GAME #1: Cleveland Cavaliers 104 - Toronto Raptors 116 (1-0)

[DanH]

Well, I got what I wanted from this game: a win, and a stretch of play showing the potential of this team.

I got a bunch of stuff I didn’t want too, but such is life in Nurse’s experimental era.

Good games from Lowry (who was fantastic), Kawhi (looked way better while using screens than he did when isolating) was very good, and will be insane when that jumper starts dropping. JV was awesome. Green and Pascal and FVV also had really good games. Serge was hilarious. Real, real bad. Still got minutes to close, which was dumb, but they broke even late thanks to some Lowry and Leonard heroics, so meh, it’s fine. Initial reaction is I don’t like how reactionary Nurse is, but it’s a little unfair to judge on one game. So, call it a concern to keep an eye on.

Stat of the game: JV was +13 in 20 minutes. Team won by 12.

[themasao]

Raptors fans regressed

Seriously though. So bad.

I saw two full platinum rows empty in the mid 3rd quarter. Like 20 straight seats.

Law firm I used to work at has 4 courtside seats behind the visitors bench... all empty.

Is it the leafs?

[Puffer]

So far not too impressed with Nurse coaching. Obviously just 1 game, but there were things I didn't like.

Obviously I don't like Ibaka getting as much burn as he did. He provided no positives over JV tonight. The team ran better on both ends with JV in the game, and we had control of the pace for most of those minutes.

But worse, Nurse was reactive, choosing his rotation based on what the other team did. Can anyone think of a championship team ever utilizing that strategy? I can't. You find a way to use your best players and develop your identity around that.

Finally, the thing I really don't like about Ibaka at C is it puts a lot of pressure on our ballhandlers to create a lot for themselves. He doesn't set great screens, and teams will give him space to cheat and clog the lane. He can shoot, but he's not consistent and teams would probably rather gamble on him having a bad night than giving space to our ballhandlers. You would think a supposedly innovative, smart coach would see this quickly and make some kind of adjustment, but he was left with few options other than to extend the minutes of his stars so that Leonard and Lowry were needed far too much in this game. If you have all this depth and you still have to play your top 2 guys 35+ minutes to beat a much worse team when you had a 20pt lead in the 3rd, you're doing something wrong.

Anyway, I will give Nurse a couple of months and see how things evolve, but I think tonight there was a bit too much I didn't like.

Not going to worry over the first 15 games of the season. Nurse is still trying stuff out. Another game like this from Serge and it becomes easy for Nurse to say "Serge, you've been having some real trouble getting started this season. We're going to run you with the bench mob for a while to get you going."

[jacobdr4]

delete yourself

I hope it's clear I don't believe any of the shit Skip spews. Just showing how his opinions change every 2-3 hours.

[The Great One]

DeMar DeRozan gives the Spurs the lead in #CrunchTime! pic.twitter.com/pgJhZzAeOg

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 18, 2018

[Abbas]

DeMar DeRozan gives the Spurs the lead in #CrunchTime! pic.twitter.com/pgJhZzAeOg

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 18, 2018

He had a pretty good game today, so happy for him.

[Truth Teller]

DeMar DeRozan gives the Spurs the lead in #CrunchTime! pic.twitter.com/pgJhZzAeOg

— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 18, 2018

Thats typical. Especially since the Regular part of the season just started.

[Truth Teller]

Yea. Really heavy minutes for Leonard and I didn't check but I think for Lowry too. Hope that Nurse watches this and rests the guys a bit more. Maybe a first-night coaching oversight. I hope.

But yea. Really we got to save some for the good teams, e.g. Boston and a back-to-back coming up.

Its game 1... if we need to rest guys already, then they shouldn't be athletes.

[The Great One]

He had a pretty good game today, so happy for him.

28 points

[rocwell]

I hope it's clear I don't believe any of the shit Skip spews. Just showing how his opinions change every 2-3 hours.

I know! I was talking to Skip, haha.

[Truth Teller]

At least Skip will talk about the Raptors now.

[Bendit]

Wonder what it's like head-coaching your first game in the NBA. Butterflies, adrenaline and weak knees possibly. Must be a great day for Nick N. and his mom (and family if he has one). Congratulations.

We should go easy on him for a while? Re Ibaka's time... I think he was trying to mitigate not starting him by not pullinghim when he was junking it. Maybe they want to deal him so the showcase was on? Anyway, just the first game andit was a W.

[rocwell]

Lower hallways of Scotiabank Arena smell like weed.

— Lori Ewing (@Ewingsports) October 18, 2018

[sanyo]

Can't have the inconsistent play on Friday and expect to win. Little concerned with how many minutes Leonard played.

To be fair the Raps had a somewhat weird preseason schedule -- lots of gaps, played a d-league Australian team, a back to back where the stars sat out, etc... didnt play Kawhi all that much.

This was almost like a late pre season game for the Raps to play the guys hard.

Tho Fri in Boston and Sat in Wash will not be easy... gonna need to rest a few guys on Fri to play Sat.

[Mitch P]

Missing Delon tonight forced Lowry to play a bit more than would be ideal. I don't understand the Ibaka usage; especially as I thought JV was really good when he was in there. Leonard is fantastic but his number of iso plays was a little frustrating when the Raptors offence seemed at its best when the ball was moving. Norm had a few good minutes and didn't do anything horrible. He got some genuinely bad luck foul calls. Satisfying win overall. Will be great to get Delon back but nice that the depth is there to win quite easily without him.