Everything 2018 Playoffs!

[MixxAOR]

Pacers locker room during halftime pic.twitter.com/bdxeldOTMU

— Victor Wobadipo (@World_Wide_Wob) April 15, 2018

[rocwell]

[MixxAOR]

Lebron had no help. Same script every time lmao

[Rudy Bargnani]

I didn’t watch the cavs game how did Indy guard Kevin Love and the corner 3? Or did they just miss a lot?

[007]

I didn’t watch the cavs game how did Indy guard Kevin Love and the corner 3? Or did they just miss a lot?

I didn't watch much of the game myself, but Love shot 3-8 from the field (3-6 from deep), and the Cavs as a whole shot 8-34 from three. Korver only played 4 minutes

[Ebonhawke]

I didn’t watch the cavs game how did Indy guard Kevin Love and the corner 3? Or did they just miss a lot?

Love went 3 for 8 (3-6 from beyond the arc). From the shot cart, the Cavs didn't take a lot of corner 3's, most of the 3's taken were at the elbows.

[octothorp]

I didn’t watch the cavs game how did Indy guard Kevin Love and the corner 3? Or did they just miss a lot?

Indiana's closeouts were excellent (not in regards to Love specifically, but in general). There were multiple corner 3s that looked open when the pass was on its way, but the time the shooter was going up he was well covered and changed his mind.

[hotfuzz]

I didn't watch much of the game myself, but Love shot 3-8 from the field (3-6 from deep), and the Cavs as a whole shot 8-34 from three. Korver only played 4 minutes

They left Green open a lot. Mostly Green's man rotated over to help on Lebron. Green missed.....A LOT.

[The Great One]

And? what's wrong with that? They were playmaking and setting up their teammates. That is what we wanted. That is what the culture reset was all about. Forced offense from Lowry/Demar is exactly what we DON'T want. We've seen that movie before and we all know how it ends. They played well yesterday, setting up their teammates and not forcing the offense. That is the only way we'll have a chance of going deep.

They were down 4 at the half. It's not about forcing their offense, it's about being more aggressive on offense. 8 combined shots at the half is ridiculously low.

The way DeRozan played in the 2nd half is how he should play.

[Sonny]

They were down 4 at the half. It's not about forcing their offense, it's about being more aggressive on offense. 8 combined shots at the half is ridiculously low.

The way DeRozan played in the 2nd half is how he should play.

Exactly.

If DeRozan takes 5 shots each half - the Raptors might not win another game in this series. He's a scorer, they need him to score.

[The Great One]

Your stars need to play like stars in the playoffs. Period. 5 shots at the half is way too low for a SCORER like DeRozan.

I think Casey grilled him at halftime, because DeRozan came out like gangbuster in the 3rd.

[wayner]

You need to win games in the playoffs, and the Raptors won with significant contributions from 10 guys. That is harder to defend against than having DeRozan and Lowry going mano-a-mano against the competition.

[veda-parabolist]

Exactly.

If DeRozan takes 5 shots each half - the Raptors might not win another game in this series. He's a scorer, they need him to score.

If and when teams are focusing their defensive energy on KL and DD (as the Wizards did last night), it makes sense to pass out of the pressure to get open looks for other guys (as the Raps did last night). Thus Ibaka had a great game along with other guys. KL and DD forcing the offense is what wrecked us in the playoffs in previous years. Responding intelligently to what the defense is throwing at them is what is helping us move forward.

This has been a big part of the Raps success this regular season (more than any previous season or any previous playoffs, with our stars forcing their game) and it should be into these playoffs too.

[Jclaw]

That's the thing, if we can just fucking learn how to stop Cleveland we would beat them easy because they can't guard us at all. The problem has always been that we cannot stop them at all. They do whatever they want. If we are trying to outscore them it ain't gonna happen. You HAVE to play defence against Cleveland to win

Again, why is this the narrative? In past years, yes, but isn't this year supposed to be "different"? We played them 3 times this year. Once was an ESPN "schedule loss" (which is almost always correct) and we lost by 3 points. We played them 2 other times. Once they beat us by 6, once we beat them by 34. So worst case scenario, this version of the raps lost 2 out of three with the decisive game being a 3 point swing. i'm not saying we would beat them but why start with this perspective in the first place?

[hotfuzz]

They were down 4 at the half. It's not about forcing their offense, it's about being more aggressive on offense. 8 combined shots at the half is ridiculously low.

The way DeRozan played in the 2nd half is how he should play.

Your stars need to play like stars in the playoffs. Period. 5 shots at the half is way too low for a SCORER like DeRozan.

I think Casey grilled him at halftime, because DeRozan came out like gangbuster in the 3rd.

They had 55 points at the half. Offense was not a problem going into the second half. They were having issues on the defensive end, that's why they were trailing.

I don't care if Demar takes 0 shots or 40 shots as long as we score and play good offense and get the W. No one should going into the game thinking "I have to take x amount of shots" or no one should "emptying the clip". Those are the old Raptors. We don't want that.

I have no idea why you have this obsession with stars HAVING to take shots. If we had KD or Curry as our main stars, then I'd understand that sentiment, but we don't. We're not going to win with Lowry or Demar forcing their offense. They're not good enough for that.