The business of defending the championship is back on now that the all-star festivities are done with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kku7k98YI5o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYYg0HLn7bo
NBA Power Rankings Week 18 – Second-half storylines for all 30 teams
3. Toronto Raptors
Record: 40-15
Week 17 ranking: 3The Raptors had their 15-game winning streak snapped in the last game before the All-Star break and currently sit as the second seed in the Eastern Conference. While they are unlikely to catch the top-seeded Bucks, the Raptors are only three games behind the Lakers (41-12) in the loss column for the second-best record in the NBA. With a .727 win percentage and plus-6.3 scoring margin, this season’s Raptors are actually slightly ahead of their championship pace (.707 win percentage, plus-5.8 scoring margin) from last season. — Snellings
The Athletic’s NBA Power Rankings Week 17: What are you playing for? – The Athletic
4. Toronto Raptors (Previously 3rd), 40-15 (+6.3 net rating)
What are you playing for? The NBA Finals. A lot would have to happen for the Toronto Raptors to make it back-to-back Finals appearances. Somebody would have to get stupid hot for a series or two for Toronto. At the same time, it probably means an injury to Giannis or an improbable slump that has people wondering if something is wrong between him and his teammates. There is something to be said about that championship know-how with the Raptors, though. They are so much more confident in close games than what we saw a year ago and they were good then too. Losing Kawhi Leonard and still keeping that confidence high is not easy. The players are not rattled and Nick Nurse is quickly moving toward top-coach-in-the-league consideration. They can still shoot for the Finals this year, even if it takes some luck.
Why this ranking? It had to end at some point and there is no shame in a 15-game win streak not turning into a 16-game win streak. And losing to the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn also isn’t a terrible thing, especially with the way that Nets team has rallied recently. But Boston’s loss to Houston was more understandable than Toronto’s loss to Brooklyn this week, and therefore the Raptors drop a spot. With all that said, you can see the two “What are you playing for?” sections from both teams and know that I think the Raptors’ ceiling is higher.
3 Toronto Raptors
All good things must come to an end, and the Raptors saw their 15-game winning streak snapped with a loss to Brooklyn in the final game before the All-Star break. Toronto is now 2-6 in games where they score fewer than 100 points so the book is out: Don’t let the Raptors score, and you have a better chance of beating them! Quite an enlightening concept.
This week: 3
Last week: 5Record: 39-14
Pace: 100.5 (15) OffRtg: 111.5 (11) DefRtg: 104.9 (2) NetRtg: +6.5 (4)The Raptors continue to be shorthanded (Kyle Lowry missed a game on Saturday when he got lost in Serge Ibaka’s scarf), and their second-ranked defense has slipped a little without Marc Gasol. They had two of their three worst defensive performances of the season last week, allowing the Pacers and Nets to score more than 120 points per 100 possessions at Scotiabank Arena.
But the winning streak, now at 14 games, remains alive. The champs forced three straight Indiana turnovers over an 11-0 run to close that win on Wednesday and they got the one stop they needed after losing an 18-point lead to Brooklyn on Saturday. Eight of their 14 wins on the streak have been within five points in the last five minutes, and both the Raptors (20-for-39) and their opponents (18-for-33) have shot better than 50% in the clutch over these four weeks.
The Raps are just one bucket from shooting 50% overall (they’re 621-for-1,244) over the course of the winning streak. They’ve seen a bigger improvement from their first 39 games in the paint, where the scarf artist has shot 68% over the 14 games. He’s one of six players (a pair of former Raptors are also in the group) who have shot 70% or better on at least 100 shots in the restricted area and 45% or better on at least 100 shots elsewhere in the paint.
Lowry’s final numbers were tremendous: In about 28 minutes Sunday, he had 13 points, eight assists, five rebounds, three steals and those two vital charges drawn.
He may have committed the foul on Anthony Davis that led to the game-winning free throws for the LeBron James-captained team but even that was accomplished by playing hard and trying to do something, anything, to prolong the game.
“I literally couldn’t do nothing,” he said. “He ducked in on me, we switched a few times, it sucked to end like that, maybe we have to tweak that a little more when it ends on a field goal but it was fun, it was great.”
All of that is a way of saying that Lowry knows what time it is in the NBA season, he knows full well what his role is with the Raptors and what his place is in the greater league picture.
He’s a tough-as-nails veteran who has the utmost respect of his peers and a role in Toronto that perfectly suits him. He is the heartbeat of the defending champions and now even the most casual fan knows who and what he is. And, by extension, what the Raptors are.
He doesn’t care a lot, of course.
“Who knows. Who knows,” he repeats when asked if his play and the play of Pascal Siakam and the coaching of Nick Nurse in the all-star game will enhance the team’s profile around the league. “That doesn’t matter”
What should matter is that Lowry is ready to attack the final 27 games of the regular season with the same vigour he attacked the all-star game in Chicago.
