Overreaction: Game 6/82 - "The Lorenzo Brown Game"

• What a fourth quarter for our 4th PG Lorenzo Brown. I was ready to write him off after the third quarter. I went to the garage to get my groceries during the intermission, feeling a bit down because the closing lineup blew the lead, and not really looking forward to Lorenzo Brown play the beginning of the 4th. Lo and behold, I came back a few minutes into the fourth quarter and the Raps were up 10 again. I had to re-start the 4th quarter because I literally missed something amazing, which is, Brown, playing like the G-League version of himself.
• Serge and Kawhi got too trigger happy in this game -- I thought that both players had at least 3 shots where they could've moved the ball to an open teammate.
• Kyle's evolving into a much more complete, efficient version of himself. Looking at the games this season, it looks like the game is coming to him very easily -- he's pretty much cruising along that 3rd or 4th gear and still end up as the teams top 2 if not top 1 player on a nightly basis. This is without him going super-Saiyan mode that we're accustomed to in the past.
• I'm really impressed by Siakam's court vision. He finished the game with 3 assists - which should've been 6 or 7 if the recipients did not screw up their bunnies. Siakam needs to be more of a threat as a scorer and it should open up more passing lanes for him if he can do that.
• It's great to see CJ Miles play like his old self tonight. His 10 points tonight might be the most in-rhythm streak of points he's had this season.
• Could be just me, but I cringe every time Kawhi would get whacked and end up on the floor, which is what happened several times tonight.
• Six games in and we still haven't seen FVV and Delon Wright share the floor. I'm really intrigued how the bench rotation and what the actual product on the floor would look like once Delon and FVV are back and healthy.
• I saw a few posts on twitter about Celtics' DEFRTG. I don't really care who's number one. As long as the Raps are in the top 10 and winning with some sort of defensive showing, that's all I care at this point. I'm more interested to see whether the Raps have holes on their defense -- i.e. last year, even though the Raps are top 5 in defense, the defense is weak when it comes to the LeBron/KD/Giannis type, and JV was just a 1/5 PNR nightmare on defense (for our team). I see some slippage on defense every now and then like what happened tonight, which is just a bunch of guys getting accustomed with each other.

Overreaction: Raptors 119, Bucks 122

• We lost the game when: Near the end of the first half, down 4, DeRozan fouled Middleton for an And-1 and got T'd up. Went into the half down 8, and that's the cushion that they tried to erase for the majority of the 2nd half.
• Should we be concerned: Lowry's offence has been sputtering and showing no signs of an upward tick. Not only is he struggling to score from the perimeter, he hasn't been able to get to the basket like he used to.
• A good sign: Siakam continues to be a revelation as the season progress. His D is so well ahead of his offensive game, and I won't be surprised if he's one of the most improved players next year.
• Should we be concerned 2: OG's defence is good, but he's not doing much else other than doing a good job staying in front of his man. Even Roberson would get a rebound and/or assist/steal every game.
• A good sign 2: Poeltl and Siakam can bring it against the Bucks. Last year, they were unplayable. If we can find the right mix with Poeltl and Siakam during crunch time, we should be able to take care of these reindeer easily.
• Battling demons: This game showed 2 sides of DeRozan. The new version where he demonstrated that a. He can and will pass,  b. He'll hit perimeter shots,  and c. He can score inside against the Bucks' defence. We've also seen DeMar lose it for a few possessions where he went pure iso and just drove with his head down, which led to turnovers/bricks.
• Big 3: We didn't lose because Giannis was hitting those long 2s; We lost because we let old man Jason Terry, John Henson, and Thon Maker. 
• A good test: The bench (mob) squad often feast on other team's bench players, and some starters but nothing like this kind of playoff atmosphere. I expect the kids to learn from this experience and get better.
• Bad Call?: Siakam was playing well in the 4th quarter, why did Casey had to replace him with Ibaka? Siakam's side was always stronger in defending the high pick and roll that the bucks were running.
• Incompetent zebras: 3 referees, with all 6 eyes on the basketball. How can they miss the and-1 foul on JV? which led me to call out our airport security brothers and sisters:

Calling to arms all of our brothers and sisters working at the airport security to put a wanted poster of all the refs that wronged us and give then every hard time possible before they leave the Canadian soil #rtz #WeTheNorth

— JD Quirante (@jdkeyrants) February 24, 2018