Raptors mentally locked and loaded
Ibaka says defending NBA champs healthy and confident heading into season’s restart
Serge Ibaka has been around the NBA long enough to know when a team is getting locked in.
And that’s exactly what he’s seeing from the Toronto Raptors as they bide their time in Fort Myers, awaiting the opening of the NBA campus in Florida where the season will resume to play out over the next three and a half months.
At this point in the ramp up to a restart. Ibaka says, the Raptors will need some time to get up to speed physically, but mentally, they’re there to win.
“I think, physically, it’s going to take us a little bit of time, it’s kind of normal,” Ibaka said on a conference call, referring to the nearly four months that passed between the shutdown and a return to the basketball court. “But mentally, I think we’re ready, as a team. I can see it from everybody, ... We know what’s waiting for us out there. Now it’s time to get a little bit of game condition and then we’ll be good to go.”
The Raptors may be the NBA’s defending champs, but the oddsmakers and the American general public don’t seem to put much stock in that.
Perhaps it’s the loss of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, a valid reason to doubt a repeat by the Raptors. But if there’s one trait this team adopted last season, it was the ability to block out the outside noise and just focus on themselves.
Toronto will arrive in Orlando with the second best record in the Eastern Conference and the third best record overall, but the oddsmakers in Vegas have five teams pegged as better shots to win the title. In addition to Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers, who have better records than the Raptors, the Clippers, Rockets and Celtics are also considered better bets.
Ibaka isn’t buying that. “We believe in us,” Ibaka said. “We have the experience. We have the championship mentality already. We have confidence. But now it’s time to go. Time to go to work, and like I said, we’re ready.”
Ibaka was asked what he saw in his teammates that makes him so sure they’re ready for another title run.
“I saw just how everyone is in great shape,” Ibaka said. “They came here in great shape, and as soon as we got here, everyone was starting to put in work. I’ve been in the league for 11 years. You can see when people are locked in and they’re ready mentally, and when they’re not. So I can tell you right now that mentally, everybody is ready. Everybody is ready.”
Considering how seamlessly the Raptors marched through the first three quarters of the season without Leonard and Green, all the while dealing with injuries to every key member of the rotation save OG Anunoby, it’s actually surprising that the defending champs aren’t being shown a little more respect.
Take into account the short eight-game window before the playoffs begin and one would think a team like the Raptors, that’s both versatile and adaptable to just about any playing style, would be more of a threat.
Ibaka, and he speaks for his teammates on this topic, really couldn’t care less. He knows what this team has already accomplished this season without Leonard and Green and he expects more now that the whole team is healthy.
“Yeah. I’m very excited,” Ibaka said. “I can’t wait, because like you said, we didn’t have everybody all season this year. I think it’s going to be a little weird in the beginning, to have everybody at the same time, but I think it’s a good thing because we need that. I can’t really wait to see how it’s going to work out for us having everybody back.”
Ibaka has been a big part of the reason the Raptors have been able to sustain all the injuries — 214 man games lost, 15 different starting lineups. He’s scoring a career best 16 points a night while providing all the usual rim protection and unwavering attention to defence that has always been his forte.
He was particularly valuable during the 27-game absence of defensive stalwart Marc Gasol. The big man is back, and not just healthy, but leaner and more ripped than he’s ever been since joining the Raptors a year ago February.
But if anyone is anticipating Ibaka losing his role or playing a lesser one with Gasol back to full strength, think again.
Head coach Nick Nurse hasn’t been hiding the fact that he fully expects to make good use of his super big lineup that has one of his two starting guards on the floor along with OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Ibaka and Gasol.
Ibaka might not see the same number of starts he was seeing earlier when the season resumes on July 30 in Orlando, but count on Nurse getting the same number of minutes, or close to it, that he was getting earlier.
Ibaka has been that central to Toronto’s success this season.