Tonight's going to be a really crazy night of scoreboard watching. One win-and-in game between Denver and Minnesota, but even beyond that only five of sixteen spots are nailed down (first/second in both conferences, plus Indiana in 5th). In the west, everyone is still presumably motivated to win simply to avoid Houston and GSW (although GSW does not look invulnerable). In the east, The bottom three would all probably prefer 7th to get a banged-up Boston team, and would probably prefer to avoid Cleveland, except that Cleveland could still finish either 3rd or 4th. In total, eight of the 15 games have seeding relevance.
Wizards quite obviously wanted a series against the Raptors. Glad Minny made the playoffs.
NBA jobber refs doing their best to make this game a close storyline. How some fouls and the basket hold wasn't called is so obvious what the NBA does. Raps definitely showed up the second half.
That non-call on the basket interference was a bad miss, the guy literally pulled right down on the netting and the rim moved a ton. Not sure how you miss that.
So happy for Wright playing huge this game; and like he has so many times this season, Casey reaches deep into his bench and finds a lineup that Wizards couldn't deal with.
The Following User Says Thank You to octothorp For This Useful Post:
So happy for Wright playing huge this game; and like he has so many times this season, Casey reaches deep into his bench and finds a lineup that Wizards couldn't deal with.
That is definitely one of the big differences between this team and previous incarnations. The quality and variety of the bench allows for different options on the floor, and the ability to mix and match more freely. Casey also seems more willing to ride units without both Lowry and DeRozan on the floor which is another change from previous years.
The Raps also have a big dilemma coming this offseason. VanVleet is a RFA and you know teams will be coming to offer sheet him. Delon has also shown he should be a part of this team going forward. So even if they go all the way to the Finals, they might need to seriously consider trading Lowry so they can keep both VanVleet and Wright.
__________________
"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
The Following User Says Thank You to Senator Clay Davis For This Useful Post:
The Raps also have a big dilemma coming this offseason. VanVleet is a RFA and you know teams will be coming to offer sheet him. Delon has also shown he should be a part of this team going forward. So even if they go all the way to the Finals, they might need to seriously consider trading Lowry so they can keep both VanVleet and Wright.
If the Raptors get to the finals (and that's still obviously a huge if), I'd like to think that MLSE would finally go into the tax to keep VanVleet (within reason, like a $10 million a year contract). The theory behind the current CBA is that it allows contending teams to go into the tax for limited amounts of time to keep a core together to contend for a championship, and then hits them with really steep penalties if they're still over after 3 years.
So the Raptors could in theory jump into the tax this year (probably working to drop Powell for nothing or a 2nd round pick but keeping everyone else... maybe dropping Bebe if he gets a good offer sheet too), keep the group together for a couple years, and then restructure the team after two more years when Lowry and Ibaka are both UFAs.
It would honestly be a big disappointment if MLSE didn't step up and pay into the tax to keep a championship-contending team together.
Rozier hits a 3 to put Celtics up 99-96 with 0.5 left. Middleton then answers back and somehow gets a 3 with that much time left to tie it and send it to OT.
Tuning into this game late, but man, the star-call treatment that Giannis gets is crazy. Got away with two fouls and a travel just in the last couple minutes of OT. Oh, and just as I type that he finally gets his sixth.
Game 1 is quite indicative of why the Raptors won't get anywhere. The refs and the league will keep the games close and chase storylines and the Canadian team won't be part of that storyline.
Based off the Cavs game one performance, the NBA might instruct the refs to stand down and allow legitimacy. The amount of calls they'll have to rig to get them to the Finals will be too overwhelming.
__________________
"Think I'm gonna be the scapegoat for the whole damn machine? Sheeee......."
ESPN's new show 'Detail', has Kobe watching game-film from the perspective of a specific player in a specific game. First episode is Demar in game 1 against Washington. It's on ESPN's streaming platform so not easy to find, but worth the effort. It really does go into detail (as the name suggests) watching for where there are weaknesses to exploit, very subtle things that you'd never pick up on at game speed. Highly recommended.
The Following User Says Thank You to octothorp For This Useful Post:
