So sad to see BOS up 2-0, we should have trashed both these teams, biggest underachievement year for RAPS

[Bllliatch]

Smh mlse got you on payroll

There seems to be a lot of members here on the mlse payroll.

If I had my druthers I would rather be on the MLSE payroll than team knucklehead er I mean douchebag.

There's nothing wrong with being on mlse payroll.. me myself have always wanted an usher gig at the mlse.. that would be cool. But working at mlse as a propagator.. I dont know man.. you would take that job?

[Darknight007]

baynes is better than JV

ok this is borderline ridiculous, the raptors forum seems to have a lot of knee jerk comments base on the playoffs. Boston could have easily lost to the Bucks in the first round. JV >>> than trash baynes. I don't care that he's shooting more threes. Maybe if Casey was smart he would allow JV to shoot more threes since he doesn't have to run as far back on D since long big white guys have a hard time getting back in transition. Plus JV can also actually shoot the three. This is something that Brad Stevens understands.

Overall JV is much better than Baynes and frankly made him look like a pure scrub when the raptors played Boston. This damn forum is filled with people that only base their knowledge in a 10 day sample window. So please stop with these garbage comments.

[Raps in 4]

It's convenient and tried before like in the old days here when optimists were propping up Bargnani blaming everyone else (like Bosh stealing his rebounds)

Those were good times.

[Darknight007]

You guys are dreaming!!!!!! Do you see the defence Boston is playing ? The raptors were lucky they didn't get Indiana in the first round or they would have been out a long time ago. You guys are sniffing something real strong if you think this team could have even beaten Indiana much less Boston or the cavs!! You need to play defence in the playoffs and this team is garbage defensively smh look at the defensive issues in the starting line up smh when are some of you going get it The same players that were kept under control by Indiana went off on us, and the same players that went off on us are being kept under control by Boston..what does that tell you ? OUR DEFENCE WAS TRASH!!!!!!! Jesus this fan base is delusional!!!!!!!

Please stop, we would have beat Indiana. I agree our three pt defense has been atrocious all season long and something we would have struggled throughout the playoffs with. Our overall defense this year was decent but against the cavs we hadn't no game plan for Lebron from our supposedly defensive minded coach.

All that said we played exceptional defense against Boston all year and it comes down to one simple thing. Everyone on our team had confidence that we would and should beat them. They did not have that against Lebron and possibly never will. Did you see the face of the celtics when they looked like down right scrubs on the offensive side when they played us? This team would not have quit against Boston but against Cleveland we just throw up our arms. All that said I'm still pissed we lost to the cavs because they had no business beating us much less getting swept. I'm not delusional, but i'm not going to throw away what we did to the rest of the east either. We would have beat the celtics in a close series and beat the pacers as well. In the end we had 100% confidence that would even surpass bad coaching (Casey) and still beat those teams. We just didn't have confidence against the cavs, we had the opposite which was fear led by derozan. Confidence goes a long way and on the flip side I beat you the celtics (before the cavs/raps series) probably had more confidence beating the cavs vs. us.

[Darknight007]

You guys are dreaming!!!!!! Do you see the defence Boston is playing ? The raptors were lucky they didn't get Indiana in the first round or they would have been out a long time ago. You guys are sniffing something real strong if you think this team could have even beaten Indiana much less Boston or the cavs!! You need to play defence in the playoffs and this team is garbage defensively smh look at the defensive issues in the starting line up smh when are some of you going get it The same players that were kept under control by Indiana went off on us, and the same players that went off on us are being kept under control by Boston..what does that tell you ? OUR DEFENCE WAS TRASH!!!!!!! Jesus this fan base is delusional!!!!!!!

Please stop, we would have beat Indiana. I agree our three pt defense has been atrocious all season long and something we would have struggled throughout the playoffs with. Our overall defense this year was decent but against the cavs we hadn't no game plan for Lebron from our supposedly defensive minded coach.

