Game #25: Toronto Raptors 91 - Los Angeles Clippers 96

[KeonClark]

Oh nice a late game. Can still get shit done after work, the best of both worlds.

For the record, mountain time is the BEST sports viewing time zone. Games are never too early and never too late.

[3inthekeon]

Lou Williams has been nothing short of awesome offensively for the Clips, and still a master at drawing fouls.

As for Powell, his big issue has been ball handling, which is also the easiest issue to see with the eye test. Small sample, but when he's played with both primary ball handlers Kyle and FVV, the 3 together have been +31 pts in just over 22 minutes.

[planetmars]

Raptors need to just keep plugging away. Hope the bench plays better than they have lately. Siakam has had a pretty bad stretch. As has Powell. CJ can't seem to hit anything. Hope they can turn things around.

Even if they don't, I suspect a win. Rivers can go off but we've got an OG.

[Demographic Shift]

Any Jays fans here?
The comment section on any story on bluejaysdot/c/o/m won't allow any posts right now. Is it just me or is the site messed up like this was a few days ago?

Yeah..Jays..Leafs..Raps fan...there is a MLB Jays thread on this site...the Sports Junkie threads...you can post there..

[G__Deane]

Any Jays fans here?
The comment section on any story on bluejaysdot/c/o/m won't allow any posts right now. Is it just me or is the site messed up like this was a few days ago?

[DanH]

Hey, so with the cupcake schedule of late, the Raps have finally balanced out their schedule. By my adjusted measure (takes into account opponent net rating, home/road games and back to back counts), the Raptors finally hit a break even schedule after last game. By basketball-reference's measure (just looks at opponent net rating, but uses their opponent-adjusted ratings), they've snuck into the easier half of the league, a quarter of a point per 100 possessions below 0 in strength of schedule, sitting 17th in the league.

So finally we can drop the hesitancy to draw conclusions based on the tough schedule they've faced.

The starters have turned their season around with the schedule balancing out. The OG starters have been killing it lately, and on the year are now up to a +10.3 net rating in 178 minutes. They are doing it by dominating the boards, with a 28% to 17% OREB% advantage, and scoring at will, posting a nutty 119.8 ORTG, more than making up for a still sub-par 109.5 DRTG (about 4 points below average based on the league-wide ORTG average). Helps that they are not turning it over like the early year version with Norm in it was (TOV% of 14% compared to 17%, AST/TO up from 1.2 to 1.8).

Those Norm starters are still struggling, though. Seems I was way off that Norm would fit well with the starters - he's just been awful this year in that unit, and it's not getting better. In the first stint before his injury, they posted ratings of 109.1 ORTG, 113 DRTG, -3.9 net. Since he's come back, in the 11 sporadic minutes (SSS-alert) he's gotten with that group, they've been awful on both ends (mostly on offence, 52 ORTG, 33% TOV%). Hopefully this is just a delayed sophomore slump from Powell, but with his ill-fit as a primary ball handler off the bench, and his apparent inability to fit with the starters, and the team's avoidance of too many star+bench minutes for rest purposes... I don't see an obvious fix for his issues. Except just to keep pounding that rock and hope he figures it out.

The all bench unit is holding up OK, even with recent struggles. On the year they (the 3-man group of FVV, Siakam, Poeltl when away from DD+KL, because the wing players have rotated out a bit) still have only a -3.5 net rating. The most-used all bench unit is still FVV-Wright-OG-Siakam-Poeltl, which obviously hasn't been used in a while, and posted a +13 net rating when being used, but OG's promotion to the starting unit is definitely permanent, and unless Wright takes Powell's minutes (which... I don't know, hard to argue against right now?), it's hard to see any variation of that happening again.

The good news is the one-star bench lineups are KILLING it, as usual. DeRozan without Lowry on the year is posting a +12 net rating in 127 minutes. Lowry without DeRozan is posting a +24 net rating (!) in 97 minutes. If you further narrow the selection to make sure those one-star minutes are away from Serge and JV, they post even better ratings (DD+bench up at +14 net, Lowry+bench up at +31 net). So even if the all bench unit struggles along at break even pace for the rest of the year, if they can buy time for Lowry/DD to rest, we can easily shrink the rotation in the playoffs and keep the foot on the gas for 48 minutes.

So, Powell's struggles aside, basically everything is looking good, not just over this 6 game winning streak but on the season as a whole. I'll take it, after that (thankfully short) dark stretch where they couldn't start a half to save their lives.

[Demographic Shift]

Professional win yesterday afternoon in Sacto..
Didn’t have to expend a ton of energy like the Memphis game....betting wheels up by 5pm pacific and in the hotel in LA by 7...so they should be as ready as you can be for the SGOABTB...Being able to call on 11 guys does have its benefits early in the season.

The Clips are Blakeless...Scoring is going to come from Gallinari and from....well ..hard to say.
Jordan will protect the rim...slam down a few put backs and brick his FTs ..
Coaches kid is still the coaches kid and some random guy will put up a season best...
But
These aren’t the Clippers of Chris Paul...they are in transition ...another western power who has seen better days.

The Starters continue their cohesive play of late and the bench recovers from a so-so outing in Sacto.
Raps W..

Lighting a candle at St Mikes for Norm Powell to refind his game.

[Scraptor]

The site is still kind of funky for me (I can't edit my test post) but I want to give credit to consmap for carrying us in this time of need. Six straight wins!

Great dedication and toughness in the face of technological adversity.

[G__Deane]

JV and get both make 3's in the same game last night. You may NEVER see that again

[Scraptor]

Test

[GOLDBLUM]

Sindarius Thornwell is the best name in the NBA

OG Anunoby

[007]

Sindarius Thornwell is the best name in the NBA

[ogi]

Is this site ever getting fixed?

[consmap]

STARTING LINEUPS:




Toronto Raptors


Kyle Lowry

DeMar DeRozan

OG Anunoby

Serge Ibaka

Jonas Valanciunas






Los Angeles Clippers


Sindarius Thornwell

Austin Rivers

Wesley Johnson

Danilo Gallinari

DeAndre Jordan

• The Raptors add another win to their record thanks to a victory against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday. They are now 2-0 on this Western Conference road trip.
• This is the second game of a back to back for the Raptors. The Clippers have had a day of rest coming off of their win against the Washington Wizards, and are 9-15 for the season sitting at 11th in the Western Conference.
• Meanwhile, the Raptors have overtaken the Cleveland Cavaliers in the standings and are now 2nd seed in the East. A win against the Clippers would help solidify their place, and aid them in closing in on the 1st seed which is currently held by the Boston Celtics.