This mainly hockey/footy/tennis dude shamelessly hopped onto the Raps bandwagon about five years ago when they started becoming a 50+ wins a season team, and prior to that, yeah, I wasn’t the hugest bball fan, admittedly. Time will tell if I turn out to be a total and complete fairweather fan if they begin having, say, .400 seasons on an increasingly consistent basis, tbh. Mediocre stretches from the Canucks and Flyers (quite often much longer than I’d like) I’ll always be able to ride out; guess it boils down to the sports you grew up with.
Anyhoos, last night they registered another should-win against a Tristan Thompson-less Cavs. Norman Powell’s last three starts have been practically the best in his career - I’d really like to see him make it difficult for Nick Nurse to decide to get Fred Van Vleet back in the starting line-up (if FVV’s knee ever heals - his return date keeps getting pushed back, and won’t be playing tomorrow against Detroit). Whether Norm is pottng 3’s or slamming dang crisp dunks, I hopes he continues his hot streak. For the last three or four years he’s always been on the cusp of breaking out into something more, and hopefully this season he’ll start to show signs of maintaining the higher level of play that many observers feel he’s capable of.
This is a hard thing to find. a formal statistic on so I just went through a few weeks of games and I think it’s 25-30%.
That seems reasonably consistent to me with most sports, if you came up with a fair definition in each sport of what constitutes “close.”
The observation that many games are decided in either the first quarter or the last few minutes of the game is definitely far LESS true; again, just looking at many games, it becomes quickly obvious that many games are won by teams that didn’t win the first quarter (or did but then lost the lead in the second or third quarter) but didn’t squeak it out late, either.
To continue with the stories, I became an NBA and Raptors fan when my then-girlfriend and I went to a game in 2000 basically because we’d never gone to one before. It was a great game; they beat Phoenix by one point and Vince Carter had one of the best games of his life, scoring 51. What blew me away, though, was the nature of the experience; you are so much closer to the game than is the case for baseball, hockey or (especially) football. It is an incomparably more awesome feeling; the crowd is intensely into it and the energy is palpable. As much as I love baseball, live MLB just can’t match live NBA.
I realize the first quarter observation is often untrue. But I think more teams are competitive this year than usual? If you’re up twenty-five points at the quarter, odds are you’re the better team. If you’re up three points, it means almost nothing.
I’ve cheered for the Raptors for a decade. But I used to follow hockey more. I’m not ashamed to say it took a good Raptors team to get me more interested.
Marc Gasol out with a hamstring injury for a “period of weeks”. This will suck, being the best defender on the team.
Norm Powell hurt his left shoulder, the same one last season that made him miss 21 games. As posted earlier, he had just been playing easily one of the best stretches of his career.
Both had to immediately leave the game.
At least Kyle has finally turned the corner since his injury, getting his 15th career triple double last night.
Serge Ibaka is gonna have to really step up in Gasol’s absence.
The separated shoulder is probably a more serious injury than a groin pull or knee contusion. But it’s painful to watch so many injuries. Still, they surprised last time, and are amazing playing teams under .500 - so hopefully their schedule cooperates.
Raptors got 68 points in the first half. Looks like VanVleet, Lowry and Ibaka are stepping up. Dallas and Boston are better teams than Washington, of course.
And the Wizards damn near beat them anyway. A win is a win, but an effort of that quality cannot beat a good team. Boston would have crushed them. They need Pascal back at the very least to beat good teams.
The East is incredibly stratified. Philly is 20-10, and they’re only sixth. Only Brooklyn is around .500; the eighth place team is Charlotte at 13-18 and there are four teams below .333.
The West is almost as divided, although there’s a few more teams in the running for the right to be annihilated in the first round.
The wild and crazy ideas about a mid season tournament and play-in games - I’m starting to warm up to them. The value of an eighth place playoff spot is, really, just a couple of playoff games’ worth of gate revenue; those teams are almost always destroyed in the first round. Only five 8-seeds in the history of the NBA have won the first round, and two were in the old best-of-five format (and two were in shortened seasons.) Most of the time it’s a lopsided joke.
I know a lot of folks hate the new ideas, but why not try it? Why does the playoff format have to the same as most leagues?
Blazers have managed to scrape together three wins in a row, with Orlando being the most recent victim. While it’s true these are all mediocre teams at present, it’s a boost to POR’s morale. They may make it four against the T-wolves tonight. Portland’s bench is just awful, though. I don’t know how Anthony Tolliver is still in the NBA, honestly. Carmelo went out with a knee contusion after a collision, but it doesn’t appear to be serious. The Blazers had 20(!) turnovers last night, so it was a good thing that Orlando couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.
So would the mid-season tournament establish the champion for that season, overall? Wouldn’t that make the second half of the season a bit of a denouement? Or is it being suggested that there’d be another tournament at season’s end? As in - two tournaments per season?
I myself would find it a bit jarring. I see the play-offs as the culmination of a full season’s effort, especially for determining play-off seedings. Wouldn’t a full season of play provide a more accurate sample size (or indicator) for seedings, as opposed to a half season of play? I suppose you could argue that the dominant teams have already established themselves by half season (most seasons), making seeding a bit of a slam dunk, but it just feels too…truncated? rushed? to already determine any sort of champion by then.
The Raptors scored 40 points in the first quarter. They didn’t keep that pace up, but they did what was needed. The Wizards have a few good players.
Yeah, Siakam, Gasol and now Powell carry a lot of weight. But it was VanVleet’s first game back and he surpassed expectations. McCaw did okay, with the go-ahead three. Hopefully the first two players above will be back for the Pacers, then Boston. A muscle strain can range from nothing to serious, but the fact they aren’t day to day may be more concerning.
Hope I turn out to be dead wrong, but I’d be really surpirsed to see any players returning to play within four days after wrecking either their ham or groin, even if they’re not serious cases.
If anything, it would be reckless. A team that’s 20-8 in December doesn’t desperately need anyone back. Much, much better for the key player to spend an extra week or two recuperating.
Teams like the Raptors aren’t trying to win December, they’re preparing to win playoff series in May.
No. So, my understanding is this:
The regular season would be shorted by 2-4 games.
The midseason tournament would be an all-NBA single-elimination tournament; it would probably start after Thanksgiving. (There being 30 teams, and not 32, I guess two teams will get a bye unless there’s expansion.) The midseason would be played just for itself, a little extra reward.
The regular season then resumes and teams continue playing towards the playoffs to win what Kawhi Leonard calls the “Larry O-B.”
At the conclusion of the regular season, each conference will have ten playoff teams, rather than eight. Seeds 1-6 all make it to the first round the way they do now; seeds 7-10 have to play single playoff games to decide which two teams get to go t the first full round, sort of like how MLB has Wild Card games.
I don’t know how the midseason tournament would go over.
I am very fine with reducing the length of the season, though, and the play-in game idea for seeds 7-10.
Honestly, most sports leagues could have shorter seasons. The NHL is ridiculous just because 82 games pushes hockey into June, the NBA absolutely does not need 82 games, and MLB needs to hack a week off the schedule.
Leagues, like any business, are largely about money. Given the emotional investment of fans, this has regrettable dimensions. And a longer season in a popular sport means more revenue. The idea may have some merit but won’t happen, since TV sponsorship and filled stadia help teams pay more for talent. Though sometimes overlong seasons seem silly.