All that said we played exceptional defense against Boston all year and it comes down to one simple thing. Everyone on our team had confidence that we would and should beat them. They did not have that against Lebron and possibly never will. Did you see the face of the celtics when they looked like down right scrubs on the offensive side when they played us? This team would not have quit against Boston but against Cleveland we just throw up our arms. All that said I'm still pissed we lost to the cavs because they had no business beating us much less getting swept. I'm not delusional, but i'm not going to throw away what we did to the rest of the east either. We would have beat the celtics in a close series and beat the pacers as well. In the end we had 100% confidence that would even surpass bad coaching (Casey) and still beat those teams. We just didn't have confidence against the cavs, we had the opposite which was fear led by derozan. Confidence goes a long way. On the flip side I bet you the celtics (before the cavs/raps series) probably had more confidence beating the cavs vs. us.

[remiga007]

You guys are dreaming!!!!!! Do you see the defence Boston is playing ? The raptors were lucky they didn't get Indiana in the first round or they would have been out a long time ago. You guys are sniffing something real strong if you think this team could have even beaten Indiana much less Boston or the cavs!! You need to play defence in the playoffs and this team is garbage defensively smh look at the defensive issues in the starting line up smh when are some of you going get it The same players that were kept under control by Indiana went off on us, and the same players that went off on us are being kept under control by Boston..what does that tell you ? OUR DEFENCE WAS TRASH!!!!!!! Jesus this fan base is delusional!!!!!!!

I agree our three pt defense has been atrocious all season long and something we would have struggled throughout the playoffs with.

While I agree with most of your thoughts, this one is simply not true. Our 3pt defence was great in RS, as we allowed LEAGUE BEST 8.9 3pt makes per game, with second least attempts allowed, while being tied with GSW for 10th in opponents 3pt shooting %.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/opponent/?sort=OPP_FG3M&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season

We CAN play good defence, however in playoffs you have to make adjustments, and we could not (made horrible ones, like putting CJ on Love only to be scored on on like 5 consecutive possessions, or Bebe thrown in to the game without any reason at all - these two decisions alone basically cost us 2 games).

[LastNameEver]

lol apologists still trying to save face in here

[Johnny Bball]

lol apologists still trying to save face in here

I dunno, I kind of prefer the actually talk about the why of everything, even if I don’t agree with it, to the angst and lashing out at the world.

[LastNameEver]

lol apologists still trying to save face in here

I dunno, I kind of prefer the actually talk about the why of everything, even if I don’t agree with it, to the angst and lashing out at the world.

I prefer to get straight to the point, and not argue to the point of ad nauseam.

[Kevin Willis]

The LeBrons had come into this series planning to take Jayson Tatum out of the picture, a strategy that has worked well for them thus far. But the Cavs have found that The Other Guys are perfectly capable and willing.

“Yeah, for sure,” said J.R. Smith on the idea of taking the Celts out of their game by stifling Tatum. “We decided to blitz him like we did DeMar (DeRozan) and (Victor) Oladipo, try to get the ball out of his hands, try to make plays for other people.

“Unfortunately for us, (Jaylen) Brown has really been playing well, and obviously Al (Horford), so it hasn’t really worked for us.

Few were expecting things to go this well for the Celtics after what the Cavaliers did to Toronto. And as much as the C’s have been hurting Cleveland with their offense, the defense has given Cleveland far more trouble than did the Raptors.

“Yeah, they’re much different,” said Smith. “I think the shots are different, and obviously their wings are younger, more athletic, so that plays a factor, too. We’ve just got to figure out, find our spots. We’ve got to keep running when we get stops, and we’ve just got to keep playing fast.”

Alot is in this quote. JR Smith talked about our wings being weaker, we need to address that next year. Also is Norm was playoff Norm he could have made a difference.

[dacrusha]

The LeBrons had come into this series planning to take Jayson Tatum out of the picture, a strategy that has worked well for them thus far. But the Cavs have found that The Other Guys are perfectly capable and willing.

“Yeah, for sure,” said J.R. Smith on the idea of taking the Celts out of their game by stifling Tatum. “We decided to blitz him like we did DeMar (DeRozan) and (Victor) Oladipo, try to get the ball out of his hands, try to make plays for other people.

“Unfortunately for us, (Jaylen) Brown has really been playing well, and obviously Al (Horford), so it hasn’t really worked for us.

Few were expecting things to go this well for the Celtics after what the Cavaliers did to Toronto. And as much as the C’s have been hurting Cleveland with their offense, the defense has given Cleveland far more trouble than did the Raptors.

