Round 2 - Games 1 and 2 Rotations

 Game 1 Rotation for the Raptors and Sixers

Game 2 Rotation for the Raptors and Sixers

My Thoughts on Kyle Lowry's Game 1

I'm a big Kyle Lowry fan. In fact, I'm a Kyle Lowry Over Everything kind of guy. When DeMar DeRozan got traded, I was sad - heartbroken, but the fact that we still have Lowry makes things easier to accept.

I too, get disappointed with Lowry's past playoff struggles offensively. Scratch that, not offensively, just the scoring part. He would have that bad scoring game that would dictate the perception of Lowry for the entire series, if not the entire post-season.

This reputation would stick regardless of how he would carry the team as the only person keeping all the parts together. How bad the team looked when he's on the floor. Whenever he doesn't score more than 15 points or if he doesn't shoot at a high percentage to compound a low scoring game, everyone was quick to throw Lowry under the bus.

I'm disappointed too. I too think that Lowry could have done better scoring wise. After re-watching the game, it sucks to see the Magic leaving Lowry wide open, pretty much daring him to hit that shot.

I guess -- and maybe this is how much of the Raptors fanbase felt --- it's disappointing because we've seen how good Kyle Lowry is. From 2014-2016, he was our Kyrie Irving or Dame Lillard. Even in 2017, he was the guy that would try to bail us out of a rut.

Unfortunately, that "peak Lowry" or "MVP Lowry" is long gone. I accept that, given his age and mileage. Right now, I see him as a Dallas Mavericks-era Jason Kidd. However, even Kidd scored well enough (he developed his 3pt shot), but not enough to get to his peak scoring average.

I don't know what to expect from Lowry heading into game 2. The Raptors played mostly 5-out offence, and the way the Magic packed the paint, there's very little opportunity for him to drive for a layup. So yeah, it's gonna come down to him hitting his open 3s.

If anything, Lowry might lose his scoring ability, but there's one thing that I don't expect him to lose anytime soon: Impose his will and determination. We've seen that a lot this season, especially in the latter half where Lowry went into this mode where he stepped up his intensity, the teammates followed suit, and that was the game.

I hope to see that version of Lowry tonight.

Overreaction: Game 36/82 - Thank God We Got Kawhi as a Throw-in

I guess before I go on and on about the Heat game, I want to address the lack of overreactions for games 34 (W @ Cavs) and 35 (L @ Philly). The reason behind that is because the Cavs were the Cavs, and the Philly is a schedule-loss based on the injuries that are plaguing the team right now.

Hey, wasn't that a really good comeback, or not?

The way the Raptors, especially Kawhi and Pascal Siakam started, I was ready to go with "Oh, must be the hangover" excuse.

If there's any confirmation that I was looking for that the Raps would take an L last night, it was Serge Ibaka who came out with his vintage garbage game. He was totally outclassed by Hassan Whiteside on both ends of the floor.

Whiteside or most traditional bigs would almost always be a bad matchup for Ibaka. He's just smaller - Ibaka's listed at 6'10" which makes him around 6'8.5"-6'9" range, compared to Whiteside's listed at 6'11.5" if not 7' in most sites.

Speaking of Whiteside, Greg Monroe came in and provided excellent minutes against Whiteside. He just isn't that great against players of similar size and with comparable size. Especially if they have some offensive skills.

Here's a big challenge for Fred VanVleet. What does he do when his teammates, especially Kawhi and Serge are struggling? In the first half, FVV looked as if he's overthinking the situation when this happens, it's written all over his place and it says something like "What would Kyle do in this situation?"

I don't know what's real and what's not -- the last time the Raptors and the Heat played a close game, and I'm not even talking about that stupid Dwyane Wade game where we let him do as he pleases because it was his farewell tour, but it's either one of the following could be true:

• Nick Nurse and the Raptors defended well what Spoelstra wanted to do for the last possession;
• Spoelstra doesn't have a true point guard that can run the plays and he was stuck with giving the ball to Wade or Justice Winslow to do something.

