2014 NBA Playoffs: Toronto Raptors (3) vs Brooklyn Nets (6)

[guess_wh0]

The NBA should take the advice of some of the geniuses on here and just advance the Nets already because they won 1 game.

Here's the deal:

1) Young team, first game jitters. Out of the way.
2) After a horrendous start the Raps actually won the next two qtrs.

Only the most optimistic fans would have expected Toronto to win game 1 with most of their starting lineup playing their first high pressure playoff game. But the series is far from over. I said it before and I'll say it again- Raps in 7.

[VanDamme]

Pretty sure Drake and Jay are good friends, he was obviously joking

I don't know, I think this may cause Jay Z to retire and then come back from retirement just to record a diss track for Drake. /g

[canguy20m]

The NBA should take the advice of some of the geniuses on here and just advance the Nets already because they won 1 game.

Here's the deal:

1) Young team, first game jitters. Out of the way.
2) After a horrendous start the Raps actually won the next two qtrs.

Only the most optimistic fans would have expected Toronto to win game 1 with most of their starting lineup playing their first high pressure playoff game. But the series is far from over. I said it before and I'll say it again- Raps in 7.

without major contributions from Derozan and Ross the Raptors can't win. can't rely on Valanciunas for offense. both players seemed disinterested in game 1, that didn't change in the second half.

[Dark Faze]

Most concerning thing was how easily Lowry, DeRozan, and Ross literally bounce off of D-Will and Iso Joe. If those guys can continue to penetrate and get deep post position whenever they want, then it's just a matter of the team hitting threes at just close to league average percentages to win most games in the series.

I still have hope for DeRozan to get it together but I truly think Ross is a lost cause unless they find someone else to guard Joe. He's simply feather thin compared to Joe and has zero hope of defending him without foul trouble.

[Sixteen]

What does drake or any of these other clowns have to do with anything? Other entertainers are always trying to make it about them

[Sixteen]

Just play the game. People are always trying to make it something else. Brooklyn vs TDot as a city, Drake vs HOV, justin beiber jokes. Who cares? What about raptors vs nets?

[High 5]

What does drake or any of these other clowns have to do with anything? Other entertainers are always trying to make it about them

Drake is the new champagne. He's in happy locker rooms around the globe. Which begs the question: If athletes are celebrating a win and Drake isn't in the room, does the win count?

[Edrees]

gotta change my vote to 'AFTER GAME 1 IS OVER, RAPS IN 4"

[disoblige]

Raps in 7

- the Nets will not shut down the Raps offense for the whole series. Nets is a terrible defensive team and Raps is a great offensive team.
-Lowry will shut down Deron Williams

[ChampionRed]

Most concerning thing was how easily Lowry, DeRozan, and Ross literally bounce off of D-Will and Iso Joe. If those guys can continue to penetrate and get deep post position whenever they want, then it's just a matter of the team hitting threes at just close to league average percentages to win most games in the series.

I still have hope for DeRozan to get it together but I truly think Ross is a lost cause unless they find someone else to guard Joe. He's simply feather thin compared to Joe and has zero hope of defending him without foul trouble.

How about all the open 3's the Nets missed? Both teams played sloppy. Raptors aren't the only team who are going to play better.

[wu-massacre]

Raptors fan base(those who continued complaining) straight up embarrassed themselves today. The constant complaining of the refs before the series even started was already a joke to begin with but right at the start of the game until all the way in the 4th there was still constant complaining smh I've never seen anything like it.

Nothing embarrassing about pointing out facts. For example last year we got screwed to the point that the league made official apologies to the team. I think it was 4 times? So naturally we've come to expect a biased whistle especially when facing HOFers.

The refs didn't cost us this game but there's nothing wrong with pointing out they had screw ups.

No it was outright embarrassing that even the non bandwagon raptor fans were disgusted. Crying won't help your team win games. The league has apologized to many other teams don't flatter yourself Toronto isn't anything special, So naturally ya'll are coming off as immature babies.

[wu-massacre]

It's also funny that every single Raptor fans have been using the same " well out team didn't play good so this won't happen again" excuse....It's like they think the Nets actually played their best basketball when secretly they played like doodoo.

[Trader_Joe]

Most concerning thing was how easily Lowry, DeRozan, and Ross literally bounce off of D-Will and Iso Joe. If those guys can continue to penetrate and get deep post position whenever they want, then it's just a matter of the team hitting threes at just close to league average percentages to win most games in the series.

I still have hope for DeRozan to get it together but I truly think Ross is a lost cause unless they find someone else to guard Joe. He's simply feather thin compared to Joe and has zero hope of defending him without foul trouble.

How about all the open 3's the Nets missed? Both teams played sloppy. Raptors aren't the only team who are going to play better.

Exactly..
-4-24 with 19 misses in a row shouldn't happen again.
-Plumlee only able to play 12 minutes with 5 fouls shouldn't happen every game
-Livingston with 3 early fouls and 4 in the third shouldn't happen every game
-Teletovic, Thornton and KG should not go 2-15
-The bench shouldn't play atrociously each game. Plumlee was good and AA OK, but Teletovic, Thornton and Blatche were awful.
-AK will not sit every game
-Nets probably will get out rebounded but hopefully not by 8 each game
-Hopefully we don't get called for 2 terrible technicals each game

Then again, I'm not sure we see..
-The starters dominate like they did. KG+10, JJ +15, D.Will and PP +20.
-The Nets execute as well as they did in the fourth
-Amir, DD and T.Ross be complete non factors. Amir did not play well in the RS, but DD was huge against the Nets and Ross played great D.

