NBA Playoffs! Round 2, Game 3: Toronto Raptors 103 - Cleveland Cavaliers 105 (CLE 3-0)

[Shaolin Fantastic]

I don't know if we need a change in the starting unit.. but if we do I hope its CJ in for Serge. That's the only move that makes any kind of sense. Defense won't dip that much since Cleveland starts small anyway. Have JV beast on Love.. and Miles can cover either Smith or Korver (probably the former) since Kyle did a really good job on Korver in Game 2.

I'd bring Serge in off the bench when Tristan comes in. Poeltl has been pretty crappy in the playoffs.. perhaps Serge's length would help with keeping TT off the boards. Not sure.. but we need to do something about him. If Serge shits the bed than he'll only be helping Cleveland's bench which shouldn't kill us to badly.

I totally disagree man. Our offense has been fine it's the D that needs to get better. If we're gonna make any change to the starting unit imo it would be starting Siakam instead of Ibaka or possibly bringing JV off the bench and starting Ibaka at the 5 with Siakam at the 4.

We are not going to win a shootout with the Cavs, they're a better offensive team than us.

[planetmars]

I totally disagree man. Our offense has been fine it's the D that needs to get better. If we're gonna make any change to the starting unit imo it would be starting Siakam instead of Ibaka or possibly bringing JV off the bench and starting Ibaka at the 5 with Siakam at the 4.

We are not going to win a shootout with the Cavs, they're a better offensive team than us.

Can't burn out both Pascal and OG though.. they are our only defenders for Lebron. Nobody else can do it. So if you use them both right away our bench line up will be complete trash. In the 4th if the game is still close than you have to bring an all defense line up out: JV (for boards), Pascal, OG, DD (or Wright) and Lowry (or Fred).

[Truth Teller]

Take out the salami and cheese mama, this series is OVER

[rocwell]

Take out the salami and cheese mama, this series is OVER

[Zainab]

So much truth.

Why are you coming for my neck today?

[DanH]

I don't know if we need a change in the starting unit.. but if we do I hope its CJ in for Serge. That's the only move that makes any kind of sense. Defense won't dip that much since Cleveland starts small anyway. Have JV beast on Love.. and Miles can cover either Smith or Korver (probably the former) since Kyle did a really good job on Korver in Game 2.

I'd bring Serge in off the bench when Tristan comes in. Poeltl has been pretty crappy in the playoffs.. perhaps Serge's length would help with keeping TT off the boards. Not sure.. but we need to do something about him. If Serge shits the bed than he'll only be helping Cleveland's bench which shouldn't kill us to badly.

CJ in for Serge would absolutely hurt the defence. You can't have DD and CJ out there at once, unless it's against a non-LeBron lineup.

[consmap]

[Tmac2darak]

Scoring Update

Boston 67 Phily 64
4m to go 3rd Q

[white men can't jump]

CJ in for Serge would absolutely hurt the defence. You can't have DD and CJ out there at once, unless it's against a non-LeBron lineup.

Yeah, but you can totally see Casey doing it, though, right? Sub a vet for a vet. Add shooting or something like that. Won't want to put Siakam in so he can stagger his and OG's minutes to try and always have one on the court with LeBron.

[rocwell]

Invading The Land. #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/mu9x1kNZ7k

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 5, 2018

[Rudy Bargnani]

Yeah, but you can totally see Casey doing it, though, right? Sub a vet for a vet. Add shooting or something like that. Won't want to put Siakam in so he can stagger his and OG's minutes to try and always have one on the court with LeBron.

Yup—that’s why it’s so important for Ibaka to not be awful. He doesn’t even have to be great...just don’t be terrible.

[rocwell]

wtf

Dwane Casey, out of context: "I don't subscribe to ghosts."

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) May 5, 2018

[planetmars]

Yeah, but you can totally see Casey doing it, though, right? Sub a vet for a vet. Add shooting or something like that. Won't want to put Siakam in so he can stagger his and OG's minutes to try and always have one on the court with LeBron.

The big concern to me isn't so much whether Siakam can play 40 minutes... Siakam is a ball of energy that never dissipates. It's how much foul trouble he will get into.

The biggest issue is Serge. If Serge is going to shit the bed like he's most likely going to do.. we only have 1 other PF on the roster and that's Siakam. If Siakam is in foul trouble early we're fucked. Starting Miles instead of Serge will hurt defensively but at least Miles can give us something on offense even if its just spacing the floor for Lowry and DeMar.

I don't mind staggering both he and OG until we get to the 4th. At that point we have to put our best defensive line up in (with JV) and hope to hell we can scratch out a win.

[planetmars]

Yup—that’s why it’s so important for Ibaka to not be awful. He doesn’t even have to be great...just don’t be terrible.

Yup.. he's the key to this whole game.

If Ibaka plays anything like Game 2 we're done. If he plays like he has in Game 1 or 2 of Round 1 we're talking about Game 4 by the end of the 3rd quarter. However if Ibaka plays like a replacement level PF than I think we're still in good shape.

[Zainab]

Scoring Update

Boston 67 Phily 64
4m to go 3rd Q

really good game, nail biter