12th November - New Orleans Pelicans @ Toronto Raptors - 6-6

Well, this is gonna be a difficult one.

After cleaning up at home against two bottom-of-the-bin teams, getting our record back to .500, we are on the road against one of the top teams in the league. The Toronto Raptors, fronted now by Kawhi Leonard, have been brilliant so far this season, posting a 12-1 record. Payton and Mirotic are both listed as questionable, so they might play: if I had to guess, I'd say Payton will be back and Mirotic won't, but that's purely speculation.

They are just good all over: They are the 3rd highest scoring team in the league, with the 2nd highest offensive rating and the 8th highest defensive rating. They are 1st in the league in 2pt %age, 4th in defensive rebounding, 5th in steals, 6th in assists, and with only 13.7 a game, they are not a turnover prone team either.

Admittedly, they have had a pretty easy schedule so far: 13 games in, they have played Cleveland, Washington, Sacramento, Phoenix, Dallas, New York Knicks, and Minnesota. Those teams have a combined record of 25-63. So, there is an extent to which they've been beating up on bad teams that you would expect them to win anyway, but they do have some good wins against Boston, Philadelphia, and Utah, so their record isn't a complete rogues gallery.

So, how do we win? It's pretty simple: we play defense, and we score. Their leading scorer is Kawhi Leonard, but I don't think he's the guy we should focus on: instead, that should be Kyle Lowry, who is averaging 17pts and 11 assists on basically 50% from the field. His playmaking is a huge factor of what they do on offense, and if Jrue can do to him what he's done to literally every other guard he's been on this season, that will go a huge way towards negating their offensive strength. On defense, their best player is obviously Kawhi, but Kawhi is not big enough to guard AD or Randle, so if either of those guys can get hot early, we should be able to build a league.

This is a game that looks like we should lose it on paper, and there's no question that it will be difficult, but the potential is there for us to take it away if we play smart, and with discipline. That can sometimes be easier said than done, but it's better than nothing.

Let's hope our team plays the way we know they can, and pulls off a shock win to get over .500! #DoItBig

this should be a good front court game....i really like valanciunas and wanted us to trade for him to play the 5 to keep AD happy......

if niko dont play then we will have at hard time at the 4 and 5 dealing with valanciunas,,,ibaka and siakam so rebounding and inside scoring go to toronto.....

kawhi is a mismatch so miller and johnson will have to hold their own with kawhi..hell , we may see hill tonight....

jrue will have to make it 3 in a row with his defense and hold lowry under his avg.... ....

diallo and okafor will have to bring something to the table tonight if niko dont play...

toronto front court may be too much for us to handle but it still should be a good game if we show up....im looking forward to see randall playing in the paint against their bigs....

Pfft watch neither play

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Against a team of this calibre, I'm not really demanding a win. I know we can get it, but it's not just a given. I'm more interested in HOW we play, if we lose.

The New Orleans Ankle Sprains

No Mirotic no Payton.

Payton has been out like 7 games now or something. What the hell?

We need to commit 12 turnovers or less for us to even have a chance tonight

Love hearing the Raptors intro guy call Serge ''your number one shot blocker!''

He's averaging 1.3 blocks a game and hasn't averaged a hugely impressive number of blocks a game for years.

AD defending Lowry very well.

I love Moore.

Is it just me or does ad seem to just walk back on D in transition now seems pretty lazy

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siakam is outplaying AD in 2018. wild

Kawhi Leonard is 0-3 when guarded by Jrue Holiday so far this game.

How many times is AD gonna fall for the pump fake at the 3 point line?

Well doeant look like ad has any type of energy out there so it's probably gonna be one of those nights

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by bahmamamba

Well doeant look like ad has any type of energy out there so it's probably gonna be one of those nights

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What is it like being so negative? Do you have to prepare for it, or does it just come naturally?

every game diallo gets a little bit worse at basketball

jrue's defense >>>

Really? Bc I'm pointing out the obvious? yo don't get your panties in a bunch he's jogging up and down the floor get over yourself he isn't above criticism ;)

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Holiday has been incredible

AD is taking over, great 1st, limit off rebounds and we can win this

End of the first, we're up 31-29. Jrue has played great defense on Kawhi Leonard, AD has 6pts and 4 rbs on 75% shooting and despite only blocking 1 shot, he's changed at least two others pretty severely. Diallo still acting like a spark plug, Miller has played admirably on defense.

Moore had a great quarter.

Well we've got the lead after one but it was ugly a lot of the time. Getting out hustled a lot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bahmamamba

Really? Bc I'm pointing out the obvious? yo don't get your panties in a bunch he's jogging up and down the floor get over yourself he isn't above criticism ;)

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It's just funny because on my stream (which may be a little before or ahead, not sure) the moment you posted that he was changing a shot in the paint, getting the defensive rebound, going coast to coast and passing it off to Clark :hihi:

Just bad timing, I guess

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

It's just funny because on my stream (which may be a little before or ahead, not sure) the moment you posted that he was changing a shot in the paint, getting the defensive rebound, going coast to coast and passing it off to Clark :hihi:

Just bad timing, I guess

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Okay? And how does that change the fact that he was playing with no energy On either end?

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