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

[Prokorov]

I was at the game last night and the crowd was great! I will admit that they weren't as non-stop as the Toronto crowd but they were still great, in my opinion. But I agree with Garnett. The crowd can be a lot better and cheer even during the rough patches throughout the game. I'm gong to be there tomorrow as well so I'm going to be trying my best to get the crowd going!

tough for the nets crowd to be lively and committed when this team has played with the worst effort in the NBA the past 2 seasons and mailed in games especially on back to backs on the regualar/

you want a lively crowd? bring it 41 times a year

I get what you're saying but it doesn't make sense for the crowd not to live in the moment of the game. Why else are they there if they're not going to pull for their team? Plus, this year's team is NOT last year's team AND the Nets have rewarded this crowd with a lot of great home wins this season. So I don't see how what you're saying correlates to the crowd being more lively at the games.

why are they there? they were given tickets? to watch the game? fans of other teams? either way, they clealy arent a majorit of die hard fans. and i cant blame them, we have dogged it more since coming to brooklyn then any playoff team ive seen since derrick coleman was here

even me, as a die hard fan, has trouble rooting for this team times. you cant expect fans to go crazy for you when you dont play hard for them 50% of the time during the year, as well as lay complete eggs at home in the playoffs last year.

for a fan, the easiest thing to root for is effort. over the past 2 years not many teams have played with less effort then us.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Why does Andre Blatche look like the oldest guy on the team? Who's his nutritionist? Is that guy going to be the starting C when KG retires in two weeks?

[jerzeyguy201]

Why does Andre Blatche look like the oldest guy on the team? Who's his nutritionist? Is that guy going to be the starting C when KG retires in two weeks?

this is a dumb comment

why would Blatche be starting ??? Did he start when KG was out during the season ???

No...Plumlee did...smh

[Prokorov]

Why does Andre Blatche look like the oldest guy on the team? Who's his nutritionist? Is that guy going to be the starting C when KG retires in two weeks?

Blatche wont be back next year. plumlee or lopez will start at center, depending on brooks health

[ATLTimekeeper]

Why does Andre Blatche look like the oldest guy on the team? Who's his nutritionist? Is that guy going to be the starting C when KG retires in two weeks?

this is a dumb comment

why would Blatche be starting ??? Did he start when KG was out during the season ???

No...Plumlee did...smh

Wake up Brooklyn, Plumlee's getting traded for some fat contract name player in the off-season.

[Netties21]

Baiting

[Hoffa69]

You guys realize there are plenty of examples of the Nets getting hosed on calls too?

I don't see how anyone can say there has been a pro BK bias.... and especially one that has impacted the series.

-They are even on fouls and FTA

- Derozen is #1 in FTA for the league in the PO

-The Nets would average about 5 fewer FTA per game if not for the end of game intentional fouls and be well behind the Raps by about 20%.

-The Raps and Nets were even in FTA in game 3 despite the Nets doing most their scoring in the paint and at home.

-Plumlee and Livingston have been plagued by fouls this series. KG and PP have had foul trouble that has kept them out of games.

-KG was called for a tech even though Lowry was the one continuing the play in game 1, he's also been called for numerous illegal screens

-Blatche was called for a tech for doing nothing in game 1

-Blatche was called for a foul on the rebound in game 3 when he did nothing to Patterson. Blatche always gets called for bad calls though.


Also... don't some fans claim this has happened all season?

And yet they were still able to win 48 games, get the 3 seed and take 2 of 4 from the Nets.
They also took the 7th most FTA per game in the regular season.

My point is, thinking this bias exists, wouldn't that have been factored into their fans expectations/predictions including all those that said the Raps would win in 4 or 5?

I agree with most of these points, although I don't think it is necessarily the number of fouls that people are worried about. It's when these fouls are called and the ones that aren't called. I gotta admit I can't stand KG and I think he was/still is the biggest punk in the league in the past 10 years. Its insane how much **** he gets away with, and he acts like he never fouls EVER...put your fking hands down KG.