Speaking of Winslow, I'm really impressed with his transformation this season. We've seen some signs of life last year, but this year he could be a candidate for MIP. He's fixed his body, looking much leaner and athletic. His handle looks better (hey, he can use his off hand to dribble now!), but most importantly, kudos to whoever fixed his shot. It looked totally different from how he shot a few years ago.

There was a big discrepancy in FTM (Raps 19/23, Heat 6/12). Those missed FTs for the Heat definitely affected the game, as some of those misses came in the fourth quarter. I think I even saw Whiteside shoot an airball. What's surprising is the Raps got 23 attempts, and the Heat only got 12. I was not looking at the stats during the game, and with how much Kawhi and Nurse were pissed off about the lack of calls, I would have thought that it was the opposite.

Going back to Moose, I'm really impressed by what the bench provided last night. OG's lockdown defence, Moose containing and keeping Whiteside busy, Delon Wright showing the tip of the iceberg with what he can do, and Norm Powell with his 3rd straight good game. This group kept that Raptors afloat in the first half, preventing the Heat from running away with a blow-out, and continued the comeback that the starters initiated in the 3rd quarter. No CJ Miles last night, and understandably so. Powell had 5pts and 3 assists, which meant that he was directly responsible for creating 11 points in 16 minutes. In fact, Norm, Delon, and OG had at least the same # of assists as FVV.

Another game that Kyle sits with an injury, and I'm starting to get a bit concerned. Is this the type of injury that would linger on and off the season? If yes, why are we being stubborn with letting Kyle play meaningful games in October/November/December like the one in Philly if he's not 100% (or even 90%)? Now what? He'll miss the next 3 games so that he can get aggressively treated so that he can play against his best friend Demar next week?

Speaking of Kyle and DeMar:

Lastly, how about Nick Nurse and his adjustments? He doesn't get a lot of credit, but his 3rd quarter adjustments this season are really on-point. The sub pattern, zone defense, taking advantage of mismatches. He's damn good.

Overreaction: Game 31-32 - Limping To The Finish Line

I've consolidated Game 31-32 (@Blazers, @Nuggets) as they both have the same narratives, such as:

• The game is on the road
• No Lowry
• No JV
• Kawhi's back
• Both losses

The Clippers are crying foul/tampering after seeing this picture

What a tough 10-game road trip, the travel, the occurrence of the games (every other + b2bs), the injuries. Thank go the Raptors are coming back home and won't be playing 'til Wednesday. A few observations from the last two road games:

• I'm done with CJ Miles. I hope that the Raptors can find him a new home this upcoming trade deadline. I like the guy, he's a really good vet, but we need someone better than we can count on to hit those open shots.
• The bench worked really hard, but there's just no scoring talent with that group. Moose, Lorenzo Brown, OG if you pair that with Miles who can't shoot and Delon at times, it'll be really hard for that group to score, especially for a team that's top 5 on defence.
• Speaking of Lorenzo Brown, I'm probably one of the few people in the Raptors blogosphere that knows what he's capable of, but man, oh man, he just hasn't shown enough to justify his roster spot. He's playing with zero confidence and walking on egg shells, afraid to make mistakes. He's actually brought more stuff on D with the Raps than what he's done at the 905.
• I think CJ McCollum's foul on Pascal Siakam was dirty. Had it was the opposite (Pascal fouling McCollum the same way and McCollum taking a hard fall) Siakam would've been tossed, if not fine. It's just a very irresponsible way. Also, like I mentioned previously with Draymond, CJ's starting to have his collection of "greatest hits." Maybe he's not the goody-two-shoes that we think he is.
• I don't know what's happened recently, but Fred VanVleet is back, and maybe even better. This back-to-back games just shows the Raps fanbase the difference between Delon and FVV if you play them separately.
• Should Kawhi be flailing or flopping everytime he drives? Because he's not getting the foul that he deserves. Denver's Craig should have fouled out before the end of third quarter last night, with all the grabbing/impeding/pushing that he's doing. Good for Nurse to stand by his guy.
• I'm a bit disappointed but not surprised with the minutes that Chris Boucher got vs Denver. I doubt Nurse would play Boucher ahead of Moose, and he'll definitely not get rotation minutes on a tightly contested game for his first game. I just hope they did this (getting his feet wet) against the Blazers.
• I do expect Boucher's minutes to creep up, especially if Siakam misses another game or two. However, Siakam or not, I expect Boucher to get some look every game, especially if Moose is playing bad.

