Unofficial Toronto Raptors Thread (coaches, record, NBA, NHL)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cavs, Suns & Mavs before we go out West. Bucks have been playing well too, beat the Nets in triple overtime last night in Kidd's return to Brooklyn. I hate his guts, but Kidd has that Bucks team competing night in and night out, so can't take them lightly Friday night either.
Can't ever fault a team for winning the games they should.
Yeah, they have a lot of road games coming but they are playing good ball.
Let's see if they can win 50+ games this year which might get them a top 2 seed.
Well, if anyone was afraid the Raptors would look past Milwaukee to their date in Cleveland tomorrow - their fears were quickly alleviated.
Raps were focused from the opening tip for one of the first times this year and scored an incredible 71 points in the first half. Their D was stingy and the Bucks never really got anything going at any point in the game.
Sweet Lou Williams led with 22 off the bench. Jonas Valanciunas had another double-double. Coach Casey invoked the mercy rule in the 4th and the hometown folks saw the first real game action of the year for 19-year-old Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Noguiera. All 13 Raptors who hit the floor scored at least 2 points.
It was a crazy night as the Raps ended their 7-game homestand 6-1.
Hope they have something left for a smarting Cavs team who got spanked by Washington tonight. Those Cleveland fans will be in full voice. Although Raps didn't need them tonight, if neither Tyler Hansborough (shoulder) or James Johnson (ankle) can go tomorrow, Lebron could have a field day.
I'm happy to see Duane Casey finding success. The standings now are a little bizarre. Toronto and Memphis with the best records this far, and OKC, NY, and the Lakers at the bottom. Philly 0-12.
Casey appears to be going with a pretty extreme depth-based concept. I count 10 guys averaging 17.5 mpg or more, with nobody averaging more than 33 mpg.
I'm happy to see Duane Casey finding success. The standings now are a little bizarre. Toronto and Memphis with the best records this far, and OKC, NY, and the Lakers at the bottom. Philly 0-12.
Casey appears to be going with a pretty extreme depth-based concept. I count 10 guys averaging 17.5 mpg or more, with nobody averaging more than 33 mpg.
Yes, depth is the biggest difference between this season and last. It's a luxury that Casey is using wisely. Everybody (practically) is getting minutes. Everybody is sharing the ball. The core of this team grew a lot over the past three years and augmenting it with real pros' pros like Chuck Hayes, Lou Williams and James Johnson has been a big plus.
Guys like that make the growing pains of youngsters like Jonas Valanciunas and the freakishly-athletic Terrence Ross easier to handle and set a great example for them.
Of course it's a long season and there will be bumps along the way but the fans are enjoying having a talented, hard-working team to rally round.
Really looking forward to battles against the West to see how they measure up.
But first up is LeBron. (Saturday night is also Hockey Night in Canada with 5-7 games televised. The remote is gonna get a workout tonight.)
Raptors spotted LeBron et al an 18-point, 1st-quarter lead but clawed back at the half and pulled away in the 3rd. Lou Williams, with a career high 36 points came off the bench early and almost single-handedly kept the Raptors in it, then helped pull them ahead.
The whole team played solid D. Cleveland looked liked a fighter who punched himself out too early. They seemed gassed in the 2nd half. The Raps depth showed again. So far, Coach Casey is doing an excellent job distributing minutes, keeping everyone game-sharp. Raptors may just be one of the best-conditioned teams in the league too. They all seem able to dig down for an extra gear when needed. That again though, alludes to Casey's fine job of managing minutes.
Once again, Raptors were without Hansborough and James Johnson. When Cleveland pulled out to a 24-6 lead, and no JJ to harass LeBron, I thought it was game over.
Shame on me.
Although I suspect most pundits will be asking what's the deal with the Cavs, some must certainly be noticing this Raptors club is for real.
Raptors spotted LeBron et al an 18-point, 1st-quarter lead but clawed back at the half and pulled away in the 3rd. Lou Williams, with a career high 36 points came off the bench early and almost single-handedly kept the Raptors in it, then helped pull them ahead.
The whole team played solid D. Cleveland looked liked a fighter who punched himself out too early. They seemed gassed in the 2nd half. The Raps depth showed again. So far, Coach Casey is doing an excellent job distributing minutes, keeping everyone game-sharp. Raptors may just be one of the best-conditioned teams in the league too. They all seem able to dig down for an extra gear when needed. That again though, alludes to Casey's fine job of managing minutes.
Once again, Raptors were without Hansborough and James Johnson. When Cleveland pulled out to a 24-6 lead, and no JJ to harass LeBron, I thought it was game over.
Shame on me.
Although I suspect most pundits will be asking what's the deal with the Cavs, some must certainly be noticing this Raptors club is for real.
More tests lie ahead. It's gonna be fun.
Congrats on the win.
Clevelands bench is awful. 51-19 in bench scoring, 56-6 scoring at the SG position.
It took Clevelands bench 24 shots to make 8 and they only had 19pts!?!? Ouch.
Since the Rudy Gay trade (January 31, 2013), Toronto sports the East's best record at 52-24, which is 4½ games better than Chicago's 48-29.
They really looked good against Cleveland in the latter portions of the ballgame. At one point, Cleveland fans booed the Cavaliers and for good reason, they're absolutely deplorable.
Since the Rudy Gay trade (January 31, 2013), Toronto sports the East's best record at 52-24, which is 4½ games better than Chicago's 48-29.
They really looked good against Cleveland in the latter portions of the ballgame. At one point, Cleveland fans booed the Cavaliers and for good reason, they're absolutely deplorable.
Interesting game tonight: Suns @ Raptors.
Suns are at the end of this 5 game road trip. They are 4-0 so far, but this will easily be the best team they would have played on the trip (Celtics, Pistons, Sixers & Pacers were the previous 4). However, the Suns can also put up points in bunches so a good test for the Raptors defense. They destroyed Washington, didn't look good against Chicago, and had a good 4th but an average first-3rd against the Grizz. Aside from those teams they haven't gone up against many good offensive teams so far this year. So an intriguing game for each side.
Since the Rudy Gay trade (January 31, 2013), Toronto sports the East's best record at 52-24, which is 4½ games better than Chicago's 48-29.
They really looked good against Cleveland in the latter portions of the ballgame. At one point, Cleveland fans booed the Cavaliers and for good reason, they're absolutely deplorable.
Interesting game tonight: Suns @ Raptors.
That is the ONLY interesting game on tonight. The rest are meh.
The wildcards this year are the Bulls health and Cleveland getting things figured out.
Almost 70 games left to play lots of drama left to come.
P.S. Raps are improved to around 16th in opponent FG%. I don't mean to keep harping on that but FG% determines 5 out of 6 NBA games. Test it for yourself, just eyeball box scores for which team had the higher FG% and they win about 5 out of 6 or better.
Last edited by Mathguy; 11-24-2014 at 07:24 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
10-2
