Game #36: Milwaukee Bucks 94 - Toronto Raptors 116

[Mediumcore]

I'm not too concerned. Point differential is still a good indicator of team strength.

Besides, even the Pacers have given up 110 to the Bulls, 96 to the Knicks, 98 to Philly, 100 to the Clips, etc.

Point differential against really bad teams though? Like these teams are bad by Easter Conf. standards.

[ceez]

Good teams win games, great teams step on the neck of inferior teams and dominate them

[slaw]

Good teams win games, great teams step on the neck of inferior teams and dominate them

Let's get to 10 or 11 games above 500. Then we can start worrying about style points....

[magoon]

Don't bash the Bucks fans for rooting for losses - - that is basically their only hope at this point. The Mayo/Pachulia/Delfino long term deals they handed out this past summer are looking miserable.

The Mayo deal is the only bad one. Delfino and Pachulia are decent players who got hit with unfortunate injuries. The Bucks will be a lot better next year: they'll have a hot rookie, a more complete Giannis 'Po, and $20m of cap space to sign free agents. Their only long term problems are the Mayo contract and whether Larry Sanders can get his head right, and Larry Sanders is probably worth a lottery pick this year if they think he needs to go.

[Fully]

I love Pachulia but he's not worth $5 million plus for 3 years, especially not on a team that was going to be a fringe playoff team at best.

[Puffer]

...I think to be a really good team you have to stay on top of teams for all 4 quarters, and hammer the really bad teams like the Bucks and Pistons. Like not even give them a chance to stay in the games....

I think that is what championship teams do, but the Raps are playing good D. If they were playing great D we wouldn't be talking about how far in the second round they could get, but how many games they could last in the Final.

[DanH]

Oops. Messed up the possession calculation for those defensive rating numbers I posted earlier. Actually works out to:

vs MIL - 94 points in 93 possessions, 101.1 DRTG (MIL ORTG = 98.5)
vs Nets - 80 points in 88 possessions, 90.9 DRTG (BKN ORTG = 104.1)
vs DET - 91 points in 105 possessions, 86.7 DRTG (DET ORTG = 104.2)

Point stands. Middling defensive effort against the Bucks, but a lot of that came in garbage time as well, and the other two games were outstanding.