Game 46: Running With The Bulls, Raptors @ El Toro. Wednesday, Jan 26, 8 PM EST, SNET

[LJ2]

Another big game by Trent, kept us afloat throughout, 60% from 3. We gave it away with poor FT shooting and poor late game execution. We're 24th in the league in FT% now.

Those are things you have to live with when you're trotting out the youngest roster in the league. Thankfully, these are all things which can be fixed through reps and not an issue of limitations. We're in most games, so I'm chalking these losses up to mostly inexperience and not due to a lack of talent.

[DanH]

This thread is 4-5 hours too early. lol.

Yep this is why we lost. Dang it.

I thought that was a decent effort overall! We obviously miss Fred hugely and we battled back after our offence fell apart too many times to keep up with their offence (the Bulls' offence is very, very good when they are hitting their jumpers). Made it close and fun at the end.

Bulls don't seem super scary for the playoffs, but they were without their two best defensive players, so that probably balances out Fred not being there.

Liked the bench guys making contributions again. Overall feeling pretty happy with the team of late.

[DanH]

If you wanted to get mad at anyone it's Gary for picking up a second tech right when we needed his shooting for crunch time. But also he was great this game and the last few so can't be too mad at him!

[planetmars]

Again started off really poorly, but battled back quickly. The second quarter Bulls run, before half time was tough to watch. Our offense sputtered and the Bulls got a lot of easy transition points to just bury us. I'm glad we fought hard again in the second half, despite playing on the second game of a back to back and temporarily even taking the lead with an OG dunk. But the last 3-4 minutes were again rough. Especially once Trent got his second technical. Tony Brothers needs to retire like today. Was Trent mouthing off or just claiming he got fouled?

I hate moral wins.. and we've had so many.. but it's also a reason why we are hovering around .500. Just not good enough.

Dalano was great. He brought the right kind of energy. His 3pt alley-oop pass/make was just hilarious. I had to rewind and watch that a few times. But he was a +16 in 24 minutes. I'm glad he broke through that rookie wall as we need his playmaking. I just hate the little tiny mistakes he makes.. like fouling at the worst times. Or going out of bounds. He's got an ugly shot, and his free throw misses were costly.. but the entire team was a disaster at the line. He's just a rookie.. gotta remember that.

Surprised to not see Champagnie in the game. Yeah he got ejected the night before.. is him not playing a punishment? Could have used some of his defense and energy as well last night.

Pascal seemed passive with the ball.. But he had 12 attempts and 9 free throws.. so was more aggressive than I thought. He just had a really terrible time trying to get a bucket then. I know the Bulls double teamed him a lot.. but he was also working with a lot of mismatches as the Bulls don't have a lot of length (minus Vucevic who's a slow defender). He should have been much better.

Trent was on fire again.. hope that continues. I loved Boucher's block on DeMar.. but he also did some really stupid things.. like fouling when they had 6 seconds on the shot clock. And then fouling again helping the Bulls get into the bonus a lot sooner than they should have in the 4th. He again fired a 3pt shot in the clutch that missed. He wants to be a hero, but it almost never works.

Was really hoping for a win.. we needed another signature win after that Bucks win. Maybe we'll get Miami on Saturday. Hope Kyle shows up for that one.

[The Great One]

Even though it was a loss, that's a pretty impressive performance on a B2B on the road. Team got stronger in the second half, when they should have been fading fast. Bulls were not going to let Pascal beat them, so that was a lot of respect to PascAll-NBA. Rest of the team stepped up, including the bench, and they almost won it. Ball movement was nice for the second game in a row (hope that level of trust continues when Fred gets back). The only quibbles should be missing the FTs and maybe not bringing the defensive intensity for more than one quarter and a half.

Not really. All Raptors games are the same. They're gonna come out flat then they'll it on in the 2nd half.

[DanH]

Not really. All Raptors games are the same. They're gonna come out flat then they'll it on in the 2nd half.

Raptors net rating by quarter:

1Q: +0.6
2Q: -3.3
3Q: +6.3
4Q: -0.6

You are right about them turning it on after halftime, though they peter out in the 4th a bit (4th and 2nd numbers being lower makes sense, that's where they've tried to cobble together bench units that have mostly not worked). But they don't start slow on average - so it's not every night. They play exactly to their overall net rating (+0.6) in the 1st Q. They just fall apart in the 2nd usually.

[Primer]

Raptors net rating by quarter:

1Q: +0.6
2Q: -3.3
3Q: +6.3
4Q: -0.6

You are right about them turning it on after halftime, though they peter out in the 4th a bit (4th and 2nd numbers being lower makes sense, that's where they've tried to cobble together bench units that have mostly not worked). But they don't start slow on average - so it's not every night. They play exactly to their overall net rating (+0.6) in the 1st Q. They just fall apart in the 2nd usually.

This jives with my eye test. We always start to play like shit when the bench comes in.

[TrueTorontoFan]

This jives with my eye test. We always start to play like shit when the bench comes in.

this has occurred ever since we stopped playing the bench as much. Before the 3rd quartered tended to be where we lost games.

[DanH]

this has occurred ever since we stopped playing the bench as much. Before the 3rd quartered tended to be where we lost games.

Hmm. Using Dec 8th as the break point (using Banton's minutes as a proxy, he played consistently 12+ MPG before then and then fell off a cliff after until eventually he was getting DNPs), up until then the Q splits are:

1Q: 0.0
2Q: +0.4
3Q: +0.2
4Q: -1.5

Not as clear a pattern as the full season, but I wouldn't say we generally lost the 3rd Q either.

[The Great One]

Raptors net rating by quarter:

1Q: +0.6
2Q: -3.3
3Q: +6.3
4Q: -0.6

You are right about them turning it on after halftime, though they peter out in the 4th a bit (4th and 2nd numbers being lower makes sense, that's where they've tried to cobble together bench units that have mostly not worked). But they don't start slow on average - so it's not every night. They play exactly to their overall net rating (+0.6) in the 1st Q. They just fall apart in the 2nd usually.

Yes. This jives with my eye test as well.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Hmm. Using Dec 8th as the break point (using Banton's minutes as a proxy, he played consistently 12+ MPG before then and then fell off a cliff after until eventually he was getting DNPs), up until then the Q splits are:

1Q: 0.0
2Q: +0.4
3Q: +0.2
4Q: -1.5

Not as clear a pattern as the full season, but I wouldn't say we generally lost the 3rd Q either.

So it was typically the 3rd quarter and early into the 4th because nick used to bring Barnes back a bit late.