Game 80: Sixers at Raptors; April 7th, 7:30 on SN1

[The Claw Reborn]

Not trying to go all "Claw Reborn" here, but it's clear that this team runs smoother when it is not FVV-centric. A Pascal-centric team unlocks the other players strengths so much better, even though he's still evolving as a playmaker / point-forward. And in the future, it could be Pascal & Scottie as double dragons, if/when Scottie can achieve some consistency on his jump shot and reduce the turnovers.

thanks for the shoutout, but….

There is time for the Claw Reborn to once again reborned after the outcome of the playoffs. Not right now

[G__Deane]

I don't think they will but I'd like to see Nick cut his minutes down both to keep him fresh and also matchups on those games where he's getting burned or the shots aren't dropping.

It's a good problem to have but I would at least keep an open mind to listening to trade offers. That particular talk can shut down until after the season but it's sorefreshing when you think back to the constant Pascal Fred iso ball not too long ago.

[The Claw Reborn]

13 minutes in the playoffs is an eternity.....thats why the raptors wouldve had no chance without the thaddeus young addition....

i was also thinking about this last night, great that you pointed this out gambler.

Key to a DNP-CD of Birch is the health of OG, the performance of Precious/ Boucher but most especially Thad

[planetmars]

The only benefit is Memphis has nothing to play for, I don't know why they would take to risk of suiting their top guys up for this one. I believe Boston has the tie breaker over Phili as well.

If Philly goes 1-1 and Boston 0-1 then Boston keeps the 3rd seed. I don't think Philly splits them. They are playing Indiana and Detroit. Does Ben Uzoh still play for Casey?

[G__Deane]

Was a great game, pretty quiet crowd especially in the 1Q when they were (as usual) down 15 so early and it looked like it might be a blowout. But the place was absolutely on fire in the second half and went insane on Barnes monster dunk that was unbelievably whistled down. As usual, there were some outrageously bad calls.

Pascal another triple double, GTJr was great, Scotty quietly excellent. Embiid put up the quietest 30 I've ever seen but Pascal was even better, just flipping it over him with deadly accuracy from 10 ft out and Joel was helpless on D, no blocks to be had. And where the hell has that version of Danny Green been for the last year? Take the dude's ring back, cool to be there to see him given that live.

Just a fun game to be at, the whole place was standing the last few minutes. Playoff atmosphere ....

Forgot to add that The Beard looks really really slow. Like he was either toying with the young guys at times or almost disinterested.
He passed up an easy half dozen shots from 10 foot in in the 1Q and would not initiate contact; still finished 13/4/15

[Kagemusha]

Fred does not need to be on the floor 40+ minutes confirmed....

Fred does not have to the PG, but a SG.
confirmed.

[DanH]

Give it a rest already, everybody else with Birch are not fine

What is fine is for you to admit you are wrong all along about Birch. Humility sometimes has some benefits Mr. Hackett

I was just commenting on the team success with those combinations.

The Raptors played 4.5 minutes with the insane starting lineup out there (against Embiid, of course). They lost those 4.5 minutes by 13 points.

Birch lined up against Embiid for 8 minutes not in that insane starting lineup. The team broke even in those minutes.

Precious lined up against Embiid for 25 minutes not in that insane starting lineup. The team was +5 in those minutes.

Both of those outcomes are perfectly fine. Precious is definitely the guy I want hard-matched to Embiid, but the Birch minutes outside of the nonsensical two-C lineup were also not a problem at all, no matter what you think of his individual performance, which was my point. If Nick just wouldn't shoot himself in the foot with that lineup, we'd be fine even if he was to not do the ideal thing and hard match Precious to Embiid's minutes.

The game was largely won because of the bench crushing the 76ers while Embiid sat, of course (+13 in 11 minutes). That saved us from our decision to punt the opening minutes.

Birch is, as he always has been, a perfectly fine plug in C to eat some minutes. That's all we signed him to be and all we need him to be. Against the 76ers I'd hope he would be doing so off the bench (if we need those minutes at all with our small looks available to us) but this game showed (along with, like, the rest of the season) that he's not going to cave in your chances unless you are incredibly dumb about who else is out there with him.

[DanH]

Who is Thad best paired with in your opinion.I have my own thoughts.

He fits with basically any lineup, actually. So long as he's not lining up beside both nominal Cs.

There are some promising early signs that if we did move to start Precious (which we should), Birch and Boucher and Thad seem to work OK together. Certainly Precious and Boucher and Thad work fine, bigger sample but break even results. I'd be hesitant to play Thad and Boucher as the two bigs, neither are really centers, and I'd prefer to save our small looks to being a way to get our top 5 on the floor together.

