Game #15 Toronto Raptors 104 (12-3) - Detroit Pistons 106 (7-6)

[Nilanka]

I think you might have meant the opposite of that.

Lol, dyslexia kicking in this morning. Fixed!

[Nilanka]

Zion Williamson lob dunk x Jim Ross commentary mashup pic.twitter.com/K2hTRHXDbM

— Randy Cruz (@randyjcruz) November 15, 2018

Side Note: The camera angle in some college arenas has always bugged me. Why is it so high? It's almost directly overhead.

This dunk almost looks mediocre, but you can't quite tell how high Zion jumps.

[LJ2]

Damn I had to miss the game, but sounds like it was pretty intense. What did Nurse do that has everyone worked up? Saw quite a few quotes saying Casey out coached him.

[DanH]

Damn I had to miss the game, but sounds like it was pretty intense. What did Nurse do that has everyone worked up? Saw quite a few quotes saying Casey out coached him.

Several things. The offence degrading into isolation nonsense for the last half of the 4th Q was the big one. Defensive subs and communication was poor on game winning basket for the Pistons. Let the bench unit bleed away a big lead without doing anything about it for way too long, then didn't fix anything bringing the starters back because of the aforementioned isolation offence down the stretch.

[JimiCliff]

I actually thought it was a great play drawn up. Took some incredible athleticism out of Siakam to bust it up.

It isn't a great play when someone of Siakam's athleticism is in a perfect position to make that block, against a much smaller, less athletic player.

These are the kind of details Casey regularly missed.

[golden]

Several things. The offence degrading into isolation nonsense for the last half of the 4th Q was the big one. Defensive subs and communication was poor on game winning basket for the Pistons. Let the bench unit bleed away a big lead without doing anything about it for way too long, then didn't fix anything bringing the starters back because of the aforementioned isolation offence down the stretch.

Kawhi ISOs for pretty much the entire game when he gets the ball in half-court. It's worse of a black-hole than even DeMar.

[Nilanka]

It isn't a great play when someone of Siakam's athleticism is in a perfect position to make that block, against a much smaller, less athletic player.

Agree to disagree.

He was open, had separation from Siakam. The pass was late and too lofty, allowing Siakam enough time to get back into the play.

[JimiCliff]

Agree to disagree.

He was open, had separation from Siakam. The pass was late and too lofty, allowing Siakam enough time to get back into the play.

The proof's in the pudding. Find me another ATO play that gets blocked that badly. I'll wait. It was an error of design, not execution.

[DanH]

Kawhi ISOs for pretty much the entire game when he gets the ball in half-court. It's worse of a black-hole than even DeMar.

The thing is, this game not so much! We got him working off JV screens for a lot of this game, and when he gets space away from his defender and a big backing up in front of him, he's absolutely lethal in that spot. He can rise up for the easy jumper that he has a fantastic conversion rate on, or can chase the big right under the rim and draw help, finding a shooter or often drawing a foul because he's tough to straight up stop close to the rim with his length. Essentially the ideal DeRozan usage except the midrange is a far deadlier weapon with Kawhi in those spots.

It was 3 Q's of really far better Kawhi usage than we've seen for most of this season (mostly because Kawhi has played a lot more with Serge at C than JV, so most of the time there's no one to get him that space with a good screen anyway). And then the 4th Q where they suddenly stopped for some reason. By my recollection they ran a screen play with Kawhi and JV twice in the 4th, and scored twice. That's just my fuzzy recollection though, I need to re-watch. In any case, they had a play that worked to get Kawhi and the offence in general into an advantageous position and they abandoned it for isolation basketball that barely works with Serge spacing the floor, let alone sitting JV in the lane doing nothing.

[Nilanka]

The proof's in the pudding. Find me another ATO play that gets blocked that badly. I'll wait. It was an error of design, not execution.

Find you another defensive-minded athletic wing like Siakam to disprove your point? You're right, that will be a long wait

EDIT: Look how open he was

[LJ2]

Several things. The offence degrading into isolation nonsense for the last half of the 4th Q was the big one. Defensive subs and communication was poor on game winning basket for the Pistons. Let the bench unit bleed away a big lead without doing anything about it for way too long, then didn't fix anything bringing the starters back because of the aforementioned isolation offence down the stretch.

I think some of the things you mentioned can get cleaned up ie. subbing in/out players, communications etc. But the heavy isolation plays for Kawhi seem to be part of the Nurse philosophy and I'm not sure he abandons that so quickly.

[DanH]

I think some of the things you mentioned can get cleaned up ie. subbing in/out players, communications etc. But the heavy isolation plays for Kawhi seem to be part of the Nurse philosophy and I'm not sure he abandons that so quickly.

The crazy thing is most of this game saw a big pull away from that, with Kawhi getting a good number of reps in running screen plays with JV, and it worked wonders all game - felt like a guaranteed score every time. It was only in the 4th they reverted to the isolation stuff, coincidentally the Q where they scored 16 points.

Nurse may not abandon it quickly (it's almost necessary when Kawhi plays so many minutes with Serge at C, so has no reliable source of good screens), but he definitely should (at least when JV is in the game).

[LJ2]

I wonder if that is a call that Kawhi made? In a tight game he may have wanted as much room possible to work with.

[DanH]

I wonder if that is a call that Kawhi made? In a tight game he may have wanted as much room possible to work with.

He had more room on the screen plays than in isolation all night long. Getting him room is the whole point of the screen.

[JimiCliff]

Find you another defensive-minded athletic wing like Siakam to disprove your point? You're right, that will be a long wait

EDIT: Look how open he was

And look at the three red jerseys in close proximity. You design an ATO lob so that that kind of traffic isn't there. It was a bad play.