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

[Sonny]

Losing a game 7 at home to Brooklyn.

Swept by the Wizards the following year.

BARELY beat a bad Indiana and Miami the following year.

Swept by the Cavs last year after barely beating a bad Milwaukee team in the 1st round.

Now they're about to get swept by the Cavs again.

Every series is difficult.

Blow. It. Up. This core is rotten. Tear it down and trust the process. Fire the coach. Move the two bums for good young players. As for Ibaka? if Masai can get something for Bargnani, he should be able to get something for Ibaka.

God this team is such a joke. A complete and utter embarassment of a team.

[The Claw Reborn]

After being benched this game, Derozan will probably in #provem mode next game and will empty the clip. Yet Raptors would still lose because he just doesn’t know how to play defense without fouling the player he is guarding. This is the Derozan we all know....taking difficult 2’s but giving up 3’s. Let’s do that simple mathematics. On the flip side, he can’t make 3’s consistently. Lol.

Yet some are still hesistant to let go of that No.10 Jersey they bought with their hard earned money. Can’t blame you buddy.

[Other Scott]

I watched the entire 4th quarter again just to see these switches.

It comes down to how close OG was playing Lebron - he's right up in his face like he should be. The problem is that playing Lebron that close, when a man comes over to screen you're pretty much dead every time - there's no space to go under when you're in Lebron's face, and chasing Lebron around the screen won't work, he'll just drive straight to the rim.

So you have two options: a) Have OG back off Lebron a bit so he has space to go under when the screen comes. The problem is that this neutralizes your biggest advantage with OGs defense - he's fast enough to stay with Lebron on his drives so that he CAN be right in his face and take away his space for passing and stepback. When CJ got switched to Lebron he was playing further back and he was giving up those step-backs for the most part, and Lebron made those at a good percentage.

b) Switch CJ onto him with instructions to keep Lebron in front of him and hope for the best.

Here's the issue with option A - the pick to switch Miles onto Lebron became Cleveland's play. Especially since Miles was guarding Korver. Usually when Lebron got the ball with Miles on him there was like 6 seconds or so left. This is important.

If you keep Anunoby back off of Lebron, then that switch is not the play you run. You have more time on the clock so the offense runs action to get shooters open instead. And if they succeed, now Lebron has the space to make a pass to whoever or wherever the action succeeds in opening up. This is why the Raptors defense was more successful as a whole this game, they took away space on Lebron and actually got some turnovers.

By the time they've switched Miles onto James using Korver, there is no time for that. Almost every possession where that was the result ended up in a Lebron ISO play with either a stepback or (if Miles allowed it) a drive.

[Other Scott]

The argument always came down to wins vs losses. And that the Celtics got blown out by the Cavs as well. I'm really curious to see how this rag tag group of Boston players does against Lebron this time around.

I think it's very debatable whether Toronto or Boston has more talent on their team with Kyrie and Hayward out.

[Axel]

I agreed until the last part. This is pointless and doesn't solve anything.

We need to just get rid of Lowry, DeMar and Ibaka and start over. This team is going nowhere regardless of what lineup you play.

I don’t think our game 4 lineup will solve anything no matter what you do.

[Sonny]

Masai should've fired Casey right on the spot after the FVV after timeout play late in the game. FVV had no idea what to do; don't think he knew there was only 5 secs left on the clock. And why was he on the other side of the court?

Dwane Casey is probably the worst coach in the game. Ty Lue has outcoached him in this series lmao.

[Other Scott]

Losing a game 7 at home to Brooklyn.

Swept by the Wizards the following year.

BARELY beat a bad Indiana and Miami the following year.

Swept by the Cavs last year after barely beating a bad Milwaukee team in the 1st round.

Now they're about to get swept by the Cavs again.

Every series is difficult.

Blow. It. Up. This core is rotten. Tear it down and trust the process. Fire the coach. Move the two bums for good young players. As for Ibaka? if Masai can get something for Bargnani, he should be able to get something for Ibaka.

God this team is such a joke. A complete and utter embarassment of a team.

No, the Pistons are an utter embarrassment of a team. They're capped out, with no good young players to speak of, and have an untradeable Blake Griffin contract on their hands which will cripple their space for years.

The Raptors provide 6 months of fun for the fans every year with one week of heartbreak to the greatest player in the world.

If the Raptors are an embarrassment of a team, so are about 24 other teams in the NBA.

[Zainab]

I vote Joey for next GT

[The Great One]

I vote Joey for next GT

God could create the next game thread and it still wouldn't save them from LeBron. Not with this core and coach.

[Zainab]

My parents are staying in the same hotel as the Raptors tonight, so my mom decided to go Facebook live while they walked in all disappointed from losing, peep my dad side stepping in with his Cavs tshirt.. I literally can’t stop laughing. pic.twitter.com/tou6YqVMDQ

— Emily Gebler (@EmGebs32) May 6, 2018

[Zainab]

What a shot by @PMasturzo_ABJ. Not just capturing the game-winning @KingJames shot, but all the faces: the Raptors players’ look of dread, the guy trying to see around them, the fan with the praying hands. @cavs pic.twitter.com/ebbnLmTUdR

— Lynne Sherwin (@LynneSherwinABJ) May 6, 2018

[Sonny]

I will be cheering for the Cavs tomorrow. I hope they blow out the Raptors BIG. Maybe Masai can come to his senses.

This team is a disgrace.

[rocwell]

I will be cheering for the Cavs tomorrow. I hope they blow out the Raptors BIG. Maybe Masai can come to his senses.

This team is a disgrace.

Ok mods, time to ban this troll

[The Great One]

Im not ok with. I thought Miles guarding LeBron was the dumbest thing Casey's ever done.

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

Lmao. You just knew LeBron was going to score everytime he has the ball. And Miles can't do anything about it.

If we can see it, why can't the coach? Miles is prolly the worst defender on this team.

[hotfuzz]

My parents are staying in the same hotel as the Raptors tonight, so my mom decided to go Facebook live while they walked in all disappointed from losing, peep my dad side stepping in with his Cavs tshirt.. I literally can’t stop laughing. pic.twitter.com/tou6YqVMDQ

— Emily Gebler (@EmGebs32) May 6, 2018

Why do you port every rando's tweet mocking the Raptors? We get it, we suck. Geez. Twitter is a cancer.