Game #27: Brooklyn Nets 87 - Toronto Raptors 120

[planetmars]

Projected Starters:

Toronto Raptors - JV, Ibaka, OG, DeRozan, Lowry
Brooklyn Nets - Zeller, Hollis-Jefferson, Carroll, Crabbe, Dinwiddie


Notes:

• Raptors are coming home after a 3-1 road trip out West.
• This is the first time this season the Raptors face the Nets after Toronto traded Demarre Carroll and draft picks for Justin Hamilton.
• The Raptors swept the Brooklyn Nets season series last season 4-0. The last time they faced each other, the Raptors beat the Nets 103-95 on Feb 5, 2017 without Kyle Lowry who was injured.
• The Nets recently completed a trade with the 76ers and should have both Okafor and Stauskas in their line up.
• Brooklyn will be coming off a back to back as they will be playing NY at home on Thursday night.

Let's go Raptors!

[charlesnba23]

Maybe we get to see Jahlil et Stauskas play!

[MixxAOR]

Looking at those two logos next to each other is funny. So little originality

[DanH]

Looking at those two logos next to each other is funny. So little originality

It's a little more egregious looking at this version for the Nets.

[G__Deane]

First post has Phoenix Suns - Zeller, Hollis-Jefferson, Carroll, Crabbe, Dinwiddie as the opposition
Are we getting a re-do game?

I love when we play the Nets and I can pull out my vintage Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony jerseys .....

[MixxAOR]

It's a little more egregious looking at this version for the Nets.

when brooklyn is bigger brand than nets lool

[planetmars]

First post has Phoenix Suns - Zeller, Hollis-Jefferson, Carroll, Crabbe, Dinwiddie as the opposition
Are we getting a re-do game?

I love when we play the Nets and I can pull out my vintage Vince Carter and Carmelo Anthony jerseys .....

D'oh.. fixed. (There goes my win streak)

[tDotted]

Fuck DeMarre Carroll

[consmap]

No place like home

[G__Deane]

D'oh.. fixed. (There goes my win streak)

No. You fixed it in time

[3inthekeon]

More praise for the Raptors new offense this time from CBS Sports.

Before the Toronto Raptors faced a single opponent this season, they battled themselves. In pickup games over the summer and controlled 5-on-5 during training camp, different rules governed their games.

Corner 3-pointers -- where the distance shortens and the shot becomes ultra-efficient -- counted for four points. Other 3s were treated normally, as were layups. Anything outside of the paint and inside the 3-point line was either worth zero or minus-one. This new "shot spectrum," as they call it, was designed to change their habits.

This season, Toronto is only taking 29.9 percent of its shots from mid-range, No. 24 in the league. It is ninth in shot frequency at the rim and seventh from behind the 3-point line. The formerly isolation-reliant team also is ninth in assist ratio after finishing 29th last season, per NBA.com. Looking back at those scrimmages with the four-point shots in the corner, forward C.J. Miles said he has seen his teammates reprogram themselves.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/h...ir-bad-habits/

[Mitch P]

I suppose this is admirable but in last night's game where would we have been without Demar's midrange game? I watched the Timberwolves the other night and it was the same thing with Jimmy Butler. What Norm Powell could really use right now is an efficient pull up J. Ibaka has also shown benefit from mixing in some midrange shots. I predict that the league will become better and better at defending against the 3 or layup offence and the midrange game in some form will reemerge. The Raptors have short guards who struggle to finish at the rim at times and really only a few reliable 3 point shooters. Not including JV. Eliminating the midrange game completely would hurt the Raptors.

[Puffer]

More praise for the Raptors new offense this time from CBS Sports.





https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/h...ir-bad-habits/

Good article. I enjoyed it.

[3inthekeon]

I suppose this is admirable but in last night's game where would we have been without Demar's midrange game? I watched the Timberwolves the other night and it was the same thing with Jimmy Butler. What Norm Powell could really use right now is an efficient pull up J. Ibaka has also shown benefit from mixing in some midrange shots. I predict that the league will become better and better at defending against the 3 or layup offence and the midrange game in some form will reemerge. The Raptors have short guards who struggle to finish at the rim at times and really only a few reliable 3 point shooters. Not including JV. Eliminating the midrange game completely would hurt the Raptors.

Even with the stylistic change, DD has free rein on his midrange game per Nurse. And the midrange shot will become more irrelevant, not less unless there is some rule change, which the NBA has no reason to do. A player who shoots a below average 34% from 3 scores as well as the best team in the NBA does from 10-16 ft. Norm should focus on improving his 3 pt shot and court awareness.

[3inthekeon]

Interestingly, Insider just asked the question who takes and makes the most difficult shots?

Second Spectrum's quantified shot quality (qSQ) takes into account where a shot is taken and the distance/movement of both the shooter and nearest defenders, among other things. It allows us to calculate the expected field goal percentage for every shot taken in a game and gauge the quality of shots by any individual player.

Toronto's DeMar DeRozan, who grew up in Los Angeles and has spent the better part of his basketball life idolizing Bryant, stole that crown in Kobe's final season. It has proven to be a passing of the torch, as DeRozan is currently in his third straight season of taking harder shots than any other qualified player.

But while DeRozan answers the question of who takes the hardest shots on average, simply looking at overall qSQ scores doesn't reveal much about a player's ability to make those difficult shots. We also need to look at player performance.

It probably isn't a surprise that DeRozan takes -- and makes -- more of those shots than the rest of the league. He's good at converting them, too, ranking in the 84th percentile in eFG among the 99 players who have taken at least 50 such attempts.

So DeRozan is good, but he doesn't crack our top five. Neither does Stephen Curry, who was voted as the player most preferred to take a shot with the game on the line by more than half of the league's general managers in the preseason NBA GM survey.