Raptors have faith they can extend season
DESPITE 3-0 SERIES DEFICIT, NURSE’S CREW REMAINS UPBEAT
The mood is upbeat. Pascal Siakam is still smiling. Nick Nurse is still deep into his playbook. Chris Boucher remains defiant.
Scottie Barnes looks a little less certain to play in a Game 4 than perhaps Nurse indicated on Thursday, but that too could change at any moment.
Down 3-0 to a Philadelphia 76ers team with superior firepower is no one’s idea of sitting pretty. But all things considered, the Raptors were giving off a pretty good vibe a day out from a Game 4 that could end their season. It’s a 2 p.m. ET start Saturday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Without question, the downer of the day was any mention of that final possession in which the Raptors chose not to guard the inbounder and then missed a switch, leaving 7-footer Joel Embiid just the 5-foot-11 Fred Vanvleet to shoot over for the game winner.
It was still a phenomenal shot given he had only 0.9 seconds to get it off, but the lack of execution on the play from the Raptors was deflating even two days later.
“I watched it like five times by myself, so ...” said Boucher, still disgusted by what he saw. “We didn’t watch it once (as a group).
“We all watched the play on and on and on just to see how that happens and how not to make that s#$! happen again,” he added before apologizing for the foul language. “Sorry, that’s how I feel really.”
Siakam admitted he couldn’t even bring himself to watch it again. Having seen it once in real time was more than enough.
“To be honest, I really haven’t looked at it,” Siakam said. “It’s been tough to look at that.”
But as Siakam correctly points out, that play is in the past. Nothing he does or says now will change the outcome so he’s focused on the game ahead.
And Siakam, who struggled mightily in that second half, wants to take full advantage of this fourth chance to extend the series.
“For us, we feel like we were super close last game and that was an opportunity to get one but at the same time, it’s one game at a time,” Siakam said.
“That’s the only approach we can have, history is cool but this one tomorrow, this one is the most important game of our lives, basically, and I think that’s all that matters. We’ve got to get that one and then we’ve got to think about the rest after. The journey, the season that we had, all the ups and downs we had as a team and individually, it’s a great opportunity for us to look ourselves in the mirror and just go out there, give everything that we got and worry about that one game. I think that the rest, whatever that happens, we’re going to worry about that then. We’ve got to focus on tomorrow and give it our all and just figure out the rest after.”
When Siakam talks about history, he’s referring to the fact that not once in the 143 previous occasions that a team has fallen into an 0-3 hole in NBA playoff history have they come back to win.
Siakam’s not promising the Raptors will come back and win this series. But he does see a path to get the next win and after that, well, that can be discussed then.
Nurse wasn’t offered that kind of wiggle room in his own question about the dire circumstances the Raptors find themselves.
His reply was patented Nurse positivity.
“Well, I think it’s a heckuva challenge, and somebody’s got to do it. That’s the way I look at it,” the Raptors head coach said of trying to become the first NBA team ever to come back from such a hole. “Somebody’s got to do it. And if it gets to 3-1, it’s not 3-0 anymore. And 3-1’s been done.”
Getting it to 3-1 will be a heck of a lot easier with Barnes on the floor.
But beyond getting Barnes back, the best thing that could possibly happen for the Raptors in Game 4 would be a similar game because losing that kind of game twice in a row would be almost impossible.