March 24 - Chicago Bulls

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NoPropsneeded wrote:

...That was the biggest possession in the game. There was like 15 seconds left, those 2 free throws would have brought us up by 3. ...

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Sometimes you only get a chance to make those two free throws because you have left everything out on the floor getting to that point in the game. Then you are standing on the line, still breathing hard, your heart is pounding, legs are achy and exhausted, sweat running down your forehead into your eyes, arms feel like lead and in your brain all you can think is "don't miss, don't miss." So you clank two off the rim.

If you are a smart player, either clanking them or watching your team mate clank them, you learn how important all those possessions were earlier in the game when silly turnovers occurred because of bad passes, or thoughtlessness. You remember all the pour choices taking bad shots. You remember times you coasted a little bit and some guy from the other side blew by you and made the basket while you fouled him with a lame attempt at a block. You think about the moving screen you set that gave the ball to the other side. And you learn.

Silly to expect the Raptors to win this game. Good that they were in it into overtime and it took a hail Mary with .2 seconds left to take it away from them.

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NoPropsneeded wrote:

it has nothing to do with derozan. That was the biggest possession in the game. There was like 15 seconds left, those 2 free throws would have brought us up by 3. That would have given us the victory or sent us into double OT. None of the other possessions before that except maybe the bargnani 3 was this important. But thats just my opinion you can think what you want. Alot of you are going to say "now we get a higher pick" but i hate losing these kind of games when victory was soo close. I take it personally sometimes and it really pisses me off to see the other team cheer, i just turned the tv off after he tipped it in cause i saw that coming.

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Every possession is important in a close game.

I guess it's kinda sad that, having been a Raps fan for so many years, I just feel nothing with these knee to the groin losses. It hurts only in the sense that you know it's supposed to hurt but you get kicked in the balls enough you become immune to it.

The sequence of events that had to transpire to have that blocked shot, blocked shot, be pushed back with 0.1 secs left are probably on the order of about 1,000,000 to 1 but, nevertheless, as a Raps fan, you just knew that something ridiculous was going to happen to lose that game. My wife just started watching games this year and is slowly becoming a fan of the team and she was incredulous that could happen. "how could they miss all those free throws! how did the ball even go in that direction! why throw that pass? how did that not go in!". I was just laughing and welcoming her to Raptorland. I liked Devlin, 'they're reviewing it, they're reviewing it, hang on!". He's still too new. He doesn't understand how it works in Toronto.

...and 2 open looks for Bargs at the end of reg time...one from about 10 ft he normally hits with his eyes closed (ok an exaggeration).

Wait till next year!

That sure does look like a foul by Boozer.

Having Derozan would've been very nice. I don't know, it really doesn't look like he would've made a huge difference, but too me it seems like it would've.

Derozan is a player that requires your best wing player to guard, being with Bargnani's struggles, he is the number one option offensively, and he's been producing at a high level. Demar's defense has been very steady, and he has been playing well defensively in the last couple games against both Fields, JR Smith, Brewer...

Demar would require a lot of attention, and it looked like when Bargnani was getting his baskets, he had a lot of jump-shots, no creation, and that's when I think at crunch time situations, you have to play through your best players. Demar and Bargnani play well off of one another, I.E vs. Knicks. They played off of one another's attention, and really disrupted the opposing team. That's just an observation I made, and again, it's my opinion, having Demar wouldn't have guaranteed the victory, but we probably had a better chance or a bigger margin in terms of score to win the game. Just my opinion though.

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Matt52 wrote:

Every possession is important in a close game.

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Every possession in a game is important. Period.

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RaptorReuben wrote:

Having Derozan would've been very nice. I don't know, it really doesn't look like he would've made a huge difference, but too me it seems like it would've.

Derozan is a player that requires your best wing player to guard, being with Bargnani's struggles, he is the number one option offensively, and he's been producing at a high level. Demar's defense has been very steady, and he has been playing well defensively in the last couple games against both Fields, JR Smith, Brewer...

Demar would require a lot of attention, and it looked like when Bargnani was getting his baskets, he had a lot of jump-shots, no creation, and that's when I think at crunch time situations, you have to play through your best players. Demar and Bargnani play well off of one another, I.E vs. Knicks. They played off of one another's attention, and really disrupted the opposing team. That's just an observation I made, and again, it's my opinion, having Demar wouldn't have guaranteed the victory, but we probably had a better chance or a bigger margin in terms of score to win the game. Just my opinion though.

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+1. Exactly. It is much like how Pau Gasol and Bynum work in LA. They play off each other. They each need attention in different areas which frees eachother up.

I dunno if I'd say he's been producing at a "high" level

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ceez wrote:

I dunno if I'd say he's been producing at a "high" level

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I would literally said he's been producing at a high level after all the dunks he's had against New York.

And yeah I would say so, he's been doing what he does best and that's scoring. Especially his 30 point game against an improved defensive team in New York. I only said recently though, which IMO has been high level.

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RaptorReuben wrote:

I would literally said he's been producing at a high level after all the dunks he's had against New York.

And yeah I would say so, he's been doing what he does best and that's scoring. Especially his 30 point game against an improved defensive team in New York. I only said recently though, which IMO has been high level.

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watching that "improved" defense in new york was brutal. do you think that was how other teams felt when they saw the raptors on the other side of the court the past couple years.

i do think that derozan has stepped it up as of late. his scoring is coming and his offense is at a high level. i would like his defensive intensity up a bit or a lot sometimes.

listening to casey say that demar was mostly scared he hurt himself made me think that maybe he is a bit of a pussy though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXJeKN8XdXs

lol wtf?

Lol

I bet you it was for Taj

Wonder what Mr. Stern's reaction will be when this is brought to his attention?

Forbes missed 2 crucial free throws, but JJ missed one seconds eariler. Bargnani missed a wide-open game winner in regulation. Calderon failed to rotate on Deng when JJ came over for the help (on the last possession), Calderon also went under screens defending the PNR against Watson, JJ's out of control drive against 3 defenders in the dying minutes of OT, etc.

There were plenty of reasons why we lost this game, not just Forbes' missed free throws.

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Nilanka wrote:

Forbes missed 2 crucial free throws, but JJ missed one seconds eariler. Bargnani missed a wide-open game winner in regulation. Calderon failed to rotate on Deng when JJ came over for the help (on the last possession), Calderon also went under screens defending the PNR against Watson, JJ's out of control drive against 3 defenders in the dying minutes of OT, etc.

There were plenty of reasons why we lost this game, not just Forbes' missed free throws.

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Right