gordoncatrell wrote:davidavydave wrote:I've always thought Toronto was one of the lamest teams to watch play ball. Sure they can be exciting during some regular season games, but when it really matters in the playoffs....their best players just do not show up. You just know they won't ever advance far.
Demar may have just damaged his image and lost whatever stardom he has. He'll go down as a good scorer, but not as a great player. These playoff games define who you really are and exposes what you aren't. When you play against the best in the game, you need to take it upon yourself to play your absolute best. Instead, he checks himself out of the game. He is not a closer, which is crazy considering he's their "best" player. This is why I can never consider Demar or Lowry as great, star players. They may techincally be voted in as Allstars (in the East), but seriously....who would want these guys to lead a team in the final minutes of a game?
Disappointing.
blind TOR fans will blame the refs.
for a sweep. swept. sheesh.
not one peep out of TOR fan for Lowry/Derozan no-showing. they did not want to be on the court. they looked like an old boxer waiting to get KO'd.
see now why i say BOS PHI MIL are the only threats in the east. how'd IND go 7 w CLE?
would any other legit Eastern team get swept by a limp CLE team?
No one blames the ref for the sweep, they blame the refs for taking home court away from the Raps and giving calls to Cleveland and not the Raps. It was always easier to take when the Cavs were a top team, but when the Raps were the higher ranked team and the Cavs still got the calls, people are going to point that out. When refs do that, it takes the confidence to win and throws it out the window. After that, the other team is just putting them out of their misery.
Lowry actually had a decent playoff series with the Cavs. He averaged 17.75 ppg on over 50% from the field to go with 7.75 apg. Lowry was fine. Demar had a terrible game three and four, there is no debating that. It is easy to see why a guy like Demar loses confidence when the refs aren't giving him his foul shots. He had 11 trips to the line in four games. That is a major red flag. Demar earns his trips to the line and when the refs aren't blowing the whistle, they basically take his game away from him, hence him disappearing in games 3 and 4. I do not give Demar a pass, but it makes sense to look for a little context as to why it happened.
How good would Milwaukee be in a series if Giannis got knocked to the ground time and time again and never got a foul called in his favour? Since he can't shoot threes, it is easy to say he would end up just like Demar, losing confidence and not producing wins for his team...
