Game #51: Portland Trail Blazers 105 - Toronto Raptors 130

[Zainab]

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Starting Lineup

RAPTORS:

PG: Kyle Lowry
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: OG Anunoby
PF: Serge Ibaka
C: Jonas Valanciunas

BLAZERS:

PG: Damian Lillard
SG: CJ McCollum
SF: Evan Turner
PF: Al-Farouq Aminu
C: Jusuf Nurkic

Last Meeting:
OCTOBER 30, 2017
RAPTORS 99 BLAZERS 85
DeRozan had 25 points and the short handed Raptors won without Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas. The win extended Toronto's winning streak over Portland to five straight games. Damian Lillard had a season-high 36 points for the Blazers, who got within 13 in the final quarter. Toronto's focused on defense throughout. The Blazers went cold in the second quarter. Really cold. They went 0-for-16 from the field until Turner's layup with 5 seconds left before the half. Portland's other four points in the quarter came from free throws and the Raptors led 54-35 at the break. Going back into the first quarter, the Blazers missed 20 straight shots over the miserable stretch. It was the fourth game of a season-long six game road trip for Toronto. Lucas Nogueira scored a season-high 17 points for the Raptors, along with nine rebounds. He had five blocked shots.

Keys To The Game

1) Defend! Defend! Defend!
2) Play as a cohesive unit for all 4 quarters - stick to what works! No ISO/hero ball.
3) Have confidence in making those open shots and don't choke in clutch!
4) Score more than the opposing team.

Let's Go Raptors!!!

[rocwell]

[KeonClark]

Carlton is Kyle and will is demar

[tDotted]

CJ McCollum might just go for 50 again

[DanH]

Key to the game: give JV a FGA in the 2nd half this time around.

Also, never play Brown again.

[Zainab]

This is a positive game thread. We need everyone here to only bring out positive vibes. No negative nancies or Debbie downers allowed!!!!

[The Great One]

Predictions:

1. DeRozan is going to move the ball, get his teammates involved in the 1st half. Then he'll start forcing his game in the 2nd half. This is his thing this year.

2. Lowry will take a lot of dumb/random shots.

3. Defensively, they will overreact at everything McCollum and Lillard does.

I don't want to hear the 2nd game of a back to back excuse. It's all mental. If you think you're tired then you're going to play tired.

[KeonClark]

This is a positive game thread. We need everyone here to only bring out positive vibes. No negative nancies or Debbie downers allowed!!!!

My soup is cold and the weather is ugly

[G__Deane]

Mirotic traded to the Pelicans ....
It's frustrating that the Raps aren't quite good enough to consistently beat good teams but their evidently too deep to make a trade....


My beer is cold and the sun's coming up
Go Raps!

[G__Deane]

Ibaka 2/14 on 4Q free throws .... not clutch either
DD CAN NOT shoot 3's again.

Someone yesterday said all 5 starters are F/T threats when in reality on JV is lol

I've said it before, you can't just magically say there's a culture change and have non free throw shooting players start hoisting them up. Siakam standing open out at the 3 line waiting to jack another ill advised clanker up drives me nuts....

[G__Deane]

Jonas Valanciunas is 5 for 6 from 3-point range over his last four games. He went 2 for 2 twice in the first two games with multiple 3s in his career.

[GLF]

Please just win tonight and all will be forgiven. I hate that no one brought up how we stopped moving the ball in the interviews after the game. I think that was more our problem than anything else. Normally we go ISO in the last 5 minutes not from the start of the second half. As long as that doesn't become a trend I'm cool with it. I did find that we got some good looks down the stretch this time, we just couldn't hit anything. Serge's shot was a very good look, the 2 3's Kyle took were very good looks for him and obviously the free throws. We just needed to make some more shots, but the defence was definitely bad last night which is also uncharacteristic. As Dan H said, please give JV a few more touches in the second half and we're good. I'm not even asking for many touches just more than 0 lol.

[consmap]

Please just win tonight and all will be forgiven. I hate that no one brought up how we stopped moving the ball in the interviews after the game. I think that was more our problem than anything else. Normally we go ISO in the last 5 minutes not from the start of the second half. As long as that doesn't become a trend I'm cool with it. I did find that we got some good looks down the stretch this time, we just couldn't hit anything. Serge's shot was a very good look, the 2 3's Kyle took were very good looks for him and obviously the free throws. We just needed to make some more shots, but the defence was definitely bad last night which is also uncharacteristic. As Dan H said, please give JV a few more touches in the second half and we're good. I'm not even asking for many touches just more than 0 lol.

All they really have to do is let him TOUCH the ball. I don’t care if he scores. If he gets it on the roll or deep in the post and the defense shifts someone will be open and moving the ball will be a hell of a lot easier

[The Great One]

Raptors are 6-6 in their last 12 games. .500 team.

[Demographic Shift]

Looking forward to Norms third game in a row where he brings the suffocating D that Playoff Norm brought ...
If Norm closes down McCollum and FVV returns to quarterback the 2nd unit the Raps chalk up a home W.