Game #63 Trail Blazers (38-23) @ Raptors (45-17); Friday Mar. 1st at 8pm EDT on SN1

[G__Deane]

It’ll be up in a couple hours.

Get off my back G_Deane!

Pressure makes you perform better....

[golden]

It is ridiculous to ascribe so much subtext to such a simple quote.



There are times reading this forum when you would think Kyle hasn't been here seven years as arguably the heart and soul of this team. Turning a harmless quote into some kind of excuse to shit on the guy, you would think he's Mike James or something.

Like I love the new players, but the way some of you guys dump on Kyle and DD is pretty sad. These are/were our guys. They worked really hard to improve the fortunes of our franchise. They gave back to the community. What more do you want? It's not like Bargnani, who didn't give a damn about anything.

Just seems kind of shitty to me.

Your off base here. I was replying to Truth Teller's comment about Lowry's ornery-ness and general negative attitude toward the team appearing to have improved after the all-star break. Speculation for sure, but his shooting woes magically disappeared right around the Philly game, just before the trade deadline, right in the midst of when he was rumored to be shipped out of here.

And I don't have to love everything about Lowry, including his primadonna attitude, to love his floor game (except for clutch time and playoffs). In his own words, as long he "does his job", we're good.

[DanH]

This was a hell of a fun game to watch. That starting lineup looking real good. Need to stagger the starters through the bench more, but otherwise great game all around, and only the refs' late game shenanigans and McCollum's hot shooting kept the Blazers in it.

More of that please.

[Jclaw]

Not to be lost in the excitement of Kawhi’s last shot was this....

"The ball hit every part of the rim," Lillard said. "That took time off. If it had gone straight in, it almost would have been better."

It still would have been a tough shot but I wouldn’t put a half court heave past Lillard

[MixxAOR]

So Lowry was playing badly because he was pissed at Masai or he had "yips" or he was mentally weak but when Masai wanted to trade him, Lowry's yips dissappeared, became mentally strong, found new love for the team and Masai?

[DanH]

So Lowry was playing badly because he was pissed at Masai or he had "yips" or he was mentally weak but when Masai wanted to trade him, Lowry's yips dissappeared, became mentally strong, found new love for the team and Masai?

Lowry just needs a screener. JV was playing with Lowry less and less, then JV was out, so Lowry struggled. Then they got Gasol and he's playing well again, especially when paired with Gasol.

Everything else is just people reaching.

[Zak24gege]

NBA should have received the video of the attrocious ref calls last night. How do you word the results except try to say they didn't have a good look somehow and blew the call? I don't know if Masai can make enoiugh of a fuss for the NBA to finally tell the refs to give them at least fair calls or are potential (bad) TV playoff-finals ratings going to rule the day.

It's stomach churning to watch such obvious incompetence (at best) or intentional bias (at worst) by one official last night - Lane. Others like Marc Davis who recently tossed Nurse from a game then right after was shown laughing. From a 2016 LA Times Survey asking over 3 dozen ex-players, coaches and GM's to rank a list of 64 referees, Davis was dead last. Here are some quotes.

"He's cool as they come, but he's so arrogant," one player said. "He instigates things sometimes. Marc will go back at a player. He forgets that he's talking to another man. Don't challenge a man's manhood. Now you are going too far."

"Marc Davis is hands down the worst," a player said. "He acts likes he's your friend, but he'll just screw you. He'll screw you and he'll get the biggest attitude about it."

Yet he still has a job? The NBA claims to be transparent and holds up its 2 minute report issued for every close game as proof. Great, but what happens in the case of egregious calls or patterns of calls? We have advanced player stats for every conceivable situation. I'm sure the NBA has similar information for ref's. To truly be transparent let's see those Stats too?

[bertarapsfan]

I just wanna leave this here. This was even later in the game hornets down by two.. this looks 100% like a foul in real time. on replay you can actually see he blocked it with his elbow somehow and wasnt a foul. The point is refs usually dont reward foul hunting in close game late.. If they were able to hold off calling this one they absoulty should not have called lowry were you have to convince yourself their was even a little amount of contact. The refs in the this video did the right thing even if it happened to turn out to be a foul. hunting for fouls late in games is such a pet peeve of mine and you should not reward it unless it is no doubt a foul.

[Ebonhawke]

The last 2 minute report is out for the game

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MRepo...eId=0021800930

And... the league office feels that the Lowry "foul" to be correct

(Insert one or multiple of George Carlin' s 7 words)

[Joey]

The last 2 minute report is out for the game

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MRepo...eId=0021800930

And... the league office feels that the Lowry "foul" to be correct

(Insert one or multiple of George Carlin' s 7 words)

Comment: Lillard (POR) draws Lowry (TOR) into the air towards him and Lowry makes contact with Lillard's arm during his shooting motion that affects his jump shot attempt.

They even link to the video:
https://official.nba.com/last-two-mi...&eventNum=1087

Definitely a bullshit call if you ask me.

[DanH]

They even link to the video:
https://official.nba.com/last-two-mi...&eventNum=1087

Definitely a bullshit call if you ask me.

They recently had a similar report on that ridiculous non-call on Beal's 5 step travel. Seems like these reports are being used more and more just to say they got it right even when they clearly did not.

[Rudy Bargnani]

They should just get rid of 2 min report at this point.

Refs don’t want it. I used to like it to hold refs accountable but now it’s just a joke.

[golden]

So Lowry was playing badly because he was pissed at Masai or he had "yips" or he was mentally weak but when Masai wanted to trade him, Lowry's yips dissappeared, became mentally strong, found new love for the team and Masai?

He's still mentally weak in crunch time, until he proves otherwise. Bricked a wiiide open 3. Turnover on a 4ft pass to Kawhi. Fouled a 3pt shooter. If not for Kawhi and Danny being clutch, that would have been the type of Raptors choke game that we've come to expect from the Lowry & DeRozan era.

In terms of Lowry turning things around after he was almost traded, uh.... that's happenened before.

[bertarapsfan]

He's still mentally weak in crunch time, until he proves otherwise. Bricked a wiiide open 3. Turnover on a 4ft pass to Kawhi. Fouled a 3pt shooter. If not for Kawhi and Danny being clutch, that would have been the type of Raptors choke game that we've come to expect from the Lowry & DeRozan era.

In terms of Lowry turning things around after he was almost traded, uh.... that's happenened before.

Actually lowry hit 2 big layup in the last 2 mins. One of which should have been a and 1. Plus a near amazing steal that was called a kick ball

[Zak24gege]

Even though I watched the game and later replays I didn't notice Kawhi and his reaction right after he took the shot. Check out the way he leans back as if to help the ball through the hoop. Then he gives an emphatic punch as the ball goes in. Love it!

Kawhi Leonard for the win pic.twitter.com/yFT96L9ojO

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 2, 2019

BTW, the NBA's L2M Report maintains Kyle made contact with Lilliards arm. The video posted does not show this and the official, Lane, is in poor position to determine if contact occurred as he would need to see through Lilliards body to do so. NBA will claim lack of clear video evidence to over rule call. Total Farce. The video from the far end is very clear that there was no contact and Lilliard was just hunting for foul. Shame on the NBA.