Game 77: Raptors at Magic, Fri Apr 1, 2022, 7:00 PM, SN

[DanH]

Starters:

TOR:
VanVleet
Trent
Anunoby
Barnes
Siakam

ORL:
Anthony
Hampton
Wagner
Okeke
Bamba

Team Ranks:

TOR: 14th ORTG, 10th DRTG, 2nd OREB%, 23rd DREB%

ORL: 29th ORTG, 18th DRTG, 27th OREB%, 9th DREB%

Small starters are terrible but we'll keep going back to that well, I'm sure.

Magic are terribler. Mind you, they've grabbed 3 wins in their last 10, so they aren't totally useless.

Raps are on a 4 game win streak and 8-2 in their last 10, still tied for 5th with the Bulls (who have the tie breaker).

Magic are at least a decent defensive rebounding team so might not be able to count on the board battle to take this one. Hopefully our defence can lock them down entirely and our first-crack offence is plenty enough.

[Jclaw]

Keep the good times rollin’ with the DanH train. Not enough Doug Henning in the post but it’ll do. What a weird Orlando/Miami weekend of games….in Toronto. Maybe the league schedulers thought this would work if we wound up in Tampa…..as some, not so bright, basketball writer has mentioned.

[G__Deane]

Don't take any games for granted.
Get running early and get the starters some rest, the end of the bench some serious garbage time.

[KeonClark]

Just sayin, if DanH runs the table, we win 50.

Teams like Orlando, Detroit and Houston have been respectable down the stretch, playing spoiler in some unexpected upsets.

I also think once we're comfortably safe in 6th, it's time to shut down Freddie and gary and anybody else with a sore body . I couldn't care less if we have 5th or 6th seed honestly, and with the play in week you could squeeze nearly 2 weeks of rest into Freddie.

[RaptorsVictim]

Just sayin, if DanH runs the table, we win 50.

Teams like Orlando, Detroit and Houston have been respectable down the stretch, playing spoiler in some unexpected upsets.

I also think once we're comfortably safe in 6th, it's time to shut down Freddie and gary and anybody else with a sore body . I couldn't care less if we have 5th or 6th seed honestly, and with the play in week you could squeeze nearly 2 weeks of rest into Freddie.

I agree with you but, It would be better if we can avoid Bucks in the first round, because right now, seed 2, 3 , 4 and 5 are all open for every team. I would play for an easy first round and avoiding Bucks in the first round.

[The Great One]

Classic trap game. Everybody is probably looking forward to the Kyle Lowry return game sunday night.

[chris]

Classic trap game. Everybody is probably looking forward to the Kyle Lowry return game sunday night.

i might be worried about this in most normal circumstances except orlando is actively trying to lose games.

like they were in danger of winning against the cavs the other night, so to bag the loss they went with a lineup of jeff dowtin, okeke, admiral schofield, wagner (morris, not franz), and iggy brazdiekis. (https://www.basketball-reference.com...203280CLE.html)

tanking doesn't get any more blatant than that. well, except for that blazers thunder game the other night

[Da Cool Rula]

Classic trap game. Everybody is probably looking forward to the Kyle Lowry return game sunday night.

This

[Da Cool Rula]

To the RR champ DanH
keep doin"

[Da Cool Rula]

Scottie Barnes defending Jimmy Butler?
could get ugly

[KeonClark]

i might be worried about this in most normal circumstances except orlando is actively trying to lose games.

like they were in danger of winning against the cavs the other night, so to bag the loss they went with a lineup of jeff dowtin, okeke, admiral schofield, wagner (morris, not franz), and iggy brazdiekis. (https://www.basketball-reference.com...203280CLE.html)

tanking doesn't get any more blatant than that. well, except for that blazers thunder game the other night

There's way too many awful teams mailing it in right now. There wasn't a ton of blatant tanking this year, but the product is trash limping down the finish line. Trail Blazers are playing historically awful right now, like G League bad. The Thunder is another team that sent all their players home for the last few weeks.

Rebuilding/tanking with youth etc is one thing, but actively sending home the healthy guys that are being paid on your roster, even the young developing ones, is disingenuous to the paying customer.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Don't take any games for granted.
Get running early and get the starters some rest, the end of the bench some serious garbage time.

based on the magic's cleveland game they will do everything they can to try to lose this game

[The Claw Reborn]

Raptors have a 2 game cushion in avoiding a play-in.

They also are 2.5 games behind to gain first round Home Court Advantage.
If either the Sixers or Boston collapsed miserably in their remaining games, that would be awesome.

The dream scenario is getting the 4th spot and the Bulls dropping to 5th and either Boston or Sixers nosedived and slotted at 6.
There is a chance as well that we take the 5th spot and for some miraculous reason, Bulls found a way to take the 4th spot while Sixers or Celtics to drop to 6.

Otherwise, 5th or 6th spot will not matter anymore. It will be a tough grind in the first round outside of the Bulls match up. Without HCA and playing any of the top 4 (Heat/ Bucks/ Sixers or Celtics) will be grueling. Little room for error and health is important.

[planetmars]

Raptors have a 2 game cushion in avoiding a play-in.

They also are 2.5 games behind to gain first round Home Court Advantage.
If either the Sixers or Boston collapsed miserably in their remaining games, that would be awesome.

The dream scenario is getting the 4th spot and the Bulls dropping to 5th and either Boston or Sixers nosedived and slotted at 6.
There is a chance as well that we take the 5th spot and for some miraculous reason, Bulls found a way to take the 4th spot while Sixers or Celtics to drop to 6.

Otherwise, 5th or 6th spot will not matter anymore. It will be a tough grind in the first round outside of the Bulls match up. Without HCA and playing any of the top 4 (Heat/ Bucks/ Sixers or Celtics) will be grueling. Little room for error and health is important.

Magic Number to clinch 6th seed is 5. So any combination of wins and losses between Raps and Cavs totaling 5 will ensure we stay clear away from the play-in.

This should be doable. If the Cavs lose to the Hawks tonight it goes down to 4. If we beat the Magic tomorrow it goes down to 3.


There is a chance we can catch 4th seed.. but if we do it will be Boston we take over. They have the 7th hardest schedule remaining:
https://tankathon.com/remaining_schedule_strength

Philly has the easiest schedule (30th). Bucks are 10th. Miami is 20th.

[chris]

There's way too many awful teams mailing it in right now. There wasn't a ton of blatant tanking this year, but the product is trash limping down the finish line. Trail Blazers are playing historically awful right now, like G League bad. The Thunder is another team that sent all their players home for the last few weeks.

Rebuilding/tanking with youth etc is one thing, but actively sending home the healthy guys that are being paid on your roster, even the young developing ones, is disingenuous to the paying customer.

yeah it's worse than ever. evidently reforming the lottery odds and adding the play-in tournament have not had the desired effect. i'm good with the former (it netted us scottie!) but at some point a pretty good team is going to miss the playoffs entirely for a really bad one and everyone's gonna look around and ask why the hell there's a play-in tournament