A team that has proved nothing but played for long stretches of the year like it had nothing to prove will get to show its real self beginning Saturday afternoon when they open the eighth playoff series in franchise history at home against the Washington Wizards.
The Toronto Raptors’ 82-game rehearsal is over. On to the real thing. The Raptors now have the chance to prove that they have ‘It’.
The Raptors will start the playoffs as the No. 4 seed after their 92-87 win over the Charlotte Hornets and the Chicago Bulls’ 91-85 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
On paper it works in Toronto’s favour. The Raptors swept the Wizards this season and have won seven of the past eight meetings. The fourth seed also means the Raptors avoid meeting LeBron James and the No. 2 Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round – the Raptors have a better record this season against the No. 1 seed Atlanta Hawks.
The Wizards-Raptors matchup also saves MLSE’s marketing department from having to struggle to find a rallying cry to top ‘We the North’, which debuted during the playoffs last year.
With Paul Pierce and the Wizards in town it will almost certainly be: ‘This is It”
It will be in reference to comments Pierce made Tuesday in an ESPN.com article which suggests that even for all the progress made by the Raptors and the Canadian basketball scene in general, venturing north for the post-season doesn’t exactly strike fear into the hearts of the NBA at large.
“We haven’t done particularly well against Toronto, but I don’t feel they have the ‘It’ that makes you worried,” said Pierce, who helped the Brooklyn Nets upset Toronto last spring.
It’s hard to know what Pierce meant — in the same article he disparages the rest of the Eastern Conference with the exception of James and the Cavaliers.
That the Raptors don’t have one of the league’s small handful of superstars is indisputable and their record of post-season success is negligible, but it got under the Raptors’ skin anyway.
“Paul Pierce always got to say something, just let him talk. I could care less what he say,” said DeMar DeRozan, who clearly cared. “He better hope [Atlanta wins] so he don’t see what ‘it’ is personally.”
Now DeRozan gets to deliver the message in person.
Not that the Raptors were ever a team that should have been sweating playoff matchups. They have enough of their own issues to iron out.
Regardless, the post-season has seemed like a long time coming but its looming presence has sharpened the Raptors collective minds.
“Now we can get back to how we were, we don’t have to worry about our record,” said DeRozan. “It’s a clean slate, every man for himself once we step out on that court.”
The Raptors’ 24-7 start combined with the weakness of the rest of the Atlantic Division made qualifying for the playoffs for the second consecutive year a near certainty with home-court advantage in the first round almost never in doubt. But their 25-25 record since Jan. 1 suggests a team that has some significant flaws, team defence foremost among them.
Ever since Kyle Lowry fell to the floor having missed the potential series-winning shot at home in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets a year ago, a successful season has boiled down to a simple goal: advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2001 and just the second time in 20 years.
In the season’s early, heady days, a deep playoff run seemed a near certainty but it’s been a nervous few months. The Raptors did manage to set a franchise record with their 49th win – a point of pride for DeRozan who remembers much bleaker times — but even that achievement had a bit of taint as the Raptors wobbliness post-all-star break robbed them of what seemed like a lock to be the first team in franchise history to win 50 games.
Between lengthy injuries to franchise cornerstones DeRozan (who missed 21 games with a groin injury) and Lowry (who missed eight games in the second half with a back injury as well as three for general rest) and a seeming lack of urgency, what kind of team the Raptors really are remains a bit of an unknown.
Are they the balanced offensive and defensive club that looked like they could challenge for a top-two seed in the Eastern Conference? Or are they the team that needed a 7-3 surge in their last 10 games to finish .500 in 2015?
They’ve been able to score all season but they are the NBA’s 23rd ranked defensive team in 2015.
A year ago just making the playoffs was seen as an incredible gift; a miracle season given the team seemed ready to commence tanking until they started winning all the time. This time around inquiring minds want to know what they are going to do now that they’re here, among them the club’s general manager, Masai Ujiri
“We are a growing, learning team. Nothing is handed to us,” said Ujiri. “We’re still a young team, you’re going to go through those growing pains. Sometimes I think we won the division a little too early [and let down somewhat] but that’s just natural, but these guys they continued fighting through it, competed and now it’s time for the real deal.”
Ujiri has been running the team for nearly two years but for the most part has not had to make too many major decisions; he’s still working with the core of players he inherited.
He won’t have that luxury much longer as he needs to make decisions this summer on pending free agents Amir Johnson and Lou Williams while figuring out how to price potential contract extensions for Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas.
Are the Raptors a young team that needs time to gel into a championship contender? Or does Ujiri need to make some changes?
“We’ll learn that as time comes,” he said. “This playoffs will help. We will continue with what we are preaching, we will continue to learn. It’s like at the trade deadline, if we added an older player, that would take away something from these guys showing themselves … [But] It’s going to take the playoffs, it’s going to take time to see [if] you keep this group or do you add in a player here or there. But they are building the stage and that’s what you want.”
Ujiri has seen his team snap to attention in the last few weeks. He sees a group that has their eyes on the finish line and earning a prize they’ve been waiting most of the season to have a chance to grab.
“These guys believe, they believe in themselves,” he said. “They believe in playing with each other and they believe in winning. They want to win and that’s what you want at this time of the year.”
It’s been a year since they fell short against Brooklyn. It’s been 14 years since they beat the New York Knicks for the right to advance against the Philadelphia 76ers. They’ve been on some version of auto-pilot since Jan. 1.
All of that is behind them now. The real season is at hand, finally. This is it.