Game #5 - Toronto Raptors 103 - Oklahoma City Thunder 98

[thead]

The team is +23 points per 100 possessions when Jonas is on the court.

well thats great and all...there needs to be a sample size alert attached to that

I think all sample size alerts should be font size five and purple. :P

[CalgaryRapsFan]

well thats great and all...there needs to be a sample size alert attached to that

I think all sample size alerts should be font size five and purple. :P

Until I realized which post you were replying to, I thought you were arguing why Joey should make the next game thread instead of magoon lol

[white men can't jump]

We'll need a poll to determine if we won because of magoon's foresight, or your timely thread adjustments.

Going back to some of magoon's talking points in the first post. I'm pretty sure we won as karma for Steven Adams' moustache.

vs.

PROJECTED STARTERS:

OUR HEROES vs. THE BAD PEOPLE

LAST MEETING: MARCH 8, 2015
It was in Oklahoma! Kyle Lowry shot a guy because he was mad but nobody said anything because they didn't want to make him madder and besides in Oklahoma you can just shoot people whenever! Jonas played a season-high thirty-seven seconds, during which time he scored 31 points and 27 rebounds! And then Russell Westbrook scored six million points so it didn't matter anyway.

TALKING POINTS

- The Thunder are stinky

- Seriously Russell Westbrook smells like he's been in a tire fire

- Steven Adams' moustache is a crime against humanity

- Is THIS the game where Bruno gets twenty-five minutes' worth of burn? Is THIS it?

- Is Serge Ibaka pronounced with a hard G or a soft G or what

- What if, like, all the basketballs were SQUARE, man? What would the game be like THEN

- Something something it doesn't matter because Golden State's gonna win all the games anyway something

- DION WAITERS WATCH: will Dion Waiters Dion Waiters this game?

[golden]

Better defensive system for JV + Improved player + More confident player = Coaches trust him --> Playing in crunch time.

It's like 90% system.

You can see opposing guards are now pulling up or reversing in the lane because they know JV is lurking back there. Last season, JV would be in a in foot-race with them from the top of the key after the PnR. Basically, we're daring them to stick the low percentage mid-range, ala Thibs defense.

Combine that with ICE'ing the PnR (Thibs, again) and we've got a lot less action happening in the lane, so JV can focus on protecting the rim, which he is good at.

We could even send out a scrambling unit from time-to-time to confuse the opposition, but it's great to see that system moth-balled as a primary defense.

[Nilanka]

It's like 90% system.

You can see opposing guards are now pulling up or reversing in the lane because they know JV is lurking back there. Last season, JV would be in a in foot-race with them from the top of the key after the PnR. Basically, we're daring them to stick the low percentage mid-range, ala Thibs defense.

Combine that with ICE'ing the PnR (Thibs, again) and we've got a lot less action happening in the lane, so JV can focus on protecting the rim, which he is good at.

We could even send out a scrambling unit from time-to-time to confuse the opposition, but it's great to see that system moth-balled as a primary defense.

Speaking of confusing the opposition, wonder if Casey plans to deploy the zone in stretches again. We saw it frequently 2 years ago (top 10 defense), but not so much last year.

[yabadabayolo]

Game #5 - Toronto Raptors 103 - Oklahoma City Thunder 98

Roberson was fouling unnecessarily and OKC needed to get some offense going. Also, Waiters had that one good defensive moment against DeMar earlier by staying on his feet while DD pump faked. Still a bad decision, but I appreciate the help Billy.

Then why not durant. Waiters is literally the worst defender and he's so small. Put those two traits together, and demar begins to look like Kobe

Reminds me of when Casey put gv on tyreke on the final possession last year

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[raptors999]

Speaking of confusing the opposition, wonder if Casey plans to deploy the zone in stretches again. We saw it frequently 2 years ago (top 10 defense), but not so much last year.

If he was smart he would maybe against Atlanta for a few possessions. Toronto has good quick defenders so there might not be a need. Last year with GV and injured Amir, Ross it made more sense

[LJ2]

I just DO NOT GET Casey - this whole issue of JV not being able to close out the games. Bullshit, JV was on the court to finish games in Eurobasket all the way to loosing in the finals. JV has plenty of experience on big time stages - get that into your game plan, Casey!!

Was he closing out games in Eurobasket prior to this summer? I seem to recall he was getting the same treatment in Europe as he was in the NBA.

Could be both coaches saw he needed to be brought along slowly or that he needed more experience, but he's got the trust from everyone right now. And at the end of the day it kind of worked out didn't it? I mean if he was putting up these numbers last season how much more would we have had to pay him?

[raptors999]

It's like 90% system.

You can see opposing guards are now pulling up or reversing in the lane because they know JV is lurking back there. Last season, JV would be in a in foot-race with them from the top of the key after the PnR. Basically, we're daring them to stick the low percentage mid-range, ala Thibs defense.

Combine that with ICE'ing the PnR (Thibs, again) and we've got a lot less action happening in the lane, so JV can focus on protecting the rim, which he is good at.

We could even send out a scrambling unit from time-to-time to confuse the opposition, but it's great to see that system moth-balled as a primary defense.

Everybody being able to describe the defense without just outlining the flaws shows how mich better it is but cant say the same about the offence. Its still guards Demar going in trying to get fouled late or trying to get JV or Scola the ball somehow early.

[Cody73]

Can we all just be happy we beat a great team?

[mcHAPPY]

Can we all just be happy we beat a great team?

Be happy? Here?

Surely you jest.

[raptors999]

Can we all just be happy we beat a great team?

OKC and Bulls might not be as good as everyone thought or at least in disarray. After 10 games its easier to say which teams are elite and which arent. Both teams are struggling defensively. Not lottery bad but not Top 1 or 2

[slaw]

It's like 90% system.

You can see opposing guards are now pulling up or reversing in the lane because they know JV is lurking back there. Last season, JV would be in a in foot-race with them from the top of the key after the PnR. Basically, we're daring them to stick the low percentage mid-range, ala Thibs defense.

Combine that with ICE'ing the PnR (Thibs, again) and we've got a lot less action happening in the lane, so JV can focus on protecting the rim, which he is good at.

We could even send out a scrambling unit from time-to-time to confuse the opposition, but it's great to see that system moth-balled as a primary defense.

Maybe. Through the first four games opponents were shooting the lights out against him in terms of DFGM%. The OKC game was the only game he posted a negative number. That's not the end-all/be-all number but it is concerning in the early going.

The biggest shift defensively is that the perimeter people are forcing the offense to the wings whenever possible. Some of that is scheme but they also have Carroll, Lowry, Derozan and Joseph doing the work instead of Vasquez, Williams and Ross. That helps.

[Chr1s1anL]

https://youtu.be/3SL9cgwZD2I

[Demographic Shift]

To win this game... We need the only guy who can take KD out of the game... and that guy is Russell Westbrook...

I wrote this while I was hoping we could possibly continue to stay in this one and not get blown out and how we could possibly hold Durant in check as he was killing it early in the game... Turns out we didn't get blown out but came back to win this one late.

So I checked the stats to see what Durant did down the stretch in crunch time. KD had exactly one made basket for the entire 4th on two attempts. TWO ! He had 3 pts at the line but two were from tech fouls levied against Bismack and Kyle.
Westbrook did effectively take one of the two best players in the game out of the game and gave us a chance to win it which we did.

EDIT>>>Russell took 8 shots down the stretch. He made 1... and the Republic rags on Demar. Tks Russ !