Playoffs! Round 1, Game 1: Washington Wizards 106 - Toronto Raptors 114 (TOR 1-0)

[Shredder]

I hope we just straight up punish them. Shut every hater up in the US media. Ya we get it, we have not been as good as we could be in playoffs past. We are a very DIFFERENT team this year. Very little personal change, but drastic style change. We PASS the ball, we have a deep team, we play TEAM basketball.

Saturday can't come soon enough. I can't wait for us to light them up. No mercy! Statement time.

[Nilanka]

I hope we just straight up punish them. Shut every hater up in the US media. Ya we get it, we have not been as good as we could be in playoffs past. We are a very DIFFERENT team this year. Very little personal change, but drastic style change. We PASS the ball, we have a deep team, we play TEAM basketball.

Saturday can't come soon enough. I can't wait for us to light them up. No mercy! Statement time.

We have so many guys this year, who weren't around for the earlier failures (i.e. Poetlt, Siakam, Wright, OG, Freddy, Miles, Ibaka, etc.). That alone could/should make a huge difference this year. No fear of failure with these guys.

[planetmars]

Nobody in the States will be watching this series.. there really is no pressure on Washington. They missed the playoffs once without Wall and Beal on the roster, and nobody blinked an eye. The Raptors can't be a #1 team that loses to a #8 team.

But it's fine.. we've got this.

[MixxAOR]

[KeonClark]

Why is that creepy old man staring at Mike Tyson ass

[Scraptor]

Let's talk matchups. Where do we press our advantage? Where are we vulnerable?

[KeonClark]

Can I just say...i like the idea of rest for serge and Kyle the old fart and bubble butt..

But this schedule is sooo slow to fire up. Between Saturday and the following Friday, we play ONE game

[golden]

Do we have enough bulletin board material yet?

More of the same ish....

Paul Pierce snickers at idea that Kyle Lowry will come up big in playoffs


https://streamable.com/v61zz

http://larrybrownsports.com/basketba...layoffs/438109

[slaw]

Let's talk matchups. Where do we press our advantage? Where are we vulnerable?

Couple of things stand out from the meeting this season.

1. Free throws: Wizards give up a shit tonne of free throws. Being aggressive, attacking, getting in the lane - should be an opportunity for the Raps. The last game in WSH, Raps got to the line 32 times.

2. Turnovers. In the two Toronto wins this year there was a big advantage here for Toronto. In the losses, it was closer or in favour of WSH. Need to value possessions.

3. Pace: Toronto needs to crank up the pace. Make WSH play fast for 48 minutes. Raps slowed down as the season went on which is slightly concerning. Need to stay up tempo.

But, really, it's all about defense. Raps will need to slow down Wall in the high screen and roll game and control Beal on the wings. If they do that, there won't be any issues but if they let Wall run wild at the point of attack and lose track of Beal then it will be a tough series.

[GOLDBLUM]

Let's talk matchups. Where do we press our advantage? Where are we vulnerable?

One thing I’m super curious about is whether OG will see an uptick in minutes. In yesterday’s game for example, when Wayne Friggin Ellington is going off for 30+, why not put someone like OG out there to try to neutralize him. But of course, OG’s barely been used in 2nd halves of games, whatsoever. So I’m curious, does that remain the case, or have they been saving him for this moment. We’re gonna need his length and tenacity at the 3 throughout these playoffs.

[Sonny]

The only thing I am afraid of in this playoff is : Casey. I hope he proves me wrong.

You should be more worried about Lowry and Derozan.

Lowry because of his playoff history. And Derozan because he just doesn't look right.

[tDotted]

Nobody in the States will be watching this series.. there really is no pressure on Washington. They missed the playoffs once without Wall and Beal on the roster, and nobody blinked an eye. The Raptors can't be a #1 team that loses to a #8 team.

But it's fine.. we've got this.

In terms of star power, this is one of the better 1st round series

[Shaolin Fantastic]

One thing I’m super curious about is whether OG will see an uptick in minutes. In yesterday’s game for example, when Wayne Friggin Ellington is going off for 30+, why not put someone like OG out there to try to neutralize him. But of course, OG’s barely been used in 2nd halves of games, whatsoever. So I’m curious, does that remain the case, or have they been saving him for this moment. We’re gonna need his length and tenacity at the 3 throughout these playoffs.

OG's off-ball defense isn't that good yet. Doesn't have the awareness or experience.

It's on-ball where he shines. Sticking him on a catch and shoot guy isn't going to do much.

[octothorp]

Let's talk matchups. Where do we press our advantage? Where are we vulnerable?

I think the biggest thing we can exploit is that Washington has one of the higher turnover rates amongst playoff teams. If we can throw a lot of different looks at them and have guys jumping the passing lanes effectively, that serves a few main goals: transition and points off turnovers, and it increases the pace more to the range where we like, and away from the halfcourt game that Washington (and in particular Wall) prefers.

I think this means giving our higher steals guys, like Wright, FVV, Siakam, Powell, Anunoby, Lowry (even Nogueira, in limited minutes), permission to hunt the passing lanes and be aggressive in trying to create these possibilities. Sometimes they'll get burned, but it's worth it because it changes the style of the game into something that suits us better.

I'd use our deep bench to put pressure on Wall much earlier, maximize the amount he needs to work to just initiate the offense.

Biggest vulnerability is definitely 3 point shooting. In my mind, that's the only way this is a competitive series is if Beal has a couple games where he just can't miss; they've got other competent shooters as well, but none are near as scary as Beal. That's literally the only thing that worries me about the Wizards. So perimeter defense is key, we need a top defender hounding Beal on every inch of the court. (So, whoever is on Beal can't be one of those ballhawks I was mentioning above).

[Sonny]

OG's off-ball defense isn't that good yet. Doesn't have the awareness or experience.

It's on-ball where he shines. Sticking him on a catch and shoot guy isn't going to do much.

^ This