5 straight!! Now check the schedule..& don't look now, we could make it TWELVE!!

[ballers101]

Anyway, this is our time to make a huge push and possibly overtake whoever is in fourth. But like AirForce said, Raptors can disappoint you anytime.

That dam No Pressure sure is a scrub.

-100.  Learn when you when and when not to use the word scrub.

Anyways, 12 is definitely a stretch but you should be able to have a solid span.  As shaky as the Raptors defense are though, they can easily lose to the teams they should beat, just like any team can that is shaky on one side of the floor.

THE LOCAL FOOL! WELCOME BACK!

How about you look at the raptors defensive numbers over the last 25 games please and thankyou!

Lol, you base defense off "defensive numbers"  If they were so great, you wouldn't be just 3 games above .500.

Did I say all season? We were 7-13, since then we are 18-9 and our defensive rating since then has been in the top 10 in the league.

So your implying that you are now one of the better defensive teams in the league, which you aren't.  There defense has improved, sure, thats what happens when you score more points then the other team.  They still are a poor defensive team.  

Why does one thing detract from the other?? The Bulls do look good right now.  That being said, if he thinks they've got our depth, overall firepower, or that their defense is worlds better than ours, he hasn't been watching so no use convincing him & I'd be very surprised to see them do what they did last year in a series but who knows.  As it stands in a hypothetical head to head, Raps over Bulls in six in my (most) unbiased opinion.

I'm not even trying to make this a Bulls v.s Raptors thread.  My first post didn't even have the word Bulls in it, nor did i even say anything negative about the Raptors.  This forum just have a bunch of flamers that just go after certain posters, and it's pretty immature to say the least.

The bold may be the stupidest thing I have ever heard, scoring more has nothing to do with your defense.

I will retract my statement, I looked at the NBA.com stats and we (based on only 37 games taking out first 20) were 16th in defense, so right at the middle of the pack. That does not take into account the last 10 games which had good defense as well so I would say we are probably around 13th or 14th, but you want stats...Here you go!

               10     20     30      40        47
Record     5-5    2-8    6-4     7-3      5-2
DRTG      115.5  121.9  109.6  107.3  110.0
ORTG      116.6  109.0  109.5  112.1  113.7
Pace          91.6   95.1   91.1   91.6   93.1
eFG%      0.530  0.499  0.496  0.531  0.521  
Opp eFG%0.515  0.551  0.482  0.479  0.497
TOV%      0.188  0.222  0.211  0.217  0.187
Opp TOV%0.115  0.102  0.116  0.126  0.101
FT%         0.270  0.263  0.256  0.317  0.243
Opp FT%   0.273  0.270  0.229  0.268  0.204
DRB%        0.701  0.735  0.703  0.718  0.756
ORB%        0.254  0.276  0.256  0.202  0.239

Great defensive team, nope, good defense, sure. 3 point % (MY FAVOURITE STAT BTW!!!) breakdown:

First 20: 0.391
Next 27: 0.310
Last 19: 0.304

FYI, the number 1 team at defending the 3 is the Lakers at drum roll please....... 31%!!!?!?!?!?!! OMFG 31%!?!?!?! THATS LIKE THE SAME AS THE RAPTORS THE LAST 27 GAMES AND OMFG!?!?!? THE RAPTORS DEFEND THE 3 8% BETTER THAN BEFORE?!?!?! OMFG!?!?!

As you can see, we are not a terrible defensive team, you dont beat SA, the Lakers, the Mavs, by being a bad team. I accept Chicago is a fantastic defensive team, and we are definitely not as good as them, but our defense went from last, to middle of the pack. Mix that with one of the best offenses and you have a very good team.

We still have 3 games against NJ, 2 against NY, and 3 against Philly which=8 games against terrible/mediocre teams which we should win the majority of and other than NY have terrible offenses.

Heres an article by NBA.com talking about it. It only goes up to game 37 (since then we have only gotten better), basically our first 20 games we were worst in their defensive rankings, and based on the 17 after we were 16th in the league which is middle of the pack (and has gone up since but I'm not sure how they calculate it). http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/john_schuhmann/01/09/raptors/index.html

So nitpick and tell me that we are not middle of the pack defensively now.

