Same old tendencies have ominous echo

This season was when things were supposed to be different for the Toronto Raptors. After last year’s flame-out in the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers, coach Dwane Casey pledged to do things differently, to finally change the Raptors’ fortunes once they made the post-season.

There was a directive to move the ball more, to get away from the isolation offence running through allstars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan for which the Raptors were known. There was a renewed emphasis on shooting threes, moving Toronto away from inefficient mid-range shots and closer to the modern NBA. There was a plan to get more out of Toronto’s bench, something the Raptors hoped would take more of the pressure off Lowry and DeRozan.

All of it worked better than anyone could’ve hoped during the regular season. The Raptors won a franchise-record 59 games, earning the East’s top seed. They moved the ball far more than in the past, shot far more threes, and Casey created the best bench unit in the NBA by a significant margin.

Suddenly, Toronto was full of long, athletic players, with lots of shooters and defenders up and down the roster, allowing Casey to play in a variety of ways, and combat just about any style the opponent could throw at his team. The Raptors looked different. They acted different. Things felt different.

After the Raptors won the first two games of their first round series with the Washington Wizards in Toronto, it truly seemed real.

But then came Game 3 Friday, when the Wizards hit the Raptors in the mouth repeatedly on their way to a 19-point win that got Washington back into the series. Then Sunday’s Game 4 happened. The Raptors had everything going for them, up to and including Bradley Beal getting fouled out with five minutes to go.

If there was ever a time for the new Raptors to take over, to excise the demons that have followed them for years at two games apiece, it’s fair to wonder if everything that’s happened during the past several months, if all of the changes that have been made, were all for naught.

“This one was tougher,” Casey said after Game 4, “because I thought we had it under control.”

What could’ve been a relatively carefree night likely ending with Toronto advancing to the second round after a win instead will be a tense, taught affair where all the pressure will squarely be on the shoulders of the home team.

That pressure will only intensify if the Raptors fall behind early.

Sure, the Wizards aren’t a typical eighth seed; if John even a key one.

Time and again these past few years, the Raptors have found themselves staring in the mirror, wondering what’s next after a strange and disappointing post-season. There were first round losses in 2014 and 2015 — losing a Game 7 at home to the Brooklyn Nets, then getting swept by these Wizards. Then came the breakthrough run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2016, though it required seven games in both the first and second rounds before the most lopsided six-game series in the history of sports.

But after last year, when the Raptors were embarrassed by a second-round sweep at the hands of the Cavs, it felt like this year had to change, or else. And if those changes didn’t take, what would the path forward be? How would it play out?

During the past six months, it felt as though the alterations had been absorbed. After the first two games of this series, that feeling had seemingly been validated. Then one long, no good, very bad weekend in Washington turned what at last looked like an easy series into the slog the Raptors and their fans have come to expect this time of year.

As the series shifts back to Toronto, all of the pressure is on the Raptors to change that, to prove this truly is a different team, and a different year.

Otherwise, they may not get another chance.