Anyways besides that, it's the ridiculous call on Vasquez (IMO it didn't warrant a foul, especially with 40 seconds left or whatever it was), and then a T?! Are you kidding me, wow just give the Nets the win.

I don't agree with your Derozan point however, ya he is #1 in FTA right now, but he earns mostly every call he gets. There's numerous of times he gets hacked and it doesn't get called, and this coming from a non-Demar fan. I just think the officiating has been very inconsistent, and usually in the 4th quarter, which is the frustrating part.

Still think this series goes 7.

[BK nets BK]

Someone please tell all the fans going to the game to stop the USA chants. My god that was embarrassing.

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

[ChampionRed]

Someone please tell all the fans going to the game to stop the USA chants. My god that was embarrassing.

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

I was at the game and there was a marine there that they were honoring. They showed him on the screen a few times and he kept chanting USA and the crowd went with it! lol

[PapeSowish]

surprised no one is talking about Lowry's injury that he suffered in game 3. His limp was bad and was moving around at 50% speed the rest of the game. I know he'll play through it but Toronto has no chance if Kyle is too beat up.

Still, BK really looks like it has too many weapons for Toronto anyway at this point. I think they take it in 6, possibly even 5 if Lowry is too banged up.

[VanDamme]

surprised no one is talking about Lowry's injury that he suffered in game 3. His limp was bad and was moving around at 50% speed the rest of the game. I know he'll play through it but Toronto has no chance if Kyle is too beat up.

Still, BK really looks like it has too many weapons for Toronto anyway at this point. I think they take it in 6, possibly even 5 if Lowry is too banged up.

Don't be surprised.

On March 21, the Toronto Raptors lost a thrilling double-overtime game to the Oklahoma City Thunder by a final score of 119-118.

Raptors star Kyle Lowry scored 25 points in 46 minutes of play — but he did it in a most unusual way.

Tim Leiweke, the President and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, explained what went down during an interview with George.

"Kyle has been carrying the whole burden for us all year," said Leiweke. "He's wearing out. Just aches and pains and finally at the end of the game we're up, and they tell him, 'That's it. You're shut down.' And they take him back to the training table and the doctor said, 'You're done. You're finished. You're done for the night. And you're done for a couple of games here... you gotta rest.' And then Oklahoma does their little run at the end and all of a sudden the doctor looks around and Kyle's gone.

"He's literally darted from the training room without telling the doctors, goes back on, looks at the coach and says 'I'm in,' walks back into the game, checks himself into the game. The coach knew it, the coach was like, 'Go.' And we go to two overtimes with Oklahoma. They had to sit down with him after the game finally and just say, 'Kyle, this is it. You're done. You gotta take a couple games off.'

"[Raptors GM] Masai [Ujiri] gets a call the next day. Our athletic trainer who's phenomenal, says, 'You won't believe this. I've never seen anything like it. I'm telling you, whatever was going on with him the swelling's gone, he's 100 per cent.' And this was a guy who was saying we gotta do an intervention to keep him out. He told Masai he's ready to go."

George then said, "I don't believe in miracles. That sounds suspicious. What's going on?"

"Yeah, well, if there was some secret potion we had, believe me, I'd put it in the Leafs dressing room, too," Leiweke replied.

http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/videos/web-ex ... to-raptors

[Kastas]

i dont know, i dont see your bigs as guys who can give us trouble in the post. thats not patterson or amir's game and val while great at secondary offense has been a turnover/brick machine when given post touches

i really think you guys should milk the pick and roll. it killed us all year, especially when KG isnt on the floor. Vasquez owns us on the pick roll.

They don't got to Jonas nearly enough IMO.
He's
4-4
5-9
7-13
61% shooting so far.

he also has 13 turnovers in 3 games on pretty low usage.