Oh and I forgot to say, don't call us trolls if that is what you love to do.

[FundamentallY UnorthodoX]

We still have 4 games against NJ, 3 against NY, and 4 against Philly which=11 games against terrible/mediocre teams which we should win the majority of and other than NY have terrible offenses.

-  Fact Check!

The most u play another team in the NBA is 4 (ur division + like 4 other conference teams for mathematical purposes)

and since we have played the Nets and the Knicks and Philly so far this year (once, twice, once), we can't have 4 games against them.
Games left:  NJ= 3, NY= 2 and Philly = 3. Still alot of games versus crappy teams though.

[Kyle_G]

Its still kind of coushy to know we have 3 Nets games to fall back on.

[ballers101]

We still have 4 games against NJ, 3 against NY, and 4 against Philly which=11 games against terrible/mediocre teams which we should win the majority of and other than NY have terrible offenses.

-  Fact Check!

The most u play another team in the NBA is 4 (ur division + like 4 other conference teams for mathematical purposes)

and since we have played the Nets and the Knicks and Philly so far this year (once, twice, once), we can't have 4 games against them.
Games left:  NJ= 3, NY= 2 and Philly = 3. Still alot of games versus crappy teams though.

My mistake, thanks I will correct that, I thought it was 5...

[Kenny Van Exel]

Those stats are far better than I would have expected ballers101, especially the three point % caught me off guard, remember getting torched by J.J Reddick and Barnes!? Yeah, what does how many points a team scores have to do with D exactly, its beyond me and beyond justifying a response really..

[No Pressure]

Those stats are far better than I would have expected ballers101, especially the three point % caught me off guard, remember getting torched by J.J Reddick and Barnes!? Yeah, what does how many points a team scores have to do with D exactly, its beyond me and beyond justifying a response really..

uhhh, everything?


Scoring more than the other team is another word for winning games.  When you go 18-9, obviously your defense has stepped up, since your winning. 

[ballers101]

Those stats are far better than I would have expected ballers101, especially the three point % caught me off guard, remember getting torched by J.J Reddick and Barnes!? Yeah, what does how many points a team scores have to do with D exactly, its beyond me and beyond justifying a response really..

uhhh, everything?


Scoring more than the other team is another word for winning games.  When you go 18-9, obviously your defense has stepped up, since your winning. 

LOL just LOL. Our steals have stayed the same as did our blocks. No, the difference in our scoring is we gelling better as a team vs us figuring eachother out on offense and defense at the beginning of the defense. So no our offense does not effect our defense and vice versa

[Kobe#1Vince#2]

Umm last time I checked, Memphis isn't an easy game any more.

[ballers101]

Umm last time I checked, Memphis isn't an easy game any more.

At home after the all star break so very winnable

[Kenny Van Exel]

Umm last time I checked, Memphis isn't an easy game any more.

At home after the all star break so very winnable

When that's your toughest matchup in a stretch of ten, and you're at home no less, if you're Triano you need to personally send out a bouquet to David Stern with gift card and a vintage. 

[Red_Dragon]

I was going to post about this February schedule since December, lol.

It is definitely looking good for us. I called 50 at beginning of the season, and i am still holding that. We NEED 4th place. As great as we are playing we cannot beat an Atlanta team that has home court advantage against us.

[Super_Nintendo_Chalmers]

Those stats are far better than I would have expected ballers101, especially the three point % caught me off guard, remember getting torched by J.J Reddick and Barnes!? Yeah, what does how many points a team scores have to do with D exactly, its beyond me and beyond justifying a response really..

uhhh, everything?


Scoring more than the other team is another word for winning games.  When you go 18-9, obviously your defense has stepped up, since your winning. 

Excuse me, what? What you're saying makes no sense.

[Fireball]

change the game thread to 5 straight wins.

[Kenny Van Exel]

change the game thread to 5 straight wins.

Thanks, done.