Any b-ball team with seven players would wipe the floor of a team with six players. My point is that teams pay a fortune for a few stars. Some seem completely bereft, not merely hobbled, when there are a couple injured stars. So many injuries at the moment. The importance of a strong bench seems to be making itself more known.
Pacers are 8-6 now and we’ve spent some time without Malcolm Brogdon (who’s a good All-Star pick), without Myles Turner, and without Damontas Sabonis. To say nothing of the fact that we haven’t had Victor Oladipo all year. We get everyone healthy and playing well together, we’re gonna be a team that no one wants to face in the playoffs.
Curious to see the 76ers play the Raptors on Monday. Wonder if they’ll check the game ball for excessive elasticity?
538.com has a nice piece today reevaluating the Raptors in light of their recent successes. They think they’ll do well in the regular season, but not the playoffs. They’re wrong. And they barely mention VanVleet, the Mississauga miracle.
POR did surprisingly well against the Bucks, especially since one of their stars and the starting center (Whiteside) were out. The starting lineup included three bench players and nobody over 6’8", but they still managed to close to within two points in the 4th. Carmelo Anthony is managing to do the job at forward, which is a relief. If it continues, I’d look for Zach Collins to either be back to coming off the bench or to be traded once he’s healthy.
In other news, they’ve waived Pau Gasol. They were betting on building around him, as he was supposed to be cleared for play by last August, but that didn’t happen and he’s useless to them. At age 39, he may be heading for retirement.
In Cleveland tonight, whose record is as dismal as the Blazers’. But I keep flashing back to POR losing to GS, the lowest ranked team in the NBA at this point. At least Lillard is back in action.
Tough loss for the Rockets late last night to the Clippers. Gave up a 13-4 run over the final 2 minutes, to lose by 3. Very poorly officiated game on both sides of the ball, with numerous uncalled obvious fouls, called phantom fouls, and ignored attempts to call TO. Westbrook continues to deteriorate as a shooter, 1-7 from 3 and under 50% FT. I hope it can be fixed.
OTOH, the Rockets were without two starters, House and Gordon, and still only lost by 3 on the road. Clemons needs more playing time .
Through three quarters the Hawks are shooting 55 percent against Toronto; it’s a miracle it’s only a three point lead.
The absence of Kyle Lowry is being felt, and also concerning - though no one is talking about it except me - is that Marc Gasol cannot score.
The Raptors came to life in the fourth quarter to win over Atlanta, but they were down most of the game. In the past, they’ve had games with tons of turnovers and this remains one of their weaknesses. Siakam and VanVleet had great games. The Hawks were shooting very well; they had lost the previous five games and were looking to win at home.
Gasol has never been a high scorer. But he has had a tough time so far; with career 14 points per game down to 7 so far this year. He is still playing decent defence. Not sure he is worth the high salary, but if he comes through during the playoffs again, perhaps. The Raptors have far less turnover than most teams, and the veterans do have value.
Siakam is the big surprise; on fire, more often than not. Steady Freddy continues to play long minutes, force turnovers and make assists. The 76ers will be a real challenge on Monday.
I’m glad Anthony is working out for you guys so far. I’d like to see his career end on a higher note than it did in Houston. It looks like the Blazers players aren’t as dragged down by Anthony being around, as the Rockets clearly were last year.
POR-CLE: :smack:
The Raptors has a tough opponent in the 76ers. Fortunately, they were playing at home. They won a tight game, and this should establish them as a serious contender for this year.
Gasol had another brilliant and terrible game. He played great defence and somehow kept Embiid to zero points. And he shot a lot of 3 pointers, going 0 for 9. He played better than his stats. But this game was all VanVleet and Siakam, who continue to surprise. Davis and Hollis-Johnson played well. The team will be tough to beat once Lowry and Ibaka are back.
Gasol basically exists just to stop Joel Embiid now. While that was a terrific defensive performance, they only have four games a year against the Sixers, and 78 games against teams that are not the Sixers. He is easily the worst player on the team right now.
