The optimistic take is that executing night in and night out is what separates good players and teams from average players and teams in the NBA. Even Terrence Ross can have a 50 point night making it rain from 3, but he's no Steph Curry.
The Raps this year have sustained a higher level of play for longer than in either of the past two seasons, so there's that. Hopefully it's a mid-season lull (was the T.O. All-Star game too much of a distraction?). For them to play as a team like they were, play smart basketball like they were, and execute far more consistently like they were, as was mentioned in a previous post that just takes a lot of effort and attention to detail. It's really hard to do for 82 games. This team is still moving in the right direction overall, even if they haven't fully arrived as a top 5 team in the league for the full 82. And is that really a surprise? Heading into this year how many expected them to be one of the top teams in the league for the full season, mentioned as a potential 4th round team on ESPN in February? I didn't expect that. Maybe some regression to the mean, but a second round playoff appearance is still a success, a conference finals appearance a great success.
Just gotta be trending in the right direction by the time the playoffs come around. Gotta be executing defensively as an entire team.
The Raps this year have sustained a higher level of play for longer than in either of the past two seasons, so there's that. Hopefully it's a mid-season lull (was the T.O. All-Star game too much of a distraction?). For them to play as a team like they were, play smart basketball like they were, and execute far more consistently like they were, as was mentioned in a previous post that just takes a lot of effort and attention to detail. It's really hard to do for 82 games. This team is still moving in the right direction overall, even if they haven't fully arrived as a top 5 team in the league for the full 82. And is that really a surprise? Heading into this year how many expected them to be one of the top teams in the league for the full season, mentioned as a potential 4th round team on ESPN in February? I didn't expect that. Maybe some regression to the mean, but a second round playoff appearance is still a success, a conference finals appearance a great success.
Just gotta be trending in the right direction by the time the playoffs come around. Gotta be executing defensively as an entire team.
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