https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7at2FbmYC0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6g8m2I2fTk
To my personal and professional friend Masai Ujiri, I am heartbroken seeing the video of what should have been the happiest professional moment of your life. It’s hard to watch and to know all that swirled around you in the aftermath. (1/2)
— Rick Welts (@RickWelts) August 21, 2020
Raptor Recalibration, Game 3: Kyle Lowry’s control, Jarrett Allen’s rare line – The Athletic
Adjustments
I’ve kind of touched on a lot of the adjustment-related things I wanted to in earlier sections. (We’re trying to space out the videos, like any good offence.) The two biggest notables from this game were the simplification of the coverage on LeVert and the need to run even more cutting and off-ball action around post-ups, which are covered earlier. The Raptors finished 17 possessions via post-up or a shot immediately out of a post-up, by the way, so they’re definitely trying in that regard. I’m watching the Celtics defend a Joel Embiid 76ers team as I write this, so forgive me for being repetitive in my concern for actions around post play. The Raptors averaged only six post-up possessions per meeting with the Celtics, but that number was higher in games in which Siakam played and is still higher than their non-Boston average (5.0).
The other big one is that the Nets finally went to a zone defence. The Raptors were famously bad against the zone during the regular season — league-worst bad. Heading into this series, I expected to see it because Brooklyn is one of the league’s heaviest users of the zone, and I expected the Raptors to do better with it than their short-handed season sample might indicate.
Brooklyn played an estimated 10 possessions of zone in Game 3, and the Raptors picked it apart for 13 points.
Miami is the only potential opponent from here that uses much zone, but Boston’s thrown it out there from time to time. It’s good to see the process improvements.
10 things: Raptors demoralize Nets in Game 3 of NBA playoffs – Yahoo!
One — Demoralizing: To put it kindly, the Raptors stomped on Brooklyn’s hearts, killing any hope of a comeback. After taking their best punch in Game 2, the Raptors proceeded to leave no doubt in a commanding wire-to-wire victory. Brooklyn did their best to hang with the punches, but the Raptors delivered a series of highlight plays to cap off a dominant performance. It was ruthless, and it was exactly what they needed. What remains of this series is a mere formality. The Nets were already wounded — now they are broken.
The Raptors are up 3-0 on the Nets. Let’s try to find something to worry about. – The Athletic
Nick Nurse has not settled on an eighth man
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who was the third man off the bench in both of the first two games of the series, missed Game 3 with a sore knee. Nurse said before the game that he was close to being able to play, so it is expected he will be back for the next series, if not for Sunday. Hollis-Jefferson has been fine in the series, but given that his primary value is on the defensive end, his absence was not deeply felt Friday.
In his place: Terence Davis II, who soaked up 17 minutes, including a few in garbage time. He had nine points, three rebounds and was a plus-15, making it a totally acceptable performance. With young players, it can be tempting to focus on the negatives, and Davis turned the ball over three times and could not stay in front of Chris Chiozza twice in the fourth quarter. In high-stakes games with little to choose between two teams, coaches often want reliability over a higher ceiling.
Saying that, Nurse was largely happy with Davis’s play Friday, two days after giving the rookie his first game off of the season. In another world, he might not have played at all again in Game 3, at least until garbage time.
“To be honest with you, I really don’t know what I’m doing with that eighth spot right now,” Nurse said. “I’m thinking I’m kind of doing it by committee. I was this close to using Chris Boucher as the eighth guy today just because.
“I think they all deserve a chance and maybe I can kind of find a wild card or an X-factor each night by having it be somebody different.”
Davis surpassed expectations all season. He is 7-for-9 in the two games he has played in this series, and the Raptors have won his 29 minutes by 22 points. The Raptors are far more likely to need an offensive punch off the bench than another defensive stopper. There are reasons it would make sense to just give Davis those minutes every night, regardless.
Worry level: The margin of error will go from mammoth to minimal next series. If Nurse picks the wrong game on any given night in the second round, it could swing a series. Of course, this is the stuff Nurse has nailed all season. He deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Siakam’s bounce-back a welcome sight as Raptors close in on first-ever sweep – Sportsnet.ca
In the category of welcome sights had to be the performance of Pascal Siakam, who has been struggling to score with his usual efficiency since the Raptors set up shop in Florida.
Nurse has defended Siakam, who came into the game shooting just 37.5 per cent against Brooklyn on the heels of 39-per-cent shooting in seven seeding games to end the regular season. He’s cited Siakam’s commitment on the defensive end and emphasized that playoffs are a season unto themselves and come with their own ups and downs.
