Time for Raps to focus on playoffs
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Now the Toronto Raptors know. And it’s time for the real work of the NBA season.
Locked in a first-round matchup with the Indiana Pacers that will begin this weekend at the Air Canada Centre, the Raptors crave the chance to make amends for past failings.
“It’s still exciting to be in this position but it’s more of a focus thing,” DeMar DeRozan said after Toronto dismantled the woeful Philadelphia 76ers 122-98 the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday. “This is where it starts. It’s not the end of the season, it’s the start of a new one.”
The first-round matchup was set up by Indiana’s win over New York and a Detroit Pistons loss to Miami. It assured first-round matchups between Toronto and Indiana, and Cleveland and Detroit.
“We’ve got a team coming in, in the playoffs, that’s really good,” Kyle Lowry said of the Pacers. “Paul George is unbelievable. Monta Ellis is unbelievable. George Hill is unbelievable. They’ve got some good bigs.
“We’ve got to start preparing for them. We’ve got one more game and then we’ve really got to lock in.”
Toronto’s final regular-season game Wednesday in Brooklyn is shaping up as not much more than a glorified exhibition. Neither DeRozan nor Lowry even got on the charter flight and coach Dwane Casey said the medical staff wants him to keep DeMarre Carroll out of the second night of a back-to-back. And who knows how much any other regular will play?
Carroll is becoming a more intriguing part of the puzzle every day. Playing his first game in Toronto since Jan. 3, he played 21 minutes and had eight points, six rebounds and an impact on the game during the third quarter, when the Raptors outscored Philadelphia 32-13. Seven players eventually scored in double figures.
Carroll played a few minutes in the third alongside normal starters Lowry, DeRozan, Norm Powell and Valanciunas, a lineup that ostensibly could be used against Indiana if the Pacers go small and play George at power forward.
“Love it,” Carroll said. “Paul George is one of the best in the league but it’s not my first rodeo against him.”
The Raptors won the season series over the Pacers 3-1, but if any group should know how meaningless that is, it’s Toronto. The Raptors dominated Washington a year ago before an embarrassing first-round sweep.
“Did we forget last year? No. Do you dwell on it? All of us have had situations in our life where unfortunate things happened, if you dwell on it, it eats you up,” Casey said before the game. “But you use it, you under- stand those situations . . . and learn from it.”
The memory of being swept by the Wizards has been on the back of the minds of the returning players all season. Casey mentioned it early in the process — “Last year was last year, I said that at the beginning of the year at training camp” — but has let it slide since.
“We’ve got to learn from last year but we can’t dwell on it and go in and say, ‘Oh, we can’t let last year happen,’ ” the coach said. “We all know what happened. We got whupped by Washington, a team we had swept through the season. But once playoffs start, it’s a different animal.”
And the Raptors say they’re a different team.
“I’m very prepared and ready to go,”
The memory of being swept by the Wizards has been on the back of the minds of the returning players all season
Lowry said. “As a team, I think we’re very prepared. We know our goals. We know what we’re looking to do. There’s no indecision. We are what we are and we’re ready to go.”