Gasol has value in spots, and he’s a great guy to have in the locker room, but to continue handing him 28-30 minutes a game is going to start being really hard to justify. He has fallen off REALLY far since last year, or a year before the that. It’s alarming.
Conversely, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is playing twice as well as I thought him capable of. Nick Nurse is deploying him in exactly the right spots and he’s playing inspired basketball. He kind of reminds me of JYD, a rebounding energy machine you bring off the bench for fifteen or twenty minutes a night, though JYD wasn’t as good an offensive player.
Blazers got a big win over Chicago a few days ago. They actually looked like they wanted to be in the game for a change. Carmelo had a 25 point game, hitting threes like he knew how, and their defense looked alive instead of asleep. They take on OKC again tonight at home. Here’s hoping for a repeat of the last time.
I’d crow about the Raptors winning last night but it was against the Knicks. I could assemble a team from the people posting in this thread who could give the Knicks a run for their money.
ESPN’s power rankings from a few days ago had the Raptors at 11th, which offended many Canadians. Out of curiosity I looked up the Baseball Reference “simple rating system” numbers. Here is how they rank NBA teams as of right now:
- Milwaukee
- Toronto
- LA Clippers
- LA Lakers
- Dallas
- Boston
- Denver
If you don’t buy into the Lakers being fourth, fair enough, neither do I. Still, this may be closer to the truth than ESPN’s ratings.
See, I don’t know. There were articles in the paper about holding Embiid to zero points. This is a great player who averages twenty points a game, so shutting him out is like scoring twenty points. And the articles interviewed knowledgeable people who said Gasol was a one-of-a-kind defender and the best in the league. 538.com talks about Gasol’s terrible season, and he misses a lot of three pointers, but he stepped up during the last playoffs. I think he’ll step up again. There is money to be made betting on Toronto.
OKC is really feeling the effects of rebuilding after Mr. Loonie left for Houston. At one point last night, POR was up 30 points and we got to see all the scrubs come off the bench for the last five minutes or so. Mello had 19 and Whiteside had another double-double, racking up 16 rebounds on his own. Looks like Lillard has found his mojo again, which is a relief for fans. I’m really impressed with Kent Bazemore’s defense. The guy’s signature move is to chase down a fast break and swat the ball from behind, but he’s also a good thief.
Raptors had another slow start. But once they get going they are hard to beat. The Jazz have been winning a lot of games and are going to be s challenge. The difference between Toronto’s revised and original ratings is remarkable, and Hollis-Jefferson continues to surprise.
Hassan Whiteside set a franchise record with 10 blocked shots in last night’s second rumble (and win) with Chicago. I’ve got to believe that Nurkic is seeing his starting position in serious jeopardy. POR has managed to claw its way up to .400, which will change for the worse after their upcoming games with L.A. and the Clippers, I’m guessing. Carmello continues to play well and had a double-double last night.
A somewhat bizarre game versus the Jazz. For the first eight minutes, the Raptors went 3 for 11. They got lots of shots but couldn’t sink them, like the players all had the same middle ear infection. This is when Gasol showed his leadership. He got eight points when nobody else could score and kept them in the initial game. A great defender; but his 35% for 3-points is down from the playoffs.
Then the Raptors flipped a switch and made Utah turn the ball over again and again. The Jazz are good. But the Raptors were up forty points at halftime.
Then Utah stopped turning the ball over, and scored fifty points in the third quarter, the most Toronto has given up this year. But that pace tired then out. The Raptors scored about thirty, and went on to win the game by about twenty points.
All the Raptors starters were in double digits and VanVleet got a double-double with Siakam scoring 36. Hollis-Jefferson and Davis has some nice shots; Boucher and Ibaka played well too. The Raptors next three games are all hard, so it will be interesting to see if they can maintain momentum.
To clarify, Powell played well. Boucher has later well but with Ibaka returning, only played the last four minutes.
Eight players in the double digits. Some tough games this week though.