National Post

Time for raptors to flip the script

Latest Game 1 Loss has doubters out in force but players aren’t pushing panic button

- scott stinson sstinson@postmedia.com Twitter.com/scott_stinson

the head coach of the Toronto raptors explained that the local populace might have been making just a bit too much of a loss in a playoff series opener.

“It’s just one game,” he said. “you can’t think about what happened last year or two years ago.”

This was in 2018, and the coach was dwane Casey.

Casey was not without experience in this regard. He had watched his team stumble and bumble through a pile of Game 1s, and they had at least discovered a knack for turning things around in any series that did not involve Lebron James.

For Nick Nurse, this is a new challenge. In his first season as an NBA head coach, he and his raptors burst out to a 12-1 start and have been at or near the top of the East ever since. They never had a prolonged slump or chemistry issues

or Twitter beefs or passive-aggressive quotes about teammates. While teams like the Warriors, rockets, Celtics and Lakers — hoo boy, the Lakers — have dealt with harsh spotlights at one point or another, the raptors have just rolled along, being good and not attracting much attention one way or another.

And now the basketball world is mocking them again. The frankly incredible 2-14 record in Game 1s is being analyzed, Kyle Lowry’s bewildered expression has been attached to countless social media posts, and people are talking about heart and poise and whatever intangible can be convenient­ly blamed for the calamity that has befallen them this time.

So, the coach was asked, did he say anything to his team about ignoring the criticism and not listening to any of the same-old-raptors storylines that are sure to be in abundance between now and Tuesday’s tip-off of Game 2?

“I did not,” Nurse said on Sunday at the raptors practice facility, a slightly weary smile on this face. “Maybe I should.”

But then he continued, and made clear that he didn’t really think maybe he should. “I think they’re probably used to the insulation process,” Nurse said, meaning they don’t worry about the tweets and the memes and the hot takes and the talking heads. “I think most of them insulate themselves throughout the year, no offence to you guys in here. I think they’d rather deal with their family and their basketball and do their thing.”

The players, both after the Saturday night loss and again on Sunday, said various things that suggested they were staying well clear of the panic button.

“People understand that we’re trying to win 16 games in the grand scheme of things and starting 0-1 is not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world,” said Fred Vanvleet after practice. “I think we’ve shown that we can bounce back out of his type of situation before, which is a good thing, and you know nobody’s panicking but nobody’s happy.”

All of that makes sense. Among the many curious things about Game 1, other than the result, was that the raptors ticked a lot of the boxes that they likely had on their pre-game checklist. They held the Magic to 40 per cent shooting from the field, kept all-star centre Nikola Vucevic to 11 points and eight rebounds, and avoided a scoring outburst from former raptor Terrence ross, who managed 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting. They played, for long stretches of the game, well enough to win, undone by their own cold shooting. From a purely tactical standpoint, the raptors showed exactly what the consensus opinion was ahead of the series: that they are more dangerous offensivel­y and have enough on the defensive end to frustrate a limited Orlando attack.

And yet, it was another Game 1 loss, like it was merely raptors destiny. The simple narratives that we like to use to explain complicate­d sports outcomes are almost always far too simple, and here was Toronto’s basketball team, somehow messing itself on home court again. For the NBA fans who were waiting for the raptors to prove that this team, with all its additions, was not unlike previous playoff editions, they are still waiting.

The raptors, to their credit, are at least sticking to the tangible parts of Saturday’s game. rather than think about hexes or jinxes or bad playoff juju, they note, correctly, that they were ahead by a score of 101-99 with 1:02 left in the game. d.j. Augustin made a tough layup, Marc Gasol missed an open threepoint attempt off a nice Kawhi Leonard pass, then Augustin provided the killshot afterward in front of some untimely sloppy defence.

“If Marc’s doesn’t go in and out and d.j.’s does, we’re talking about something totally different today,” Nurse said on Sunday. That is also true. If it’s a 104-101 Toronto victory, the stories are about how the raptors took over in the second half and proved that this team was, in fact, different.

But that wasn’t the score and those aren’t the stories. For the Toronto raptors, all they can do to change the narrative is one simple thing. Change the results.

 ?? VAUGHN ridley / GETTY IMAGES ?? The Raptors’ Kyle Lowry reacts to a call in Saturday’s Game 1 matchup at Scotiabank Arena against the Orlando Magic. Toronto lost the opener 104-101.
VAUGHN ridley / GETTY IMAGES The Raptors’ Kyle Lowry reacts to a call in Saturday’s Game 1 matchup at Scotiabank Arena against the Orlando Magic. Toronto lost the opener 104-101.
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