PG: Raps avoid epic meltdown, take series lead.

[dTox]

the key is BROOKLYN DIDN'T WIN. WE DID. IF WE HAD LOST, I WOULD'VE FELT THE SERIES MIGHT BE OVER. BUT WE DIDN'T! at the end, our guys came through in the clutch, showed the resiliency theyve shown all season and showed how bad they wanna win.... THIS IS WHY WERE A GOOD TEAM. WEVE BEEN IN THESE SITUATIONS MANY TIMES THIS SEASON... yes they ALMOST blew it, but they didn't... and they shouldnt go into brooklyn thinking "oh no, momentum swing..." they should go into brooklyn FINISHING WHAT THEY STARTED HERE... MAKING A STATEMENT... COME IN SAYING, **** IT, THIS TIME WERE KILLING YOU ALL 4 QUARTERS! and thats what theyre gonna do... BROOKLYN FEELS LIKE **** RIGHT NOW? think about it, all the pressure is ON THEM... they ALMOST came back and guess what, THEY BLEW IT! they worked so hard to come back from such a big lead, even tied it at one point but THEY CHOKED. **** THEM! they're the ones who feel like **** right now... **** BROOKLYN! RAPS IN 6!!!!!

I admire your passion, and seriously hope we ride this thing all the way, but there are BIG reasons for concerns, Brooklyn is a team filled with veterans and the more they learn to make these 20+ pt come backs, the more difficult it becomes to close out the series because it means they are figuring out our team with each play. With that said, I seriously hope this was a one time thing, Casey shouldn't be a lock to come back next year, he`s got serious issues, but I support his overall body of work at the end of the day.

why do you keep saying theyre figuring out our team with each play??? WE'VE PLAYED THEM 5 TIMES IN A ROW! WE'VE PLAYED THEM 9 TIMES IN TOTAL THIS SEASON. EVERYONES ALREADY FIGURED EACH OTHER OUT! if the nets were so good, they wouldn't have gotten down by 26 in the first place! IT TOOK A BUNCH OF MIRACLE 3 AND 1 CALLS FROM THE REFS AND JOE JOHNSON DESTRUCTION TO GET THEM BACK IN THE GAME... And guess what? THEY STILL LOST! get over it man... seriously, fans need to wake the hell up... like i said, i hope none of these players have this mentality...... it's ridiculous...

Coming back from a 26 pt deficit within a span of 9 minutes to play is the definition of learning your opponent's game. The arguments that people are making is that this is a serious concern, not that the Nets are a better team, why is that so hard to grasp? We are up 3-2, not 3-0 or 3-1, a loss in BKN and this becomes a 50-50 game.

[RaptorJ]

Eric Spoelstra gameplanning for the Raptors. "Yah we'll just wing it."

[Yeezus]

Where the F was Landry? or Casey just felt that he taking Salmons minutes?

[Dennis 37]

Nav Batia will be on CTV National News tonight.

[bakafool]

We better get a 28 pt lead next game.

[mtcan]

Instead of pounding the rock...I think the guys decided to smoke rocks instead. Perhaps Rob Ford was there too...

WTF was that collapse in the 4th?!?

[Agimat]

You quoted my post but it was in regards on offence. No matter what he does on D... Salmons is awful on offence right now.

Salmons is a net negative. I don't see how you can actually debate this.

Listen you bloody moron, and every single idiot who thinks the same way because of the OKC game-- Salmons on offense is not a problem as long as he can keep the biggest offensive threat they have in check. Demar, our best offensive player sucked so bad on D against JJ that we let a 26 point lead disappear. This is how important shutting down the opponents best player is. "oh but he missed a few shots" **** off with that nonsense and open your damn eyes.

Not sure if serious. Do you watch basketball? You knock on a guy for his defense, but you don't knock on another guy who makes boneheaded offense plays not because of inability, but because of pure stupidity. Yes JJ was lighting it up, but he wasn't the only one. Teletovic, AA, etc. Shake my head. Don't go around calling people "bloody morons" when you aren't even right.

Landry?

[DemarEvolution]

What the hell happened?

We were smashing them and then what!?!

I loled.

[aminiaturebuddha]

LMAO DAMNNN.

Probably some rich kid who coaxed a good looking girl to go to the game with him because he had two tickets. The girl saw it as a friendly outing while he saw it as a date and so she didn't reciprocate.

/Psycho Analysis

The more I look at this, the more I realize she DID NOT like it at all.

Whatever happened there, I feel bad for the guy. Obviously misread some signals. But at the very beginning it looks like her mouth is slightly open as if she's ready for it, and then jerks her head away. Not sure what to make of it.

And yes, we're all probably spending far too much time analyzing a 1 second clip. I know I am!

[industry_killer]

are you kidding me??? if the raptors had that mentality, they wouldn't be UP 3-2 RIGHT NOW? that's so ridiculous... if the raptors are that rattled after WINNING a game, just because they BLEW A LEAD, they DON'T DESERVE TO BE IN THE NBA PLAYOFFS! but guess what, we're here... and we've earned it... and we've shown why we deserve to be here.

The only guy on the team that didn't have that mentality in the 4th was Lowry and no way he can carry this team by himself. The body language of the other raps was disturbing and is what I am basing this on. If you are happy for a win you tend to respond much differently and they just were shocked they won, and not in a good way.

I have never said they did not earn the trip to the playoffs, they did, but this game shows why they are just not ready this season. It actually takes more work to blow a lead that large then it does to hold it and that is inexperience and belief that they are better then they are yet.

[lacokanostra]

Was thinking about this during the ending of Game 5.

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=320429029

The Grizzlies went on to win Game 2 at Home. Different teams, different contexts, so take it how you want.