Siakam has bought in and looked much more himself as he finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists on 11-of-23 shooting. His 14-point burst in third quarter built on the Raptors’ halftime lead and allowed Toronto to coast home in the fourth after leading 84-68 after three quarters.
“I’m worried about winning, and I think every way that I can help my team win, that’s what I’m going to do,” he said. “I think for a lot of people, it’s always about makes and misses — for me it’s not about that. It’s about continuing to have the same focus and energy, continuing to get to my spots and taking the shots that I want to take, and live with the results. … So, I just gotta let the game come to me, continue to play, have fun out there, and enjoy playing with my teammates, play hard on defence, and the rest is just going to take care of itself.”
The Raptors can take some confidence that their game travelled well, even if they never went anywhere. They set a franchise playoffs record with 35 assists. In addition to Siakam, Serge Ibaka dominated off the bench with 20 points and 13 rebounds in 23 minutes, while Norm Powell joined Ibaka in providing some bench punch with 12.
That’s called taking care of business. On the road, at home or anywhere, it’s an approach the Raptors pride themselves on. As a result, they will get a chance to “win both” on the road trip that isn’t when they can complete their first sweep in franchise history with a win Sunday evening.
Toronto has a championship to win, or lose, and this is how a contender takes care of the little fish. As Ibaka said, “We know everybody is gonna come at us, everybody gonna come at us. We have something to lose, so we don’t wanna lose that.”
So what will it look like if Siakam really gets going, if Gasol finds a better offensive rhythm, if Lowry gets out from his sneakily quiet offensive streak? What will it look like when the Raptors peak?
“A championship in October,” VanVleet said. “That’s what it looks like to me.”
But this is what overwhelming favourites do: they overwhelm. The Nets don’t have Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince, Wilson Chandler, and super-shooter Joe Harris, who left the bubble after Game 2 on a personal matter.
This looked less like a playoff fight and more like a Tuesday game in February, in a snowstorm that kept the fans from getting to the game. The Raptors upped the defensive work, and kept the Nets out of the paint, and once their shots weren’t dropping, you could see Brooklyn’s spirit droop.
Recap: Raptors take commanding series lead with 117-92 blowout over Nets – Raptors HQ
A stat noted on the broadcast after the break was that the Nets only managed five attempts at the basket in the first half. This would be a trend that largely continued entering the third quarter, as early offense three point shots proved the most consistent way for them to score. Tyler Johnson led the way for the Nets, scoring 13 in the quarter all on jumpshots, but the Raptors counteracted this outburst as some excellent interior passing led to them consistently generating open looks at the rim. Siakam spearheaded this attack, as he had 14 points of his own in the frame, part of a night that saw him notch a team-leading 26 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists, by far his best performance in the bubble overall.
The Raptors bench came out strong to open the fourth, Terence Davis received regular run for the first time in these playoffs and was able to chip in by slashing to the rim for a couple of scores. Norman Powell contributed in much the same way, but it was Ibaka who shone brightest, taking advantage of the Nets’ lack of rim protection with Allen out, and then stepping outside to drill the jumper when he checked back in. Ibaka put together a 20 point, 13 rebound double-double all things told, and it was this surge from the bench that really put the Nets out of reach, stretching the margin past 20, where it would remain the rest of the game.
The Raptors put their starters back in for roughly 30 seconds, but Marc Gasol connected with VanVleet on a ridiculous behind the back pass, leading to a three, and Lowry splashed a transition three up from nearly 30 feet on the following possession. After hitting that shot Lowry took a foul, allowing for the starters to check right back out and for garbage time to begin.
When things wrapped up a few largely uneventful minutes later, the score was 117-92. Now the Raptors will have the opportunity to finish off what could be the first series they’ve ever won in a sweep when they take on the Nets on Sunday at 6:30.
Game 3: Raptors destroy Nets in wire-to-wire victory, 117-92 – NetsDaily
Prior to this series, the Nets were the only team in the NBA to lead in every single game. In Game 1 and 3, the Nets did not lead at all. It started early in this one with Toronto jumping out on a 16-5 start to the game. They kept building off it, falling down by as many as 17 in the second quarter.
After that, the closest Brooklyn got was nine. Johnson had hit another 3-pointer, but Toronto answered with an 8-0 run in the span of one minute and eight seconds. The deficit was 16 entering the fourth, then later ballooned to 31 in the fourth. Game over.
