No more teasers. We are going to cap The Big One STRAIGHT UP - GAME 7 - NETS AT RAPTORS!!

But in Game 6, a game the Raptors could have thrown the towel in on, down huge and on the Road with a game 7 in their back pocket at home, they clearly decided otherwise.

That told me a lot right there. From 22 down to 9 down and then came a barrage of whistles which could have got it closer.

It says the Raps never say die, never roll over, are younger, grittier and will play to the buzzer. Honestly, the whistle will blow on KG and PP before they decide otherwise and Deron? Well ya never know. He will come to play but like I said, it better be GREAT and I am not betting my money it will be. And even if it is, this will be so close that GREAT may not be good enough.

Rating: +1 Raps

8) Joe Johnson

I said he was the key and I said he should have big games. He had 17 last game but it was on 5/13 shooting and the Raps went back to doubling him. He’ll need more than that to win Game 7 and the Raps will be ready for him on every play.

I’m giving this one to the Raps and their effective gameplanning on him already shutting him down in the first half of the key Game 5.

Rating: +1 Raps

9) Valanciunas 

He is critical. If he has a big game, the Raps will win. The problem is that he has gotten in early foul trouble in these last several games after being a monster on the boards and in the paint to open the series. 

Last game he showed some life with 9 points on 4/5 and 9 boards, almost a very crucial double double the Raps need

This is an unknown but since I think the refs will back off (slightly) with the whistle on the Raps, I believe he’ll have a bigger game underneath and if he has a game like game 1 or 2, the Raps will win. 

Slight edge to the Raps counting on Valanciunas to show up.

Rating: +1 Raps

10) Backcourt

Lowry and DeRozan vs. Deron and now Allen Anderson

I would trade Deron for Lowry today. And which pair would you want in a Game 7 at home? The choice is clear.

Rating: +1 Raps

11) Game 5

I thought it that night that whoever won Game 5 would win the series. I’m sticking to that. From top to bottom, these teams are so closely matched, you can’t tell them apart on a stat sheet in this series. Because of that, it is to hard for me to imagine the Nets win on their floor and then travel up to Toronto with those maniacs inside and out and take that one too. There is just too much against them in this spot both historically, given the success of home court Game 7’s (look at all three home court teams winning today), and believing the Nets can take two in a row from this Raptor team, who will throw the kitchen sink at them in this game and then some. I don’t think the Nets are prepared for what’s about to hit them.

Rating: +1 Raps

12) What they built

What the Nets built was a flawed team from point guard on down. Their defense? Excellent. Many other things? There are problems when you start digging. 

The $190 million dollar payroll looks like a dumpster fire in comparison to the Raps $68 million right now.

“What they built” falls a little short in this spot and doesn’t stack up to the 2013-2014 Raptors unfortunately in this Game 7, which is all that matters right now.

Rating: Raps +1

13) Kidd as coach

Kidd is a champion and a Hall of Famer period. His team has turned everything around since January 1. He gets the nod over Casey here.

Rating: +1 Nets

14) The Crowd

What more needs to be said? They love their team so much they belong in straight jackets to contain them during games.

Rating: +1 Raps

15) The 2014 Playoffs

Scary numbers to back favorites or to lay points.

The number of games decided by 5 points or less - 21

The number of games won by road teams - 23

The number of 4 point plays - 15 (folks, that HAS to be the most ever of any playoffs ever and the FIRST ROUND is not even over).

Because of this it is very tough to lay points in these playoffs.

Ok. Who’s the winner?

Don’t even add the points up. It’s the Raps in a landslide. But those are my bullet points. I had a different kind of write-up but Covers.com is running adds in my posting area slowing down my typing speed tremendously so we shot bullets from a gun here. You may have very relevant counterpoints. Feel free to add them.

So here is what we will do. LC stated in his thread that the number that the most NBA games have ended at for margin of victory was 2 and 7. I haven’t verified that but 2 makes perfectly logical sense.

While our ratings points have the Raps in a landslide, you personally may have ratings points that make this game very even (or assign more value to a rating than just a point). This game will be close in my eyes so we have to buy this down to 2. We just can’t lay 3 here, I’m sorry. If you don’t want to buy a point and feel more comfortable with the ML, ok. This is a moderate play. This is a very tough game to cap and hit and it should simply be flat-betted. Moderate is the key word here. The rating is 3 stars.