Hoops 2019/20

[dr. b 492]

The Raps avoided an upset on ring night I figured they'd look a bit rough in the first half and then figure it out in the second half and go on to win - didn't think it would be that tight and go to OT though. It's a shame we didn't get to see Zion (and won't for a while).

[dr. b 492]

Raps 2-1 now. I haven't watched any of the games because I've been too busy in the evenings, but I was following along with the play-by-play. Stat lines looking kinda rough for Gasol. I'm wondering how long it will be before we see Serge starting games. It seems like he's playing better right now.

 

Also sucks that they had to lose a game to Boston

[Vic Boss 612]

I'm assuming they make the playoffs and win a round or two but it's the west's title to lose and they have no Kawhi

[dr. b 492]

I'm really curious to see how the season plays out. They're not likely to go deep into the playoffs - maybe a second round exit - but poor performances / injuries to the key players could also cause this season to take a turn. I don't think they'll be sellers at the deadline though unless they really get off-track.

[dr. b 492]

Even with the injuries, the Raps have still looked pretty damn good. Pascal and FVV are playing really good. Probably need to reign in their minutes a bit, but some of the bench guys have had good performances in recent games so maybe there are a couple more guys that Nurse can rely on a bit. I really like watching Boucher. He makes his fair share of mistakes, but he's also causing a lot of chaos for the other teams out there. And unlike some of their other bench guys, he's not afraid to take his shots.

 

You still been watching / following along with the games, Ma?

[Eizan 126]

Injuries have made the Warriors currently the worse team in the NBA. 

[dr. b 492]

They're poised to come back as a pretty decent team next year though, so they might as well tank this year. No reason why Steph or Klay should try to play in any meaningless games in the spring. Tell Draymond to get ejected from as many games as possible DLo isn't going to win them many games by himself. (Or maybe he's hurt now too..?) Get in the lottery this year and bounce back next year.

[dr. b 492]

Tonight is Zion's debut The Pelicans have been playing really well lately, and they're not that far out of 8th place in the West. Might as well make a push for it.

 

The Raptors look like they're finally getting healthy again, and they've put together a few wins. They managed to keep it together fairly well through all the injuries and a fairly tough schedule to start the season. Now they're in a great position with all of their guys back and a much softer schedule ahead. Aside from Philly tonight, I think it will be a little while before they meet another above-.500 team. Time to go on a long winning streak

[Vic Boss 612]

On 11/16/2019 at 1:29 PM, little birdy said:

You still been watching / following along with the games, Ma?

 

No

 

Just waiting for playoff time to roll around again

[dr. b 492]

Kobe died this morning when his private helicopter crashed

[dr. b 492]

Pretty big four team trade to get the trade deadline ball rolling

 

With the Rockets unloading on Capela, they're going really small. But it seems to be working for them right now. IIRC I think the other day they won a game where the didn't play a dude taller than 6'6". They're all shooters and it's a pretty potent offense. Gotta figure they're gonna get a big guy for certain match ups though. I don't think the small-ball thing will work in a playoff series.

 

I expect the Raptors will stand pat, and I'm pretty sure that's the right thing to do. They have a solid starting lineup and bench. If they want to upgrade on one of their top guys, or even on 6th and 7th guys like Powell and Ibaka, then it's going to be a pretty big trade. I don't see it happening.

[dr. b 492]

Basketball is back, and it's in a bubble! (Here's hoping the bubble doesn't pop)

 

I watched most of both games last night. Parts were hard to watch, especially the Clippers/Lakers game. Too many whistles. The game didn't flow. But I'm happy that hoops are back as long as the bubble keeps working and nobody is testing positive. I feel a lot better watching NBA given their plan than I do watching the stupid MLB

[Vic Boss 612]

Eyyyyyy Lebron winning it all this year?

[dr. b 492]

I'm waiting to see if he can still be Playoff LeBron and take over games when he needs to. He wasn't very good in the re-seeding games - though the Lakers didn't have anything to play for in those games, so they didn't matter much. Anyway, I think the Lakers have a good chance even if LeBron isn't what he used to be... but it's not a slam dunk to me. 