And alot of those points are on offensive rebounds and putbacks, not by going to him and having him score. I'll have to run through the game log but id assume he is under 50% on non-put back FGA.

edit: checked the play by play -- Game 3 he had 1 FGM on an offensive putback, Game 2 he had 2 FGA on offensive putbacks. Game 1 he had 4 putbacks off offenive rebounds, but he also had 2 misses off offensive rebounds so we need to subtract those misses to...

so 7-9 on offensive putbacks. makes him 9-24 on everything else (37.5%)

Obviously those points still count, and he has played well... but i think its relevant to bring up when discussing if they should go to him more or not

He is 16/26 (61.5%).

so 7-9 on offensive putbacks. makes him 9-17 on everything else (52.9%)

[Prokorov]

Why does Andre Blatche look like the oldest guy on the team? Who's his nutritionist? Is that guy going to be the starting C when KG retires in two weeks?

this is a dumb comment

why would Blatche be starting ??? Did he start when KG was out during the season ???

No...Plumlee did...smh

Wake up Brooklyn, Plumlee's getting traded for some fat contract name player in the off-season.

Plumlee makes only 1.3 Million, and we are over the cap. So it would be impossible for us to trade him for a player with a "fat contract" as the most we could take back in salary for him is 1.62 Million, according to the CBA.

[Prokorov]

I agree with most of these points, although I don't think it is necessarily the number of fouls that people are worried about. It's when these fouls are called and the ones that aren't called....

Anyways besides that, it's the ridiculous call on Vasquez (IMO it didn't warrant a foul, especially with 40 seconds left or whatever it was), and then a T?! Are you kidding me, wow just give the Nets the win.

You want to talk about the "timing" of bad calls? How about with 19 seconds left and the Raptors down by 2 Andray Blatche gets called for a phantom foul going for a rebound on a free throw, sending Patterson 94 feet down the other end to the line for a chance to tie it. There have been plenty of 'bad timing' fouls going against the nets as well. Dwill, livingston(twice), plumlee, and pierce have all been forced to sit in the first half of games due to foul trouble. KG has 2 tech, 4 illegal screens called on him and fouled out in 20 minutes last game.

this series has been officiated right down the middle, and certainly better then most so far in round 1

I don't agree with your Derozan point however, ya he is #1 in FTA right now, but he earns mostly every call he gets. There's numerous of times he gets hacked and it doesn't get called, and this coming from a non-Demar fan. I just think the officiating has been very inconsistent, and usually in the 4th quarter, which is the frustrating part.

Derozan has shot mostly jump shots, yet still leads the playoffs in FTA. he has gotten plenty of 50/50 calls, including a really questionable 'and 1' to cut it to 2 late in game 3.

this just seems like a really biased view in my opinion:

"sure the fouls are even but fouls on us came at bad times"

"sure DD gets a ton of free throws but all of them are legit"

it is just hard to really watch these games and listen to these kinds of comments... especially when Raptors fans were blaming the refs before the series started, and have a 30 page thread bitching out the refs. 30 pages!!

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1316039&start=580

[ATLTimekeeper]

DeMar's 4th in drives per game in the playoffs. He was fourth in free throws for the season, it's not unreasonable for him to be leading the league in free throws right now. He's been aggressive and he invites contact and the Nets play physical defense. Do we have a clip of the Blatche loose ball foul? It's been called a phantom by a few Nets fans, but that wasn't my impression at the time. Looked like he had at least one arm around Patterson.

[Prokorov]

DeMar's 4th in drives per game in the playoffs. He was fourth in free throws for the season, it's not unreasonable for him to be leading the league in free throws right now. He's been aggressive and he invites contact and the Nets play physical defense. Do we have a clip of the Blatche loose ball foul? It's been called a phantom by a few Nets fans, but that wasn't my impression at the time. Looked like he had at least one arm around Patterson.

