ECSF: P1 | (1) Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers (4) | TIED 0-0

[zimpy27]

Toronto should win this series, definitely expect them to win the first game.

[NinjaBro]

Fred Vàn Fleet is a top 5 player in this series?

Just the best bench player on the best bench in the NBA no big deal really

It's VanVleet btw

Sounds like the yearly overrated Raptors draftee

Bruno the next KD

Except this time Vanvleet has the resume to back it up for the season.

[Curmudgeon]

Now this series is going to be interesting.

[JShuttlesworth]

Barneys better be afraid. The Kang is coming for them.

Good burn

[dukes_wild]

Ok
It breaks down like this...

Overall depth chart for this series:

1. Lebron - CLE
2. Derozan - TOR
3. Lowry - TOR
4. Valanciunas - TOR
5. Van Vleet- TOR
6. Love - CLE
7. Siakam - TOR
8. OG - TOR
9. Wright - TOR
10. Hill - CLE

Love is still better than FVV and probably even JV. Recency bias is taking you over if you think all star Kevin Love is not as good as FVV/JV. One bad series doesn't change that.

Also Lowry > DeRozan

Aside from that, a fairly accurate top 10 players in this series list

Derozan / Lowry are basically tied for 2nd

You HAVE TO HAVE a recency bias because in a playoff series its all about who is playing well right now and this year...

Both JV and FVV have had a greater impact on winning than Love

Kevin Love finished the year strong and then had a bad series, it happens. When we went into the 2nd round vs Miami in 2016 would you rank Luol Deng ahead of Lowry/DeRozan? Deng's series vs the Hornets in the 1st round was really fantastic while DeRozan/Lowry struggled vs the Pacers. Yet Deng finished that Raps/Heat series averaging 7.6 PPG on 36% shooting, 22% from 3 despite playing 37 MPG

Also, your logic doesn't work for FVV who ended the season with a few poor games before being injured, and only played 1 playoff game.

It's absolute disrespect towards Love to say FVV/JV are better players than him.

[vesku888]

Please Serge Ibaka, you've had 3 full days rest.

This guy is the X-factor, problem is he's so damn old.

Ibaka will have a decent Game 1 (maybe), fooling everyone into thinking he's saved up his strength for the playoffs, and then totally sh** the bed for the rest of the series and somehow Doof Casey will give him important minutes over Jonas.

I think Ibaka will be the Raptors' CarmeLo Anthony. Grossly overpaid and consistently unreliable...can't score and can't defend any Cavalier, most certainly not LeBron James and Kevin Love.

I just wish Doof Casey benched Ibaka in November and yanked him out of the starting lineup for Siakam after Siakam's third start, a game in which he absolutely locked up Porzingis back when the Knicks were a bottom 4 seed. Siakam has much greater impact on the game even if he can't shoot, much higher BBIQ, a far better passer and defender and ball handler, and has a legitimate transition game. Ibaka is a midrange PnP big, not a legit stretch 4, who thinks he's Ryan Anderson or prime Melo when he's really closer to Bustnani. A total ball stopper on offense and has slow feet and bad hands and can't rebound for sh** unless there's no one else around. If he can't shoot or stretch the floor he's utterly useless.

I totally expect the Cavaliers to dare Congolese Rudy Bargnani to shoot (so that Lowry and DeRozan and Valanciunas don't), which is exactly what he will be more than happy to do. I mean that's how the Raptors blew a sizable lead to the Cavaliers and eventually lost the game on March 21, 2018, by actually trusting Ibricka to make shots Lmaoooo. Serge Ibaka will end up being one of the Cavaliers' best players in this series, just like Harrison Barnes was back in June 2016, book it.

This is all too true.

He's overpaid and washed up. We just need him to have a semi-decent game on offense, and actually catch the ball when it's thrown to him.

I do remember that Cavs game where we were up by double digits and there was like a five minute sequence where he missed every shot and turned the ball over. Dude infuriated me.

Pascal is definitely the future and could be the present, but Casey likes his veterans


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Ben-N1ce]

If the Raptors can outscore the Cavs and maintain the lead in games they have a shot

[Basketball_Jones]

Van Vleet is already better then Kevin Love, I don't know how Lebron is going to win lol.

