Posted May 26, 2019, 4:50 AM
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Registered Drug User
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 8,119
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How many superlatives does it take to talk about Kawhi? He had one glaring aspect to his game: the lack of passing. So what's he been doing the last couple of games? Dishing out assists to open shooters left and right.
The man is just amazing. And that rim-bouncing three-pointer tonight was almost spooky in how it mimicked the now legendary series-winner against Philly. When even the rims are helping you get scores, isn't this a sign that you should stay?
Fred VanVleet sure picked the right time to regain his composure. As did Norman Powell. And Lowry's been playing like an all-star while pretty much proving what some media head said: he can't be the best player on a title contender, but he can be the second or third best. The role fits him perfectly.
It's hilarious how Toronto has been the byword for playoff jitters for the past five years, but now with Kawhi they're turning into stone cold assassins. That knock down drag'em out series against Philadelphia was a baptism of fire that I think could very well be a major factor in how amazingly calm the Raptors have been all six games this series, by contrast with Milwaukee, who had such an easy road to the ECF that they seemed to get flustered by the push back from a more worthy adversary like the Raps.
I've been thinking that Milwaukee's presumed superiority due to having the best regular season record was oversold. They only won two more games than Toronto, who were using the "load management" strategy with Kawhi. What would the regular season have looked like for the Raps if the Claw had played 80 games instead of just 60?
I've been watching the games at home by myself, but now old friends in various places in and around the GTA are talking about getting together for a game or two during the finals. This is huge. We didn't have a team back when we were in high school, so we were second-hand fans of teams like the 76ers and the Pistons. But now we got a team.
And what a team!
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