Not completely surprised by the win but it was encouraging as the Nets had the worst road record of any playoff team. I still think Toronto comes back with a vengeance game 2 and gets the W, but overall I'm feeling better about the Nets chances this series, but it's far from over. The story lines are getting good too.

[Trader_Joe]

Raps in 7

- the Nets will not shut down the Raps offense for the whole series. Nets is a terrible defensive team and Raps is a great offensive team.
-Lowry will shut down Deron Williams

Nets have been a very good defensive team in 2014, especially at home.
The last two weeks were unimpressive from all the line up changes and rest, but at one point they held 11 straight opponents under 100 points during their 15 game home winning streak.

Their defense could look better as..
-Livingston is our best wing defender and was severely limited due to early foul trouble
-AK is our best help defender and most versatile defender and he didn't play
-Plumlee is our second best interior defender and he barely played because of 5 fouls in 12 minutes..though when he was in, he had a +13 as he changes the energy of a game.

[DG88]

Thanks ESPN
[tweet]https://twitter.com/cathalkelly/status/457938911625371648[/tweet]

[Rich Rane]

After watching a replay, for all the outrage of no fouls on the Nets in the 4th quarter, it's not as if Toronto was working the post or looking to get too away from their shooting. The disparity of fouls called weren't exactly telling either. And for over 6 minutes, only 1 foul was called on Toronto. Over the next 2 minutes, there was 1 foul on Vasquez (non shooting) and a charge on Deron. Toronto didn't even get their 3rd team foul until under the 2 minute mark (non shooting) and then it was intentional fouls. So yes, the refs were bad yesterday on both sides, but let's not act like they were out to gun for Toronto.

[raptor jesus]

Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams' unofficial Brooklyn retort to Ujiri's mic-drop moment.

"It's unfortunate that the Raptors' GM felt so desperate facing against our Nets that he would throw profanity around discussing our beloved borough, but I can't say I'm surprised. After all, Brooklyn is a classier place. Just compare Babs to Biebs, or spend some time with their...colorful mayor. Still, we spread love; it is, after all, the Brooklyn way.

"Rather than mess with verbal barbs, I say it's 'put up or shut up time', Toronto! I'm willing to send up North some of Brooklyn's best if the Raptors can prevail, perhaps a six-pack from Brooklyn Brewery or a CD from the First Family of hip-hop. The ball is in Mayor Ford's court to meet the challenge.

"Let's go Nets!"

Stay classy Brooklyn and Nets fans.

I've been doing some reading on this Eric Adams fellow. Figured since he's a politician that he's probably said some stupid things himself. And I was right:

The head of the city's association of black police officers yesterday attacked Republican-Liberal comptroller candidate Herman Badillo, saying he can't represent Hispanics because he is married to a non-Hispanic woman.

"It's insulting to the Hispanic community that he can go to the Hispanic community for support, but he can't go to the Hispanic community when he's picking a wife," Eric Adams, head of the Grand Council of the Guardians, said later of comments first broadcast on Channel 5's "The McCreary Report." "I stand by my quote."

Badillo, whose wife of 32 years, Irma, suffers from Alzheimer's disease, said Adams' comments were "outrageous" and demanded that Mayor David N. Dinkins repudiate him.

Dinkins did just that, saying, "That's wrong, period, paragraph."…

…An angry Badillo denounced Adams' comments.

Ujiri tries to ignite crowd at basketball game. Adams makes xenophobic remarks in attempt to swing election.

[VanDamme]

Raptors fan base(those who continued complaining) straight up embarrassed themselves today. The constant complaining of the refs before the series even started was already a joke to begin with but right at the start of the game until all the way in the 4th there was still constant complaining smh I've never seen anything like it.

Nothing embarrassing about pointing out facts. For example last year we got screwed to the point that the league made official apologies to the team. I think it was 4 times? So naturally we've come to expect a biased whistle especially when facing HOFers.

The refs didn't cost us this game but there's nothing wrong with pointing out they had screw ups.

No it was outright embarrassing that even the non bandwagon raptor fans were disgusted. Crying won't help your team win games. The league has apologized to many other teams don't flatter yourself Toronto isn't anything special, So naturally ya'll are coming off as immature babies.

You may be right if it was only Raps fans, if you paid attention to the game and knew what to look for you would have seen the missed calls (on both sides) and if you see them, there's nothing embarrassing about pointing them out. If you don't know how to look for them there are plenty of post-game analysis videos that will break the game down for you (Videos made by non Raps fans). Like I said the refs didn't cost us this game.

It's also funny that every single Raptor fans have been using the same " well out team didn't play good so this won't happen again" excuse....It's like they think the Nets actually played their best basketball when secretly they played like doodoo.

Both teams can play better, except 3 of the Raptors starters were no-shows in game 1.
For the nets, they missed a lot of 3s and KG was meh...

Who would you say had the worst game? Serious question.

[Froob]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MazzESPN/status/457893204210515968[/tweet]

hahahaha

cold blooooded

You do realize that Masai is a far more accomplished, intelligent GM then your money haemorrhaging, near-sighted, czar, right?

And were you just comparing the Nets to the Spurs? LOL.

When was the last time Masai got outta the first round? Not that Billy King has been good but Masai hasn't exactly had a storied career..

[kayliecee]

Talentwise the raptors have enough to win, but not with a disinterested T.Ross and D.Derozan. Either way this series will separate the men from the boys, a lot of maturity from Valanciunas and Lowry.

Where is this "disinterested" coming from? It's the most inapt description. You think they were out there wondering what movie to go to that afternoon?

It's more likely that the whole team is crap at that time of day. They were 1-4 in Sunday 1PM home starts this season. Raps is 5 or 6 or 7.