[John Murdoch]

If the Raptors can outscore the Cavs and maintain the lead in games they have a shot

[Mister Ze]

I don't expect the Cavs supporting cast to be as lousy as they were against Indiana, but I do expect their defense to be a concern for them.

[lambchop]

If the Raptors can outscore the Cavs and maintain the lead in games they have a shot

basically just outscore the cavs and live with the results imo

[The_Toro]

Read on Twitter

you know why he said that

because if LeBron fails to beat the Raps in 4, they he can say LeBron failed.

if the Cavs lose to the Raps, Skip will go off on LeBron.

Skip is a fool, do not pay attention to anything he says. The fact he is on TV is a joke, but you can say the same for a lot of people on TV.

[lebron stopper]

Toronto wins if they double Lebron and not allow him to run a layup line.

Oh god I hope we don't do that.

At worst, I'd rather see Lebron go for 81 than have guys like Calderon, Green and Hill clown us with their sustained 90% FG shooting like in previous games.

Not only did this exact same strategy fail for Indiana last week, everyone says the Cavs are all bums except for Lebron and he’s playing by himself. So one would think the solution would be to stop the guy getting 40 by taking layups.

But perhaps OG truly is the Lebron stopper. We shall see (we being non raptor fans).

This strategy worked wonderfully for Indiana and put them in a position to take the series, they just botched it up as usual by missing the most wide open shots available and not playing Oladipo while LeBron was off the court.

All doubling LeBron does is allow him to pass to an open man like George Hill and Jose Calderon. And man, I do not want those two to be the reason why Raptors lose games. If the Raptors are going to double LeBron, for the love of god, make sure there's a non-shooter like Jeff Green that's left open at least...

[IbakasD]

Forgive me for not fully trusting the Raptors in the postseason yet, but they will have the chance to earn it. I know you guys love VanVleet and I do love underdog stories, but let's be real here: he played in two games a total of 22 minutes against Washington. What is that supposed to tell me about the Raptors chances against Cleveland? Yes, nothing really. Also, I'm not counting out LeBron when some of his shooters show up against a team whose very foundation has in the past had struggles to come through in the postseason. I know all of you guys will tell me that this is a different team with the bench guys, and I'm not even necessarily disagreeing, but I'll be skeptical until I actually see a difference.

After Lowry and Derozan there's not too much greatness happening lol. Love I'd say would be next best. JV and FVV?

Seriously?

Ok
It breaks down like this...

Overall depth chart for this series:

1. Lebron - CLE
2. Derozan - TOR
3. Lowry - TOR
4. Valanciunas - TOR
5. Van Vleet- TOR
6. Love - CLE
7. Siakam - TOR
8. OG - TOR
9. Wright - TOR
10. Hill - CLE

Then getting into the next 10 .... the Cavs have a bunch of erratic scorers that offer very little defensive effort, while Toronto has a bunch of defenders that offer offensive support.

No one on this forum should take this gy seriously. Basketball jones is just a funny troll, Coach D right here has zero baskeball kowledge. This same man said illaysova and bellinili were both terrible signings for the sixers when they first got them. Just ignore this man he has no clue what he's talking about. He said the celtics will be worse when they add gordan Hayward next year too cause it will hurt their offence lmfaooo.

[NinjaBro]

No one on this forum should take this gy seriously. Basketball jones is just a funny troll.

Basketball jones is a lot of things. Funny isn't one of them.

[IbakasD]

This man said Fred van vleet is better than Kevin love. Lmfaoooooooo

[IbakasD]

No one on this forum should take this gy seriously. Basketball jones is just a funny troll.

Basketball jones is a lot of things. Funny isn't one of them.

He's better than CoachD trust me.

[Troubadour]

Raptors are getting Game 1. Cavs are exhausted and have become accustomed to working their way out of a hole.

[Lovethisgamegr]

This man said Fred van vleet is better than Kevin love. Lmfaoooooooo

In the series vs the Pacers even Tristan f** Thompson was better than Kevin Love. And yeah that's a hot take i really hope and expect Kevin will play extremely better against the Raptors.

[RaptorsLife]

Shoutout Raptorologist

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk