2019 NBA Finals: Golden State Warriors vs. Toronto Raptors

It does not go on anyone person. Our team is flawed from its from its core to personnel. It's only designed to have 1 guy run the offense, so Harden cannot even not have an insane usage rate like Kawhi or else we have zero offense.

The Raptors offense is very diverse, but they have a crazy kick and drive game, over and over again until the defense miss a rotation. Kawhi, Lowry, FVV, Siakim, Norm Powell can all penetrate under control, and either finish at the rim or kick out to shooters. We literally only have Harden that can do that, EG dribbles on his feet and can't pass, Gerald Green can't dribble and finish, Tucker can't make layups, Paul is too slow to beat his man most of the time and can't make layups.

Also Raptors have Gasol in the high post to dump the ball to, he can also post up and score down low.

 

Kawhi wasn’t at his best tonight, either. The great thing about the Raptors is they have a lot of guys they can use on Durant, too. They really just match up very well with Golden State, and it’s going to be a long, competitive series if they stay healthy and locked in.

 

ariza and HEALTHY luc... oh how i missed them.

 

lol @ daymond getting rustled by drake at the end

 

I don't know what has come over me. I usually only feel this much joy when the Rockets win. I am so happy for Kyle. He played his wide butt off as usual.

 

a bunch of former Rockets beating worriers...

 

Lowry was 1-8 (0-4 from 3) before making a 3 in, essentially, garbage time. He could stand to play a whole lot better in game 2.

 

unfortunately, that's basically become his standard in the playoffs. he gets judged off the 1 or 2 charges and hustle plays he makes.

 

They defeated GS with so many silly fouls, they can play better next game.

 

to me what's impressive is that they don't switch iirc

 

Dantoni will be running telling him to push the ball and he will just walk up ... happens a lot during the season - if Harden pushed like he did back when he first got here he would prob still get 6-10 easy points off layups or assist would go up 3-5 a game.

 

True he could have scored more but he was making great defensive plays out there.

 

Even though he had that triple double I think Draymond struggled from an impact perspective. Very important against the Warriors. Make Draymond a little uncomfortable. This was probably a function of him going against Siakim, Kawhi, Gasol, Ibaka.

Rockets so sorely missing size.

 

Says who? Cp3 was the sole offensive anchor of his team and EG was a top 2 scorer in Pelicans so why can't the Rox have offense if Harden lowers his usage rate? The only diff between Raptors and Rox is Gasol who is a low post threat but Gasol has a low usage rate even when he was in his prime in Memphis.

Rox are composed of professional basketball players when you talk about drive n kick or penetration these are basic skills every NBA player has at their arsenal.

The main diff is game plan and willingness to commit Siakam and Kawhi set the tone for their team, there is no standing around watching the ball you bust your ass the moment you step on the floor. Their team is full of bulldogs who will fight and scrap every single moment you are playing. Oth on the Rox the only one willing to get his hands dirty are PJ Tucker and Cp3 who has clearly lost a step.

Harden has worked on his defense this year which has been great but his off the ball movement has nosedived. He literally becomes Ryan Anderson when he is jot touching the ball, just stands at one corner and watches everyone else. Most of the time he gets the ball on a rebound he sets his own shot up instead of running a fast break.

He calls Capela for a PnR? 80% of the time it's just a pick, you know Harden will do a step back 3 instead of passing to the roller, KD blocked his step back multiple times cuz he knows Harden is gonna chuck a shot.

The leader sets the tone for entire team. Kawhi was a mostly a non factor in the regular season but when playoffs came he is Jordan lite. When he is playing like that everybody steps up and follows him.

Harden was Mr. Big Dick in the regular season but in the playoffs he started playing like an average star instead of one of the best players in the league, hell the Rox's best player in the playoffs isn't even Harden its freaking PJ Tucker. When your role player is playing harder than your franchise star then that's definitely an issue.

 

Switching is pretty dumb tbh, you can't out switch the Warriors they have 3 multi dimensional forwards.

Last year only worked because we had Ariza, Tucker and a healthy Cp3. This year the defense should have been mroe traditional with Capela manning the paint.

 

they did switch. but they focused alot on trapping today. and the shots iggy and green made vs houston, they missed. they also lived with anything inside of the 3 pt line.

 

what are you even rambling about.

We don't have the talent the Raptors have period nor the system. What is this big dick large balls pitbull nonsense you are talking about. Is that even basketball?

Raptors play a way better system with way better players who are more competent on both sides of the ball, and they also have way more length in all of their rotations. Raptors don't even have to scrap for anything because Siakim, Ibaka, Leonard, Gasol can just pretty much out length anyone one on rebounds except for maybe the bucks. Meanwhile we have Tucker, EG and Harden trying to rebound.

Lowry and FVV can both beat most players off the dribble and spot up for 3, Chris Paul consistently fails to beat anyone off the dribble this year. He had like 3 charges in game 5 just running into people.

 

Their coach is nick Nurse who literally ran the same system as the Rockets in RGV lol.

Rox actually have some length House is 6'7, Faried is 6'8, Capela is 7'1 and Nene is 6'8. In fact the Rox ran a Capela, Faried, Nene frontcourt and it demolished everyone in the regular season. MDA just went away from that and wanted his ultra small ball **** show with Harden breaking usage rate records left and right.

If you dont understand what I'm rambling about then too bad for you cuz I've already wasted enough time trying to explain it.

 

I was just one section behind Jurassic Park and man these fans are crazy. Every single play gets cheered on like a game winner. I wasn't even planning to go, just went out there to check the vibe and ran into the craziest lady fan who called herself "kawhi's sister", trying to get on camera, which she did several times. She had videos of her being interviewed by CSN and stuff at the Jurassic Park area and kept b****ing how she missed out on it, the free stuff, tickets, everything and all night long. She also said "Curry is not in my diet for a whole week". Anyway, so I waited with her and met up with some guys in line and just had a great time.

I waited from 4PM till 6PM to get in, and then obviously 3 more hours until the game began. Didn't eat all afternoon, they only served hot dogs which I begrudgingly bought for $8 and we got a free bag of veggie chips - ate like 3 haha - at entrance. The pre-game was cool, some rappers and ****, but just awesome fans all around. After the game was won, just people down the streets cheering and signing. "**** the Warriors" was a chant for a little bit, but I am amazed how polite fans are and looked at me like I was crazy when I kept trying to get people to cheer it during the game.

One thing related to that, apparently fans had fireworks going off by the hotel the Warriors to keep them up last night and threw stuff at players so not as nice fans as Klay said in that interview. Also a homeless man on the street was chanting, holding up a sign and everything and the streetcar driver started chanting and tried to get people to do it with him. Just a very lovely experience and definitely worth the wait. Security was actually cool as hell too, really nice to a guy I was with who kept rolling weed - it's legal - but was just warned a few times about not smoking it. They were nice about it. Also a girl who gave us bracelets warned him to not have it out while passing through security.

All in all, great night and the Raptors look for real. Siakam went nuts, but their defense kept them in it and is why I give them a serious chance to beat them in 6 / 7.