Quote Originally Posted by GeneCam27:
LOL all the herbs coming out..... with that miracle win.....
it's ok, I'll take the L here..... knowing i was on the right side the whole way.....
Gene,
I expected you to take your lumps like a man. How wrong I was.
You call it a miracle 'win'. I'm thinking you misspoke. You do mean a miracle 'cover' right? I hope that's what you mean because if you think the Nets should have won outright, you are sadly mistaken.
But let's talk about the 'miracle' cover for the purposes of this thread because I think that's what you meant.
If I came on here and said:
RAPTORS -4.5 BOOK IT!
Maybe that would be a miracle on my end since I provided no explanation for laying the points and I got outside the number by .5 pt.
If I said, "Do or die tonight, Raptors will give it their all! Lay the points! Raptors -4.5." I would have provided something, but it wouldn't have been anything anyone here doesn't know already.
But what did I do?
I started at the ML and argued 4.5 points UP to cover every point the raps needed to cover.
Was I right on those points?
Let's look at some of the finer ones (since I can't argue, "hey the shot clock worked so they won" with you).
I said:
In bullet 4: "If he (DeMar Derozan) gets 20, the Raps will win" and "a better Derozan means a win".
Was he better? He was significantly better.
Game 1 - 3/13 14 pts
Game 2 - 9/21 30 pts
That was worth at least the 1 pt I said the Raps could lay.
I said the Ref's whistle overall would favor the Raptors. While some calls were quite debatable to say the least
, here was the final tally:
Game 1 - Nets 19 fouls Raptors 23 fouls
Game 2 - Nets 26 fouls Raptors 21 fouls
In the end when you have an excellent FT shooting team like the Raps (92% last night and 83% tonight) those few extra points come up big time.
That was worth the 1/1.5 I gave it on the spread.
I said Free throws are a big part of winning in the playoffs. While the Grizzlies and Rockets were blowing HUGE FT's to either lose games or send them into miracle OT's, DeMar Derozan (the guy I said would be key) calmy sank 6 FT's in the last 20 seconds to get us over the number.
That's FT shooting was worth another .5/1 on the spread.
I said Pierce had a poor game last time out and implied that we shouldn't really expect this kind of clutch PP every game.
How did he do? 7 pts on 2/11.
Quite poor no?
That's worth another .5/1 on the spread.
I said Deron would need a second big performance to win and you wouldn't be able to count on him.
How did he do?
Game 1 - 24 pts 8/20 shooting
Game 2 - 15 pts 5/15 shooting
I'd say he did worse no? The nets could have used an extra 9 tonight.
That was worth another .5/1 on the spread so we met our number to cover. Every finer point was laid out for you to read. That's a miracle?
Even on the Nets end as a counterpoint I said JJ would have another good game and be big all series.
Did he?
Game 1 - 24 pts 8/13 shooting
Game 2 - 18 pts 7/13 shooting
Two good games in a row no? More to come for him as they lean on him even more.
The only area I really was completely wrong about was KG, who had a nice nice night with 13 pts on 5/6, but even that was countered by more off nights from Plumlee and Blatche combined who once again were grossly outplayed by Valanciunis who had another big-time double double with 15p/14r.
Also, amazingly, the Nets STILL shot poorly from 3 and this was equally countered by the Raps still turning the ball over way too many times. Both ends were surprising and were thought to improve (they must as the series continues for both teams).
Capping the playoffs is a whole different animal.
These lines are extremely sharp. There is no NCAA to distract the linemakers and now they use the NBA playoffs for their major handle right before the summer. There are no more Cavs and Kings and Knicks to cap, teams that can pay off big time getting huge spreads when they shouldn't be.
This was a very sharp line.
Did I see this landing on 5? No. But I knew it would be close. How close? Close enough to buy a hook because "the Nets are too good a team to throw 4.5 at in the playoffs". So when DeRozan goes to the line to shoot 2, I only need one for a push and two for a tie, knowing as good as the Nets are and as sharp as this line was, I could easily land on the number.
So no Gene, no one was sitting there with their 'azzhole puckered up'. It was close. They covered.
And now you need to head to Brooklyn at 1-1. And you better win game 3, or this is gonna be a very long series for you.
The problem is Net backers are deluded by the margin of victory from last game. If a three falls here or there for the Raps like they did for the Nets in this game, that game ends up with a Nets win of about 1 or 2 instead of 7 and the Nets fans don't think they waltz into Toronto and just take the game away like they thought they would tonight. Raps proved them wrong and the Raps backers right. Was it very close? Yes it was. And get used to it because that is how spreads are in the NBA playoffs many times over.
It was a taste of some bad medicine for you and the Nets, and deservedly so.