Toronto Raptors (37-28) @ Atlanta Hawks (30-35)

[KeonClark]

What a crap game. 2015 would look so much better with a nice top 10 lottery pick instead of a 1st or 2nd rnd defeat in the playoffs with a 20+ pick...

Fans are so much lamer these days. If your not Miami or Indiana everybody wants to keep packing it in year after year. Personally im counting down the days till we get that special buzz known as postseason basketball. Keep hoping for top 10 picks, and dont forget we have 3 of our own top 10 picks in the starting line up, but you guys hate this team. .

[Jangles]

Fans are so much lamer these days. If your not Miami or Indiana everybody wants to keep packing it in year after year. Personally im counting down the days till we get that special buzz known as postseason basketball. Keep hoping for top 10 picks, and dont forget we have 3 of our own top 10 picks in the starting line up, but you guys hate this team. .

It's just timing. We have sucked for so long, what's 1 extra year in a stacked draft class. We have a solid team this year, but it's ceiling is likely the second round. This is mainly due to a lack of bench depth. Don't get me wrong, I'll be cheering for them to win every playoff game, but in October I'm going to look back and think how an Andrew Wiggins would look on our squad.

[Mediumcore]

Anyone else getting a bit concerned about these losses? All against Eastern Conference playoff teams that we are likely to be matched up against in the first round, playing poor D which, and most importantly at a point in the season when we are supposed to be ramping up our intensity heading towards the playoffs.

Seems like the other playoff teams in the East are digging down and hitting their stride, but Toronto is sort of loseing momentum.

[phez]

small ball

[Axel]

Too many turnovers.

Defence held them to 43% shooting (while we shot 49%).
We out-rebounded them by 10. (although we gave up too many Off Boards losing that battle 10-8).
15 turnovers!!! 3 by Amir, Ross and Demar each, 2 by Lowry, (0 from JV to round out the starters), 2 by GV. That's far too many from our starters.

JV again only plays 20 mins, despite shooting 71% and scoring 16 points on just 7 shots and 0 turn-overs. Chuck "the future" Hayes 17 minutes.

[jacobdr4]

Too many turnovers.

Defence held them to 43% shooting (while we shot 49%).
We out-rebounded them by 10. (although we gave up too many Off Boards losing that battle 10-8).
15 turnovers!!! 3 by Amir, Ross and Demar each, 2 by Lowry, (0 from JV to round out the starters), 2 by GV. That's far too many from our starters.

JV again only plays 20 mins, despite shooting 71% and scoring 16 points on just 7 shots and 0 turn-overs. Chuck "the future" Hayes 17 minutes.

Jv's minutes are kind of skewed because he had a back strain in the third quarter. Casey was playing him alot, hayes minutes were largely in part to feeling like he had no other option.

[Axel]

Jv's minutes are kind of skewed because he had a back strain in the third quarter. Casey was playing him alot, hayes minutes were largely in part to feeling like he had no other option.

Fair enough.

[psrs1]

Anyone else getting a bit concerned about these losses? All against Eastern Conference playoff teams that we are likely to be matched up against in the first round, playing poor D which, and most importantly at a point in the season when we are supposed to be ramping up our intensity heading towards the playoffs.

Seems like the other playoff teams in the East are digging down and hitting their stride, but Toronto is sort of loseing momentum.

We are headed for first round exit if this continues. I have little faith in winning very close games.

[rocwell]

this is bullshit.

[mcHAPPY]

I have a feeling Patrick Patterson's agent is loving these types of games.

[imanshumpert]

It's just timing. We have sucked for so long, what's 1 extra year in a stacked draft class. We have a solid team this year, but it's ceiling is likely the second round. This is mainly due to a lack of bench depth. Don't get me wrong, I'll be cheering for them to win every playoff game, but in October I'm going to look back and think how an Andrew Wiggins would look on our squad.

It wouldn't have been "1 extra year". You ship out Lowry and DeRozan (that's what would've been necessary to tank most likely), and the team is going to be bad for two or 3 more seasons after this one. Wiggins isn't LeBron or Durant (and even they took until year 3 to have competitive teams).

And that's if you even get Wiggins (or whoever the best player in the draft is going to be).

[Puffer]

I think it's time to start giving Fields some of Salmon's minutes

A strange typo in the above post. You said "Some" when I think you meant "All".

[special1]

Ditto. It was technically a "big" Hawks lineup...but with Millsap and Antic. Lets have two Cs out there chasing down bigs who can shoot the 3. Good plan there Dwane.

And yeah. Awful game. Throwback Raptors. Lacking intensity/focus. Poor coaching. Playing down to a clearly struggling opponent. The only good part of this game was that I had lots and lots of wine....LOTS.

Ummm....I actually saw a team fighting/trying hard to win after losing their best bigs (JV had back issues and came out in the 3rd Q, 2 pat out and Amir injured his ankle) left us really thin on bigs. Also, as usual, some calls didnt go our way (the Demar charge with 30 secs left in the 4th looked like a block and an and-one to me).

the bold.... Atlanta won 4 straight games before beating us so that makes it 5 in a row. How is that clearly playing down to a struggling opponent?? Let's see what happens when they come to Toronto on Sunday....

[slaw]

I have a feeling Patrick Patterson's agent is loving these types of games.

The bench is killing them right now...... The only bench player who was not a minus last night was De Colo (0). Novak (-12), Vazquesz (-13), Salmons (-13), Hansbrough (-9), Hayes (-4). The starters can only do so much.

[BobLoblaw]

I have a feeling Patrick Patterson's agent is loving these types of games.

I think he's losing lots of money right now, whatever happens with the Raptors. He's an injury prone player who was having a healthy career year and bam.