Are the Raptors currently the 2nd best team in the East?

[bigmandinky]

I love raptor fans using their fluke win over houston without chris paul as some type of transcendent win. Chris Paul would be the best player on the raptors and it's not even close.

"Fluke" lol? Stop hating. The Raptors are 18-8. Raptors and Rockets split the season series every year. Don't be disrespectful.

Watch your mouth when you quote me boy. Nobody cares about your fluke, again, against a team missing a guy who is better than anyone on your roster. Move along the raptors are a poor mans hawks from a handful of seasons ago. By their second playoff game lawry and demar are going to be crying to the media about how they suck just like every year

You sound like a tool.

[Asif16]

Let's just give it to them.

They take pride on being 2nd best in the East anyway. Congrats for being 2nd.

Lol this post just screams butthurt. Its a discussion forum, so chill.

Raptors are 18-8 so far with THE toughest schedule to start the season (It's evened out now) and the fewest # of home games played in the entire NBA. It ain't crazy to think they might be the 2nd best team in the east (hence why the OP put it as a question). And we all know who the best team in the East is and it damn well aint the Celtics.

[OGLife]

Nope...

Yup. Boston is overrated. Once Irving’s body gives out, peace.

Yeah generally when your best player gets hurt your team will fall apart. And if this happens to Kyrie, the Celtics would actually lose their 2 best players

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

[OGLife]

Nope...

Yup. Boston is overrated. Once Irving’s body gives out, peace.

I mean you're talking about bodies giving out yet you ignore the fact that Lowry is old and injury-prone. Well done sir.

Talk to me about him after the Allstar break.

[Baller1234a]

Yup. Boston is overrated. Once Irving’s body gives out, peace.

Yeah generally when your best player gets hurt your team will fall apart. And if this happens to Kyrie, the Celtics would actually lose their 2 best players

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

Horford?
Been playing better than both of those players this year lol.

[OGLife]

Yeah generally when your best player gets hurt your team will fall apart. And if this happens to Kyrie, the Celtics would actually lose their 2 best players

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

Horford?
Been playing better than both of those players this year lol.

Horford - reaaaally? I might as well say Raptors bench>Celtics bench and the Raptors also have Ibaka who has been hot as of late.

[Froob]

Yup. Boston is overrated. Once Irving’s body gives out, peace.

Yeah generally when your best player gets hurt your team will fall apart. And if this happens to Kyrie, the Celtics would actually lose their 2 best players

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

Well Kyrie is a big time playoff performer who hit one of the greatest shots in NBA history and Lowry and DD are perennial playoff disappointments so..

[RonaldArtest]

Yeah generally when your best player gets hurt your team will fall apart. And if this happens to Kyrie, the Celtics would actually lose their 2 best players

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

Well Kyrie is a big time playoff performer who hit one of the greatest shots in NBA history and Lowry and DD are perennial playoff disappointments so..

How well did he fare in the playoffs without arguably one of the greatest players of all time? Oh right...

[Froob]

Don’t care for excuses, just stating the fact. Boston goes as far as Kyrie takes them. The Raptors go as far as Lowry and DD take them

Well Kyrie is a big time playoff performer who hit one of the greatest shots in NBA history and Lowry and DD are perennial playoff disappointments so..

How well did he fare in the playoffs without arguably one of the greatest players of all time? Oh right...

Well that team was total trash and was coached by Mike Brown lol..

[WeLikeOurGuys]

the raptors are a good regular season team but lets see how they do in the playoffs.

also who cares who the 2nd best team in the east is... everyone knows you have to get through the cavs.

[whysoserious]

Anything Raptors related turns in to a straight pissing match between Celtics Fans and Raptors Fans. There's enough defensive people on both sides of this ledger that like to knock down the other and prop up their own.

The Celtics have been surprisingly good without Hayward. Everyone expected them to fall hard after game 1 of the season, instead they played really really well. Kudos to them. They have the best record in the East.

Raptors had one of the toughest schedules to start the season, least amount of home games and have gotten all their West Coast trips practically done now and they are still 18-8. They aren't far behind the Celtics and have quite a few games in hand right now.

The Cavs are the best team just based on still having a generational talent like Lebron and he's beasting. They are still the cream of the crop. The Celtics and Raps are next in line and both have their strengths and weaknesses. It's not that much of a stretch for either side to really feel like one is better than the other right now but they are relatively close.

[Duffman100]

Honestly, I'd go Cavs, Celtics, Raptors.

We'll see if the young kids from the Celtics hit a wall and if the Raptors' ridiculous depth plays a role later into the season.

I would like to say that again, in pre season threads, the Raps were ridiculously ranked by some posters. Some saying we'd be fighting for the last playoff spot. Considering this is going to be the 5th season in a row winning 48+ games (probably), it's amazing that the team is continually under estimated.

[Clay Davis]

"Fluke" lol? Stop hating. The Raptors are 18-8. Raptors and Rockets split the season series every year. Don't be disrespectful.

