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Childs wrote:

We have a new The Claw

we're usually crap on the road but the hawks will be on the backend of a home b2b (playing the pistons tonight) so who knows with this one. could be a split between this one and the game later this week.

raps get a small away trip to GA and of course it's freezing there too right now

'Nother W here and Phoenix will be about to drown in the River near its Van.

Don't worry though, Trae's got us.

Childs wrote:

Yak becoming a savage

Son Goku 25 wrote:

Childs wrote:

Yak becoming a savage

Out of context it looks like they legit got in a brawl and yak went with the eagle claw style

Meeting up with some friends to watch the game. Apparently the spot has all you can eat wings for a really decent price.(not dave n busters lol) Yeah, Its big back behavior...but im looking forward to it .

Trae always kills the Raptors. So it should be entertaining. Good vibes all around.

inconvenient truth...we're too good! -Phil Blackson

Win number 4 out of 5, let's get it!

canada_dry wrote:Trae always kills the Raptors.

We don't have any defensive resistance to him; should be a nice bounce-back game for him after the Pistons game.

This one could get rough if he gets hot.

We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

Shakril wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

Without some serious rest games or trades to some key pieces we are going to get 25 wins I feel

Basketball_Jones wrote:

Shakril wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

Without some serious rest games or trades to some key pieces we are going to get 25 wins I feel

More. We will reach the 30. We are "only" 19 wins away from it. And we have a lot of games against other Tank teams (i include New Orleans). Alone 4 against Washington. I actually expect us to win most of them (if not for blatant tanking ofc)

New Orleans x 1
Washington x 4
Utah x 2
Portland x 2
Nets x 2
Charlotte x 1

These alone are already 12 games. I havent included all the mid teams, we are good enough to beat.

Bulls, Spurs, Hawks, Heat, Suns, Sixers, Pistons arent exactly teams we have to fear.

So in the end, 30 wins arent that far away.

Shakril wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

We're 4-6 so far in January, beating Brooklyn, Golden State, Boston and Orlando. We've been relying on some big offensive bursts. We've averaged 113.25 ppg and 101.0 ppg against, with wins by 17, 3, 13 and 16. Seasonally, we're averaging 110.9 ppg and 117.9 pts against. In our wins, we've shot 59.1% FG / 50% 3P (16/32) vs Brooklyn, 47.7% / 41.4% 3P (12/29), 50.6% / 32.4% 3P (11/34) and 53.4% / 54.2% 3P (13/24).

Being hot from three is a thing, for sure, but we aren't that good. We're a 46.8% FG / 34.9% 3P team on the season. We aren't getting THAT much better from 3 all of a sudden, so I'd be careful projecting too much major advancement out of us over 4 games. Remember, on the month of January, we're shooting 38.1% from 3, which is a significant departure from the rest of the season, and we're also shooting 50.2% from the field, which isn't likely to continue. We're also still giving up about 60% TS to our opposition, so the minute our offense settles, we lose, you know?

I don't know that the schedule strength is going to matter too much. And we're hot garbage at defending the 3, which is a very large problem for our D.

tsherkin wrote:

Shakril wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

We're 4-6 so far in January, beating Brooklyn, Golden State, Boston and Orlando. We've been relying on some big offensive bursts. We've averaged 113.25 ppg and 101.0 ppg against, with wins by 17, 3, 13 and 16. Seasonally, we're averaging 110.9 ppg and 117.9 pts against. In our wins, we've shot 59.1% FG / 50% 3P (16/32) vs Brooklyn, 47.7% / 41.4% 3P (12/29), 50.6% / 32.4% 3P (11/34) and 53.4% / 54.2% 3P (13/24).

Being hot from three is a thing, for sure, but we aren't that good. We're a 46.8% FG / 34.9% 3P team on the season. We aren't getting THAT much better from 3 all of a sudden, so I'd be careful projecting too much major advancement out of us over 4 games. Remember, on the month of January, we're shooting 38.1% from 3, which is a significant departure from the rest of the season, and we're also shooting 50.2% from the field, which isn't likely to continue. We're also still giving up about 60% TS to our opposition, so the minute our offense settles, we lose, you know?

I don't know that the schedule strength is going to matter too much. And we're hot garbage at defending the 3, which is a very large problem for our D.

I dont disagree, but also, we get an easier schedule.

Shakril wrote:I dont disagree, but also, we get an easier schedule.

Yes, we do, but I don't think it'll matter much, since our D is so bad that we basically let teams be their best selves for the most part, and are otherwise relying on our shot getting hot on any given night. Which isn't really our identity, we aren't actually an especially strong-shooting squad, even when it's open.

But we'll see how it goes as the games are played.

Childs wrote:

Well deserved. I hope we play even more dirty in the future. **** 'em all.

TorontoBarneys wrote:

Childs wrote:

Well deserved. I hope we play even more dirty in the future. **** 'em all.

There was an amazing slomo replay on TV on the Raptors broadcast. The whole face of the guy wobbled as Yak's claw swiped down. Fascinating.

Atlanta has been scuffling lately, so playing the Raptors twice in a row will cure that.

Shakril wrote:

Basketball_Jones wrote:We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by beating the Hawks but it looks like that’s where we’re headed

2 weeks ago i was very sceptic about them turning around. It looked like that core aint working, but they seemed to turn it around.
Dont be surprised if we end up in the Play-In. We are starting playing better and the schedule gets easier.

You’ve basically been saying this all year, but the defense has always kept us from winning. I expect most injuries to pop up to key guys later this year. In the Barnes draft year we went full tank mode.

What we need is for this team to become a true playoff contender. Beating the Hawks this year isn’t going to help with than when we have too many one dimensional players. This is similar to how we beat a bunch of bad teams when we traded for Poeltl and that started the spiral to what we have now

But.. Go Raptors…