Overreaction: Game 28/82 - WTH Kyle?

It was a hard fought game, but instead of going through a laundry list of things that went well or not, or what could have been done to get that W, it comes down to 1 person, and one person only: Kyle Lowry. So i thought about writing what my thoughts are based on the excuses/reasons floating around.

Lowry is in a Slump

Lowry's brickfest is nothing new for the Raps fanbase -- I mean, he's done this during the regular season before, and we've seen this in the playoffs too. However, this time, it feels different. The Lowry that I (we) know would try to get himself out of his slump by:

• driving to the basket
• getting to the FT line
• go back to his midrange go-to moves

He's not neither of those things and appear very passive, and it's understandable if his teammates are hitting from all cylinders. Most games where he struggled, especially on the losses, a Lowry production would have put the team on the top for the W.

Lowry is affected by the Kawhi Effect

It's been a gradual transition for Kawhi to look like he's part of the offense, not as a separate entity outside of the main offense. Kawhi's possessions are mostly ISO-possessions, and the ball is sticking to him too much, that Lowry is checked out offensively whenever they are dumping the ball to Kawhi. On the flipside, with a huge Kawhi usage, Lowry feels the need to utilize the rest of the offense by getting his team involved, and would often ice himself this way, taking his rhythm out.

Lowry is Injured

Is he? Some say, oh, he turned an ankle against the bulls. But I don't see any issues with him turning corners and stopping on a dime. Some say his back is hurt, mainly because that's the injury report detail when he sat against the Cavs. Did he? I don't recall any particular point on any game that he's hurt his back. Maybe in practice? Maybe, just maybe old age is kicking in. Heck, I'm in my mid-30's and I've got a foam roller, posture holster, and a back stretcher. My office chair and my car's seat both have a lumbar support.

If he is injured, he needs to get some time off to recover. Also, if it's a back issue, please, please, please - no more taking charges on anyone -- from the Embiid types to even the Tim Frazer types.

Edit: Kyle said he's not injured

Lowry is Sulking

We all know that Lowry was upset all summer. Recently, we came to know how he truly felt. The way he's turning down shots when the team needed him reminds me of those days when Vince Carter already mailed in the season, and his time as a Raptor. Lowry is a smart guy, and I don't know anyone would think that he would not feel that the team needs him to score. He can get mad at Masai anytime, but once he steps on the floor, he should be a pro. Sulking is not gonna do Lowry any favour, whether presently or if we're talking about his legacy. Does he want to go down as the main reason why the Raptors missed their Finals/Championship window?

Lowry is washed

Could he be...? Is he...? I can't even fathom to say it. I can't even consider it. We've seen Melo just not have it anymore. Lowry's lack of drive to score reminds me of Cro-Cop's late tenure with the UFC when he can't unleash his right or left leg kicks. But he was playing great during the first few weeks, so why did it fall off the cliff? I thought that for older guys, it's the shooting that's the last thing to go? That you'd lose your speed, athleticism, vertical jump, lateral quickness before your shooting starts to decline. My favourite player of all time - Allan Caidic (Filipino Basketball legend). He should be in his mid-50's right now, but damn, this guy can still stroke it from the perimeter. He moves like a snail, but his shooting touch is still there.

Whatever it is, giving up on Lowry is like giving up on this season, the finals aspiration, and even giving up on Kawhi staying. I would get frustrated at Lowry whenever he logs some bad games, but as long as I see him care about winning, I'll be rooting for him.