Watch your mouth when you quote me boy. Nobody cares about your fluke, again, against a team missing a guy who is better than anyone on your roster. Move along the raptors are a poor mans hawks from a handful of seasons ago. By their second playoff game lawry and demar are going to be crying to the media about how they suck just like every year

You sound like a tool.

That doesn't exactly qualify as watching your mouth, ser.

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[Winsome Gerbil]

When you look at those Home/Road splits -- the Raptors have played the fewest home games (10) in the entire league, vs. 16 road games...it's entirely possible.

Then again, we know these Raps. Even if they look that way today, they're likely too well established to suddenly be taking huge steps forward.

[CoachD]

- LeBron is still best team on the East, and will play 8th straight NBA final as EC champion

- Boston is 2nd best, but without Hayward, their place in ECF is not secured

There are 4 very similar teams in terms of quality on East, so there is no #3, but #3-#6 place:
- Toronto
- Milwaukee since Bledsoe trade is not the same team. They are 11-5 since that trade and still improving
- Washington belongs to this group, they will regroup fast now when their best player John Wall is back
- Philadelphia is actually most talented out of this 4 teams, but they are too young and destined to have too many dumb and cheap loses this season

Toronto plays at a much higher level than the teams you have lumped them in with.

Boston's defense is regressing to the mean, and they don't score enough to win in the playoffs. Toronto would beat them in a series.

[RonaldArtest]

Well Kyrie is a big time playoff performer who hit one of the greatest shots in NBA history and Lowry and DD are perennial playoff disappointments so..

How well did he fare in the playoffs without arguably one of the greatest players of all time? Oh right...

Well that team was total trash and was coached by Mike Brown lol..

Ok. Then perhaps we should wait till this upcoming playoffs to see how he fares before dubbing him a "big time playoff performer". I seem to remember the minutes that Lebron stopped playing last playoffs that Cavs team seemingly fell off a cliff. It'll be interesting to see how Kyrie fares.

[CoachD]

It's so ridiculous how uneducated fans from south of the border dismiss the Raptors without a thought and simply say "they'll choke in the playoffs".

So because Boston won championships LONG BEFORE anyone on the current roster was playing, that makes them better in the playoffs? Boston played like trash last year and was almost beaten by Chicago. A healthy Rondo WOULD HAVE eliminated them.

They got trounced worse than Toronto by Cleveland despite the series going an extra game.

The Toronto narrative comes from those who DON"T WATCH more than a couple Raptor games all year (like when their team plays them) and they think they are qualified to make a statement.

Here are facts....

Lowry has never been healthy in the playoffs because of too many minutes during the RS and the style he plays. This year his minutes are way, way down, and he's playing tremendous ball.

Plus, unlike 90% of PGs in the NBA ... Lowry can be the best player on the floor without even taking a shot. He does everything else well.

The way people talk about Derozan in the playoffs is just stupid. He averages 21.7 ppg in the playoffs over 4 years (22.4 last year) while playing an iso based offence and having doubles and all kinds of defense keyed in on him.

He has had MASSIVE scoring explosions in elimination games when they need him most.

[Froob]

How well did he fare in the playoffs without arguably one of the greatest players of all time? Oh right...

Well that team was total trash and was coached by Mike Brown lol..

Ok. Then perhaps we should wait till this upcoming playoffs to see how he fares before dubbing him a "big time playoff performer". I seem to remember the minutes that Lebron stopped playing last playoffs that Cavs team seemingly fell off a cliff. It'll be interesting to see how Kyrie fares.

Like when Cavs were falling apart up 2-1 vs Boston and LeBron was in foul trouble and Kyrie went HAM and basically ended the series?

[CoachD]

When you look at those Home/Road splits -- the Raptors have played the fewest home games (10) in the entire league, vs. 16 road games...it's entirely possible.

Then again, we know these Raps. Even if they look that way today, they're likely too well established to suddenly be taking huge steps forward.

You know them?
Too well established?

Do you know they have an outstanding bench, and a COMPLETELY revamped offense? They went from an unfriendly playoff offense of isos and high P&R to a motion strong style open offense similar in concept to the Spurs / Warriors.

They put way more pressure on defenses than every before because of their style.

Ibaka is once again playing like he did in his best years with OKC....

They have tons of great youth, length, defensive awareness and heart.

No, you clearly DON'T know this Raptors team.

[RonaldArtest]

Well that team was total trash and was coached by Mike Brown lol..

Ok. Then perhaps we should wait till this upcoming playoffs to see how he fares before dubbing him a "big time playoff performer". I seem to remember the minutes that Lebron stopped playing last playoffs that Cavs team seemingly fell off a cliff. It'll be interesting to see how Kyrie fares.

Like when Cavs were falling apart up 2-1 vs Boston and LeBron was in foul trouble and Kyrie went HAM and basically ended the series?

You talking about game 4 where James scored 34 points, 15 of them in the 4th to seal the deal? That game?