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

[RaptorsLife]

Raptors fans are cocky yet we have humility in defeat. No reason to be humble when it's 0-0

[bmurph128]

That would be really dumb. He's got no shot at guarding JV. Ibaka can be guarded by a guy like J. Green or even Korver. But you could quickly get both JV and Ibaka off the floor by going small, and when that happens, you put TT in against the Raptors younger and more athletic big men.

I like Tristan guarding JV better than Love guarding him.

And even if we put Tristan on Ibaka, I like that better than Green. Thompson brought an energy that this team was sorely lacking and I want to see if that continues.

When it comes to defending skilled big men in the post, TT is our worst defensive big. Opposing big men just shoot over him down there on high percentage shots. The Pacers didn't have one so it didn't matter. Neither of the Raptors young big men off the bench are post players so it won't matter. That's when you're going to want TT in the game - when they come in.

Tristan is our only rim protector though at the same time. I think he makes the defense better as a whole. And against the Raptors last year he killed them on the boards. Going small would hurt the rebounding quite a bit.

[dukes_wild]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

[NoBias]

All guys that could help the Cavs right about now

Yeah those were the guys that got the Cavs run out of the gym in January. The next time we met up with the new roster, we won. I'll take the current team.

Wade is still great in the playoffs, a healthy IT would make much more of an impact than Clarkson, Crowder is at least a viable defender on DeRozan (unlike JR) and Frye absolutely killed the Raps in past showings.

Just like Cavs fans have been trashing JR for several years..

Delon, Siakam, Ibaka > Hill, JR

I'm pretty sure your organization would accept any deal involving Ibaka and JR. Or JR and Delon, or Jr and OG, JR and Pascal, etc.

It was targeted towards the Cavs fan. I'm a Raptors fan lol

[NoBias]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

Read post below.

[dukes_wild]

The Cavs are about to get smacked. This won't even be close tonight. The Raptors are just better.

+1. No chance cleveland wins game 1.So IF raps can get game 2 too, that would be huge.

No chance the greatest player of all time wins a playoff game?

That's a bit of a stretch. LeBron could be surrounded by 12 RealGM teammates and he'd have a shot.

[lebron stopper]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

Cavs think they can improve their roster for free just like that SMH

[bmurph128]

The Cavs are about to get smacked. This won't even be close tonight. The Raptors are just better.

Whatever happens, props for putting this out there well before the game starts.

[dukes_wild]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

Read post below.

?

[jbk1234]

I like Tristan guarding JV better than Love guarding him.

And even if we put Tristan on Ibaka, I like that better than Green. Thompson brought an energy that this team was sorely lacking and I want to see if that continues.

When it comes to defending skilled big men in the post, TT is our worst defensive big. Opposing big men just shoot over him down there on high percentage shots. The Pacers didn't have one so it didn't matter. Neither of the Raptors young big men off the bench are post players so it won't matter. That's when you're going to want TT in the game - when they come in.

Tristan is our only rim protector though at the same time. I think he makes the defense better as a whole. And against the Raptors last year he killed them on the boards. Going small would hurt the rebounding quite a bit.

Nance is our best rim protector and it's not close. You're suffering from recency bias against a totally different team that schemed for six games without TT in the starting line up. Starting TT against the Raptors would be dumb. You'll need him when they go to their bench bigs which could be sooner rather than later is Lue is smart about this.

[NoBias]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

Read post below.

?

It was a reply to Bmurph. I said his organization would accept any offer of the players i mentioned. His organization meaning the Cavs, which means I'm a Raptors fan. Therefore i'm saying his team would accept any offer of Og, Delon, Pascal, etc for JR.

[lambchop]

So long as the Raptors are starting JV and Ibaka, TT should be coming off the bench in this series.

I would give TT the start against those guys, see if he's "back" to himself.

Later in the game the Raptors will roll with a 3 guard lineup and that's where we can go without TT. In fact, that 3 guard lineup will really play into the Cavs hands...will allow us to put Hill, JR, Korver, LeBron and either TT/Nance/Love on the court together.

That 3 guard lineup is gonna force Korver to really defend. Siakim or OG will likely always be out there to guard Lebron, and I cant see Lebron wanting to expend energy defending FVV or Lowry or something

the problem with the 3 guard lineup is you essentially run 1 offball screen against it and then you have vanfleet defending in the post for a layup or you have to double team and then you have korver, love, smith wide open

[Vee-Rex]

Have we started complaining about the refs and how the series is rigged yet?

[KyRo23]

Did this NoBias dude actually say the Raptors would trade OG or Pascal for JR Smith?

Nooooo he said "JR Smith is a real OG"

[bmurph128]

Fun fact about this series: if the Cavs somehow win this series, it would be the larges SRS difference that a LeBron led team has ever overcome. Difference of 6.7

The difference between the 73 win Warriors and the Cavs that year was less.

[bmurph128]

When it comes to defending skilled big men in the post, TT is our worst defensive big. Opposing big men just shoot over him down there on high percentage shots. The Pacers didn't have one so it didn't matter. Neither of the Raptors young big men off the bench are post players so it won't matter. That's when you're going to want TT in the game - when they come in.

Tristan is our only rim protector though at the same time. I think he makes the defense better as a whole. And against the Raptors last year he killed them on the boards. Going small would hurt the rebounding quite a bit.

Nance is our best rim protector and it's not close. You're suffering from recency bias against a totally different team that schemed for six games without TT in the starting line up. Starting TT against the Raptors would be dumb. You'll need him when they go to their bench bigs which could be sooner rather than later is Lue is smart about this.

Playoffs are a different animal, and Nance looked like he wasn't an NBA caliber player last series. We'll see what happens.

[bmurph128]

Read post below.

?

It was a reply to Bmurph. I said his organization would accept any offer of the players i mentioned. His organization meaning the Cavs, which means I'm a Raptors fan. Therefore i'm saying his team would accept any offer of Og, Delon, Pascal, etc for JR.

Oh, nope I would not.

JR is overpaid but he's critical when going up against Derozan and the Raptors.

[dukes_wild]

?

It was a reply to Bmurph. I said his organization would accept any offer of the players i mentioned. His organization meaning the Cavs, which means I'm a Raptors fan. Therefore i'm saying his team would accept any offer of Og, Delon, Pascal, etc for JR.

Oh, nope I would not.

JR is overpaid but he's critical when going up against Derozan and the Raptors.

Yikes

[jbk1234]

Tristan is our only rim protector though at the same time. I think he makes the defense better as a whole. And against the Raptors last year he killed them on the boards. Going small would hurt the rebounding quite a bit.

Nance is our best rim protector and it's not close. You're suffering from recency bias against a totally different team that schemed for six games without TT in the starting line up. Starting TT against the Raptors would be dumb. You'll need him when they go to their bench bigs which could be sooner rather than later is Lue is smart about this.

Playoffs are a different animal, and Nance looked like he wasn't an NBA caliber player last series. We'll see what happens.

Playoffs are about match ups and an opposing team's game plan far more than fans appreciate. Horford looks like superman and then TT comes in destroys him. Love defends LMA far better than TT (who LMA just owns). Different skill sets apply differently to different types of players.

[lebron stopper]

Have we started complaining about the refs and how the series is rigged yet?

I've started complaining about how Ibaka could most likely be a negative factor in this series for the Raptors.