On March 10 2018 11:51 JimmyJRaynor wrote: the Raptors are just a bad match up for the Rockets. well played. Casey did a great job with the Raptors defense.
The fuck how are they a bad matchup? This is nonsense
Lowry ate Paul for breakfast every time the Raptors played the Clippers... nothing has changed except the colour of Paul's uniform. its clear Lowry gave VanVleet all the instruction he needs to cover Paul because VanVleet used Lowry's bag of tricks tonight.
VanVleet and Lowry can pressure Paul every single minute he has the ball. No one else in the NBA has 2 top notch 6 foot tall defenders they can put on Paul any time they want. It doesn't matter how D'Antoni "staggers" Paul's minutes .. if Casey wants 1 of FVV or Lowry on him they'll be there.
When the Raptors get OG back they'll have a guy who can guard Harden.
That is how they are a bad match up for Houston.
Overall, Houston is a better team than Toronto... they just match up badly with Toronto.
On March 10 2018 12:39 Ace wrote: And how did it stop Houston from generating open 3s? (Hint: Houston had a decent amount)
i don't think they had a whole lot of open 3s and D'Antoni agreed with me in his post game presser.
You aren't answering the question, just throwing anecdotal nonsense out as if I'm going to buy it. Let's get down to business.
Houston is historically a great offense. 2 of the reasons has to do with them having 2 of the best isolation players in the league in Harden and CP3, and that they are the only team in the league that takes and makes so many above the arc 3s. What did Casey do to gameplan for this? As Toronto was up by as much as 19, and Houston came back to take the lead briefly very late in the 4th - somewhere along the way this game plan broke down didn't it?
Chris Paul also had 2 turnovers for the game: one off Van Vleet pressure which chewed up time for the 16 second call that forced a bad pass, the 2nd iirc was in the same quarter (2nd) where CP3 had an out of bounds TO after trying to go to the rim and got caught in the air. Toronto was not stopping Houston from executing their plays. If they were - how did they force Houston to change? Outside of Ariza handling the ball a bit more (and he was scoring) where did Houston's offense break down? What was their expected Offensive Rating and which portion of their offense did Toronto destroy? Telling me "hurr durr they didn't hit as many 3s" isn't an analysis. That's lazy armchair after the fact bullshit. Something tells me if Toronto ended up losing you wouldn't be telling us about Casey's defensive gameplan because you don't know what it was.
Houston shot 49.4% from the floor(+3% over their season average), 33% from 3 on 27 3PA(-3% over season average (-15 attempts over season average), averaged 1 less TO than normal, but shot far below their FT% (69% vs 79% season). If Houston hit 1 more 3 pointer they actually surpass their season average. They were -.006% below their season Effective Field Goal %, below their season TOV% (lol @ your lie about ball pressure), but could not match their Free Throw Rate for the season.
Houston finished the game 3.9 points below their season Offensive Rating. And it looks like to me Toronto's ability to not foul, Houston missing more Free Throws than normal, and Houston not generating and missing 3s - even open ones, is the best explanation. Toronto's ball pressure actually didn't put a dent in Houston's offense as much as you claim. Eric Gordon, Chris Paul, Harden, and Ariza were getting to the middle of the floor at will. But I'll be awaiting your reply that actually shows Casey's defensive gameplan that guts Houston's offense. They came back from 19 down without being able to come close to their FTA and 3 point shooting. Something tells me Houston was doing something right offensively to even be able to make it a game.
On March 10 2018 11:51 JimmyJRaynor wrote: the Raptors are just a bad match up for the Rockets. well played. Casey did a great job with the Raptors defense.
The fuck how are they a bad matchup? This is nonsense
I'd be interested to see when it changed from their going to score 125 to it is a bad match-up. Hind sight is 20/20 I guess.
Ace you are a pig Chris Paul fan, did Lowry crush him in head to heads when he was with the clippers? Do you mean the Raptors won more games? Did Paul do poorly? That is a bold statement what do you have to back it up?
No one in the history of basketball has ever said Kyle Lowry gives Chris Paul trouble.
I know it's funny how JJ predicts scores and yet can't tell me exactly what happened in the game
On March 11 2018 01:15 Ace wrote: I know it's funny how JJ predicts scores and yet can't tell me exactly what happened in the game
ya i did. do you want to review specific plays? like this one?
they stayed 1on1 or 2on2 on PNR and let Houston run it through whoever they wanted. They rarely switched. They focused on guarding the 3 point line. Hell sometimes even JV and Poetl marched out to the 3 point line.
when Houston didn't run PNR, it was 4 guys standing on the 3 point line with Poetl or JV shuffling back and forth under the rim.
if you have specific plays with video and want to review them frame by frame i'll be happy to show you greater details of their exact defensive game plan it'll just be an amplification of what i've already stated.
On March 11 2018 01:26 Ace wrote: Excellent response as expected
would u like to go over some old Clippers//Raptors games? Lowry defends him very well.
i don't think any one cares about some old Clippers//Raptors games though so its prolly better to take this to PMs.
