in this one.I love Yuta's energy, but he's got to take more than 4 shots if he's the first man up. Bench scoring for the game OKC 29 vs. TOR 14.

We would have won if we were healthy, but I thought we had more than enough to beat one of the worst teams in the league. I recognize maybe 4 of the players from OKC.

[KeonClark]

Could have really used a Lou Will type of guy off the bench in this one.I love Yuta's energy, but he's got to take more than 4 shots if he's the first man up. Bench scoring for the game OKC 29 vs. TOR 14.

We would have won if we were healthy, but I thought we had more than enough to beat one of the worst teams in the league. I recognize maybe 4 of the players from OKC.

Yuta might be the overrated player ever on these boards. We love guys who dive for loose balls.

[planetmars]

Yuck

3rd quarter was an epic disaster. Nobody could make a shot. And everything was rushed when they started to panic. Fred was awful until late.

[golden]

He's right.

So who, exactly, is Fred calling out for being selfish here and chasing stats?

I would imagine he's pointing the finger at GTJ, who is always gambling for steals (and out of position) on defense and is a literal black hole on offense. Gary wasn't the problem last night.

Maybe he's calling out Scottie?

[slaw]

So who, exactly, is Fred calling out for being selfish here and chasing stats?

I would imagine he's pointing the finger at GTJ, who is always gambling for steals (and out of position) on defense and is a literal black hole on offense. Gary wasn't the problem last night.

Maybe he's calling out Scottie?

Not sure but when you go 6/20 and are the PG for the stretch of the night where your team scored 12 points in a quarter, then you probably shouldn't pick that moment to call out your teammates.

[planetmars]

So who, exactly, is Fred calling out for being selfish here and chasing stats?

I would imagine he's pointing the finger at GTJ, who is always gambling for steals (and out of position) on defense and is a literal black hole on offense. Gary wasn't the problem last night.

Maybe he's calling out Scottie?

I read that to mean that he's calling everyone on his team out, including himself.

[KeonClark]

I read that to mean that he's calling everyone on his team out, including himself.

It's a pretty standard quote, speaking on behalf of the team. "Why do we always need a kick in the pants to play better, we need to respect our opponents and not worry about individual numbers". Of course it's Freddy so the sleuths start taking umbrage and figuring out why he's being selfish

[LJ2]

So who, exactly, is Fred calling out for being selfish here and chasing stats?

I would imagine he's pointing the finger at GTJ, who is always gambling for steals (and out of position) on defense and is a literal black hole on offense. Gary wasn't the problem last night.

Maybe he's calling out Scottie?

I thought Boucher did a great job fighting for offensive boards, but would inexplicably try to go up and score with the defense swarming him instead of kicking it out to an open man.

[Primer]

A big bright spot for me in this game was Champagnie. I started cleaning dishes late during the 4th because the game seemed out of hand and then Champagnie got us back in there. We need to get him more playing time with the big boy squad.

[planetmars]

I thought Boucher did a great job fighting for offensive boards, but would inexplicably try to go up and score with the defense swarming him instead of kicking it out to an open man.

I thought Boucher did pretty well. He got subbed out around the 6 minute mark in the 3rd, while still up by 3. And then never saw the floor again. Coach I guess didn't like what he saw.

[KeonClark]

A big bright spot for me in this game was Champagnie. I started cleaning dishes late during the 4th because the game seemed out of hand and then Champagnie got us back in there. We need to get him more playing time with the big boy squad.

He's a beast at collecting rebounds in the dirty areas right underneath the basket. He was that way in college and he was doing it again here. Kid deserves more looks.

[planetmars]

Wish Fred went up just a half second earlier lol. Would have been amazing for Champagnie to make that shot. Would have made the top 10 Raptor buzzer beater lists.