Raptors, Celtics seem headed for showdown
Teams on track to meet in NBA’S Eastern semifinal
Friday’s game between the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics seemed like it would be a bit more meaningful when the NBA first announced its bubble restart schedule.
After all, they were the Eastern Conference’s second and third-best teams heading in and the battle for second was very much up in the air. But Toronto has won all three of its games in Orlando so far and Boston has only triumphed once in three tries, so now the Raptors only need one more win — or one Celtics loss — to wrap up second place.
The teams still seem destined to finally meet in the playoffs for the first time, which could happen in the second round after Brooklyn and Orlando are dispatched.
Toronto has one of the better home- court advantages in basketball — which could have come in handy against Boston — but of course that’s negated in the bubble. Still, head coach Nick Nurse thinks there will still be some advantage to being the “home” team more often than not in the playoffs.
“I’m not sure the home court thing won’t be a little bit of an advantage, maybe,” Nurse said earlier this week.
“It seems like ( the NBA is) tweaking a little bit more and more as they go here in the games, as they’re learning things about how to put the game on in this setting.
“We’re seeing familiar faces on those screens ... you can see family members and coaches family members and players family members (virtually in the stands), there is a sense of personal touch to it, and who knows what it’ll evolve to here two months from now. So I don’t want to discount the home court thing quite yet.”
Nurse was looking forward to matching up with Boston, a team that actually has been given more favourable odds of winning the title this season than Toronto.
“We take the competition seriously. When there’s a game to be played, we try to win it,” Nurse said.
The Raptors have a deep belief in themselves.
“We are a no excuse team,” said centre Marc Gasol, who has been masterful defensively during the first three games. “I don’t need somebody to tell me to believe in something. You go out there, and you compete, and you can beat anybody. It doesn’t take a genius to know we have a lot of pieces and so I don’t need somebody to tell me we can win it. Obviously, it’s really hard and it’s a different year obviously but any given night we can be one of the good teams.”
The Raptors have made believers out of opponents as well. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra talked Wednesday of how much respect he has for the organization. Spoelstra’s counterpart with Orlando, Steve Clifford, had similar thoughts.
“They play so well. They score off their defence,” said Clifford a longtime defensive guru. “They do two things that, to me, usually don’t go together: They’re great with their help defence and they steal the ball. It starts with that.”
One thing the Raptors won’t do is wonder how they match up with Boston or if the oddsmakers have it right.
“We don’t question those types of things,” Gasol said.
“We have a lot of tools, a lot of players, a lot of great players and, to me, the best coaching staff you can have in the NBA right now. You have all the pieces, you’ve just got to put them together and have everybody buying in.”