[Eizan 126]

Honestly I could see the Blazers taking the Lakers, well as long as Lillard stays healthy. 

[dr. b 492]

I can see the Blazers taking one or two games, but a lot would have to go right for them to win the series. They are definitely a better team than a typical 8 seed, but their defense is almost non-existent. They don't have anybody to guard LeBron, and they will have lots of trouble with Davis and the other Lakers bigs. The Lakers should absolutely feast on points in the paint and rebounds. For the Blazers to win games, it's not enough for Lillard to be great. They need CJ and Melo to hit big shots, and Nurkic will have to carry a heavy load trying to defend and rebound. The other Blazer bigs aren't going to do much good in this match up. 

 

I hope the Blazers win a game early to make the series interesting, but the odds of them knocking of L.A. seem very small to me. 

[dr. b 492]

Bucks and Lakers both drop game 1, maybe these series will be interesting

 

I was hoping for more from the Rockets/Thunder game yesterday but it was pretty boring. I hope they Thunder come back looking better in game 2.

[dr. b 492]

Raps win again. Didn't get to watch because it was an early game  -_- 

[Vic Boss 612]

Was more interesting than Game 1 but mostly because the Raps came out flat.

[dr. b 492]

Yeah, I peeked at the box score early in the game and saw them losing. Until last year I would have just thought, "Oh well, better luck next time!" But I have a new confidence in the Raps to come back and eventually lock down defensively. They only allowed 19 points in the 4th quarter. I've been watching a lot of games since they started the re-seeding games, and a lot of teams have been quite bad defensively. Even teams like the Bucks and Lakers that had good defensive ratings before the shutdown. I'm not sure what's going on in the bubble. Some games look more like the All-Star game, all scoring and no defense. But the Raptors have still been doing a pretty good job of playing defense, even if there have been some lapses.

 

Fred VanVleet has been so good. Can't help but think he's gone in free agency. There must be at least a couple teams out there with money to spend that need a point guard. He's gonna get paid for sure.

 

Also I'm kinda worried about the Celtics right now. That's gonna be a tough round two match up. Tatum and Brown are playing really good right now, and Kemba's been low-key great too in the bubble.

[dr. b 492]

Sure hope Kyle's ankle is OK

 

Got the sweep though. Bring on the Celtics  Right now it looks like they're perhaps the toughest match up for the Raps.

[Vic Boss 612]

>150-122

 

What the fuck

[dr. b 492]

The 3-pointers were going in pretty easily last night. I hope they can stay hot going into the series with Boston!

[Vic Boss 612]

Clunk clunk clunk

[dr. b 492]

I watched through the 3rd quarter and then gave in. So many missed shots. The Celtics are very good. It's going to be a tough series. Right now I'd probably bet against the Raps

[Vic Boss 612]

It sounds like they're the kryptonite too, commentators were saying the Raps only lost twice now since sometime in January and both times were to the Celtics

 

I want to see a Bucks/Raps rematch guys ;_;

[dr. b 492]

Speaking of kryptonite, the Bucks may not get past Miami. They seem like a team built to beat the Bucks.

[dr. b 492]

 

[Vic Boss 612]

Declining ratings = the NBA's fixing the games for the Celtics ?

[dr. b 492]

The free throw discrepancy in the first halves of both games was questionable... but the Celtics have appeared to be a bit more disciplined on defense. And the Raps were especially sloppy in game 1.

 

I took my kids out to the park at the end of the 3rd quarter tonight. At the time the Raps were in the lead. Glad I didn't stay home to watch Q4

[dr. b 492]

Well, they pulled out a win. They needed that performance from Lowry. VanVleet was better too. Guard play seems to be the key to winning this series. It's a bad match up for Siakam, and he isn't a superstar kinda guy like like Kawhi (or even Tatum) who can get a basket at any time for the team. 

[Vic Boss 612]

YO

 

(Trash-factory game that shoulda been a loss, what a shot)

[dr. b 492]

They dug themselves into a hole in first half. Not easy playing from behind, especially against a team that seems to be better overall right now. But it was promising to see them outscore the Celtics in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Let's keep that up going into game 4 and really make it a series please!