Toronto deserves a ton of credit, but Brooklyn seemed disoriented all night. Here’s a couple…
The Nets trotted down the floor, looking to cut the deficit down to 10 maybe even nine with a 3-pointer. It was a 3-on-1 fast break that somehow turned into a five-foot midrange jumper for Chris Chiozza. He missed and Norman Powell came down on the other end and nailed a 3-pointer, giving Toronto a 15-point lead.
Then, just seconds before half, Caris LeVert hit a 3-pointer with .8 second left. He and the other four players in black jerseys turned their back, enabling Marc Gasol to roll a pass to Fred VanVleet, who nailed a ridiculous heave as time expired. Instead of entering the locker room down 12 with momentum, they were down 15 with frustration looming.
Garrett Temple even gave Luwawu-Cabarrot an earful for not putting a hand in VanVleet’s face.
Raptors Surge Ahead of Nets, Take 3-0 Series Lead – The Brooklyn Game
Brooklyn struggled offensively in Game 3 against the Raptors, but it was the team’s defense that kept it from making any true threat.
Toronto’s depth shined as the Raptors held the 117-92 victory to take a 3-0 series lead over Brooklyn. A game that was steady throughout three quarters was blown open in the fourth as Toronto took as large as a 31-point lead–and the Nets did not have a comeback in them.
With Joe Harris leaving the NBA bubble after Game 2 due to a family matter, it seemed increasingly unlikely that Brooklyn would hold an edge in this series. That disparity was evident from the start of Friday’s game, as the Nets scored just 92 points on 33.3% shooting.
If it was not for Tyler Johnson, the Nets would have fallen further behind much sooner than the fourth quarter. Johnson, who filled in for Harris in the starting lineup, had the best shooting night among the Nets, making five three-pointers and finishing with a season-high 23 points.
Toronto Raptors take stranglehold on Brooklyn Nets, go up 3-0 in series – TSN.ca
It was a win in more ways than one. Pascal Siakam, who had been quiet offensively, finally broke through with a 26-point performance – 14 of which came in the third quarter. After missing his first four shots, Serge Ibaka made his next eight and turned in his best game of the series, going for 20 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Kyle Lowry attempted just seven shots but was brilliant defensively and posted a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, to go along with seven assists.
But, once again, it was VanVleet – the Raptors’ best player in the bubble – that was their driving force. The fourth-year point guard hit eight of his 13 shots and six of his 10 threes for 22 points. He’s averaging a team-leading 25.3 points and 8.7 assists and shooting 17-for-31 (55 per cent) from three-point range in the series.
He’s in one of those grooves right now – he even banked in a 60-foot heave to close the first half – but his impact extends beyond his hot shooting.
“In the halftime huddle as we were getting ready to go on the floor [VanVleet] grabbed the guys real quick and said, ‘Hey, they are coming out fast and hard and we got to come out faster [and harder]’,” said Nurse. “He’s coaching that part of the game a little bit. He wants to compete and he wants to keep everybody sharp and he wants to play to win at all times. The guy is a big-time winner, man.”
“I mean look, I’ve said it for four years now, and when I’m not shooting well it sounds like cliché garbage, and when I am it sounds like what I should be saying, but it’s the same confidence that I always have,” said the 26-year-old VanVleet. “The ball is just going in for me right now.”
“As long as I can [continue] to get looks off I feel good about the ball going in. So I don’t think about it from a standpoint [of] how you’re thinking about it, but I do know that I’m feeling good right now and obviously got to keep being consistent with that.”
With all due respect to the Nets, who are well-coached and have played hard in this series, despite coming in undermanned and overmatched from a talent standpoint, the degree of difficulty is about to go up significantly. The Celtics are also making quick work of their first-round series with Philadelphia, setting up an intriguing second-round matchup between Boston and Toronto.
Mitchell: ‘To me, the Raptors are the best defensive team in the NBA’ – Video – TSN
The Raptors have won eight straight playoff games when holding their opponent to under 100 points, Sam Mitchell and Jack Armstrong join Kate Beirness to talk about just how good their defence is when it comes to the postseason.
After putting up 13 points in the opening game of this series, Gasol has scored three points in the last two games, and gone a combined 1 of 9 from the field. While Toronto’s offense doesn’t begin and end with Gasol’s production on offense, he is a vital piece to this team, and when his shot is falling it opens things up more for guys on the wings. The bright side, however, is that Gasol is one of the league’s best passing bigs, and while his shots weren’t falling again in Game 3, he did rack up six assists. He was finding his teammates in the right spots, including an inbound pass to Fred VanVleet to sink a 3/4 court heave at the buzzer going into halftime to increase the Raptors lead even further and spoil the Nets’ run at the end of the second quarter. He also helped on the defensive side of the ball, finishing the game with two blocks and five rebounds. The passing, rebounding and occasional blocks that Gasol comes up with are the reasons he starts for the Raptors, and even though his scoring has been M.I.A. in the last two games, he found other ways to be a positive on the court today.