Im not saying that derozan has been unfairly sent to the line... my point was raps fans are crying about fouls, yet derozan is getting all the calls he usually does. its not like he isnt getting calls because of favortism to the nets. he has gotten all the calls and all the close calls still.

raps fans also said KG gets away with everything, yet he fouled out in 20 minutes last night, has gotten called for 4 ilegal screens, and has gotten called for 2 technical fouls.

the raptors have a pretty sizeable advantage in free throws when you remove the times they sent the nets to the line intetionally at the end of games. And even if you include everything, the FTs are still at 92-91.

I've heard the argument that "its not how many fouls, its the situation" yet a closer examination there still has the nets picking up plenty of fouls at critical times. Williams,Livingston(twice), pierce, plumlee, and garnett have all had to leave the game in the first quarter because of foul trouble. and we have had guys pick up their 4th or 5th foul early in the 4th quarter 4 times as well.... then you have the blatche foul on a FT attemp 94 feet from the hoop to sending the raps to the line with 19 seconds and a chance to tie. you have the and 1's on lowry to cut it to 7 and derozan to cut it to 2 late, when those were 50/50 calls. you have the foul on garnett on the FT line on derozans miss to send val to the line for 2 free throws.

the notion that you arent getting calls you should, that our guys are getting away with anything, or that your getting the short end of the stick on 'bad timing' calls seems really inaccurate.

as far as the blatche play, he wasnt fouled, the announcers called it a bad call, the replay showed it wasnt a foul on him. ill try and find a good video of it from the overhead camera, which had a perfect shot of it on the espn feed

[therealbig3]

All the little pot shots at KG, and people are ignoring that he's actually been really good this series. His minutes are being restricted like crazy, but in the minutes he plays, he's such a defensive force, even at his age. He's been helpful offensively too these last couple of games.

[cjcfman]

All the little pot shots at KG, and people are ignoring that he's actually been really good this series. His minutes are being restricted like crazy, but in the minutes he plays, he's such a defensive force, even at his age. He's been helpful offensively too these last couple of games.

Letting Jonas have the best playoff debut by a centre since 85 is being a defensive force?

[Prokorov]

All the little pot shots at KG, and people are ignoring that he's actually been really good this series. His minutes are being restricted like crazy, but in the minutes he plays, he's such a defensive force, even at his age. He's been helpful offensively too these last couple of games.

i'd disagree, ive been extremely disappointed with KG. outside of a 6 minute stretch in game 1, he has been trash defensively. and outside of a stretch of jumpers early in game 2, he has been non exsistent offensively.

i dont mind him playing obviously, because the alternatives are plumlee who seems over his head in the playoffs and baltche who is a rollercoaster, but KG has been easily our worst starter this series and not really more the a nuetral player thus far.

he has gotten called for 2 technicals, fouled out in 20 minutes last night, hasnt rebounded 1/2 as well as he did in the regular season, has gotten called for 4 illegal screens, and has been at best decent on offense.

if we got great play from KG, we'd be doing alot better then we are. he hasnt been a rim protector, a rebounder, and hasnt defended without fouling. i like the intensity he brings, cause most of our guys are so passive and even keel, but beyond that, big disappointment imo

[Prokorov]

All the little pot shots at KG, and people are ignoring that he's actually been really good this series. His minutes are being restricted like crazy, but in the minutes he plays, he's such a defensive force, even at his age. He's been helpful offensively too these last couple of games.

Letting Jonas have the best playoff debut by a centre since 85 is being a defensive force?

meh... 13 turnovers on low usage, a -23 in a closer series (hasnt been in the positive in any of the 3 games) and not much scoring outside of putbacks.

he has played well, especially for a 21 year old player, but best debut since '85? i wouldnt say that. the double double stats are nice, but he hasnt really imposed his will or been a dominating force in this series.

Brook lopez averaged 23/7/3 with a 25 PER in his debut last year and that was head to head with noah.

id say pretty conservatively it isnt better then shaqs 21/13/3 and the impact he had his debut. mourning 24/10/4 in his debut, motumbo 13/12/6 blocks per game among others