It’s not that he needs or wants validation but the performance Sunday against the very best in the game is likely to reinvigorate him to some degree.
NBA Tier List: Raptors get time off knowing they’re among NBA’s elite – Sportsnet.ca
Deserves to be on break until the playoffs
The top-6 teams in the NBA — arguably with the exception of the Los Angeles Clippers — are playing so well that, honestly, they could just take the rest of season off to rest up and we’d still probably see them in the post-season just as ready to kick ass as they appear to be right now.
For teams as strong as these squads appear to be, the stretch run is more a chance to tighten up rotations and tweak things. They’ll still probably do that, but extended rest might honestly be the best way to prepare for the playoffs.
The Toronto Raptors, in particular, probably just need rest to get completely healthy and then who knows? The Finals aren’t exactly out of the question again.
Siakam and Lowry dish on thrilling NBA all-star weekend | Toronto Sun
Raptors and Team Giannis head coach Nick Nurse played Lowry and Siakam down the stretch, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and others, and they had their moments, though a late Siakam turnover and shot that was blocked hurt, as did Lowry’s missed jumper and late foul.
“I literally couldn’t do nothing (but foul),” Lowry said.
“He ducked in on me, we switched a few times, it sucked to end like that, maybe we have to tweak that a little more when it ends on a field goal but it was fun, it was great.”
Lowry added with some consternation that he’s now 0-6 at all-star games.
Lowry said he treated it like a normal game, so that’s why he was taking charges. Siakam wasn’t surprised and said it was the same old Lowry.
“We saw the charges, so I think we saw the whole package by the end. So, it’s pretty much the same,” he said.
“I didn’t (expect to see charges at an all-star game), but I think we did a good job with the way it is now, the new format, and I think we took it seriously to go out there and try to get a win. So at the end there it was fun. We had, I don’t know how many challenges. It was pretty intense,” Siakam said.
Kawhi Leonard led all scorers with 30 points, including eight three-pointers. Antetokounmpo had 25, Kemba Walker, LeBron James and Chris Paul had 23. Lowry had 13 along with eight assists while Siakam had 15 in his first all-star start.
Siakam praises Nurse, explains his mindset of ‘always having something to prove’ – Video – TSN
While taking a break during his first NBA All-Star appearance, Pascal Siakam spoke with the TNT broadcast crew about Toronto’s surprising season, the job that Nick Nurse has done in leading the team and talked about the work he has put into his own game to reach the level he is at with the Raptors.
Strength of Schedule
Tankathon calculates a team’s strength of schedule by combining the winning percentage of their remaining opponents.
Based on which teams the Raptors still have to play this season, they have the league’s 11th-hardest remaining schedule. They still have three matchups with the Bucks, two of which will be played in Toronto, as well as several meetings with the Western Conference’s elite.
Fortunately for the Raptors, the teams closest to them in the Eastern Conference standings also have a difficult schedule the rest of the way. According to Tankathon, the Bucks have the fifth-hardest schedule and the Boston Celtics have the 12th-hardest.
Two teams to keep an eye on are the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers, as they have two of the easiest remaining schedules in the league – the fifth-easiest for the Heat, the second-easiest for the 76ers.
The Heat currently trail the Raptors by 4.5 games in the Eastern Conference standings, whereas the 76ers trail them by 6.0 games.
The announcement was made by BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall at the NBA All-Star 2020 Africa Luncheon in Chicago, in the presence of FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts, Retired General Martin E. Dempsey, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, FIBA President Hamane Niang, FIBA Africa and BAL Board President Anibal Manave, FIBA Africa Executive Director Alphonse Bilé, Philadelphia 76ers Co-Managing Partner David Blitzer, Milwaukee Bucks Co-Owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry, Brooklyn Nets Alternate Governor Oliver Weisberg, NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum, Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri and members of the NBA family, including Las Vegas Aces center and three-time WNBA All-Star Liz Cambage (Australia; parent from Nigeria), New Orleans Pelicans Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development and three-time WNBA Champion Swin Cash, NBA Cares Ambassador Jason Collins, former NBA players Festus Ezeli (Nigeria), Mamadou N’Diaye (Senegal) and Olumide Oyedeji (Nigeria), Boston Celtics two-way player Tacko Fall (Senegal), 2005 WNBA Champion Hamchétou Maïga-Ba (Mali), two-time NBA Champion D.J. Mbenga (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Capital City Go-Go General Manager Pops Mensah-Bonsu (Ghana), NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Mutombo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Oklahoma City Thunder guard/forward Abdel Nader (Egypt), Los Angeles Sparks forward and two-time WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike (parents from Nigeria) and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Josh Okogie (Nigeria).
Photo by Kevin Tanaka/NBAE via Getty Images
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