Game #3: Toronto Raptors 97 - San Antonio Spurs 101

[Demographic Shift]

Parker makes them worse.. he takes the ball away from Giannis. They should really consider trading Parker for a better PG.

Like Bledsoe....

[Demographic Shift]

That's why I keep saying this is JV's last year. It's the Ross/Norm scenario all over again. Than you add the fact that Norm extension kids in next year and MLSE doesn't want to pay tax.

It’s certainly a possibility..but between now and if that possibility comes to be.....they better find someone who can rebound...not going to win to many when your pulling down 20 less boards than the other team....SA got something close to 20 Orebs...

Coulda used the big fella last night..

[Puffer]

I think part of the reason the organization is fine with this loss - and they should be, because up until the last three or four minutes it was excellent play, even being outrebounded and shooting for shit - is because they're not really playing for wins at this point in the season. They're playing to get everybody comfortable with more complex passing and to get everybody more time to get comfortable and skilled shooting from three, and getting everybody up to speed on defense. That's all they want this early in the season: for the team to learn how they want to win games and get used to winning games that way. And they're already ahead of schedule on the passing and the defense.

I must admit I'm a little disappointed Wright hasn't come out with a better three point shot. He and Norm need to be practicing the three every day. Even a slight improvement from both of them would pay huge dividends by the end of the season. There are guys in my old timers league that shoot better than 50%. I'm not equating us old farts with NBA players, but it would seem to be a learnable skill. It must be a confidence thing. In which case, I am glad to see they have decided to keep encouraging the players to take good open shots when they are there.

[S.R.]

The offence is coming along. Toronto's shooting .327 as a team from deep so far and are top 10 in attempts, both good signs.

Pops is his own genius. The Spurs are dead last in 3PA AND 3P% and are 3-0. They were already moving away from the 3 last season (shot it less than the Raptors) and are doubling down on LMA now. They do put heavy emphasis on denying and defending opposing 3's, always near the top in those categories.

It looks like this team will get killed on the glass any night without JV and they're still going to need Lowry to be their best player to beat good teams.

[Nilanka]

I must admit I'm a little disappointed Wright hasn't come out with a better three point shot. He and Norm need to be practicing the three every day. Even a slight improvement from both of them would pay huge dividends by the end of the season. There are guys in my old timers league that shoot better than 50%. I'm not equating us old farts with NBA players, but it would seem to be a learnable skill. It must be a confidence thing. In which case, I am glad to see they have decided to keep encouraging the players to take good open shots when they are there.

Felt like every one of Wright's attempts went halfway in and rimmed out. Tough shooting night for everyone.

[S.R.]

Let's start the GS game thread, I'm ready to move on.

[KeonClark]

Rotation problems popped up last night for casey. Bebe shouldn't have seen the floor in the 4th. Ride ibaka and Poeltl, even with ibakas foul trouble put him in while Poeltl catches wind. It cost us huge. Also not sure why we weren't using miles late, the only shooter we have. Would have been nice to have this one before the near guaranteed loss on Wednesday and fall back to .500 now. Oh well, gotta move on, it's still October.

[G__Deane]

The question of why Miles wasn't on the floor when we needed a late 3 is legit. JV would have had 15 rebounds last night and we win going away....the rest is a red herring

[slaw]

First loss and all the trolls are out in force I see. Some posters are now parodies of themselves.

This game reminded me of the Spurs/Wolves game last week where Minny looked fine until the last few minutes when the Spurs defense took over the game. Raps had their chances to build a lead throughout the second and third quarters and couldn't get it done. Can't get outrebounded like that and expect to win unless you are on fire offensively and Toronto was definitely not on fire.
This was a game where they needed Lowry to take over late and he looked discombobulated out there.

But the defense was solid (other than the rebounding) and they were right there in the last 5 minutes, so it's fine for game three. Good early test.

[DogeLover1234]

Raps got a lot of easy points off turnovers, and needed them. The most disappointing part of the loss was the weak effort from some of the vets, Lowry in particular. Was expecting him to come out hard after he said he was interested in going to San Antonio and they never gave him a call.

[iblastoff]

the spurs are something like 17-4 when playing *without* kawhi. thats still insane. we got close. ahh well.

[white men can't jump]

So hopefully last night also shows why Ibaka is not a C. Not a great rebounder. Reactionary when things get physical. Seriously he has a history of being kind of an instigator when he gets hit a lot, which would happen more at C so how many techs and fouls would he rack up?

Generally Ibaka has been pretty disappointing to start the year.

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[planetmars]

Defensively I thought Ibaka would be better.. But it's still early. He's definitely not a C. Maybe if the opposing C is Kevin Love he can be a C, but otherwise he should stick to being a PF.

[golden]

First loss and all the trolls are out in force I see. Some posters are now parodies of themselves.

This game reminded me of the Spurs/Wolves game last week where Minny looked fine until the last few minutes when the Spurs defense took over the game. Raps had their chances to build a lead throughout the second and third quarters and couldn't get it done. Can't get outrebounded like that and expect to win unless you are on fire offensively and Toronto was definitely not on fire.
This was a game where they needed Lowry to take over late and he looked discombobulated out there.

But the defense was solid (other than the rebounding) and they were right there in the last 5 minutes, so it's fine for game three. Good early test.

Yep. Like those troll posters with superiority complexes who always judge how other posters are posting and how they think they should be posting. You know who you are..... or probably not.

[JimiCliff]

Lost in all of the noise last night was the horseshit whistle the Raps got all night. Started at the tip, went through right until the end of the game. Seriously, what the eff was up with that? Me thinks at least one of those refs is legit terrified of Pop.