“Yeah, they’re much different,” said Smith. “I think the shots are different, and obviously their wings are younger, more athletic, so that plays a factor, too. We’ve just got to figure out, find our spots. We’ve got to keep running when we get stops, and we’ve just got to keep playing fast.”

Alot is in this quote. JR Smith talked about our wings being weaker, we need to address that next year. Also is Norm was playoff Norm he could have made a difference.

What JR also didn't mention is that the Cavs shot unsustainably well vs well-defended shots against the Raptors and this has not (surprise!) carried over to the Celtics series. LBJ was what, 15/20 on well-defended fall aways in our series? I mean, that's just ridiculous.

[Too Late Crew]

The LeBrons had come into this series planning to take Jayson Tatum out of the picture, a strategy that has worked well for them thus far. But the Cavs have found that The Other Guys are perfectly capable and willing.

“Yeah, for sure,” said J.R. Smith on the idea of taking the Celts out of their game by stifling Tatum. “We decided to blitz him like we did DeMar (DeRozan) and (Victor) Oladipo, try to get the ball out of his hands, try to make plays for other people.

“Unfortunately for us, (Jaylen) Brown has really been playing well, and obviously Al (Horford), so it hasn’t really worked for us.

Few were expecting things to go this well for the Celtics after what the Cavaliers did to Toronto. And as much as the C’s have been hurting Cleveland with their offense, the defense has given Cleveland far more trouble than did the Raptors.

“Yeah, they’re much different,” said Smith. “I think the shots are different, and obviously their wings are younger, more athletic, so that plays a factor, too. We’ve just got to figure out, find our spots. We’ve got to keep running when we get stops, and we’ve just got to keep playing fast.”

Alot is in this quote. JR Smith talked about our wings being weaker, we need to address that next year. Also is Norm was playoff Norm he could have made a difference.

What JR also didn't mention is that the Cavs shot unsustainably well vs well-defended shots against the Raptors and this has not (surprise!) carried over to the Celtics series. LBJ was what, 15/20 on well-defended fall aways in our series? I mean, that's just ridiculous.

Well to be fair not all “well defended” shots are created equal just like not all “open shots” are created equal. People like to cry about the Cavs shooting high %s on open 3s or well defended shot as if it’s just bad luck that they do it when the team has a Raptors jersey on.

Smiths point is entirely legit. The Celtics as individual defenders are either far superior defenders ,more athletic or both when compared to their Raps counterparts. Horford is much more mobile at the C position than either JV or Ibaka and as a team defender he’s Tim Duncan lite as an anchor while JV can’t defend the perimeter and Ibaka is dumb as rocks. Brown as a Sg is twice the defender that sieve Demar is and is quicker and a better athlete. Rozier is much more athletic and longer than Kyle at this stage and is a more focused defender. The only place the Raps are really close is OG vs Tatum with OG being a better individual defender but Tatum being a more polished and experienced rookie.

It’s not just the wings that need addressing but great playoff teams need defensive anchors. The Celtics have Horford, Warriors have Green the Cavs are much weaker than they used to be when Thompson and a Lebron were at their peak, When your “defensive anchor” is a rookie Wong coming off an all injury you are in trouble.

Even if you label the shots the same it doesn’t mean they are the same degree of difficulty or that in the 15 seconds leading up to the shot that the offensive player was under the same kind of defensive pressure .

[tdot56]

The only thing the OP should be dissapointed in is our trash starting unit led by DeTrash and IBaka..and our mediocre coach...

The second unit, with OG, Lowry, JV won most games this year for us...

Boston, just as cleveland did, would kick our sad A*ss... stars matter come playoffs....

Time for Masai to get serious this off season....

[yongeandcollege]

What a disappointing end. We will remember this season for a long time and for bad reasons. It's the equivalent of the 1985 Jays to me.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Bron dominated tonight lets get casey back 5 years 25 million. When Boston fires Brad Stevens we can pick him up on the cheap as an assistant to Duane.

[ATLTimekeeper]

LeBron so far in 3 games v Boston

28/7/11 on 61.4 TS

v Toronto

34/8/11 on 57.9 TS

Big difference in this series is JR Smith has been unplayable (up until last night) and George Hill and Kevin Love haven't stepped up. JR Smith can talk about the pressure he's feeling all he wants, but Kyle Korver is still bombing.

[Plutonashfan]

LOL no you wouldn't