Everything Round 1: Toronto Raptors vs Milwaukee Bucks

[S.R.]

Carroll was pretty terrible. If 9 pts and sub standard defense is the new benchmark...yikes

Blown coverages on Giannis, there's a difference between "We want him to take long jump shots" and "Let's leave him completely wide open for long jump shots." He drilled those open shots and was in rhythm for a while. Carroll basically got on a streak for a few shots in 3rd quarter and that was it.

Giannis got nothing easy against Tucker or Patterson. Patterson is the underrated Giannis defender imho, it's not as visible as Tucker's superactive defence but he keeps him well away from the basket and doesn't give him anything easy. Patterson and Tucker can also both hit open 3's as well as or better than Carroll.

Instead of the default tight playoff rotation, I'd actually like to see Delon + Poeltl continue to get minutes along with CoJo, Patterson, and Tucker off the bench. They contribute, they both match-up well as guys with great mobility and length, and the Raptors just feel like they're in a better rhythm using all these guys than when they tighten the rotation. Several of the starters took turns looking underwhelming at times, often bc they were gassed and blew coverages or started making bad decisions, I think. Keep them fresh, keep the energy high, keep coming at the Bucks in waves. The Raptors overall have too much talent for the Bucks, take advantage of that.

[KeonClark]

[S.R.]

Kenny was also saying a month ago that the Celtics were clearly one of the 2 best teams in the East lol

Kenny is a knucklehead.

There are a few national guys who actually pay attention and their commentary is insightful and a bunch who clearly don't watch most teams (not just the Raps) carefully at all. Kenny is one of those guys not watching carefully, his opinions usually reflect that.

[psrs1]

Keep it going Abbas.

[KeonClark]

I think it's good we won ugly. The coaching staff won't be satisfied and adjustments will be made. Carroll is on verrrry thin ice, only a matter of time until that ice breaks and he falls right through the rotation. Give wright his minutes, and give them to him yesterday.

[S.R.]

Bucks are being really physical for a team full of lanky skinny guys, it's been rattling and distracting the Raptors in equal parts - I've never seen them look this intimidated to try to finish shots near the rim or look so soft trying to finish shots near the rim (a bit of contact leads to a bad miss). Focus, play through that shit, and give it right back. Mostly you should be able to take advantage of an overactive defence. Draw clear fouls, move the ball, find open shots. And for ffs the guards need to keep their dribble driving into the trees in the key instead of jumping without knowing what to do.

Just wrote this in game 2 but I'd actually like to see Casey use a 10 man rotation, keep the players fresh and the energy high, come at the Bucks in waves, the bench guys actually match up very well in this series and have given very good minutes. Lowry looks gassed at times (he's only been back a handful of games after several weeks off) and we know Ibaka's got one bad ankle, really showed it in the first half, came back in the second half, but Poeltl can give you good non-JV minutes, too.

Game 2 was a good step forward, just continue to calm down, pick them apart, and play your game.

[Ebonhawke]

http://www.celticsblog.com/2017/4/18...2-nba-playoffs

[golden]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

[JimmyGetsBucketss]

Can the raptors waive carroll in the off season?

[tDotted]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

JV was going at Thon a little bit in the first quarter

[KeonClark]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

Honest answer? This is jvs 5th season and we've never used him when we had a matchup advantage. He is used the exact same way every single game, a few early touches, and then his only points come from offensive rebounds or the odd dump off on a demar drive

[Ebonhawke]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

Raptors seem to frequently (even in the regular season) start out the first couple of offensive sets with feeds to JV in the low post (usually left side). After a couple of touches in the post/paint, JV then becomes relegated to providing screens for the rest of the first quarter

[iblastoff]

bucks are the slight vegas favourites to win this one.

[JimmyGetsBucketss]

bucks are the slight vegas favourites to win this one.

Bet on the raptor's if you want to make some money

[CNinja26]

So according to Kenny we are less talented than Bucks. Well damn i guess we overrate Raps hard

These commentators make statements like Donald Trump makes policies. The Bucks put together a good stretch and suddenly they're more talented than the Raptors? Please. They do have the most talented player in Giannis, but the Raptors clearly have the better players.

If I had to rank talent, it would be: 1. Giannis, 2. Demar, 3. Kyle, 4. Serge, 5. Kris Middleton, 6. JV....and so on.