RAPS ARE WORK IN PROGRESS
Playoff-bound club has hurdles
The Raptors have the benefit at this point of their existence of being the undisputed good kid in the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment corporate family.
As much as things have not gone well over the past week, — the Raptors lost 120-112 to Cleveland Wednesday night — they could, as the Toronto Maple Leafs have shown, be a lot worse.
The Raptors have had some injury troubles, and they have lost some games they should have won, but they remain on pace to finish in the top side of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket. No one has been fired, no one is threatening lawsuits, no one is picking fights with the media and no one is throwing jerseys on the floor. The Raptors are like the A-student who brought home an unexpected C+. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs are failing three courses, got caught smoking weed and might have knocked up their girlfriend.
So, yes, the basketball team has reason to feel at least a little comfortable with their present state. On Wednesday morning they were at 38-22 in the kitten-soft East conference, with the third-best offensive rating in the NBA and a defence that, while better in spurts recently, was 20th out of 30 teams. None of this is all that surprising: even with the recent slump, the Raptors are playing .633 basketball this season, which is a slight drop from the .656 clip at which they played after the Rudy Gay trade jolted them from their stupor last season.
One of the few conclusions that can be drawn about this team at this point is that it’s impossible to know much more about it today than we did on May 4 of last year, when the Raptors were bounced from the playoffs in a Game 7 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
They have proven that the promise of 2014 was not a mirage, but that’s about it. And, as much as fans might like to see the team sort itself over the final 20 games of the season, presumably with a back-in-form Kyle Lowry leading the charge — he missed his third consecutive start against Cleveland in a bid to get him healthy for the stretch run — the team feels no particular urgency to assert itself. Head coach Dwane Casey would not concede on Wednesday that the team had anything to prove against LeBron James’ Cavaliers, despite the fact that Cleveland was on an 18-5 run that had pulled them to within a half game of the Raptors in the East.
“All the games are important,” was all Casey would offer, shutting down suggestions that it was a statement game. (That was particularly true with Lowry out of the lineup.) The coach also allowed that the final six weeks of the season would also be an opportunity for the Raptors to tinker with different lineups, plays and sets as the team gets ready to try to win a playoff series for only the second time in the franchise’s 20-year history.
“At the same time, we want to win,” he added, lest anyone think that the Raptors were entering Training Camp 2.0.
This is the luxury afforded a team that has a double-digit lead in the wasteland of the Atlantic Division and, owing to a win in the season series with the Washington Wizards, is unlikely to drop below the fourth seed in the East, barring an epic collapse. Casey did allow that his team still has learning to do, not just with new lineups and plays, but with trying to get used to the wholly unfamiliar state of being near the top of their conference.
“We’re still getting used to being the hunted instead of the hunter,” the coach said, smiling about the fact that guys are coming into town and playing their hardest against a team that is well above them in the standings. This might be the first time in their history that the Raptors haven’t snuck up on anyone.
After the surprise of last season, the Raptors entered this one with questions about their long-term plans for centre Jonas Valanciunas and swingman Terrence Ross, both of whom are signed through next year, and forward Amir Johnson, signed through this one. Those questions remain. Ross has regressed and Johnson, though a key cog and the team’s best defender, seems like he has been fully healthy for a total of about five minutes this year. Valanciunas has improved and is likely to receive a lucrative contract extension, even though his defence is spotty enough that Casey leaves him on the bench in the fourth quarter.
All of that means the Raptors are very much a work in progress, regardless of what happens between now and May.
Asked on Wednesday if the team needed a strong game against the Cavs to wash away the stink of their last home contest, a blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors, Casey shook it off. “I don’t think that was us,” he said.
Fair enough. But if the coach knows what they are, he’s one of the few who does.