The pairings that really seem to work with the bench (assuming the bench is Birch or Precious, plus Boucher and Thad) and that I'd like to see are Pascal and Gary together with those guys, and then Fred and OG together with those guys. And then Barnes in for one of the three bigs (Thad or the C) with Fred and OG.

[Jclaw]

That play when Pascal drove to the bucked against Harris in the 4th (towards end of the game), spun, missed the shot, got his own rebound and went up to score with the and one....did anyone see the look on Scottie's face when he went to hype Siakam?! That dude has come crazy intensity in him LOL. He literally looked like he would murder anyone that messes with Siakam.

this one?

[golden]

lol. Sixers fans are shitting bricks.

[The Claw Reborn]

I was just commenting on the team success with those combinations.

The Raptors played 4.5 minutes with the insane starting lineup out there (against Embiid, of course). They lost those 4.5 minutes by 13 points.

Birch lined up against Embiid for 8 minutes not in that insane starting lineup. The team broke even in those minutes.

Precious lined up against Embiid for 25 minutes not in that insane starting lineup. The team was +5 in those minutes.

Both of those outcomes are perfectly fine. Precious is definitely the guy I want hard-matched to Embiid, but the Birch minutes outside of the nonsensical two-C lineup were also not a problem at all, no matter what you think of his individual performance, which was my point. If Nick just wouldn't shoot himself in the foot with that lineup, we'd be fine even if he was to not do the ideal thing and hard match Precious to Embiid's minutes.

The game was largely won because of the bench crushing the 76ers while Embiid sat, of course (+13 in 11 minutes). That saved us from our decision to punt the opening minutes.

Birch is, as he always has been, a perfectly fine plug in C to eat some minutes. That's all we signed him to be and all we need him to be. Against the 76ers I'd hope he would be doing so off the bench (if we need those minutes at all with our small looks available to us) but this game showed (along with, like, the rest of the season) that he's not going to cave in your chances unless you are incredibly dumb about who else is out there with him.

ha?

                                                                      
                               Posi Posi Posi Posi Posi     +/-    +/-
Rk                      G   MP  PG%  SG%  SF%  PF%   C% OnCourt On-Off
1       Scottie Barnes 72      2562   1%  38%  54%   7%    +1.6   -2.3
2        Pascal Siakam 67           2538   1%  62%  37%    +4.4   +5.8
3        Fred VanVleet 65 2462  97%                  3%    +3.8   +3.9
4       Gary Trent Jr. 68 2379  21%  79%             1%    +3.3   +2.5
5           OG Anunoby 47 1703   6%  31%  56%        7%    +4.3   +3.5
6     Precious Achiuwa 71                1686   2%  98%    +3.2   +1.6
7        Chris Boucher 78 1638   1%  23%  46%  26%   4%    +6.4   +6.9
8           Khem Birch 53                      945 100%    -0.7   -4.0
9       Svi Mykhailiuk 55  708  12%  51%  34%        3%    -6.0  -10.3
10       Dalano Banton 64  696   8%  36%  46%        9%    +2.0   -0.4
11       Malachi Flynn 42  498                     100%    -0.1   -2.8
12      Thaddeus Young 24       430  19%  59%  21%   1%    +2.5   +0.1
13       Yuta Watanabe 36       422   8%  54%  34%   5%    -4.5   -7.8
14   Justin Champagnie 35  274  19%  59%            23%    +9.9   +8.1
15       Armoni Brooks 11  121  74%                 26%    -2.4   -4.9

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/8/2022.

[inthepaint]

13 minutes in the playoffs is an eternity.....thats why the raptors wouldve had no chance without the thaddeus young addition....

Oh for sure, 1 minute for Birch is too many, he's there as a last resort injury plug, ideal is the dnp. He can be somewhat serviceable but if we're finding ourselves needing him for too many minutes we're not winning.

[KeonClark]

Forgot to add that The Beard looks really really slow. Like he was either toying with the young guys at times or almost disinterested.
He passed up an easy half dozen shots from 10 foot in in the 1Q and would not initiate contact; still finished 13/4/15

I think the beard is slowly declining. He's still an all star caliber player but nowhere near mvp talks any longer. He's a half step slower which means he can't finish at the rim as effectively and he can't get open for jumpers as effectively.

[LJ2]

this one?

LOL, that is the one. I can only imagine what Scottie would be like on a team that doesn't have the conservative personalities the Raps do. Either ways, I will be referring to Siakam as Scottie's favorite player from now on because he is clearly serious about how much he likes Siakam....like borderline murderous.

[KeonClark]

LOL, that is the one. I can only imagine what Scottie would be like on a team that doesn't have the conservative personalities the Raps do. Either ways, I will be referring to Siakam as Scottie's favorite player from now on because he is clearly serious about how much he likes Siakam....like borderline murderous.

If that's regular season scottie, wait till playoff scottie with playoff Scotia.. this will be fun