Game 18: Toronto Raptors @ Orlando Magic - Tuesday, November 20th 7pm ET, SN1

[GOLDBLUM]

Why are you doing this to yourself Keon?

I watched it, too. The GF was not overly impressed, ha. Watching every game from present day she begrudgingly abides. Watching one immediately afterwards from the previous millenium... not quite as supportive.

Part of our history y'all.

Fun fact: during that game the team was 14-4 when Carter scored more than 30 pts.
We're 14-4 after tonight.

2018 Championship guaranteed.

[Maury]

Brilliant play call by Nurse. He’s been shaky at times this year but that play to end the game had several great options. Our best player was wide open at the top of the arc! Great shot by Danny. Fantastic defence in the fourth quarter as well, even without OG off the bench to anchor the bench D. Serge had some REALLY timely buckets late. We just have to hope Serge can play like this in the spring.

[slaw]

Need to start making threes. That's the main takeaway from this past week or so. Defence has been suspect at times but the shooting looks like it might be an issue.

[RandomGuy]

Need Kawhi to buy into the system.

Kawhi will you learn more sets?

[Yuri Gagarin]

So he's good but not one of the best. That's just what i said.

Fury, your a fool. Quit embarrassing yourself. Find another way to get attention.

[G__Deane]

I watched it, too. The GF was not overly impressed, ha. Watching every game from present day she begrudgingly abides. Watching one immediately afterwards from the previous millenium... not quite as supportive.

Part of our history y'all.

Fun fact: during that game the team was 14-4 when Carter scored more than 30 pts.
We're 14-4 after tonight.

2018 Championship guaranteed.

Wait, we won a championship with Carter?

We need our guys who can actually hit threes at a decent clip to hit threes. Too many guys who can't hit threes at a decent clip being told (allowed) to hoist up threes because it's the thing to do. Taking threes at a great rate is not something that gets dramatically better just by taking a ton of them .... or everybody would be a great 3 point shooter ....

[Demographic Shift]

Need to start making threes. That's the main takeaway from this past week or so. Defence has been suspect at times but the shooting looks like it might be an issue.

In the 12 and 1 run to open the season the raps were shooting 3s around 35%....

Since then they have been in the mid to high 20s...and have scuffled...

It’s a make or miss league

[DanH]

Some of us here praise Lowry, most of us praise green, all of us praise Kawhi and siakam.

It's time to start praising ibaka. The dude has been consistent, clutch, efficient and tough inside. Quietly the 2nd leading scorer on the team and its like everybody here is just waiting for the bottom to fall out on that

Serge has been great early in the season. I have quibbles with his usage (ie who he plays with and how much), but he's been killing it and hitting everything.

People are waiting for the bottom to fall out (to some degree at least) because it's kind of unimaginable that he'll shoot 70% on long two's or 82% at the rim (8% above his career high) all year long.

But there have been good signs in other places as well - he does occasionally set a screen (and make contact with it!) now, which is nice. His rebounding on the offensive end has been very nice with him inside more, back up close to his early career numbers. His assist rate has climbed up from sub-JV abysmal to sub-JV acceptably poor. And his turnover rate has remained low in spite of a higher usage.

If he keeps all that stuff up, he'll remain much more valuable than he looked in the playoffs last year even if the shooting percentage drops off a bit.

[DanH]

Danny said in the postgame interview with Leo, “I obviously wasn’t the first option....”

I think there are two ways to interpret "first option." There's the preferred outcome of the set - the shot you most want the set to generate. Danny was not that.

There's also the first shot that could present itself in chronological order of the set. Danny was that. First pass option is Danny on the curl, which it turns out was open, so they took it. Expectation would be that many defences will take that away, leaving other options open (Serge popping up top, which could pull the inbounds defender because they've sold out on Danny's curl, which leaves Lowry wide open for three on the second pass after he comes inbounds - which is probably the ideal "first option" for the set - alternatively, if Kawhi's man rotates to Serge up top instead you'd find Kawhi for an open jumper on the 2nd pass, another good "top option" end result). In this case the set didn't need to go that deep, got a moderately open short jumper very similar to the one that Casey generated at the end of the Detroit game.

[DanH]

Was really nice to see some JV-Serge action in this one. That's a look that simply works against big opposition. I'd like to see more of it going forward especially when we are short on the wing/at forward.

[golden]

In the 12 and 1 run to open the season the raps were shooting 3s around 35%....

Since then they have been in the mid to high 20s...and have scuffled...

It’s a make or miss league

I'd like to see more Kawhi catch & shoot play calls as a first or second option - especially corner 3's. Seem to recall Kawhi doing more of that with the Spurs during his career seasons. It's an easy way to get him more integrated into the offense beyond his current ball-stopping ways.

[DanH]

I'd like to see more Kawhi catch & shoot play calls as a first or second option - especially corner 3's. Seem to recall Kawhi doing more of that with the Spurs during his career seasons. It's an easy way to get him more integrated into the offense beyond his current ball-stopping ways.

I think we'll see more of that as the season goes on. The emphasis now seems to be getting Kawhi used to creating offence with these teammates, learning how the spacing will feel, where guys will be and when they will cut, how much space he'll get off certain screen actions. Because in the playoffs there will be times when the offence has to be him making stuff happen.

Now, I could be wrong and we never see the team shift away from this, but I'm not worried yet.

[Puffer]

These magic have the same record as the celtics lol

Wait, we won a championship with Carter?

We need our guys who can actually hit threes at a decent clip to hit threes. Too many guys who can't hit threes at a decent clip being told (allowed) to hoist up threes because it's the thing to do. Taking threes at a great rate is not something that gets dramatically better just by taking a ton of them .... or everybody would be a great 3 point shooter ....

This issue is addressed on the front page in "Morning Coffee" where poor shooters taking threes instead of mid-range twos is shown to be a better option. Only letting your best shooters take midrange shots (Kawhi, Green, Ibaka), keeps the teams shooting percentage higher. The premium for making a three means if you can hit them at a 30% rate, it's like hitting your midrange shots at a 45% clip. Read the article.

[Nilanka]

FWIW, Ibaka takes a few too many mid range shots for my liking. But I can live with them in the pick-and-pop variety. He's usually wide open. And he's shooting 55% from 10 feet to the 3 pt line so far this season. But I suspect that percentage will drop as the season goes on.

[Nilanka]

Already said in the last game thread he could potentially be a candidate for most improved of the year.

Great D... i miss his stretch where he was hitting virtually every shot -- was like 27 of 30 or something at one point? i miss those days (last week).

Wonder if Orlando's regretting that trade now, lol. Ross looks terrible.