I want you to tell me exactly what Casey's gameplan was and which part of Houston's offense did it cater to. Telling me they focused on guarding the 3pt line isn't some revolutionary idea exclusive to Dwayne Casey - every team in the league knows Houston shoots the most 3s. Duh? I want to know exactly how they stopped them or was it just Houston missing some they'd make? Which kind of 3s (arc, corner, stepbacks, off ball screens)? I'm betting it was Toronto's ability to play awesome defense even when Houston broke their initial rotations and got to the middle of the floor without fouling as the biggest reason for the win. Telling me "yea, guys stayed home on 3pt shooters man!" like no one ever thought of this is nonsense and doesn't match your original point where you said Casey came up with some great gameplan.
On March 11 2018 01:32 Ace wrote: I want you to tell me exactly what Casey's gameplan was and which part of Houston's offense did it cater to. Telling me they focused on guarding the 3pt line isn't some revolutionary idea exclusive to Dwayne Casey - every team in the league knows Houston shoots the most 3s. Duh? I want to know exactly how they stopped them or was it just Houston missing some they'd make? Which kind of 3s (arc, corner, stepbacks, off ball screens)? I'm betting it was Toronto's ability to play awesome defense even when Houston broke their initial rotations and got to the middle of the floor without fouling as the biggest reason for the win. Telling me "yea, guys stayed home on 3pt shooters man!" like no one ever thought of this is nonsense and doesn't match your original point where you said Casey came up with some great gameplan.
Houston was held to the 2nd fewest 3s and 2nd fewest attempted 3s this year... so it was not "same old... same old"
I already explained their defense and why it held Houston to so few 3s and attempted 3s and provided 1 play. if you'd like to go through more plays.. then post them... and we can go through them frame by frame.
Of course, Toronto also had the personnel to execute the scheme Casey put together.
On March 11 2018 01:32 Ace wrote: I'm betting it was Toronto's ability to play awesome defense even when Houston broke their initial rotations and got to the middle of the floor without fouling as the biggest reason for the win.
Toronto let Houston break their initial coverage. again, if you want to provide video with specific plays we can go through them.
On March 11 2018 01:15 Ace wrote: No one in the history of basketball has ever said Kyle Lowry gives Chris Paul trouble.
the only game i can recall Paul playing great against Lowry occurred in 2017 where the Raptors were on their 3rd game in 4 nights with the 1st game being an OT game and the game the night before a grueling point last possession loss. LA went into the game rested.
Across all 3 games Lowry played ~120 Minutes and ran out of gas in the 2nd half of the 2017 game. Other than that Lowry defends Paul very well. And, if you want to go through some old Clippers//Raptors games in careful detail and not gloss over them by just quickly stating a couple of boxscore stats... i'll be happy to do so.
Generally speaking, Lowry defends Paul very well. if you really want to take a deep dive into that statement... go for it.
On March 11 2018 01:33 JimmiC wrote: Sure Raps were missing some minor pieces but so was Hou (green and Anderson). So I think tight hard faught games would be what would be expected.
OG isn't exactly a "minor" piece, unless you're looking just at the offensive numbers like you usually do. The team's net rating jumps significantly in all matchups, in all lineups, whenever he is on the floor.
OG > Powell end of story. OG is better at everything.
people who think OG is "minor" in a Houston//Toronto game prolly didn't see this... + Show Spoiler +
Jack Armstrong does a great job of explaining what OG is doing... walking Harden into what he thinks is a safe place...
No one on the Raptors can guard Harden as well as OG.
Houston is 33-2 with Capella//Paul//Harden all healthy. The Raptors can never pull that off in a 35 game stretch. That said, from what I've seen so far in their 2 games the Raptors are the Rockets' kryponite... or maybe to keep the analogy going i can say the Raptors are the Rockets' O-rings because the Rockets do not operate well in cold weather....
on a fun note. one of the project managers to whom i report .... a guy in is 40s attended last night's Rockets//Raptors game. He said the atmosphere felt like Maple Leaf Gardens during the '93 Maple Leafs' Playoff run.
so that does it... i'm going to at least 1 playoff game this year!
That seems like one of the worse cases for CLE. Still favorites, but having to go through PHI (a weirdly physical series probably), TO, then BOS all without homecourt seems unfun.
That said, any competent team would prefer that "gauntlet" to 1 series vs. GSW or HOU, so...
I've been impressed by Theis all year. He is a solid bench player and a pretty smart defender. Theis was one of the few guys to put in a decent performance against Toronto the last time Boston played them. Siakam made Morris look like a traffic cone.... whereas Theis guarded him well.
Yahoo/Shams is claiming Marcus Smart has a torn tendon in his thumb. The Celtics, for now, are calling it a sprain with "second opinions" being evaluated. who the fuck gets a 2nd opinion on a "sprain"? Its prolly torn.
any how, if it is a tear then Smart is done for at least 4 weeks and probably longer.
with Irving hobbling around on his bad knee and Brown in concussion protocol.... the Celtics need to set up a M*A*S*H* unit next to the TD Garden.
How ironic is it that Curry sprained his right ankle stepping on Zaza's foot? + Show Spoiler +
EPT
