There were a lot of elements to Friday night’s Raptors game 3 that felt all too familiar. Tony Brothers was officiating, and the Raptors were clearly frustrated with the calls all night long, and letting it get to them at times. They had a clear talent advantage over their opponent, but couldn’t quite get a…
Jonathan Isaac's offence needs to improve for Orlando to have a chance.
The Raptors spent five years making the playoffs as a team that relied on beating teams on the margins. Whether that was dominant bench units, like last year, hybrid lineups between starters and the bench, like the year before, or some other method of finding an advantage to mitigate the fact that they didn’t have…
One of the things that was especially disappointing to watch in Game 1 was DJ Augustin’s first half scoring output. The Raptors, who were especially eager to thwart Nikola Vucevic’s offense, stuck Marc Gasol to him like glue – which was effective – but allowed Augustin to get to his right hand, and move unchecked…
Saturday night, after the frustrating result in game 1 for the Raptors, I went looking for answers, and the method I usually choose to do so is to look at the data. The problem is, the story the data kept telling me was that the Raptors mostly outplayed Orlando, and lost anyways. The game film,…
There’s no substitute for shot-making in the NBA. You can draw up beautiful plays from the baseline in-bounds, immaculate elevator plays from the sideline out, but you can’t make the players hit their shots. Much was said of Pascal Siakam’s struggles against the Magic’s absurd length and tenacity during the regular season. Nobody embodied that…
For the past few years the Toronto Raptors have entered the NBA Playoffs with the opposite problem, possessing a strong bench with less than ideal starting talent. Last season, the Raptors entered the playoffs with the best bench in the NBA, and the skeptics who argued that benches become less important in the playoffs were…