 

Had they not totally blown the 4th quarter of game 2, they'd be up 2-1 now...

[dr. b 492]

2-2, they're back in it!

[Vic Boss 612]

Pascal woke up, Kyle still a legend

[dr. b 492]

Kyle's the heart of this team. When he's aggressive, making shots, drawing fouls, the team does well. Fred wasn't amazing last night, but he hit his shots when it really counted. And Serge was a great spark off the bench. 

 

Siakam, Fred, and Kyle played 46, 45, and 44 minutes last night respectively. And Kyle and OG each played huge minutes in game 3. Nurse is going to have to keep riding these guys to win this series.

[dr. b 492]

From a game recap thing on nba.com:

 

Quote

Head coach Nick Nurse quipped that when he asked Lowry - who has now played north of 90 minutes over the last two games - if he needed a sub in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Lowry "chewed him out."

 

Pascal Siakam, who played a hard-fought 46 minutes in this contest, said post-game that he'd play "1,000 minutes" if that's what it took for his team to win.

 

You love to hear it (Here's hoping they don't run out of gas too early! There's no travel though, and they were off for a few months before the restart... they really shouldn't be *that* tired)

[Vic Boss 612]

It's sure making the Bucks look bad.

 

Kyle's leadership is priceless. 34 years old, taking a billion charges, dives face first into loose balls on the ground without thinking, will play the entire game if need be. If your best player's doing shit like that, and he's also one of the oldest players, that shit filters down to everyone else

[dr. b 492]

The Bucks finally won a game against the Heat today - mostly without Giannis. I'm not sure if they can win another though. 

[dr. b 492]

Probably don't even need to play the second half tonight Better luck in game 6, hopefully. I have very little confidence after watching the first half of this game though

[Vic Boss 612]

I gave up just after the second quarter started and fast forwarded the PVR just to see if they ever got close

 

[dr. b 492]

I watched live until... about 4 minutes before halftime, I think. Then I switched to the Jays game (They were losing too but they came back with a huge 10-run 6th inning to win 12-7... The Raptors weren't coming back against the Celtics )

[dr. b 492]

So, tonight's the night. What do you think @Vic Boss ? Do they force a game 7, or are they done?

 

Gasol has been bad all series, and apparently Ibaka is questionable because of his ankle. If Gasol doesn't impress early tonight, and Ibaka can't play, then I think they need to try going small a bit more. Lowry, VanVleet, Norm, OG, Siakam. Play fast, move the ball, etc. Gasol hasn't been giving them much of anything. Might even need to give Terence Davis or Matt Thomas some more minutes if VanVleet or Norm aren't hitting shots. They need a spark from somewhere, and I think Nurse will have to play whoever is playing best for big minutes tonight.

[Vic Boss 612]

I can see them answering Boston tonight but I don't think they win the series either way. Raps best players and second best players are missing so many open and easy looks and not getting into a rhythm that each game feels like an uphill battle even when Boston's playing at its worst.

[dr. b 492]

Gotta give credit to Boston's defense. Quite a few of the Raps' missed "open" looks from 3-point range have been pretty deep 3's. Not easy shots to make regularly, unless it's Dame Lillard out there. Toronto has to work super hard to get points on Boston's defense

[dr. b 492]

I thought for sure they were done for at the start of OT2  They live to play another game! 

 

Very solid defense most of this game. Kyle was incredible. Norm finally stepped up. Gasol even hit a couple shots. If only they could find a way for Siakam to be more effective.

[Vic Boss 612]

Dat Norm stank-face when he massacred the Celtics in double OT

 

TBH after the first few mins of the first quarter, I fast forwarded because I wasn't gonna watch another clunk-clunk game and only stopped near the end of the 3rd when they'd come back and grabbed a lead. Couldn't tell you how a lot of the game went.

[dr. b 492]

I tuned in late because I had to take my daughter to figure skating. I didn't see most of the first half, but I assume it was pretty forgettable.

[Vic Boss 612]

Game's back-and-forth as fuck

[dr. b 492]

I hate to say it because I usually can't stand Boston teams, but these Celtics are actually pretty damn likeable. Tatum is really, really good. Ugh.