Convincing wire-to-wire win gives Raptors first ever three-game playoff series lead | Toronto Sun
It was textbook Raptors’ basketball.
Perhaps best of all was the return to form, or mostly to form, of go-to Raptors scorer Pascal Siakam. On Friday he looked as good as he has — strictly from a scoring standpoint — since the Raptors arrived in the bubble, producing a game-high 26 points on 11-of-23 shooting. He has been more efficient in the past, but the confidence boost a big scoring game such as this should pay huge dividends down the post-season line.
Serge Ibaka had probably his strongest game in this playoff run coming in behind Marc Gasol, scoring 20 points in 23 minutes while chipping in with 13 rebounds
Gasol was a little better than he had been in Game 2, but you can see some frustration building there.
Fred VanVleet was red-hot to start this one and got the Raptors off on the right foot. He scored eight of the Raptors’ first 13 points on his way to a 22-point, five-assist night. Kyle Lowry was a little more understated from a statistics standpoint but no less impactful, finishing with 11 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The Raptors were without Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who had been filling that eighth-man role for Nurse. Hollis-Jefferson had some swelling in his knee after landing awkwardly in Game 2. His spot on Friday was taken by rookie Terence Davis, who got a passing grade from his head coach, though Nurse admits he’s not really settled on anyone after his top seven — the starters along with Ibaka and Norm Powell — at this point.
“I really don’t know what I’m doing with that eighth spot right now,” Nurse said. “I’m thinking I’m kind of doing it by committee. I was this close to using Chris Boucher as the eighth guy today just because. I think they all deserve a chance and maybe I can kind of find a wild card or an X-factor each night by having it be somebody different. We used Matt (Thomas) the other night, he provided some energy, made his shots, (Davis) tonight made a couple of shots, played well. Rondae has been in that spot but he was out with an injury tonight.”
Game 4 goes Sunday with a 6:30 p.m. tipoff, the first night game of the series.
SIMMONS: Raptors make history in a series about to be history | Toronto Sun
The Nets are the tomato can in this fight. They’re like Iron Mike Sharpe. They’re here to lose and make it look good. The look-good part we can debate later.
“We’re not doing enough to get the job done” said Fred VanVleet, who has scored 30. 24 and 22 points in the three wins over the Nets. “We have some work to do. We know that. “
VanVleet and Kyle Lowry in the backcourt are the Raptors’ constant, the team’s heartbeat. The rest of the roster kind of rotates around it as the Henry Burris Raptors: There’s good Pascal and bad Pascal, good Serge and bad Serge, good Marc Gasol and bad Marc Gasol. It depends on the day or the quarter or the opponent.
And while VanVleet would like the overall picture to clean up — and so would Nurse, who is pragmatic enough to be take the win and move on from there — he knows the Raptors won’t be measured by this series. They will have their first-round victory, apparently, without much clawback, which is something rather foreign to their hockey playing cohorts from down the hall at Scotiabank Arena.
This is seven consecutive years in the playoffs for Masai Ujiri’s Raptors, who coincidentally has been on the job for seven years. In that time, it’s been five first-round victories. Or it will be when they dispatch Brooklyn: Five in a row.
“Winning (is what matters),” said Nurse. “There’s no style points for this. In Game 2, we found a way to win.”
In Game 3, just showing up worked.
“Unfortunately, I was reminded in that moment that despite all of my hard work and success, there are some people, including those who are supposed to protect us, who will always and only see me as something that is unworthy of respectful engagement,” Ujiri said. “And there’s only one indisputable reason why that is the case — because I am Black.”
The NBA has focused throughout its season restart near Orlando on messaging and demonstrations for social and racial justice.
All NBA teams kneeled in protest for the national anthem along the sideline where “BLACK LIVES MATTER” is printed on the courts during the opening weekend of games. The Mavericks have continued to do so before each of their contests.
Carlisle has started his press conferences by reading a passage from the Equal Justice Initiative calendar. At the end of his pregame remarks Friday, he reflected on one of the latest instances of injustice he’s recognized: Ujiri’s encounter in Oracle Arena.
“What a terrible situation,” Carlisle said. “All the guy wants to do is get with his team to celebrate a championship, and then it’s a visible, modern-day example of racial injustice, and it’s appalling.”
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