[gp2015]

Why is everyone harpin on JV? It was a backcourt violation, clearly.

And the whistle had clearly gone as well.

Why even take a risk? What do you gain from it?

Even if the whistle went, they could have reversed the call when they went back to the replay and saw the goaltend. That is if the ball was deflected or something.

[Dr Positivity]

The defense was really bad all 2nd half. The only reason we had a good lead after 3 quarters is abnormally hot shooting/poor D by the Nets. We should've adjusted to Joe Johnson earlier in the 3rd just to be safe instead of treating it like garbage time

[Boogie!]

the key is BROOKLYN DIDN'T WIN. WE DID. IF WE HAD LOST, I WOULD'VE FELT THE SERIES MIGHT BE OVER. BUT WE DIDN'T! at the end, our guys came through in the clutch, showed the resiliency theyve shown all season and showed how bad they wanna win.... THIS IS WHY WERE A GOOD TEAM. WEVE BEEN IN THESE SITUATIONS MANY TIMES THIS SEASON... yes they ALMOST blew it, but they didn't... and they shouldnt go into brooklyn thinking "oh no, momentum swing..." they should go into brooklyn FINISHING WHAT THEY STARTED HERE... MAKING A STATEMENT... COME IN SAYING, **** IT, THIS TIME WERE KILLING YOU ALL 4 QUARTERS! and thats what theyre gonna do... BROOKLYN FEELS LIKE **** RIGHT NOW? think about it, all the pressure is ON THEM... they ALMOST came back and guess what, THEY BLEW IT! they worked so hard to come back from such a big lead, even tied it at one point but THEY CHOKED. **** THEM! they're the ones who feel like **** right now... **** BROOKLYN! RAPS IN 6!!!!!

I laugh at your posts all the time because on forums greenfont is sarcasm and I can not tell if you are being sarcastic or not.
We shouldn't be proud about barely holding on to what should've been the biggest playoff win in the history of the Raptors.
The raptors put on bench players, let off the gas, and are entirely to blame for the collapse.

we shouldn't be proud??? SO WE SHOULD ALL JUST GIVE UP AND CONCEDE THE SERIES TO THE NETS??? this is so **** ridiculous man... do you guys WANNA WIN! winners win... it doesn't matter if it's almost, if it's ugly, if they were hurt... THE RAPTORS WON! THEYRE BETTER THAN THE NETS! THEYVE SHOWED WHY! and they need to come out again IN THE NEXT GAME AND GIVE THE FINAL KNOCKOUT PUNCH... my god man... WE'RE UP 3-2! WE'RE NOT DOWN! WE'VE BEEN IN EVERY SINGLE GAME! WE'VE DOMINATED FOR PORTIONS OF GAMES! THE NETS HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO DOMINATE US! WAKE UP! we're better period... it took a HUGE RUN FOR THE NETS TO GET BACK IN and still LOSE. this attitude that "OMG, NETS OMG SO EMBARASSING THEY ALMOST CAME BACK, OMG FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF WERE RATTLED" is so pathetic and if you're honestly gonna use that as an excuse for the raptors players, then THEY WOULD BE PATHETIC if they felt that way... but the fact that they PULLED THIS ONE OUT and WON the game, and MADE CLUTCH PLAYS AT THE END, shows they don't... they're more resilient than that...

[Raptors_Dynasty]

Feel free to merge this with the post game thread if need be, but I just wanted to say I'm actually happy about how we won tonight.

Yes we made mistakes, yes we blew a big lead, yes we fouled way too much in the 4th, but we also came together, focused and got the very tough win.

If we had won the game tonight in a blowout we may have gone into Brooklyn over confident and blew it. The way we won though will keep the Raptors focused and hungry.

I can't wait to see how the Raptors respond to almost being embarrassed on their home court.

Great point

[Bank Shot]

Casey legit owes Lowry millions of dollars. Dude was done if we blew that.

[Strategist1]

Listen you bloody moron, and every single idiot who thinks the same way because of the OKC game-- Salmons on offense is not a problem as long as he can keep the biggest offensive threat they have in check. Demar, our best offensive player sucked so bad on D against JJ that we let a 26 point lead disappear. This is how important shutting down the opponents best player is. "oh but he missed a few shots" **** off with that nonsense and open your damn eyes.

You are one of the only guys on this board defending Salmons. lol. JJ obviously was not shut down. He scored on Salmons as well. There were a couple of plays where Salmons did play good D. But that's all. Not good enough.

[2pat]

You quoted my post but it was in regards on offence. No matter what he does on D... Salmons is awful on offence right now.

Salmons is a net negative. I don't see how you can actually debate this.

Listen you bloody moron, and every single idiot who thinks the same way because of the OKC game-- Salmons on offense is not a problem as long as he can keep the biggest offensive threat they have in check. Demar, our best offensive player sucked so bad on D against JJ that we let a 26 point lead disappear. This is how important shutting down the opponents best player is. "oh but he missed a few shots" **** off with that nonsense and open your damn eyes.

Not sure if serious. Do you watch basketball? You knock on a guy for his defense, but you don't knock on another guy who makes boneheaded offense plays not because of inability, but because of pure stupidity. Yes JJ was lighting it up, but he wasn't the only one. Teletovic, AA, etc. Shake my head. Don't go around calling people "bloody morons" when you aren't even right.

I've watched every game in the NBA for the last 3 years. I have made a living off of gambling on the games, to the point that I quit my day job.

[RedX]

Was at the game. Almost lost my **** mind.

Jonas almost made the stupidest play that would have rivalled Chris Webber's timeout call. Goaltending on a last second heave. Thank te good lord for that back court violation.

[Geddy]

She actually looks like Mop Girl